DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4640#0026
-*~"-*~
.' '
] .. . ■ ' ■ •■■
w,ta^
©If MI5
m Mil IFLAIIi
nf m
&*g TWMBW>H><
Thk village of Gooma is situated on the western bank of the Nile, amidst a grove of palm-trees,
and beyond it a plain, which exhibits at present very little cultivation, extends to some Stance,
and is bounded by desert hills. Amidst the extensive levels of this rough and neglected plan,
are seen the well-known statues of Memnon; sitting, as they have sat for ages, in grand and
mournful solemnity, amidst the ruins of temples, the isolated but magnificent monuments of ancient
splendour They are called by the natives Damy and Shamy, words that sound hke nicknames to
ns but the natives have no such association with them. The nearest in the view is that winch
is'known as the vocal Memnon: thanks to the newly discovered power of deciphering the
hieroglyphics, it is ascertained to be the statue of Amnnoph III., believed to be the Pharaoh
of the Exodus, 1500 B.C. The other statue has been supposed to be that of his brother,
Amun-Toonh, but without foundation, for, though he reigned for a short time jointly wit
Amnnoph III he was deposed by him, and excluded from the hieroglyphic hsts : Amnnoph
, Mich his statue It is more probable that both statues represented
was not likely, therefore, to establish hi* statue. l>
the same Pharaoh, as the statues of Remeses II. are repeated in the pronaos of A oo-Simbe
The plain is bounded by lofty mountains, among which are the valleys of Biban El Malook and
other recesses, full of sepulchral excavations, whilst the lower parts of the rocky heights facing the
last are occupied by the village of Goorna.