The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1914-07-10
OLDER THAN SPHINX
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BUILDING
DISCOVERED BY EXPLORER,
Vast Underground Edifice, Described
In Earliest Writings Extant, Re-
Vealed Through Explorations
Made by Scientist.

Professor Naville has just discov-
cred what he believes to be the most
ancient building extant in Egypt The
professor believes that he has discov-
ersd the place mentioned by Strabo,
who calls 1t the well, or fountain, of
Abydos. Below the Memnonium,"
says that ancient writer, is spring
reached by passages with low vaults
consisting of single stone and dis
tinguished for their extent and mode
OF construction. This spring is con-
nected with the Nile by canal which
flows through a grove of Egyptian
thornacacias, sacred to Apollo"
The vast underground edifice, to
which the excavators first penetrated
on February 10, is termed by its dis
coverer a reservoir, remarks the In
dianapolis News. 1t is some ninety
feet long by sixty feet wide and sur
rounded by a, wall eighteen feet thick.
The construction of the building Is of
the cyclopean order, blocks of stone OF
enormous size being piled one on top
of the other. A canal runs right
around the building under a roof sup
ported by enormous pillars of granite
with narrow stone towing path along
the sides The center of the construc-
ton seems to have been a sort of is
land, reached possibly by a wooden
bridge from the pathway.
The professor states: I'VE have still
no certain indication of the date of it's
construction; but the style, the size
Of the materials used and the com
plete absence of all ornamentation all
indicate a very great antiquity Up
to now the temple Of the Sphinx at
Gizeh has always been considered the
most ancient edifice in Egypt. 1t is
contemporary with the pyramid Of
Chefren. The reservoir of Abydos, of
wholly analogous construction, but
built Of very much vaster material,
has character still more archaic
should not be surprised if 1t were the
most ancient piece of architectural
work extant in Egypt. The pyramids
are possibly of the same age, but
pyramid Is only mass Of stones, and
would not require so complicated a
plan as the reservoir.
IF we have before us the most an,
cient Egyptian building which has
been preserved, 1t is curious that it is
neither temple nor tomb, but a reser-
voir, a great hydraulic piece of work
That shows us that these ancient peo-
pies knew very we'll the movement of
subterranean waters and the laws
which govern their rise and fall. 1t is
quite probable that this reservoir
played some part in the cult of Osiris.
The cells along it's sides are possibly
those that appear in the Book of the
Dead; it is also possible that the wa
ters were held to have curative quail
ties and that they were used by sick
persons who came thither to seek a
cure. 1t may be that sometimes the
boat of Osiris floated on the waters Of
the reservoir, hauled by priests on the
path that runs along the side; for the
bark of the sun, as one sees it depicted
in the tombs of kings. journeys always
at the end of a towline. Who would
have thought a few months ago that
thirty feet below the earth one would
be able to see building such as this,
which surpasses in grandeur the most
colossal of cyclopean edifices?"