DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0049
Ancient Egypt 21
The importance of gardens in connection with the dead is shown by the very numerous
drawings in which the mummy or the statue of a dead man is shown taking leave of his
beloved possession, while he is once again rowed over the water, accompanied by his
servants and met by them (Fig. 20). This probably is part of the special death-feast,
which was held in the garden: the coffin was placed where the dead man had best loved
to be when living, perhaps in the garden plot in front of the store-room, or on the island
in the pond with the votive offerings, while the train of mourners is assembling on the
bank. For the offerings special arbours were set up in the gardens. But it is always the
actual garden that is represented, the very place that he himself had made, even though
the dead man may appear in the picture as though he was master still.
In the tomb of the writer Ennene, who (as was mentioned before) gives a proud list
of the trees he had planted, the garden is depicted as well as the house. There are several
tiers, one above the other: first comes the house with a granary and a wall round it with
two entrance doors; next, a pond among trees, then several other rows of trees, and lastly
in the top tier an open kiosk, in which the dead man is sitting with his wife, and is saluted
FIG. 21. A LITTLE GARDEN AT A GRAVE—A STELE AT CAIRO
by a servant who is seen passing along. Thus Ennene has attained what he asks for in his
inscription: " He treads once more his gardens in the west, he is cooled under his sycomore,
he gazes on plots of fair tall trees, which he himself had planted when on earth." And
he also looks upon his real home, where work is quietly proceeding, where gardeners who
are still on earth are tending and watering his garden.
But besides these gardens that are pictured inside the tombs, to indicate that the
soul on the other side can enjoy its possessions, there are also other little gardens of the
dead laid out in front of the graves. In the story of Sinuhe the fugitive comes home from
a foreign land, and thankfully rejoices that Pharaoh has made ready a grand tomb for
him: " It was a Necropolis-garden, with fields lying before the town, as it might be for his
best friend." This tale belongs to the Middle Period, and in the New we find on two
sepulchral columns an account of gardens of the kind. At the entrance to the tomb there
are two or three palms and a sycomore. On one of these columns there is also a table with
votive offerings (Fig. 21).
These gardens were certainly not large, for in the desert land they could not raise
great plantations owing to lack of water. Perhaps they were only intended as a sort of
symbolical picture of a garden, to show that the soul, when it came forth from the grave,
really finds a tree to sit beside. It seems certain that the description of Osiris is of this
kind. In the form of the bird Bennu (the Greek Phoenix) Osiris sits on the sacred tamarisk
The importance of gardens in connection with the dead is shown by the very numerous
drawings in which the mummy or the statue of a dead man is shown taking leave of his
beloved possession, while he is once again rowed over the water, accompanied by his
servants and met by them (Fig. 20). This probably is part of the special death-feast,
which was held in the garden: the coffin was placed where the dead man had best loved
to be when living, perhaps in the garden plot in front of the store-room, or on the island
in the pond with the votive offerings, while the train of mourners is assembling on the
bank. For the offerings special arbours were set up in the gardens. But it is always the
actual garden that is represented, the very place that he himself had made, even though
the dead man may appear in the picture as though he was master still.
In the tomb of the writer Ennene, who (as was mentioned before) gives a proud list
of the trees he had planted, the garden is depicted as well as the house. There are several
tiers, one above the other: first comes the house with a granary and a wall round it with
two entrance doors; next, a pond among trees, then several other rows of trees, and lastly
in the top tier an open kiosk, in which the dead man is sitting with his wife, and is saluted
FIG. 21. A LITTLE GARDEN AT A GRAVE—A STELE AT CAIRO
by a servant who is seen passing along. Thus Ennene has attained what he asks for in his
inscription: " He treads once more his gardens in the west, he is cooled under his sycomore,
he gazes on plots of fair tall trees, which he himself had planted when on earth." And
he also looks upon his real home, where work is quietly proceeding, where gardeners who
are still on earth are tending and watering his garden.
But besides these gardens that are pictured inside the tombs, to indicate that the
soul on the other side can enjoy its possessions, there are also other little gardens of the
dead laid out in front of the graves. In the story of Sinuhe the fugitive comes home from
a foreign land, and thankfully rejoices that Pharaoh has made ready a grand tomb for
him: " It was a Necropolis-garden, with fields lying before the town, as it might be for his
best friend." This tale belongs to the Middle Period, and in the New we find on two
sepulchral columns an account of gardens of the kind. At the entrance to the tomb there
are two or three palms and a sycomore. On one of these columns there is also a table with
votive offerings (Fig. 21).
These gardens were certainly not large, for in the desert land they could not raise
great plantations owing to lack of water. Perhaps they were only intended as a sort of
symbolical picture of a garden, to show that the soul, when it came forth from the grave,
really finds a tree to sit beside. It seems certain that the description of Osiris is of this
kind. In the form of the bird Bennu (the Greek Phoenix) Osiris sits on the sacred tamarisk