The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-12
The Nile and Its Monuments.


The Oldest monuments, of which the pyra-
mids are the great representatives, Introduce
the story of the remote past OF Egypt as clearly
and sharply as any later chapter before the
Greek age, when biographical interest turns
mere annals into history. The vast temples of
Thebes, and their rival, the great excsvsted
shrine of Aboosimbel, III Nubla are themselves
the historians of the Egyptian Empire of 5000
years ago. The TOmbs of the Kings suggest
the discussion of what the Egyptians thought
OF the life beyond the grave, for nowhere else
are there such fruitful materials for its study.
Dendara and Edfou, the most completeitemples
that remain, and Phile, that most connected
with the popular worship, force on our atten-
| ton the ceremonies of the ancient religion
We have acquiesced in the fashion Of speak.
ing of the pyramids as though they stood at the
beginning of Egyptian history, yet NJ. Mariette
hopes that yet earlier remains are still to be
discovered. To get some idea of the age to
which these remains would have to be referred
we must work back from the period of the pyr-
amds of Gizeh The date of these periods was
mere guesswork till NJ. Chabas an eminent
French scholar, ascertained that the third pyr-
amid was built about B. G. 5000. This would
give us about century earlier for the great
pyramid, almost the Oldest of the group, a mon
ument of the beginning of the fourth Egyptian
dynasty. Before this line there were three
others of which the rule must have occupied
six or seven centuries. We thus reach, for the
beginning of the first dynasty, about the date
already proposed by Professor Lepsius, which
| is founded on passage of Manetho, the Egyp-
tian historian. The first king of the first
| dynasty, and the first of Egypt as a united
| monarchy, Menes, came from This or Thinis, q
| town in upper Egypt, near the better-known
Abydos. Here is vast mound where NJ. Ma
| riette hopes to dig up records not only Of the
| Oldest monarch, but, perhaps of his predeces-
sors, who ruled the lesser states which his poll
| cy united. Thus we may hope to link the be-
ginnings of the history of Egypt with an earlier
| condition, of which some see traces In the stone
| implements found In the Valley of the Nile.
| We may see at last the first rude beginnings of
| Egyptian writing, and the infancy of all that
had In the pyramid age already reached matur-
itY. 1t was the custom to think that the pyra-
| mids as the first Egyptian monuments. be-
| longed to an age when the knowledge and art
| of the nation were in their infancy, natural
| but false idea, which NJ. Mariette's discoveries
| have disproved. We all remember seeing with
astonshment the statues of this time, which
| were taken from the Boulak Museum to De
/ shown at the Paris exhibition of 1867. The
/ well-known wooden statue especially overthrow
all our preconceved ideas, as il proved that the
L Egy ptlan SculptOrS OF LQaL age were more capa-
BILE of representing nature than any of their
| successors, and therefore that art was then
l stronger and truer The Bonlak Museum, rich
in Gorks of all periods, is especially rich in
these treasures OF the pyramid metropolis.
/ The second remarkable period of Egyptian
history, the age of the empire, reaches its height
in the long reign nearly seventy years in dura-
ton, of Rameses the Great. B. G 1900. Two
chief architectural works, the so-called Mem
l nonium at Thebes, and the great rock-cut tenn
II nj al A m m No N
the many monuments OF this king. Their in
'erest is more historical than that of the pyra-
| mIds. They do not leave US wondering what
else their builder did, but tell Us in their sculp
| lures and il scrptions the chief events OF bis
| reign, even suggesting, with aids from other
| sources, some idea of bis persOUsl character.
| If we compare his various portraits, tbe most
Individual is that of the colossal statue Of Mem
phis, the neglected Dfop-rty of the British ma
! ton. which is contented with the cast OF Its
| head in the centre of the Egy ptisn gallery of
| the British Museum. In this portrait tinge of
| Semitic characteristics, seen 10 the foim N of the
nose, the unuusal dellcacy of the mout5, and the
| general shape of the face confirms the suspic-
/ ION founded Oh historical grounds that kamtses
| was partly of Semetic descent The qualities
of the face seem to indicate q strong bot gentle
character, cultivated beyond the custom Of the
times. His history, as told by Egyptian docu-
| ments, is that of brave but not very warliks
prince, whose rule was marked BY the CONSOLE
| dation of foreign provinces rather than by new
i cOuqucots, anu ludt VI SIchttst " hu GKyp-
| ti4n builders, commemorated by series of re-
| ligious structures unparalleled IN the world
/ as the works of single reign.
The earlier Egyptologists were inclined to con-
| slider RameseS the type OF good Pharaoh.
Since, however, Lepsius's ident fcation of him
| with the great oppressor of Israel, opinion has
| SIT in the opposite direction. 1t is argued that
| his vast works point to reckless expenditure
of the life OF captive laborers; that he sta ds
| out alone in his time, upsufrouDded BY any
minor characters, like the vast granite colossus
sixty feet high, which tilled a court of his tenn
| pie at Thebes, and that h,s large family proves
| che Introduction of the Daneful harem system.
All this would well suit the Pharaoh of the
/ Oppression, the great prosecutor, the type for
| all time of the audacity and the failure Of abb
solute imperial power
/ The Memponium and the Temple of Aboo-
| simbel are, as we said, tue great monuments of
Rameses. The Memnonium is the only Egyp-
| tian temple of which an ancient author gives
| description This author HecatRus OF Abdera
| cited by Diodorus Sculus, though he Is singu-
larly accurate and evidently drew from native
l sources of information, yet calls the edifice q
| tomb and not temple. The researches of
| Champollion and his successors made 1t appear
that it was palace temple, or temple and
| college. 1t was reserved for NJ. Mariette TO
/ show its real purpose, and that of the other
like ediices on the western bank at Thebes.
The kings were buried in grottoes in q secluded
| western valley beyond the mountain barrier.
| These sepulchres, though ornamented with
| beautiful paintings, were closed after the burial
| of each monarch, and therefore the oratory
| was wanting which was o necessary part of
| every Egyptian tomb. The Memnonium and
its fellow structures were really vast oratories
standing in front of the hidden tombs Hence
| the biographical character of the sepulchral
Il n60rn