Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-16

rooms Of the library about $500 tablets.
mostly unbaked, and the probable NUM-
hal OF tablets yet buried in the library
is estimated at 10000.
"They are almost entirely Of a didaclic
| character. and belong to the third nj
enium before Christ Lodges or shelves
We're built in the walls of the roomc.
upon which the tablets were laid in
rows. The Elaintes threw this build
ing into ruins the century prior to Abra-
| hams birth. The writings on these tab
| lets are expected to throw much light
upon the history of this early period.
We find the Egyptians about 1000
years ago already accomplished in art
and science and possessed of certain
knowledge to which we as vet are stran-
| gers. No more majestic figure than the
| Sphinx of Gize has ever been hewn out
| O. the living rock and it is the earliest
known monument - man. The so-called
pyramid of Cheops. surpasses not only
! in size but in scientific construction any
thing attempted since. The Egyptians
| were a race of builders and they built
| With a resolve for permanence that has
never since been approached. Upon the
| walls of their editiceS: upon column.
plinth and architrave and throughout
| the midnight recesses of their eXca-
waited tombs they inscribed their annals.
! Here in characters as sharp in outline
and as vivid in color as the day thay
were engraved and painted, we find the
record of their creed; their exploits, their
manners and customs. The fundamental
MIA kim of their philosophy seems to have
been this Mortal eXstance is brief: be-
yond death les the only true life Mans
duty is to make ready for it,.
The soul of Egypt periodically washed
Jy the inundation of the river Nile. is a
black compact clay. which becomes of
stony hardness when dry. From time
immemorial this clay has been used in
the construction of their houses. The
hut of the poorest peasant is rudely
) shaped mass of this clay. At the first
slance it is not alweys easy to dis
1inguish between the huts made of clay
and those built of crude brick. The
ordinary Egyptian brick is a neat OBJ
long block of mud mixed with chopped
straw and a little sand, and dried in the
sun. The nature of the soil does not al
. low of deep foundations. 1t consists of a
thin bed of made earth which, except
= in large towns. never reaches any de-
gee of thickness. Below this comes
very dense humic premeated by slender
veins of sand: and below this again
! at the level of infiltration- comes a bed
of mud more or less soft, according to
! the season.
The native builders of the present
day, as we'll as the ancient Egyptians,
are content to remove only the made
/ earth and lay their foundations on the
primeval soil. They very often did not
make foundations at all: they levelled
!, the space intended to be covered, and
: when the house was finished the scraps
of morter. the broken bricks and all the
: ! accumulated refuse of the work, made
> a bed of foot or more in depth. and the
base of the wall thus buried served in
stead of foundation.
= When building new house on the
site of an old one. they leveled the sur
:, f,ce of the ruins and built upon them
thus making the new house a few fee,
. ighnr than before. Thus each towr
- stands upon artificial mounds, the top.
If which not unfreduently rise to E
!, height Of from 60 to so feet above tn,
" surrounding country. AS an example O.
:, this I refer to the recent excavation.
# made at the ancient city of Nippen fl
Tadylopia under the direction of Prof
II. " Hilpracht. Phi. d. II. D.. l.. L. D
:, In eXcavating the wall of the city. it wa
=. ascertained that the first wall was bull
If in the early pre-semitic period, prior t.
1000 =. c. :
~ Upon this structure Naram-Sin 1875
,r =. C.) raised up his wall to a consider
;e able height using the characteristicall.
,a .aIge bricks of his period. Upon the re
T.. mains of this splendid structure lie tn
bricks of Tr-Gen, (o.SO0 Il. c. TIL
al uppermost stratum contains the remain
rs II Jewish settlement belonging to tn
e la:e period.
,d while the Egyptians used mud an,
l. bricks in building their dwellings, in tn
4, construction Of their Temples and tomhs
,e they used limestone, granite and al
~ caster.
le Some of their grandest temples ar
~ the temple of the Sphinx. the temple O
N Tohnser. temple of Karnak, temple q
IN Luxor. 9nd great many others. Tn
he rnost ancient monumental tombs ar
OF found in the metropolis of Memphis. be
D. ,ween Aboo Roash and Dishoor TIL
IS, material employed for these tombs ar
IL stone or brick. The stone Is AWAY
~ limestone cut in blocks about % fee
=, long. feet high and 20 inches thick.
Is "Three sorts of limestone were EN-
" ;,loyed. For the hest tombs the fin
white limestone of TOorah. the CON
~ .,act s.liceous limestone of Sakkaral
y. Cor ordinary tOmbs the limestone of III
'e libyan hills.