The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-08 00:00:00

A VIEW PROM THE GREAT PYRAMID OE CHEOPS.

The panoramic view of the landscape spread out at our
feet riveted our attention. On the one side the Nile
valley a wide sea of overflowed waters (it was during an
inundation), intersected by long serpentine dams, here
and there broken by villages rising above its surface, like
islands, and by cultivated promontories filling the whole
plain of the valley that extended to the opposite Moqattam
hills, on whose most northerly point the citadel of Cairo
rises above the town, stretched out at their base. On the
other side, the Lybian desert, a still more wonderful sea
of sandy plains and barren rocky hills, boundless, colour-
less, noiseless, enlivened by no creature, no plants, no
trace of the presence of man, not even by tombs ; and be-
tween both, the ruined Necropolis, whose general position
and simple outline lay spread out clearly and distinctly as
on a map.
What a spectacle, and what recollections did it call
forth ! When Abraham came to Egypt for the first time,
he saw those very pyramids, which had been already built
many centuries before his coming. In the plain before
us lay ancient Memphis, the residence of the kings on
whose tombs we were then standing ; there dwelt Joseph,
and ruled the land under one of the most powerful and
wisest Pharoahs of the newly-restored monarchy. Further
away, to the left of the Moqattam hills, where the fruitful
low ground extends on the eastern arm of the Nile, be-
yond Heliopolis, distinguished by its obelisk, begins the
blest region of Goshen, out of which Moses led his people
to the Syrian desert. It would not, indeed, be difficult
from our position to recognize that ancient fig-tree on the
road to Heliopolis, at Matarieh, under whose shade, ac-
cording to the tradition of the country, Mary rested with
the infant Christ. How many thousand pilgrims of all
nations have since visited these wonders of the world
down to ourselves, who, the youngest in time, are yet but
the predecessors of many other thousands who will suc-
ceed us, ascend these pyramids, and contemplate them
with astonishment. I will not describe any further the
thoughts and feelings which agitated me during these
moments. There, at the goal of the wishes of many
years, and at the same time at the commencement of our
expedition ; there, at the summit of the Cheops Pyramid,
to which the first link of our whole monumental historical
inquiry—not merely for the history of Egypt, but for that
of the world—is immoveably attached ; there, where I
looked down upon the wonderful field of tombs, from
which the Moses'-wand of science now calls forth the
shadows of the ancient dead, and causes them to pass be-
fore the mirror of history, in the order of their time and
rank, with their names and titles, and with all their pecu-
liarities, customs, and surrounding accompaniments.

Delineations of scenery, and reflections on its
associations, are not the only means adopted by
Dr. Lepsius to convey an idea of the present con-
dition of the Nile valley, he likewise gives spirited
sketches of its natural history, and occasionally
treats his readers with a clever portrait of some of
its inhabitants. As an example, take the following