Washington sentinel., 1899-05-06
IT,, 49,, SENTINEL
A Lady's DIggIngs in Egypt.
Nature


The Egyptian goddess Nut was
the wife Of the god Amen Ra and
the second member OF the great
Theban triad Of deities, which con-
sisted orherself, her spouse Amen
Ra and her son Chonsu, the god
of the Moon. She symbolized
nature and was regarded as the
mother Of all things, as indeed her
name Nut, "the mother" implies.
Her temple at Karnak, situated in
a district termed Asher by the
ancient Egyptians, stood to the
southwest Of the great temple OF
Amen Ra, to which it was con-
nected by a long line of sphinxes.
A little to the northwest stands the
temple Of Ch onsu, her son, from
which another long avenue of
sphiuXes leads to Luxor. Her
temple is thus, with the exception
of small temple Of Rameses III,
the southernmost of those that
form the Karnak group. Although
in consequence of its ruined con-
dition it, perhaps, receives little
attention from the passing tourist,
its Importance has long been rec
Ognized, and il has been frequently
studied and described. AS Mari
cite pointed out, although its
structure has suffered more than
that of others at KaTnak, its inter
est is considerable; tor we have IN
il an entire temple, with its sur
rounding wall, its pYlons, sphlnxss
and sanctuary, and its sacred lake,
which encloses the temple on the
south in the form OF a great horse
shoe.
Towards the middle OF the pres
ent century the condition oi the
temple was probably very much
more perfect than it is at present,
for about the year 1870 it appears
to have been used, with Moham-
med Ais permission, as a stone
quarry during the erection OF a
saltpetre mandatory in the neigh
borhood, The British museum
possesses two manuscript maps OF
the temple by Burton and Hay,
which were probably made be-
tween 1890 and I84o; and as Bur-
toms evidently belongs to the
period before the saltpetre factory
was built, its value as evidence OF
the former condition OF the temple
is great. AT this period the walls
may have stood several feet above
the ground, so that the ground
plan Of the temple could be traced
without difficulty. After they had
been levelled, the plan Of the tenn
pie could only be made out by re-
moving the debris from the bases
Of coIum ms and the foundations OF
walls that still remained.
Neither OF the plans oil the tenn
pie made by Burton and Hay was
published, and the first published
plan IS that Of Lepsius, made dur
ing the Prussian survey in the
years I842-45. In 1869 Duemi-
chen published a copy Of part Of
the inscription Of the time OF Tir
hakah from the walls OF a small
chamber in the temple, and in
June, 1871, de Rouge read paper
before the Academic des Inscrip-
tions, in which he translated as
sages from the inscription Duemi-
chen had published. Since Lep-
sius' survey, however, no detailed
examination OF the temple was un-
dertaken until Mariette partly ex-
caVated the site, and in 875 pub
lished in his "Karnak" the results
of his excavation in the form Of
the plan which has been regarded
as the authoritative plan Of the
temple up to the present time.
Mariette also published a fuller
copy Of the inscription from the
chamber Of Tirhakah, which was
again republished in 1890 by M.
Urbain Bouriant, together with
another mutilated inscription from
the western wall of the temple. In
IS9I-93 Sir Norman Lockyer
spent three seasons in Egypt
studying the orientation of the
principal Egyptian temples, among
which he included the temple oil
Nut; as the result Of his inyeSti.
cations, he Professionally assigned
the date Of its foundation to about
BIC. $500. such is a brief sketch
Of the principal surveys and studies
Of the temple and its inscriptions
that had been made up to the time
Miss Benson began her work on
the site.
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