Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1906-05-12

I or Will nave QOuDly nara Tune Win
him. As had three boys to pay off,
usually had bowling mob follow
| day there were six abused individuals
for each donkey had two boys. I
barely escaped with my life. These
little incidents become genuinely
amusing after you are once hardened
| and you rather look forward to them.
Now as to what we saw among the
ruins. I shall not burden you with
many details except when the object
is of peculiar interest. Most of the
tombs were interesting to the care
less observer purely because of their
age and the fact that they represent
| ed untold labor and patience. The
hieroglyphics give ample scope for
the imagination and our Rashid rose
to the occasions magnifcently. The
| ancient object writing was certainly
crudeness in the extreme. Every
| line was stiff and positions al
| most impossible. There was little
art, the writing was purely utilitarian
as the monarch wanted to let pos
terity know of his great deeds. We
soon learned what ''cartouche" was.
1t was an oblong, round -cornered
figure containing within the name of
| the king. But you could see little as
to the builder of certain temple for
| many times later monarch would
come along and inscribe his cartouche
all over the structure. Rameses the
Great was great fellow for this. He
j has left his "mark" at nearly every
. structure along the Nile.
At Luxor we spent three or four
days and were in the midst of some
of the grandest pieces of architecture
| in the world. Here on the east bank
of the Nile are the famous temples of
! Karnak and Luxor, while on the west
bank are to be found temples of Ell
Kurnab, Medina Rameseum and others
and farther away the celebrated tombs
of the kings. The various buildings
| of the temples of Karnak (site Of an
cient Thebes) once covered an area of
| one thousand acres. They are still
rich in huge pillars, colossal statues
and immense obelisks. Here we saw
the largest obelisk in Egypt. 1t is
9715 feet high and about ten feet
square at the base and is said to weigh
about 500 tons. It is made of one
huge block of pink granite quarried at
Assuan, $50 miles away. In front Of
the main buildings are the remains Of
the great avenue of sphinxes, which
extended to the Nile. Toward Luxor
there was another avenue lined on
either side with these peculiar
"beasts'' which reached to the en-
trance of the temple there. Of course
nearly every square foot of these
great walls and pillars and obelisks,
is covered with hieroglyphic inscrip-
lions. could not read them how
ever and to repeat Baedeker would
be both tedious and uninteresting.
The excursions to the west bank
were perhaps more interesting. Here
we saw the great Colosse Of Memnon
which now stand apart from all build
ings, keeping lonely watch over the
Nile. These two figures were origin
ally about SO feet high. At present
they are not at all satisfactory from
an artistic standpoint, but are evil
dences of the skill of Theban builders.
In the temple of Ramesseum near
by are the broken fragments of the
greatest statue of ancient times. 1t
was originally 81 feet high and was
carved out of one block of granite.
It weighed about two million pounds.
The tombs of the kings near by
were perhaps the most interesting OF
all the sights we saw on the Nile. We
visited four of these and to give some
idea of nature I will describe one Of
them. It was the tomb of Amenophis
II who ruled Egypt about 400 B. G.
A long corridor cut out of solid rock
leads down steep descent for about
200 feet until you reach a large room,
the ceiling of which is supported by
heavy pillars. Below this room there
is deap well-lke cavern out of which |
extend smaller rooms. In one of |
these there is (tho we did not see it, |
a mummy case containing the mum
my of woman, probably the wife of
the king. Farther down, about one
hundred feet deeper into the rock, we
came to another huge room and here
in the center of a crypt was sarco-
phagus containing well preserved
mummy of the King himself. So well
preserved were the remains that one
could make out the lines of the fea
lures. The ancients evidently had |
several diplomas from the state auth
critics in the embalming business.