The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-09-23
manitowof pilot.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER %, 1886.
PHARAOH ON EARTH AGAIN.
AFTER OVER THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF
INTERMENT HIS BODY is LOOKED UPON
BY MODERN EYEs.-ONE OF THE
MOST REMARKABLE DISCOv-
ERIES IN ALL HISTORY.

| weeks ago, IN the BOulak Museum, III
Cairo, the body of the famous Pharaoh
| (Rameses IL was revealed to living
eyes. as was that of his father, Seti [.
The illustrations below are reproduc-
tons from excellent English engrav
ings from photographs of the shriven
ed faces of the exceedingly dead men.
That after thousands of years, the
faces retain so much expression as
they do is but proof of what perfect
ion the Egyptian embalmers had at
tanned. Their art is lost. The known
facts relating 10 the two mummies are
as follows:
Five years ago some thirty mum
mics of ancient Egyptian Kings,
Queens, Princes, and Processes We're
found heaped together at the bottom
Of subtelTaneous, rock-cut sepulchre
in the western plain of Thebes. These
hidden royalties included nearly all
the most famous sovereigns of no less
than five Egyptian dynasties, there
being between the most ancient and
the most modern among them an in
terval OF at least $50 years. That is
to say, the most ancient Pharaoh there
found occupies a place in history dat
ing about a century and a half previous
to B. G. 1903, the period assigned TO
the expulsion of the Hyksos invaders
and the end of the war of independ-
ence, while the most modern may be
reckoned as having lived and died
about 3. G. ITO. Transported from
Thebes to Carlo, the mummied Kings
and Queens and their belongings now
occupy a spacious hall called THE
Hail of Royal Mummies," and the
strange story of their discovery has
been told and retold in all the lang
uages of Europe and read in every
quarter of the globe.
About chronologically midway in
the historical period represented with
in the walls of The Hall of Royal
Mummies," lived, reigned, and died
the two famous Pharaohs. Set l., ac-
cording to Varieties estimate, came
to the throne in B. G. 1855. He was
the second King Of the great Nine
teenth Dynasty, and he reigned for
the space of fifty-one years. His son,
Rameses IL, who administered the
government for many years before the
death OF the old King, succeeded to
the double crown about B. G. 1404
and reigned thenceforth for sixty
seven years. Between them in short,
this father and son ruled the land of
Egypt for no less period than lis
| years
After an undisturbed repose of five
years in their glass cases at the Boulak
Museum these two royal mummies,
with several of their illustrious com
panions, have recently been unrolled
by Prof Maspero and his assistants
The mummy of Rameses Ii. was open
ed the Sd day of last June in the pre-
sence of the Khedive and the leading
members of the diplomatic body,
home and foreign. The mummy Of
Seti l. was unbandaged the 9th day of
the same month.
Seti l., son of Rameses l., and
second Pharaoh of the Nineteenth
| Dynasty, was a great military hero, d
magnificent builder, and a promoter
of the arts. He led his victorious
armies against the Phenicians, Sy-
rians, and Sinaitic tribes of the East,
against the Libyans of the West, and
against the Philippians of the South.
He built the famous Hall of Columns
in the great Temple of Karnak, the
most magnificent structure of its kind
ever erected by the hand of man. He
founded the beautiful Temple Goor-
neh in Western Thebes, and his tomb,
in the Valley of the Tombs of the
| Kings, discovered by Belzoni in 1915,
| is-for extent, design, and beauty of
execution-by far the finest rock-cut
5epulchre III Egypt This Kings
beautiful alabaster sarcophagus is pre-
served in Sir John Soane's Museum in
Lincoln's Inn Fields. Set l. is re
presented by contemporary artists as
a singularly handsome man, and the
mummy shows that the sculptures
which line the walls of his tomb and
adorD the halls of his temples did not
fatter him. SO fine face, with feat
uues SO deicately cut, so well pre-
served, and SO pleasantly expressive of
serenity and intelligence, has never,
according to Prof Maspero's official
report. been seen in a state of mum
MITIGATION within the walls of the
Boulak Museum.
! An extraordinary interest attaches
to the person of this Pharaoh, the
third King of the Nineteenth Denasty
Not only is he the great monarch cele-
brated by Greek historians under the
name of Sesostris, not only was he the
most lavish and magnificent builder
king that the world ever saw, but he
was, almost undoubtedly, the Pharoah
whose daughter adopted Moses, and
who in later years oppressed the He
brew colonists,and made their livesbit-
ter with hard service in mortar and in
brick. and III all manner of service in
the field" This Identification of Ra
meses Ii. with the anonymous Pharoab
of the first and second chapters of
Exodus was long since demonstrated
on historical and chronological
grounds by the late eminent French
Psychologist, the Vicomte E. de
Rouge, whose opinion accepted mean
while by the majority of European
sayants) has recently been confirmed
by monumental evidence discovered
in the excavation of Pithom, by the
Egyptian Exploration Fund, in 1888
Looking upon the hard and naughty
features of the mummy here repro
duced by our artist from photograph
executed a few weeks ago in the Bou-
lax Museum, we remember with a
feeling akin to awe that this is he who
commanded the slaughter of all the
male babes of the daughters of Israel
who sought to Stay Moses, and from
, whose wrath the future law giver fled
into the land of indian. This, too, Is
, the victor of kadesh, the hero of the
famous epic poem of Pentaur, ikened
by some to an Egyptian Had; and
this Is the builder of the Ramesseum.
| of the PNlnns and Hall Of Cnln,nnnr 81