DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0046
18 History of Garden Art
to six men according to the size of the tree (Fig. 18). Wherever we find ships laden, there
are trees on them. After a joyful return home, the precious freight is unpacked, fresh and
beautifully green, and at once planted by the queen in the pleasure-garden of Amon.
This trouble was richly rewarded, for in a picture we see the trees finely grown; so well
have they thriven that cattle can graze under them; and other votive offerings are piled
up beneath their branches (Fig. 19). Beside the trees incense-gum is collected in
immense heaps. [Editor's Note: The land of Punt would be Puoni on the coast of Somali-
land, and the tree would probably be the Boswellia, commonly called the olibanum, a member
of the Order Burseracese. The dried gum of this tree is frankincense.] For this huge
structure of terrace-gardens a very elaborate water system would be needed throughout.
Afterwards the kings often organised peaceful expeditions of the same nature. If their
goal was the land of cedars, it was the valuable wood that was to be brought back. The
cedar was never acclimatised in Egypt, but Rameses III; relates how he (also in honour
of the god Amon) imported and naturalised foreign plants. Whether or no he planted these
|7-j———-- ._______ in his garden at Medinet-Habu cannot be
decided in these days, but there is no
doubt that here too the great front court
was covered with plots of flowers. " I dug
a pond before it," says he, praising the
site of the garden at this temple, "where
the ocean of Heaven flows over it, and
planted it with trees and green growths as
they are in Lower Egypt. Gardens of vines,
of trees, fruits and flowers, are around thy
temple, before thy face." In another place
he tells of pleasure-houses, in front of
which he had dug out a tank for lotus
flowers—and no doubt added pavilions,
fig. 18. transport of incense trees from the and everything that we know to have
land of punt
belonged to the garden of this period.
Rameses was pre-eminently a friend to the garden, and a generous one. In a new
construction on the delta, he made large gardens of the first importance, "wide places to
walk in with all kinds of trees that bear sweet fruit, a sacred way glowing with the flowers
of every country, with lotus and papyrus, numberless as the sands." He also gave very
rich gifts to the other temples: we find in a list of benefactions among the gifts to Helio-
polis: "I give to thee great gardens, with trees and vines in the temple of Atuma, I give
to thee lands with olive-trees in the city of On. I have furnished them with gardeners,
and many men to make ready oil of Egypt for kindling the lamps of thy noble temple.
I give to thee trees and wood, date-palms, incense, and lotus, rushes, grasses, and flowers
of every land, to set before thy fair face." In the fifth section, which contains a complete
catalogue of the royal gifts to all the religious houses, we find that, together with 107,180
measures of arable land, there are 514 gardens and tree sites, and 19,130,032 nosegays.
Royal gifts like these encouraged the gardens at the temples; and the sacred groves,
of which we hear in the inscriptions mentioned above, increased and spread. But in a
certain sense gardens were always held sacred by Egyptians. Indeed, everything any man did
to six men according to the size of the tree (Fig. 18). Wherever we find ships laden, there
are trees on them. After a joyful return home, the precious freight is unpacked, fresh and
beautifully green, and at once planted by the queen in the pleasure-garden of Amon.
This trouble was richly rewarded, for in a picture we see the trees finely grown; so well
have they thriven that cattle can graze under them; and other votive offerings are piled
up beneath their branches (Fig. 19). Beside the trees incense-gum is collected in
immense heaps. [Editor's Note: The land of Punt would be Puoni on the coast of Somali-
land, and the tree would probably be the Boswellia, commonly called the olibanum, a member
of the Order Burseracese. The dried gum of this tree is frankincense.] For this huge
structure of terrace-gardens a very elaborate water system would be needed throughout.
Afterwards the kings often organised peaceful expeditions of the same nature. If their
goal was the land of cedars, it was the valuable wood that was to be brought back. The
cedar was never acclimatised in Egypt, but Rameses III; relates how he (also in honour
of the god Amon) imported and naturalised foreign plants. Whether or no he planted these
|7-j———-- ._______ in his garden at Medinet-Habu cannot be
decided in these days, but there is no
doubt that here too the great front court
was covered with plots of flowers. " I dug
a pond before it," says he, praising the
site of the garden at this temple, "where
the ocean of Heaven flows over it, and
planted it with trees and green growths as
they are in Lower Egypt. Gardens of vines,
of trees, fruits and flowers, are around thy
temple, before thy face." In another place
he tells of pleasure-houses, in front of
which he had dug out a tank for lotus
flowers—and no doubt added pavilions,
fig. 18. transport of incense trees from the and everything that we know to have
land of punt
belonged to the garden of this period.
Rameses was pre-eminently a friend to the garden, and a generous one. In a new
construction on the delta, he made large gardens of the first importance, "wide places to
walk in with all kinds of trees that bear sweet fruit, a sacred way glowing with the flowers
of every country, with lotus and papyrus, numberless as the sands." He also gave very
rich gifts to the other temples: we find in a list of benefactions among the gifts to Helio-
polis: "I give to thee great gardens, with trees and vines in the temple of Atuma, I give
to thee lands with olive-trees in the city of On. I have furnished them with gardeners,
and many men to make ready oil of Egypt for kindling the lamps of thy noble temple.
I give to thee trees and wood, date-palms, incense, and lotus, rushes, grasses, and flowers
of every land, to set before thy fair face." In the fifth section, which contains a complete
catalogue of the royal gifts to all the religious houses, we find that, together with 107,180
measures of arable land, there are 514 gardens and tree sites, and 19,130,032 nosegays.
Royal gifts like these encouraged the gardens at the temples; and the sacred groves,
of which we hear in the inscriptions mentioned above, increased and spread. But in a
certain sense gardens were always held sacred by Egyptians. Indeed, everything any man did