DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0059
THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 39
Between them lies a space of 4790 years, comprising thirty-
three royal dynasties and many hundreds of kings. Those
kings were not all native to the soil. Egypt, during the long
centuries of her slow decadence, was often ruled by princes
of alien blood. But it was not till Cleopatra's galley turned
and fled at the fatal sea-fight in which Mark Antony was
defeated that the empire of the Pharaohs ceased to be a
nation, and became a Roman province. So fell the most
ancient of monarchies, the parent of all our arts and all
our sciences, bequeathing to later ages a history so long
that, compared with the history of other nations, it is almost
like a geological period.
It was during these 4790 years of national existence that
all those temples were erected, all those pyramids, obelisks,
and colossal statues, of which the shattered remains are to
this day the marvel and admiration of travellers.
Xow, Egypt is unapproachably rich in building material.
From Cairo to the first cataract—a stretch of five hundred
and eighty-two miles—the Kile flows between a double range
of cliffs which sometimes dip sheer down to the water's edge,
and sometimes recede to a considerable distance from the
bed of the river. For the first live hundred and fifteen miles
—that is, from Cairo to Edfu—these cliffs are of fine white
limestone; then, for a distance of sixty-five miles, the lime-
stone is superseded by a rich yellow sandstone; and this
again is succeeded, some sixty-seven miles higher up, by the
red granite and black basalt of Assuan.
With such resources within easy reach, and with the great
river for a means of transport, it is no wonder that the
Egyptians became a nation of builders. In no country an-
cient or modern were there so many cities, so many temples,
so many tombs. The cities have become rubbish-mounds.
The tombs have been plundered for ages, and are being plun-
dered every day. The temples have been ravaged by the
Persian, the Assyrian, and the Mohammedan invader, de-
faced by the Christian iconoclast, and smashed up for the
limekiln by the modern Arab. Hundreds, probably thou-
Between them lies a space of 4790 years, comprising thirty-
three royal dynasties and many hundreds of kings. Those
kings were not all native to the soil. Egypt, during the long
centuries of her slow decadence, was often ruled by princes
of alien blood. But it was not till Cleopatra's galley turned
and fled at the fatal sea-fight in which Mark Antony was
defeated that the empire of the Pharaohs ceased to be a
nation, and became a Roman province. So fell the most
ancient of monarchies, the parent of all our arts and all
our sciences, bequeathing to later ages a history so long
that, compared with the history of other nations, it is almost
like a geological period.
It was during these 4790 years of national existence that
all those temples were erected, all those pyramids, obelisks,
and colossal statues, of which the shattered remains are to
this day the marvel and admiration of travellers.
Xow, Egypt is unapproachably rich in building material.
From Cairo to the first cataract—a stretch of five hundred
and eighty-two miles—the Kile flows between a double range
of cliffs which sometimes dip sheer down to the water's edge,
and sometimes recede to a considerable distance from the
bed of the river. For the first live hundred and fifteen miles
—that is, from Cairo to Edfu—these cliffs are of fine white
limestone; then, for a distance of sixty-five miles, the lime-
stone is superseded by a rich yellow sandstone; and this
again is succeeded, some sixty-seven miles higher up, by the
red granite and black basalt of Assuan.
With such resources within easy reach, and with the great
river for a means of transport, it is no wonder that the
Egyptians became a nation of builders. In no country an-
cient or modern were there so many cities, so many temples,
so many tombs. The cities have become rubbish-mounds.
The tombs have been plundered for ages, and are being plun-
dered every day. The temples have been ravaged by the
Persian, the Assyrian, and the Mohammedan invader, de-
faced by the Christian iconoclast, and smashed up for the
limekiln by the modern Arab. Hundreds, probably thou-