DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14391#0025
STORE-CITY OF PITHOM AND
THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.
n
where; not even such heaps of bricks and
tumbled-down houses as usually mark the sites
of ancient Egyptian cities.
Judging from the aspect of the place, and the
ordinary construction of Egyptian temples, it
might have been thought that the enclosure was
the temenos, the area belonging to the sacred
building, which sometimes, as at San, or still more
at Thebes, covered a very extensive surface.
The monolith would then have been at the en-
trance of a long dromos leading to the temple.
The result of my excavations has been to show
that it was not so. The temple occupied only
a small space in the south-western angle in the
neighbourhood of the monolith; or rather of the
monoliths, for we know there was one on each
side of the entrance. The naos of Ismailiah was
found at a distance of less than thirty-two yards
from the monolith, and it certainly could not have
stood at the entrance of the temple, but rather at
the farther end. Near the naos was found the great
tablet of Philadelphos, of which it is said in the
inscription that the king ordered it to be erected
before his father Turn, the great god of Succoth.
The whole temple extended only a little farther
than the naos. It had not been finished, to judge
from the big stones roughly hewn which were left
there. One of them was cut in the form of a
tablet; another, a fine piece of black granite,
had been cut in the form of a sitting statue, but
was left unfinished, and abandoned, I shoiild
think as early as the time of Rameses II., the
founder of the city.
The temple was enclosed on both sides by
walls, or square masses of bricks. It was a
rectangular space, divided from the rest of the
buildings. Very likely bricks were the materials
of which the greatest part of it was built. The
monuments which have been pi^eserved are either
of red or black granite, or a kind of red sand-
stone. The inner walls were made of white
limestone of Toora, which, in spite of its Egyptian
name, " the good stone of An," has no durability,
is broken with the greatest facility, and does not
resist the action of the air; besides, it is the best
material for making lime. Everywhere in the
course of our excavations pieces of that stone
have turned up : sometimes a block from the
foundation of a wall; sometimes a fragment
with one or two hieroglyphic signs, showing that
it was part of some sculpture ; sometimes also I
found several feet deep of white gravel entirely
composed of that stone, which had crumbled to
pieces, or which had been broken for lime burn-
ing. Evidently a considerable number of inscrip-
tions have been thus destroyed, and this explains
why I did not find more. It was in limestone
that the buildings of the twenty-second dynasty
and of the Ptolemies were made. When the
Romans levelled the ground, in order to establish
their camp, they destroyed without mercy an
immense number of inscriptions which would
have been most precious to us. Many fragments
of porphyry and granite were scattered among
the ruins of houses, having been used as mortars,
mill-stones, or thresholds.
Outside of the space which I consider as the
temple, and excavating farther towards the
north-east, we reached some^ very strange build-
ings, no indications of which appeared above the
sand, but which, however, were of considerable
extent. We came upon thick walls built of crude
bricks, joined by thin layers of mortar. These
walls are remarkably well built, and have a
thickness of from two to three yards; the surface
being perfectly smooth, and as well polished as
possible with such a material as mere Nile
mud. Everything indicates a very good
epoch, when the Pharaohs built with the in-
tention of making a lasting work. As for the
nature of the bricks, I cannot do better than
quote the words of a distinguished visitor,
Mr. Villiers Stuart, who came to see the excava-
tions : " I carefully examined the chamber walls,
and I noticed that some of the corners of the
brickwork throughout were built of bricks with-
out straiv. I do not remember to have met
anywhere in Egypt bricks so made. In a dry
c 2
THE ROUTE OF THE EXODUS.
n
where; not even such heaps of bricks and
tumbled-down houses as usually mark the sites
of ancient Egyptian cities.
Judging from the aspect of the place, and the
ordinary construction of Egyptian temples, it
might have been thought that the enclosure was
the temenos, the area belonging to the sacred
building, which sometimes, as at San, or still more
at Thebes, covered a very extensive surface.
The monolith would then have been at the en-
trance of a long dromos leading to the temple.
The result of my excavations has been to show
that it was not so. The temple occupied only
a small space in the south-western angle in the
neighbourhood of the monolith; or rather of the
monoliths, for we know there was one on each
side of the entrance. The naos of Ismailiah was
found at a distance of less than thirty-two yards
from the monolith, and it certainly could not have
stood at the entrance of the temple, but rather at
the farther end. Near the naos was found the great
tablet of Philadelphos, of which it is said in the
inscription that the king ordered it to be erected
before his father Turn, the great god of Succoth.
The whole temple extended only a little farther
than the naos. It had not been finished, to judge
from the big stones roughly hewn which were left
there. One of them was cut in the form of a
tablet; another, a fine piece of black granite,
had been cut in the form of a sitting statue, but
was left unfinished, and abandoned, I shoiild
think as early as the time of Rameses II., the
founder of the city.
The temple was enclosed on both sides by
walls, or square masses of bricks. It was a
rectangular space, divided from the rest of the
buildings. Very likely bricks were the materials
of which the greatest part of it was built. The
monuments which have been pi^eserved are either
of red or black granite, or a kind of red sand-
stone. The inner walls were made of white
limestone of Toora, which, in spite of its Egyptian
name, " the good stone of An," has no durability,
is broken with the greatest facility, and does not
resist the action of the air; besides, it is the best
material for making lime. Everywhere in the
course of our excavations pieces of that stone
have turned up : sometimes a block from the
foundation of a wall; sometimes a fragment
with one or two hieroglyphic signs, showing that
it was part of some sculpture ; sometimes also I
found several feet deep of white gravel entirely
composed of that stone, which had crumbled to
pieces, or which had been broken for lime burn-
ing. Evidently a considerable number of inscrip-
tions have been thus destroyed, and this explains
why I did not find more. It was in limestone
that the buildings of the twenty-second dynasty
and of the Ptolemies were made. When the
Romans levelled the ground, in order to establish
their camp, they destroyed without mercy an
immense number of inscriptions which would
have been most precious to us. Many fragments
of porphyry and granite were scattered among
the ruins of houses, having been used as mortars,
mill-stones, or thresholds.
Outside of the space which I consider as the
temple, and excavating farther towards the
north-east, we reached some^ very strange build-
ings, no indications of which appeared above the
sand, but which, however, were of considerable
extent. We came upon thick walls built of crude
bricks, joined by thin layers of mortar. These
walls are remarkably well built, and have a
thickness of from two to three yards; the surface
being perfectly smooth, and as well polished as
possible with such a material as mere Nile
mud. Everything indicates a very good
epoch, when the Pharaohs built with the in-
tention of making a lasting work. As for the
nature of the bricks, I cannot do better than
quote the words of a distinguished visitor,
Mr. Villiers Stuart, who came to see the excava-
tions : " I carefully examined the chamber walls,
and I noticed that some of the corners of the
brickwork throughout were built of bricks with-
out straiv. I do not remember to have met
anywhere in Egypt bricks so made. In a dry
c 2