DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11610#0094
82
TEN YEARS' DIGGING IN EGYPT
work had all been altered and rebuilt, probably by
RamessuII. Four or five different levels of building and
reconstruction could be traced, and
the depth of rubbish over the approach
to the temple in the shallowest part
of the mounds was twenty-four feet.
Within the great enclosure of mud-
brick wall, the site of the temple
could be traced by following the bed
of sand, on which the foundations
had been laid ; but scarcely a single
stone was left. One re-used block
had a figure of a king of the nine-
teenth dynasty, probably Ramcssu II;
and this leads us to date as late as
Ptolemy II the temple which we can
trace here. He doubtless built a
large temple, as the place received
much attention in his time, and was
dedicated to his sister-wife Arsinoc ;
she was specially worshipped along
with the great gods, as we know from
the stele of Pithom. The only early
objects found here were flint knives
in the soil of the temple ; these belong to the twelfth
dynasty, as we know from later discoveries.
A short work of a few days at Biahmu resolved the
questions about the so-called pyramids there. So
soon as we began to turn over the soil we found chips
of sandstone colossi; the second day the gigantic
nose of a colossus was found, as broad as a man's
body; then pieces of carved thrones, and a fragment
TEN YEARS' DIGGING IN EGYPT
work had all been altered and rebuilt, probably by
RamessuII. Four or five different levels of building and
reconstruction could be traced, and
the depth of rubbish over the approach
to the temple in the shallowest part
of the mounds was twenty-four feet.
Within the great enclosure of mud-
brick wall, the site of the temple
could be traced by following the bed
of sand, on which the foundations
had been laid ; but scarcely a single
stone was left. One re-used block
had a figure of a king of the nine-
teenth dynasty, probably Ramcssu II;
and this leads us to date as late as
Ptolemy II the temple which we can
trace here. He doubtless built a
large temple, as the place received
much attention in his time, and was
dedicated to his sister-wife Arsinoc ;
she was specially worshipped along
with the great gods, as we know from
the stele of Pithom. The only early
objects found here were flint knives
in the soil of the temple ; these belong to the twelfth
dynasty, as we know from later discoveries.
A short work of a few days at Biahmu resolved the
questions about the so-called pyramids there. So
soon as we began to turn over the soil we found chips
of sandstone colossi; the second day the gigantic
nose of a colossus was found, as broad as a man's
body; then pieces of carved thrones, and a fragment