DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12609#0190
GEAND CAUSEWAY.
167
indicates that the latter was. first erected. Blocks in
the walls bear hieroglyphics reversed, proving that
they were taken from older buildings. Some of the
joints are slightly oblique instead of perpendicular, a
peculiarity observable in the great quay wall of the isle
of Eliphantine, which was built under the Ptolemies.*
In determining the antiquity of a work from the
style of sculpture or painting, perhaps due allowance
has not been made for local circumstances. Mere in-
feriority of execution is no proof of higher antiquity.
Provincial artists would of course be inferior to those
of the capital, and Thebes may have continued to be
the metropolis of art after it had ceased to be the
seat of government. The revolt of the Thebans in the
reign of Ptolemy Lathyrus, and his terrible revenge,
indicate that even to that late period the ancient
capital maintained a spirit of rivalry with the great
northern cities.
Eemains of Cheops's grand causeway for transport-
ing the blocks quarried from the rocks on the east
bank are still seen leading up to the Great Pyramid
from the plain — a shapeless ridge of ruinous ma-
sonry and sand. According to Herodotus it was
1000 yards long, 60 feet wide and 48 feet high; was
adorned with figures of animals and was a work of
ten years. Its original appearance must have been
* I have also noticed it in the walls of fortified cities in the
Morea, erected during the best times of Greece. Its object ap-
parently was to give compactness and bond to the masonry.
M 4
167
indicates that the latter was. first erected. Blocks in
the walls bear hieroglyphics reversed, proving that
they were taken from older buildings. Some of the
joints are slightly oblique instead of perpendicular, a
peculiarity observable in the great quay wall of the isle
of Eliphantine, which was built under the Ptolemies.*
In determining the antiquity of a work from the
style of sculpture or painting, perhaps due allowance
has not been made for local circumstances. Mere in-
feriority of execution is no proof of higher antiquity.
Provincial artists would of course be inferior to those
of the capital, and Thebes may have continued to be
the metropolis of art after it had ceased to be the
seat of government. The revolt of the Thebans in the
reign of Ptolemy Lathyrus, and his terrible revenge,
indicate that even to that late period the ancient
capital maintained a spirit of rivalry with the great
northern cities.
Eemains of Cheops's grand causeway for transport-
ing the blocks quarried from the rocks on the east
bank are still seen leading up to the Great Pyramid
from the plain — a shapeless ridge of ruinous ma-
sonry and sand. According to Herodotus it was
1000 yards long, 60 feet wide and 48 feet high; was
adorned with figures of animals and was a work of
ten years. Its original appearance must have been
* I have also noticed it in the walls of fortified cities in the
Morea, erected during the best times of Greece. Its object ap-
parently was to give compactness and bond to the masonry.
M 4