DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2872#0031
THE SOUTHERN BRICK PYRAMID OF DAHSHOOR,
FEOM THE WEST.
iHE Memphite Necropolis, when the traveller stands within it, has a very different aspect
according as he faces the desert or the valley. In the former case the Pyramids seem
native to the place, everything being in perfect harmony with their desolate grandeur. In the
latter case the distance of rich green fields, dark palms, and sunlit mountains, contrasts
vividly with the great mass of yellow stone, or black crude brick, which rises before the eyes.
In the one view there is nothing to disturb the death-like aspect of this vast graveyard on
the edge of the Great Desert; in the other, that aspect is made the more evident by the lively colour of the
valley through which flows the most fertilizing of rivers, and above which rises a barrier picturesque in form,
and, by contrast with the fields, beautiful in colour. No doubt the Egyptians, who understood perfectly
the combination of buildings with scenery, chose the place for its desolateness, as they chose the dreary
valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes; but they probably also chose it, as they did the sites of all
monuments they did not wish to conceal, because it overlooked the valley and river that they loved, and
their earthly homes.
The Southern Brick Pyramid we have already described. Seen from the west it presents 110 fresh
features : it is the same tower-like heap rising from a mound of fragments : on all sides of its base extends
the same desert, strewn with fine sand in ever-changing undulations. Beyond, on either hand, is the beautiful
valley whose fields are marked by the dark strip; above are seen the thick groves of palms which here
extend parallel to the river. The river is behind these groves, and beyond it is another tract of cultivation,
above which rises the eastern chain.
The ancient town of Acanthus lay beneath the Pyramids of Dahshoor, and to the northward of it was
the sacred lake over which the funeral-boats of the Memphites passed, the supposed original of Styx. As,
however, the conveying of the bier by water was a part of the ceremonial of burial in other parts of Egypt,
it is doubtful if the Greek notions of Styx and its ferry were taken from the Memphite lake. And, although
the Greeks derived some points of religious belief from Egypt, it is most probable that their ideas of the
infernal regions were taken from the natural scenery of Sicily and Italy, lands of earthquakes, volcanoes,
and streams and lakes abounding in sulphur.
Memphis, though a great city, did not extend so far south as the group of the Pyramids of Dahshoor.
It was, however, the city of pyramid-builders, and in most of those monuments Memphite sovereigns were
buried. It is not out of place, therefore, here to give an outline of its history. The name Memphis is a
Greek corruption of the Egyptian civil name of the place, Men-nufre, " the good abode," or " the abode of
the good," which Plutarch more poetically renders "the haven of good souls:" this name, perhaps, referred
to Osiris, one of whose sepulchres it was said to be. The religious name was Ha-ptah, "the abode of Ptah,"
or " Phthah," the Egyptian Vulcan, the chief object of worship at the place. All the towns of Egypt had, like
this, two names: thus Thebes was Tap, or Thap, and Ha-amen, "the abode of Amen;" and Heliopolis was
An, the Hebrew On, and Ha-ra, "the abode of Ba," or "the sun." The foundation of Memphis is ascribed by
Herodotus to Menes, the first king of Egypt, and, according to Manetho, the Egyptian historian, it was
already a royal residence in the days of Athothis, the son of Menes. Not long afterwards it gave its name
to a dynasty which was succeeded by several others, ruling altogether for about a thousand years. This
FEOM THE WEST.
iHE Memphite Necropolis, when the traveller stands within it, has a very different aspect
according as he faces the desert or the valley. In the former case the Pyramids seem
native to the place, everything being in perfect harmony with their desolate grandeur. In the
latter case the distance of rich green fields, dark palms, and sunlit mountains, contrasts
vividly with the great mass of yellow stone, or black crude brick, which rises before the eyes.
In the one view there is nothing to disturb the death-like aspect of this vast graveyard on
the edge of the Great Desert; in the other, that aspect is made the more evident by the lively colour of the
valley through which flows the most fertilizing of rivers, and above which rises a barrier picturesque in form,
and, by contrast with the fields, beautiful in colour. No doubt the Egyptians, who understood perfectly
the combination of buildings with scenery, chose the place for its desolateness, as they chose the dreary
valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes; but they probably also chose it, as they did the sites of all
monuments they did not wish to conceal, because it overlooked the valley and river that they loved, and
their earthly homes.
The Southern Brick Pyramid we have already described. Seen from the west it presents 110 fresh
features : it is the same tower-like heap rising from a mound of fragments : on all sides of its base extends
the same desert, strewn with fine sand in ever-changing undulations. Beyond, on either hand, is the beautiful
valley whose fields are marked by the dark strip; above are seen the thick groves of palms which here
extend parallel to the river. The river is behind these groves, and beyond it is another tract of cultivation,
above which rises the eastern chain.
The ancient town of Acanthus lay beneath the Pyramids of Dahshoor, and to the northward of it was
the sacred lake over which the funeral-boats of the Memphites passed, the supposed original of Styx. As,
however, the conveying of the bier by water was a part of the ceremonial of burial in other parts of Egypt,
it is doubtful if the Greek notions of Styx and its ferry were taken from the Memphite lake. And, although
the Greeks derived some points of religious belief from Egypt, it is most probable that their ideas of the
infernal regions were taken from the natural scenery of Sicily and Italy, lands of earthquakes, volcanoes,
and streams and lakes abounding in sulphur.
Memphis, though a great city, did not extend so far south as the group of the Pyramids of Dahshoor.
It was, however, the city of pyramid-builders, and in most of those monuments Memphite sovereigns were
buried. It is not out of place, therefore, here to give an outline of its history. The name Memphis is a
Greek corruption of the Egyptian civil name of the place, Men-nufre, " the good abode," or " the abode of
the good," which Plutarch more poetically renders "the haven of good souls:" this name, perhaps, referred
to Osiris, one of whose sepulchres it was said to be. The religious name was Ha-ptah, "the abode of Ptah,"
or " Phthah," the Egyptian Vulcan, the chief object of worship at the place. All the towns of Egypt had, like
this, two names: thus Thebes was Tap, or Thap, and Ha-amen, "the abode of Amen;" and Heliopolis was
An, the Hebrew On, and Ha-ra, "the abode of Ba," or "the sun." The foundation of Memphis is ascribed by
Herodotus to Menes, the first king of Egypt, and, according to Manetho, the Egyptian historian, it was
already a royal residence in the days of Athothis, the son of Menes. Not long afterwards it gave its name
to a dynasty which was succeeded by several others, ruling altogether for about a thousand years. This