Asheville daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1890-1900, 1891-11-30
FROM THE ETERNAL CITY
REV. n. g. PEARSON REMEM.
BERS 1.-THE CITIZEN"

The Great Evaugelist writes En-.
tertaininxly of His Travels--One
Day Spent in POmpeii's Ruins
NAV Return to America i'm De
cenber.
GRAND HOTEL MARINA.
ROME, Italy, Nov. 10.
EDITOR THE CTT,zEN:-Bctore leaving
Cairo, Egypt, we tooN sail up the Nile,
as far as the site of the city OF ancient
Memphis, and spent day in visiting the
ruins and suburbs of that once famous
capital. About all that is left to mark
he site of the city is an insignificant
sandy cxpansc, shaded by pains and
strewn with blocks of granite broken
pottery and fragments OF brick From
t he characteristics of the ruins, the
ancient Egyptians built their edihccs,
with the exception of palaces and tenn
pies, OF large sun-dried bricks OF the Nile
mud. Were it not for the vast Necropo-
lis TO the west of the ancient city, no one
would imagine that one of the most IA
nous and populous capitals Of antiquity
had once stood here.
1t is not now possible to form any pre-
else idea OF the situation of the city. and,
AS its stones were carried off in former
centuries to build edifices on the right
bank OF the Nile, the relics found here
have been very scanty. The streets are
narrow, but even down to the Twelfth
century some of them are said to have
been half-a-day's Journey in length.
Amid the scarcity OF relics in Memphis,
there is one, The colossal statue of Ram
eses H., worthy Of special mention. This
huge statue was discovered in 1920. and
presented to the British museum, bu
owing to the difficulty of transport 1t
has never been removed. 1t consists OF
remarkably hard and hne-grained lime
stone, and before it was injured was 40
feet in height. The workmanship is ad,
mrable. There can be ia doubt that
this statue is one of those erected by
Ramses III. in front of the temple of Ptah;
and described by Strabo in his account
of Memphis.
Another relic of interest is the Mausc
leum OF Apis, or the tomb of the sacred
bull. There are sixty-iour Apis vaults
now accessible; and these chambers av.
cragc 26 fee in height, and the aggrc.
gate length OF the passages is $50 yards.
rwentv-tuur OF the chambers still con.
tain the huge SarcophaIi in which he
A,,tr H. ,,I i,,t
monster collins average 10 t,et in length,
I feet in width. and | | feet in height, and
nu less than 65 tons III weight Twenty
tour of the Sarcophagi are OF granite
but three OF them only bear inscriptions
briefly recording the name OF lie king
by whom they were erected. As looked
upon the tomb OF bull, and rcmcm-
bercd that III quality and cast, it sur
passed the tomb of him who won the
battle of Australia, could but repeat:
What fools these mortals he.
Returning from Memphis to Cairo. we
took the train for Alexandria, and from
there we sailed for Brindisi on the west
coast of Italy. where, upon landing we
took the train for Naples, where we
spent several days in sight seeing Naples
is the largest city of lta'y, and beAuti-
full one; but saw nothing in it to justify
the phrase: "See Naples and die "
With interest, pleasure and wonder
spent one dav amid the views Of Pom
peii. and all will say of it is, "the halt
has not been told," and it is the sight of
a rip. Van Winkle" nap, on huge
scale, to look upon houses. streets, men
and animals IN the very attitudes in
which they were caught and left BY the
wondrous eruption OF mad Mt Ncsu-
vius.
From Naples we took the train for
Rome; and here we are in the Eternal
! City" Athens, ConstantinOple. Smyrna
Cairo and Alexandria, all have their
points of interest and wonder; but i'll
many respects. to mt at least, Rome sur
passes them all. Cairo surpasses in the
antiquity OF art; Athens in the periections
OF art; but Rome surpass,s all in the
magnihccnce of art. | shall not go into
details and descriptions, but simply men
ton some of the sights, and say they
must be seen to be appreciated. | have
visited the Vatican, and St. Peters, and
the Coliseum, the rarpear Rock, the
Forum, and the Pantheon and the
Palace; and driven along the banks of
the Tiber and out on the Appian Way
rs far as the Catacomhs.
Our stay in this city is drawing to a
close: and in a dav or two we will leave
tor Florence, Milan, Genoa and Nice
Travel aud sightseeing IN this country
are not favorable to people in poor
health for the hotels and trains are not
heated as in America. These people. as
compared with our people, have poor
ideas of those casv comforts so much ap.
preciated and enjoyed by us. And as
Mrs. Pearson and are travelling as
much TOR health as anything else, and as
our health is not being improved by oul
travels, it is more than probable that il
December we will sail from Genoa via
Gilbralta for New York. Yours truly,
K. 6. Pearson