DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0029
THE EXPLORER EN EGYPT. 9
cent Temple of Edfu, excavated, twenty years ago by Mariette.
Here the mound has been cut away all round the building,
which stands on the paved level of the ancient city, forty feet
below the spot from which one first looks down upon it.
We have thus far traced the history of our typical mound
from its first rude beginnings to the apex of its prosperity.
As time goes on, however, and the last native Dynasties ex-
pire, the trade of the community languishes, the population
dwindles, and the temple falls out of repair. Then comes
the prosperous period of Greek rule. Commerce and letters
revive, and the Ptolemies repair the temple, or perhaps re-
build it. Next comes the Roman period, closely followed by
the introduction of Christianity; and by-and-by, when the
national religion is proscribed, a community of Coptic monks
take possession of the grand old building, converting its
chambers into cells, and its portico into a Christian church.
The town now overflows into what was once the sacred
area. Mud huts are plastered between sculptured walls and
painted columns, and the ground begins to rise in and
about the temple as formerly it had risen outside the en-
closure. Ere long the monks, weary of living at the bot-
tom of a pit, proceed to erect a new monastery in one of
the suburbs. The temple, therefore, is partly pulled down
for building material; and its desecrated ruins, which now
constitute the poorest and most crowded quarter of the city,
become gradually choked within and without. At last,
even the roof is converted into a maze of huts and stables
swarming with human beings, poultry, dogs, kine, asses,
pigeons, and vermin. Thus, in process of time, the whole
building becomes buried, and its very site is forgotten. A
few centuries later the town is devastated by some great
calamity of plague or war, and, after an existence of perhaps
five thousand years, is finally deserted. Then the crude-
brick shells of its latest habitations crumble away, and
what was once a busy city clustered round a splendid tem-
ple, ends by becoming a heap of desolate, unsightly mounds
strewn with innumerable potsherds.
cent Temple of Edfu, excavated, twenty years ago by Mariette.
Here the mound has been cut away all round the building,
which stands on the paved level of the ancient city, forty feet
below the spot from which one first looks down upon it.
We have thus far traced the history of our typical mound
from its first rude beginnings to the apex of its prosperity.
As time goes on, however, and the last native Dynasties ex-
pire, the trade of the community languishes, the population
dwindles, and the temple falls out of repair. Then comes
the prosperous period of Greek rule. Commerce and letters
revive, and the Ptolemies repair the temple, or perhaps re-
build it. Next comes the Roman period, closely followed by
the introduction of Christianity; and by-and-by, when the
national religion is proscribed, a community of Coptic monks
take possession of the grand old building, converting its
chambers into cells, and its portico into a Christian church.
The town now overflows into what was once the sacred
area. Mud huts are plastered between sculptured walls and
painted columns, and the ground begins to rise in and
about the temple as formerly it had risen outside the en-
closure. Ere long the monks, weary of living at the bot-
tom of a pit, proceed to erect a new monastery in one of
the suburbs. The temple, therefore, is partly pulled down
for building material; and its desecrated ruins, which now
constitute the poorest and most crowded quarter of the city,
become gradually choked within and without. At last,
even the roof is converted into a maze of huts and stables
swarming with human beings, poultry, dogs, kine, asses,
pigeons, and vermin. Thus, in process of time, the whole
building becomes buried, and its very site is forgotten. A
few centuries later the town is devastated by some great
calamity of plague or war, and, after an existence of perhaps
five thousand years, is finally deserted. Then the crude-
brick shells of its latest habitations crumble away, and
what was once a busy city clustered round a splendid tem-
ple, ends by becoming a heap of desolate, unsightly mounds
strewn with innumerable potsherds.