Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-25

reign of Theodosius. the second Christian
emperor of Rome. its temples and palaces
were sacked by the Christians and the en-
tire city practically destroyed. Many col
umns and carvings were carried to Rome.
to Constantinople, to Jerusalem and Alex
andria, and in all those cities. and In Lon
don and Naples and even Athens today you
from Heliopolis. and Thebes also. The last
of Memphis disappeared In the middle ages
ana for fifteen centuries its ruins have been
a quarry for building material.
The Step Pyramid.
There is plenty of material here for phil
osophizing, but I have no time to indulge
In such qualifications. for within a short
distance are the ruins of Sakkara. another
ancient city. which formed the center of
the greatest burial ground of the ancient
Egyptians, and here are two Of the most
interesting things in Egypt. the Step Pyr-
amid" which is believed to be the oldest
of human structures. and the Serapeum. or
underground mausoleum, in which the sa-
cred bulls were buried.
alluded to the Step Pyramid the other
day, but did not give it's dimensions, which
are 352 by sos feet at the base and 1871 feet
in height. There are six steps or terraces.
varying in height from 80 to % feet. and
the width of each is from 8 to s feet. II Is
one Of the few pyramids of that construc-
all of them very old, older than those or
Cheops around the Sphinx and in Teta, one
Of them which the Arabs call the prison
pyramid local tradition says that Joseph
was locked up for two years because Oh the
spite of Mrs. Potiphar.
The Tomb of the Bulls.
The Tomb of the Bulls Is one of the Won
ders of the world. You all know that white
bulls were sacred in Egypt Archaeologists
theorize that they made the best draught
animals, and the king or some other person
In authority, desiring to preserve them from
slaughter for breeding purposes, caused the
priests to declare them objects of worship,
and the people accepted the decree in good
faith. Ultimately the white bull became the
chief of all the sacred animals, and was so
sacred that when one died Its oedy was
mummified like those of the kings, placed
In sarcophagus of carved stone and de-
posted in a temple chiseled out of the solid
rock fifty feet below the surface Oh the
ground. This temple is reached by an IN
clined tunnel through the rock, and was
formerly guarded by a pair of splendid
doors covered with silver. Now an iron
grating answers the purpose.
The old Arab custodian gave US each a
lantern and led US through a corridor
about thirty feet wide and thirty feet high
for nearly half mile. He told US that
it led a mile and half farther. At intervals
are sixty-four chapels on either side. each
perhaps twenty-five ttct SQuaiC, anu ei'S
walls are covered with carving. In the
center of each chapel the coffin of bun
was placed, and twenty-four granite sar-
cophagf still remain In position. averaging
thirteen feet long, eleven Feet Woe anu
eight feet high, and cut from solid block
of granite the same material OF which the
hilf of rock is composed. The oldest IS sup
posed to have been buried there about loOo
b. c., 200 years before the exodus OF the
Israelites.
The Tomb of the Bulls Is quite as re-
n. arkable as a monument of the science
and industry of the Egyptians as the pyra-
mfds, and to this day the antiquarfahs are
unable to explain satisfactorily how, with
the simple tools they possess, they coolo
have carved these enormous corridors
through that granite mountain
Collections Found in Tombs.
There are many notable tombs near by. in
which kings. princes and prime ministers
were buried during the first eleven dynas-
ties of the Egyptian empire, from HOO to
1890 B. c., and nearly all of them have'ar-
Genealogical or historical interest. In one,
known as the pyramid of Dashur, In which
the Princess Hathor-Sat was buried about
900 b. c., Mr.. de Morgan, the director OF
antiquities, discovered in 1884 the splendid
collection of gold and silver jewelry now on
exhibition in the museum al Cairo 1t
fortunately escaped the clutches of the in
vaders and vandals who plundered the
ton of the Processes Ita and Khnemit was
found in 1895 in neighboring tomb. The
jewels were inclosed in alabaster jars in
stead of the ordinary baskets, which proba-
bly, accounts for the fact that they es-
capped notice at the time the tembs were
rifed
We went from Cairo to Bedrashen, the
railway station nearest Memphis, by cars,
but came home across the desert as far
as the great pyramids by donkeys. and
the rest of the distance on the trolley. The
ride across the desert. which required sew
eral hours, was fascinating, and we saw
the sun go down into the sand with that
fiery glow which artists admire and covet
for their canvases. 1t was followed by an
intense orange light, which gradually
softened into yellow and then blended into
the darkness when the stars came out
This miracle of color occurs twice a day
and we could understand why painters go
out to camp in the desert in order to catch
it, for they must be there on time. They
have only half an hour in the morning and
half an hour at night. When the sun
sets they are at their easels brushes in
hand and colors on their palettes, so that
not moment will be wasted. They COPY
the sky as rapidly as possible covering one
canvas after another with the color and
leaving the figures in the foreground to
be painted in afterward.