THE THIRTIE'

and iii. b. a, b. b). Several others have been
built into the bridges of Saft and Tahra, the
sculptured surfaces being first erased. My first
task was to collect all the fragments that I could
find, and to put together as much as I could
of this valuable monument. Besides the big
block which I saw on the occasion of my first
visit (s. a), I dug out three more at Saft (s. b,
s. c, s. d). On the side of the canal near the
isbet of Mustapba Pacha was an angular piece
(m), with part of two outside faces and a little
of the inside (pi. i., v., vi., vii.). Near that
spot, with the help of tackles, I dragged another
fragment out of the canal (c). I think there is
yet another close by, but the canal was so deep
that I could not reach it. This was all I
could recover of that fine monument, of which I
thus restored about one-half.1 Judging from
these facts it is evident that Saft el Henneh has
been rich in precious objects of antiquity, and
that irreparable losses have been caused by the
vandalism of the inhabitants.

THE THIRTIETH DYNASTY.
Looking at the monuments of the two Necta-
nebos, it is impossible not to be struck by the
beauty of the workmanship as well as by the
richness of the material employed. Egyptian
art undergoes a new resurrection more complete
than under the twenty-sixth dynasty. There
is more vigour in the style than at the time of
the Psammetichi; perhaps less delicacy than in
the works of the Saite kings, but a decided
tendency to revert to the stern beauty of the
works of the great Pharaohs. The hiero-
glyphs engraved on the tablet and shrine of
Saft, and on the cornices of Horbeit, are cer-
tainly among the most beautiful in Egypt. In

1 Since this was written, all the blocks have been brought
to the Museum of Bulak, with the exception of two, s.c,
which is still buried in the garden of the sheikh, and c,
which fell back into the canal. The present Director of the
Museum, M. Grebaut, had the blocks put together, and all
that remains of the shrine may be seen now at the entrance
of the Museum. (March, 1887.)

b

rH DYNASTY. 3

the proportions of the monuments there is also
manifested an ambition to rival the colossal
buildings of earlier dynasties. Thus the Nec-
tanebos did not cut up the colossi of former
kings, or engrave their names on monuments
which they had not erected; they forbore to
follow the example of the kings of the twenty-
first and twenty-second dynasties. They again
worked the quarries of Aswan and Hamamat,
and brought thence the enormous blocks which
are found in several places in the Delta. Eor
their models, they seem to have chosen the
kings of the twelfth dynasty. It is to the art
of the Amenemhas and the Usertesens that the
art of the Nectanebos may best be compared.
Nectanebo II. took for his coronation name the
first oval of Usertesen I. For kings who spent
the greater part of their lives in the Delta, it
was natural that those ancestors who seemed
worthiest of imitation, and who recalled to them
the most glorious traditions, should be the
kings of the twelfth dynasty, the builders of
Tanis and of several cities on the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile.

From the Greek writers we derive much in-
formation concerning the kings of the thirtieth
dynasty. We perhaps know more about them
than we know of any others of tbe Pharaohs.
Judging, however, from the monuments which
they erected, they must have been much more
powerful than might be gathered from the
narrative of Diodorus Siculus. He describes
them as constantly engaged in resisting the
invasions of the Persians ; and if one of them
succeeded in holding his ground against the
armies of the great king, the second of his suc-
cessors was fated to lose his throne. This being
the case, how could they find time and means to
raise the great buildings of which there are so
many ruins in the Delta ? Certain it is, that in
the whole course of my Delta explorations, the
names of the two Nectanebos are among those
which I found most frequently, as well as those
of Eameses II. and Ptolemy Philadelphos.
2