DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0302
GEBEL-SILSILEII-THE SPEOS. 281
which the others do not possess. Of these grot-
toes some are mere ordinary tombs. The most
numerous are due to the custom which prevailed
among the Egyptians to leave a proscynem, a
stela, or a monument of some sort, as a record
of their visit to certain spots considered holy.
Thus at Gebel-Silsileli, where the Nile, which is
here shut in between two mountains, was the
object of a special worship, we find, engraved on
the rock, hymns addressed to the river by no
means wanting in a certain loftiness of style.
The type of these commemorative monuments
is the large speos, conspicuous from a distance
by its four massive pillars. It dates from the
reign of Horus, the last king of the XVIIIth dy-
nasty, but was made use of later on by many
personages who have left here valuable records of
their passage. Our limits will not allow of our
attempting to describe all that is interesting in
this speos. We will only refer to the two
pictures which are sculptured side by side in the
south-west angle.
The one on the southern wall represents a god-
dess nourishing King Horus, still an infant, with
her divine milk. Egypt, it is true, never at-
tained to the ideal of the beautiful as did Greeoe
which the others do not possess. Of these grot-
toes some are mere ordinary tombs. The most
numerous are due to the custom which prevailed
among the Egyptians to leave a proscynem, a
stela, or a monument of some sort, as a record
of their visit to certain spots considered holy.
Thus at Gebel-Silsileli, where the Nile, which is
here shut in between two mountains, was the
object of a special worship, we find, engraved on
the rock, hymns addressed to the river by no
means wanting in a certain loftiness of style.
The type of these commemorative monuments
is the large speos, conspicuous from a distance
by its four massive pillars. It dates from the
reign of Horus, the last king of the XVIIIth dy-
nasty, but was made use of later on by many
personages who have left here valuable records of
their passage. Our limits will not allow of our
attempting to describe all that is interesting in
this speos. We will only refer to the two
pictures which are sculptured side by side in the
south-west angle.
The one on the southern wall represents a god-
dess nourishing King Horus, still an infant, with
her divine milk. Egypt, it is true, never at-
tained to the ideal of the beautiful as did Greeoe