DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0177
i6o
CITIES OF EGYPT.
mainly of an age after the destructive invasions. It
seems to have been overthrown by an earthquake, for it
has fallen like a house of cards. Yet there is no record
of earthquakes in Egypt violent enough to hurl down
such solid walls and columns, put together on the
simplest constructive principles, and so forming a mass,
strong both in independent members, and as a whole. The
slender Arab minarets have suffered from such shocks,
but to no great extent, in spite of their comparative
weakness, and the neglect in recent centuries to take
the simplest measures for their preservation.
At Bubastis there are remains of two temples, that of
the goddess Bast and of Hermes (Mercury), by whom we
suppose Herodotus must mean the Egyptian god of
^jl letters, Thoth. They show large use of granite, with the
usual columns in a single block. Excavation here would
yield interesting results. There is much obscurity in
the annals of the house of Shishak : this surely would be
cleared up. Earlier and later records would be certain
to afford pages of history, perhaps from the very oldest
period of the monarchy, for king after king would have
contributed to the great temple of the goddess. If
Thoth were here especially worshipped, there must have
CITIES OF EGYPT.
mainly of an age after the destructive invasions. It
seems to have been overthrown by an earthquake, for it
has fallen like a house of cards. Yet there is no record
of earthquakes in Egypt violent enough to hurl down
such solid walls and columns, put together on the
simplest constructive principles, and so forming a mass,
strong both in independent members, and as a whole. The
slender Arab minarets have suffered from such shocks,
but to no great extent, in spite of their comparative
weakness, and the neglect in recent centuries to take
the simplest measures for their preservation.
At Bubastis there are remains of two temples, that of
the goddess Bast and of Hermes (Mercury), by whom we
suppose Herodotus must mean the Egyptian god of
^jl letters, Thoth. They show large use of granite, with the
usual columns in a single block. Excavation here would
yield interesting results. There is much obscurity in
the annals of the house of Shishak : this surely would be
cleared up. Earlier and later records would be certain
to afford pages of history, perhaps from the very oldest
period of the monarchy, for king after king would have
contributed to the great temple of the goddess. If
Thoth were here especially worshipped, there must have