Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-08-04
ANCIENT MEMPHIS.

\ A traveller in the East gives the fol-
owing interesting account of his visit to
he remains of ancient Memphis, founded
by the first known Egyptian king
Nenes. "But what did we see of this
,onderful city? Only succession of
mounds" says the writer; ga few pieces
+ ancient statues and far down below
he present level. with its face in the
entire, a magnificent figure of woman
Egyptian dress, with noble features
md finely modelled form, almost perfect,
.lthough probably 1000 years old. As
matter of course, we fingered and
BOXED as long as we thought SEN
.iment required, then pushed on to
the remarkable ruins of the cemetery,
which was connected with this city, or,
I should say, magnificent city of the
4laaaa--tsz -sHeS@xery eenaHss- r-mhich
Mam,,;o extended. 1t is now but
little more than vast mountain of sand,
being just on the precincts of the Afri-
can desert. There are so many tombs
everywhere peeping out, and SO large
number of pyramids-Sl in all--scatter-
ed about, that the interest is keenly ex-
cited at once, and at every step some
new developments take place. When we
remember that old Memphis was IL
miles in circuit, and was occupied with
villas. gardens and sacred groves, we
can realize more than in any other way
the wondrousness of the scene which
remains to us to-day. After passing the
largest pyramid. considered the oldest
monument of antiquity in the world, we
descended rapidly to the one little house
of refuge standing in the midst of the
sand, dismounted and lunched-thus Sc
curing good resting season, and after
about an hour started out with our
guides to the two special points of inter
est here, the mausoleum of the Sacred
Bull, and the tomb of the priest Tih, the
latter built about 1850 B. C. These
were uncovered in 1860 by the Egyptian
authorities, who. first noticing mounds
in the sand bearing the appearance Of
heads appointed commission, and, after
a labor of l6 months, an avenue oi
sphynxes. 600 feet long, the pedestals OF
statues being perfect in all cases. This
was paved and led to the mausoleum o.
the Sacred Bull, where these objects 0
worship had been entombed for severa
dynasties. There were found three sep
arate chambers of temples, the lates
where dates were found-65O B. c.
being the only Que now open. Ono can
not help feeling an interest in every de
tail of such place. There are the Ion
avenues, broad and high, hewn in th
solid rock, while all along the sides ar
deep recesses where are now standing tn
sarcophagi Of the bulls. Twenty fv
perfect ones stand in one archive, eac
weighing 40 tons, and many of thel
fully engraved with figures, representa-
life. death and Immortality. But it
no more wonderful to see them whel
they are, than to understand how the
were put there. One which was presen
ed to the French had been abandone
when moved some little distance, as tt
! heavy to be taken away. They are
feet long. II feet high, and z feet dee
d and, although many of the covers ha'
o been removed, nothing was found in al
of them. Above the sarcophagi are il
J. scriptions relating to their burial, al
in whose reign they died. Many table
,e were found upon the walls, which we
n placed there as offerings to the go'
r. these, however. were all allowed to
taken to Paris"