DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0084
64 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.
rubbish-heaps of the ordinary type; the third being entirely
composed of the burned and blackened ruins of a huge pile
of brick buildings, visible, like a lesser Birs Nimroud, for a
great distance across the plain. Arriving at his destination
towards evening, foot-sore and weary, Mr. Petrie beheld this
singular object standing high against a lurid sky, and red-
dened by a fiery sunset. His Arabs hastened to tell him its
local name; and he may be envied the delightful surprise
with which he learned that it was known far and near as
"El Kasr el Bint el Yahudi"—the "Castle of the Jew's
Daughter."
Setting to work with some forty or fifty laborers, he soon
discovered that he had to do with the calcined ruins of a
structure which was both a fort and a palace. It consisted
of one enormous square tower containing sixteen rooms on
each floor; while, built up against its outer walls, were a
variety of later structures, such as might have been added
for guard-rooms, offices, and the accommodation of a court.
There was every evidence that the place had been taken by
assault, plundered, and burned, the upper stories of the tower
having fallen in and buried the basements. Layer by layer,
Mr. Petrie cleared away these masses of burned rubbish—
each layer a chapter in the history of the place. The royal
apartments had once been lined with fine limestone slabs
exquisitely sculptured and painted; but these had been lit-
erally mashed to pieces before the place was fired, and lay
in splintered heaps among the debris of charred beams and
blackened bricks. That this stronghold was actually built,
as Herodotus states, by Psammetichus I. was proved by
the discovery of that king's foundation deposits under the
four corners of the building. These deposits consisted of
libation vessels, corn-rubbers, specimens of ores, model bricks,
the bones of a sacrificial ox and of a small bird, and a series
of little tablets in gold, silver, lapis lazuli, porcelain, carnelian,
and jasper, engraved with the names and titles of the royal
founder.
Under this mountain of rubbish, the basement chambers,
rubbish-heaps of the ordinary type; the third being entirely
composed of the burned and blackened ruins of a huge pile
of brick buildings, visible, like a lesser Birs Nimroud, for a
great distance across the plain. Arriving at his destination
towards evening, foot-sore and weary, Mr. Petrie beheld this
singular object standing high against a lurid sky, and red-
dened by a fiery sunset. His Arabs hastened to tell him its
local name; and he may be envied the delightful surprise
with which he learned that it was known far and near as
"El Kasr el Bint el Yahudi"—the "Castle of the Jew's
Daughter."
Setting to work with some forty or fifty laborers, he soon
discovered that he had to do with the calcined ruins of a
structure which was both a fort and a palace. It consisted
of one enormous square tower containing sixteen rooms on
each floor; while, built up against its outer walls, were a
variety of later structures, such as might have been added
for guard-rooms, offices, and the accommodation of a court.
There was every evidence that the place had been taken by
assault, plundered, and burned, the upper stories of the tower
having fallen in and buried the basements. Layer by layer,
Mr. Petrie cleared away these masses of burned rubbish—
each layer a chapter in the history of the place. The royal
apartments had once been lined with fine limestone slabs
exquisitely sculptured and painted; but these had been lit-
erally mashed to pieces before the place was fired, and lay
in splintered heaps among the debris of charred beams and
blackened bricks. That this stronghold was actually built,
as Herodotus states, by Psammetichus I. was proved by
the discovery of that king's foundation deposits under the
four corners of the building. These deposits consisted of
libation vessels, corn-rubbers, specimens of ores, model bricks,
the bones of a sacrificial ox and of a small bird, and a series
of little tablets in gold, silver, lapis lazuli, porcelain, carnelian,
and jasper, engraved with the names and titles of the royal
founder.
Under this mountain of rubbish, the basement chambers,