DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17#0122
PYRAMIDS AND PROGRESS.
coloured decoration, among
the mounds of the Roman
city. The site is now utterly
desolate, and the greater part
of the stones of many Egyp-
tian and Roman temples have
been utilised to build a steam
sugar mill on the opposite
bank, one of the practical
undertakings of Ismail's time and still worked for the Government.
At El-Bersheh, not far off, there is a valley of tombs, one of which contains
an instructive painting of the transport of a colossus on a sledge. The occupant
of the tomb was an officer of Usertesen {2400 b.c.), who was so proud of his
skill that he painted the scene on the walls of his tomb to call the attention
of the gods in the future life to his great
labours here below. The scene is most
spirited. All is done by manual labour.
Crowds of slaves draw the great ropes, men
stand by with whips, a ganger standing on
the statue beats time with his hands. The
great figure, forty feet high, is trussed and
strapped on its carriage, and moves along
securely. It is a wonderful scene of activity,
and the picture tells its story admirably.
We came to anchor at Hadji Kandeel,
on the edge of the great plain which the reforming king had chosen for his building
site. A broad belt of palms lined the river, with some cultivated fields, now dry
and destitute of crops, as the Nile was low. The wretched village was opposite
us, we hired donkeys from the natives, and soon had crossed the sandy
plain, noticing lines of hillocks and pieces of broken sandstone strewn about, by
which the ancient highways and buildings could be
detected. The women and children offered bits of
pottery, fragments of blue porcelain rings, and bits
of sculptured stone, with hieroglyphics. I bought
everything I could get, and afterwards found that
all were interesting and many had valuable cartouches
and inscriptions, all of Akhenaten's time. I got some
detail of painted floor bearing his own and his w»fe Nefertiti's names,
and a fine bit of blue pottery with his mother's
(Tel-el-Amarna).
coloured decoration, among
the mounds of the Roman
city. The site is now utterly
desolate, and the greater part
of the stones of many Egyp-
tian and Roman temples have
been utilised to build a steam
sugar mill on the opposite
bank, one of the practical
undertakings of Ismail's time and still worked for the Government.
At El-Bersheh, not far off, there is a valley of tombs, one of which contains
an instructive painting of the transport of a colossus on a sledge. The occupant
of the tomb was an officer of Usertesen {2400 b.c.), who was so proud of his
skill that he painted the scene on the walls of his tomb to call the attention
of the gods in the future life to his great
labours here below. The scene is most
spirited. All is done by manual labour.
Crowds of slaves draw the great ropes, men
stand by with whips, a ganger standing on
the statue beats time with his hands. The
great figure, forty feet high, is trussed and
strapped on its carriage, and moves along
securely. It is a wonderful scene of activity,
and the picture tells its story admirably.
We came to anchor at Hadji Kandeel,
on the edge of the great plain which the reforming king had chosen for his building
site. A broad belt of palms lined the river, with some cultivated fields, now dry
and destitute of crops, as the Nile was low. The wretched village was opposite
us, we hired donkeys from the natives, and soon had crossed the sandy
plain, noticing lines of hillocks and pieces of broken sandstone strewn about, by
which the ancient highways and buildings could be
detected. The women and children offered bits of
pottery, fragments of blue porcelain rings, and bits
of sculptured stone, with hieroglyphics. I bought
everything I could get, and afterwards found that
all were interesting and many had valuable cartouches
and inscriptions, all of Akhenaten's time. I got some
detail of painted floor bearing his own and his w»fe Nefertiti's names,
and a fine bit of blue pottery with his mother's
(Tel-el-Amarna).