New Britain herald., 1919-09-24

stood when he begged the Pharaoh or the oppression to let the children or Israel depart from bondage; the very throne before which Aaron least aown his rod and it became a ser pent the actual room which formed the background for events In the first chapters of EXodus-these have been brought to light by the University of Pennsylvania explorations in Egypt. s Hampered by all the difficulties in cfdent to the war, the Eckley E. Coxe. Jr.. Egyptian expedition has neverthe- less made a discovery of almost un- eXampled interest to students of the Bible and of archaeology. As soon as armistice conditions permit the chartering of Q vessel there wilt be sent to the University Museum in Philadelphia one of those columns eighty feet high--that Aaron and Moses passed on their way to the kings throne; their robes may have brushed it. There will be sent also number of the door panels-inlaid with pure gold-that swung open to admit the Israelite patriarchs; their eyes must have looked upon the intri- cate decora ton.
 Through 5000 years the throne room of Merenptah, with the rest of his exquisite palace at Memphis, lay hidden beneath the sands and waters of the Nile It remained for an expedition from America. made possible by the zeal and generosity of Philadelphian, the late Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., to reveal the veritable walls of the palace about which millions of Bible students have read for thou sands of generations.
 Yet what the CoXe expedition has accomplished is only prelude to what will come. Because of a Mohamme- dan edict against disturbing the dead, excavations In the Holy Land were constantly hampered by interference from the Turkish Government. But the Turk has been driven from Pal estine forever, and the end of the war marks the beginning of a renaissance of archaeology. Even now the schol- < ars are planning to dig at places where lie buried remnants of ancient won- ders hidden for thirty centuries. Ex- cavations are soon to start above the foundation of Solomon's temple. h. vestigation is being arranged for Samaria., The war that freed mankind from the modern oppressor is liberator also of the splendid ghosts of other days. Rescued from far beneath their rubbish mounds, Memphis and Nine veh will lift wraithlike pyramid and tower Jerusalem will shine again upon her sacred hilltop; and the peo- ples of the earth, so troubled now and tugged about in the scuffle of read justment, will be able by the light of the past to discern the path of the future.
 Rameses II. the Builder
 On the west bank of the Nile, four teen miles south of Cairo, a few tum- bled stones beneath the palm trees were all that indicated the great and ancient city of Memphis until the Coxe expedition began its resurrection. Natives had for hundreds of years used projecting bits of tombs and temples as quarries from which to get stone for an Arabic hut or a village street. Blown sand drifted in pillows that wiped out in a few seasons the work of an entire dynasty. The Nile, gradually rising for $500 years as the mud grew thicker on it's bed, covered months of spring.
 In an age so remote that it's date can hardly be conjectured, Memphis Imust have had it's beginning. Chief 1 seat of worship of the artisan god Ptah, as well as capital of all Egypt in early times, Memphis held it's place { through centuries as a shrine of re- ligion, art and government. Thebes. and again Alexandria, later out stripped 1t as principal city of the Egyptian empire. But at the time when the brave and powerful Rameses II received the double crown of Egypt, {Men1phis-"The White Walls'-glis- tened with prosperity, hummed with industry and rose statelier day by day.
 For Rameses II was builder. He filled Egypt and Nubia with monu- ments as multitudinous as his bat tles His fame as maker of temples is immortal in Karnak and the rock fane of Abu Simbel. His heroism in the fight was so signal that to this day it is remembered how, alone with his squire, he eight times charged the chariots of the Khati.
 The Israelites who dwelt in Egypt,
 
 pleasant. During the reign of the Pharaoh whom Joseph served all had been milk and honey. But Rameses II is believed by most authorities to be the Pharaoh to whom the eighth