DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4640#0006
4 EGYPT. —AN INTRODUCTION.
in Egypt, and ameliorate the condition of her people, than any other that we can imagine could
have arisen; and it is not too much to hope that religion and morals, the arts and the sciences of
more advanced civilisation, may be destined to find in Egypt a fitting soil for their extension.
Until within a few years, the traveller who intended to ascend the Nile undertook a journey
of great inconvenience and some peril; now Thebes has become to the English traveller what
Rome formerly was, and a visit to the Nile is not an adventure but an excursion. Alexandria
is reached in less than twenty days, and a boat, with an efficient crew and an experienced Reis, is
always to be found, and all the necessary arrangements for comfort are now well understood. Every
winter brings an increase of visitors to the land of the Pharaohs. The vigorous find excitement and
enjoyment—the valetudinarian a genial climate and a pure air; and all are deeply alive to the
immensity, the grandeur, and the beauty of the remains of the Pharaonic and the Ptolemaic
periods, strewn in the Valley of the Nile. A voyage from Alexandria to Wady Haifa will reward the
traveller, by the emotions which the scenes and objects will excite, far beyond any power of promise.
Neither the learning of the antiquary nor the taste of the artist is essential to this enjoyment, though
either, or both, will enhance it. The striking novelties and impressive grandeur of the objects
presented will alone recompense this journey; but to the artist, to whom these illustrations will
shew what materials he has for study, and to the learned, especially those who have studied the
hieroglyphical records, what a source of unmeasured enjoyment is open ! How deep, then, should
our gratitude be to those, to whose patient perseverance we are indebted for having cleared away
the mists of time, and given the power to study the history of Egypt in her own language.
Honour to the earliest of these in the names of Dr. Thomas Young and Champollion !
The inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone were the basis of this discovery. This celebrated relic
was deposited in the British Museum in 1802. It had been found by General Menou among the
ruins of Fort St. Julian, on the Rosetta branch of the Nile. When the French army capitulated
to General Hutchinson and the British forces at Alexandria, in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was given
up to us, together with all the other objects collected in Egypt by the Savans of the French
Institute appointed to accompany their army.
The stone is a piece of black basalt, much broken at the edges, to the serious injury of the
inscriptions, which were cut upon its flat face. These were three in number, but one in import.
The first was in Hieroglyphic, or sacred character; the second in Enchorial, or the character of the
country; and the third in Greek, which latter states that each recorded the same decree. The
enchorial was believed to be the Coptic, the supposed ancient language of Egypt. And this has
been confirmed by the deciphering of the hieroglyphics, to which it was the clue.
Upon the arrival in England of this stone it became an object of the deepest interest to
the Egyptian archaeologists. Among these, Dr. Thomas Young devoted himself to the subject and
discovered the means of deciphering the hieroglyphics. He observed that certain words in the
Greek inscription when repeated, were also found repeated in the characters of the enchorial, and
also those of the hieroglyphic inscription; the sounds expressed by the same Coptic letters were
also observed, and in the same relative places; and this was also noticed in the hieroglyphic. Thus
words of frequent occurrence, as Ptolemy, Arsinoe, Berenice, and Cleopatra, were found in the
hieroglyphic to be made up of characters which were alphabetical and Phonetic. By this mode of
in Egypt, and ameliorate the condition of her people, than any other that we can imagine could
have arisen; and it is not too much to hope that religion and morals, the arts and the sciences of
more advanced civilisation, may be destined to find in Egypt a fitting soil for their extension.
Until within a few years, the traveller who intended to ascend the Nile undertook a journey
of great inconvenience and some peril; now Thebes has become to the English traveller what
Rome formerly was, and a visit to the Nile is not an adventure but an excursion. Alexandria
is reached in less than twenty days, and a boat, with an efficient crew and an experienced Reis, is
always to be found, and all the necessary arrangements for comfort are now well understood. Every
winter brings an increase of visitors to the land of the Pharaohs. The vigorous find excitement and
enjoyment—the valetudinarian a genial climate and a pure air; and all are deeply alive to the
immensity, the grandeur, and the beauty of the remains of the Pharaonic and the Ptolemaic
periods, strewn in the Valley of the Nile. A voyage from Alexandria to Wady Haifa will reward the
traveller, by the emotions which the scenes and objects will excite, far beyond any power of promise.
Neither the learning of the antiquary nor the taste of the artist is essential to this enjoyment, though
either, or both, will enhance it. The striking novelties and impressive grandeur of the objects
presented will alone recompense this journey; but to the artist, to whom these illustrations will
shew what materials he has for study, and to the learned, especially those who have studied the
hieroglyphical records, what a source of unmeasured enjoyment is open ! How deep, then, should
our gratitude be to those, to whose patient perseverance we are indebted for having cleared away
the mists of time, and given the power to study the history of Egypt in her own language.
Honour to the earliest of these in the names of Dr. Thomas Young and Champollion !
The inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone were the basis of this discovery. This celebrated relic
was deposited in the British Museum in 1802. It had been found by General Menou among the
ruins of Fort St. Julian, on the Rosetta branch of the Nile. When the French army capitulated
to General Hutchinson and the British forces at Alexandria, in 1801, the Rosetta Stone was given
up to us, together with all the other objects collected in Egypt by the Savans of the French
Institute appointed to accompany their army.
The stone is a piece of black basalt, much broken at the edges, to the serious injury of the
inscriptions, which were cut upon its flat face. These were three in number, but one in import.
The first was in Hieroglyphic, or sacred character; the second in Enchorial, or the character of the
country; and the third in Greek, which latter states that each recorded the same decree. The
enchorial was believed to be the Coptic, the supposed ancient language of Egypt. And this has
been confirmed by the deciphering of the hieroglyphics, to which it was the clue.
Upon the arrival in England of this stone it became an object of the deepest interest to
the Egyptian archaeologists. Among these, Dr. Thomas Young devoted himself to the subject and
discovered the means of deciphering the hieroglyphics. He observed that certain words in the
Greek inscription when repeated, were also found repeated in the characters of the enchorial, and
also those of the hieroglyphic inscription; the sounds expressed by the same Coptic letters were
also observed, and in the same relative places; and this was also noticed in the hieroglyphic. Thus
words of frequent occurrence, as Ptolemy, Arsinoe, Berenice, and Cleopatra, were found in the
hieroglyphic to be made up of characters which were alphabetical and Phonetic. By this mode of