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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1906)
-. -,rittWt ,( .1 ip '". SI JM ( ' ' it" "S ,. ".'.'f .1 T 4V -2 vestigations. Horo ono finds samples of all tlio antiquities of the country, excepting the pyra mids and the temples, and there are mummies, sarcophagi, statues, carvings and hieroglyphics from tlieso. A considerable space is devoted to mummies, some from the tombs of kings, but many of more humble rank. The early Egyptians belioved tljat man was composed of several dif ferent entitios. First, there was the body, and second, the double a sort of invisible form re producing the features of the body. Next came the soul, represented as a human-headed bird and then a spark of the divine fire called Khu, which has been translated as "the Luminous. It was to prevent the departure of these attend ing forms that embalming was resorted to. By suspending the decomposition of the body, they thought that they could preserve the connection between it and the Double, the Soul and the Luminous, and by prayers vand offerings theso could be saved from the second death. This is the explanation of the mummy given by arche ologists. The Double, it was supposed, never left tho place where the mummy rested, and ths Soul, while it went away to commune with the gods, returned from time to time, and for this reason rooms were made for the reception of the Soul and for the habitation of the Double. One can hardly believe as ho looks upon the shriveled forms that they were interred so long ago. I will enclose with this article a photograph of the mummy of Egypt's great builder, and known as "the Pharaoh of the Oppression," who died more than three thousand years ago. The hand no longer sways tho scepter; the eyes look no more upon the gigantic statues which he scat tered along the Nile, and the voice does not now demand the making of "bricks without straw," biit the mortal remains of this famous ruler viv idly recall the-days of Israel's bondage. ' With the mummies are many mummy cases, some covered with hieroglyphics, some ornament ' ed with pictures In colors, and most of them covered with a lid upon which are a face mask and an outline of the form of the occupant. The process "by which these bodies have been pre served is still a mystery, but the fact that they have outlived dynasties and survived the count less changes of so many centuries gives to -them a lasting interest. The collection of statues and images of gods, human beings, beasts and birds runs up into the thousands. Some of these are heroic in size, others are not more than an Inch in height; some are strong, some beautiful and some grotesque. Granite, both red and black, alabaster, stone iron, bronze and clay all have been brought into requisition for this work. Some of the bronze has, upon analysis, been found to contain practically the same combination of met als as ,;the. bronze , now used. There are even statues In wood, ririd.one of these a photograph of which I secured attracted my attention be cause the head and face bear a resemblance to the late Senator Hanna, It is called "Sheikh el Beled" or Village Chief; that it should have resisted decay for more than forty centuries is little less than marvelous. While the excavators have been searching for historical records, they have occasionally found treasures of great pecuniary value. A con siderable quantity of gold and silver in the form of jewelry has been unearthed, and the museum contains specimens of exquisite workmanship which not only display the skill of the artificers but portray the habits and customs of the early Egyptians. The museum also contains enough of cloth, round with the mummies, and of pictures of looms, to show that weaving was an industry with which the people of those days were fa miliar. But we must leave the nTuseum and proceed to those masterpieces, which are too large for any roof save that formed by the vaulted skies. I am however, constrained to offer one criticism of the museum in passing, it is under the con trol of a French society, and the only catalogue obtainable is printed in French. While most of the exhibits bear a brief description in both French and English, some are labeled in French only and a few not at all. As there are no guides to show a visitor through the numerous rooms ?XLP ? Ut the DrincIPal obcts of interest, those who are unable to read French are at a SSJ dyantaso; Considering the number of English and American tourists it seems strange accoata.totenUOn Sl'0U,a n0t to But to the temples. We reached Egypt after not SSlftliitrl8t ?eason was over S5 cou?d not visit all the ruins. We selected the most famous, those of the two ancient cities Thebes and Memphis, and thpy alone would re w a visit The Commoner. to Egypt. The present city of Luxor, four hun dred and twenty miles from Cairo, covers a small part of tho vast area once occupied by "Hundred gated Thebes." In the very heart of the city a. mammoth temple has been found where kings worshipped through many reigns. It was built during the eighteenth dynasty (B. C. 1500) on the site of a still older sanctuary and dedicated to Ammon, his wjfe, Mut, and their son, Khons, the Moon-god. Some of tho columns are twelve feet in diameter, more than forty feet in height, and support great blocks of red granite twenty feet long and four feet in width and thickness. Some of the columns represent clustered papyrus and have capitals shaped like the lotus bud. In . the temple are a number of statues of Rameses II, some sitting, some standing. One of these statues is forty-five feet in height, and another of less dimensions was unearthed only about a year ago. When excavations were begun houses were serenely resting on the top of the temple, and it is believed that further excavations will disclose an avenue leading to other temples two miles away. ' In front of the Luxor temple is an obelisk of pink granite, a part of which is still under ground. Obelisks were always erected in pairs, and the companion of this one was removed some years ago to Paris. These great monoliths come down to us from the period when the Egyptians worshipped the sun, and they were intended to represent his rays. The oldest Egyptian obelisk is at Heliopolis, not far from Cairo, and is sixty six feet In height It is supposed to have been erected 2000 to 2Z00 B. C, but it is in an excellent state of preservation and bids fair to bear testi mony for ages yet to the reverence felt by the ancients for the sun. At one time Heliopolis was a thriving city and is referred to in the Bible as "On," but today the obelisk stands alone in the midst of cultivated fields, all the buildings having disappeared. While the obelisk at Heliopolis outranks all others in age, the one at Karnak, in the suburbs of Luxor, has the distinction of being the tallest one yet remaining. It is eight and a half feet in diameter at the base and ninety-seven and ' a half feet in height (eight and a half feet less than the obelisk at Rome). The obelisks were cut in a single shaft, most of them from- granite quarries near Assuan. These quarries are more than five hundred miles south of Cairo, and it is v supposed that the obelisks were transported on the Nile to, the places where they have since been found, but how they were handled or placed in position no one knows. The temple of Amnion, at Karnak, is gen erally regarded as the most interesting of temple ruins in Egypt. It is the work of many kings, one adding a sanctuary, another a pylon, another a court, etc. each placing his cartouche, or seal upon his work, This temple, which was officially styled the Throne of the World, covers an im mense area. One pylon, or gateway, is more than three hundred feet wide, nearly a hundred and fifty feet high, and has walls sixteen feet thick. One court covers almost a thousand square' yards, and one aisle leads between pillars sixty-nine feet in height, about twelve feet in diameter and sup porting capitals of eleven feet. The stones used in this temple are of enormous size, and they were probably raised to their positions on scaffolding of earth this being also the method employed where attempts mave recently been made to re store fallen columns. The hieroglyphics upon the walls, the col limns, the obelisks and the statues, after remain ing a puzzle for ages, have been deciphered and woven into a consecutive history. This was made possible by the discovery, in 1799, of what is known as the Rosetta stone (now in the British Museum) at the mouth of the Rosetta arm of the Nile by a French engineer named Bouchard. This stone bearc a decree inscribed in three languages-ancient Egyptian, modern Egyptian and Greek, and furnishes the key to unlock the secrets of ancient history. The pictures represent sacrificial ceremonies domestic and industrial scenes, battles, triumphal processions all phases of life, in fact. One wall contains, in hieroglyphics,, the treaty of peace which Rameses II concluded with the Hittites while another wall represents Rameses III hold ing a group of prisoners by the hair and raising a club as if to strike. Close by, the god Ammon is delivering to him chained representatives of different vanquished nations, the faces being so true to life that the Israelites brought from Pal estine can be easily distinguished from the Ethiopians and Nubians of the south. One of ,the heads seen often in the drawings resembles the yellow kid," and the donkeys are exactly -like those seen today. VOLUME 6, NUMBER 2G Luxor and Karnak are on the east bank of the Nile; but Thebes required both sides of the river for her great population, and the west bank is also rich in evidences of ancient civilization The Rameseum is here and would attract more .attention if it were not overshadowed by larger temples; here also are the "Colossi of Memmon," one of them known to 'literature as the singing statue. This is described by Strabo and Juvenal 4ind bears many inscriptions in Latin and Greek made by those who visited it under the Roman rule. Hadrian looked upon it 150 A. D., and a poetess of his day declares that the statue greet ed the emperor. It is supposed that the sound which for many years issued from the head of the statue just after sunrise was caused by the change in temperature, the granite having been cracked; at any rate, the sound ceased when the statue was repaired. It now sits, silent, and with its companion gazes upon the barley field that reaches out inN every direction from their feed But more interesting than the Rameseum or the Colossi- are the tombs of the kings, some forty-two of which have already been discovered. At this point the west side of the valley of the Nile Is walled in by a range of limestone hills, one of which bears a striking resemblance to a pyramid. (Could it have suggested the idea of a pyramid for a tomb?) Leaving the valley of the Nile about two miles north of this pyramidal hill, there is a small dry valley which wends its way back through the hills and terminates at the foot of steep walls just west of the hill mentioned. Here are the tombs, hewn in the solid rock, the most elaborate of which is the tomb of Sethos, or Seti, the father of Rameses II. This tomb burrows into the hill to the depth of three hun dred and thirty feet, a flight of steps leading down through .different levels and different chambers to the final vault. The walls are covered with figures in colors representing the king' In the act of making offerings to the various gods. There are also drawings illustrating scenes in this world and life as it was supposed to be in the -next world. Some of these pictures portray a hell where the wicked are punished with fire, and there are also drawings which have been inter preted to represent the resurrection and judg ment. Not far away is the tomb of "the Pharaoh of the Exodus" which contains a granite image of the king, and close by this tomb is another in which the mummied form of a Pharaoh still re poses. Grave robbing, however, was so popular an amusement in those days that the bodies of nearly all the kings had been removed for safety to a secret vault which was so carefully con cealed that they were not found until the nine teenth century. At Memphis, which is only about eighteen miles from Cairo, there are tombs of less im portance, colossal statues of Rameses II and the sarcophagi of the sacred bulls. In one of the tombs or Mastabas, as tombs of this style are called, are some of the drawings that have been most widely reproduced. In one place a boy is fattening geese by the stuffing process; in an other, cranes are being fed; here, rams are tread ing in the seed, and there cattle horned and hornless are being driven through a river. Agri culture, ship-building, carpentering and other in dustries are minutely pictured. While the human figures are stiff and angular, the birds and beasts are so exactly like what we see today that one could easily believe them to have been drawn by a modern artist. The sarcophagi of the sacred bulls, twenty four in number, are hollowed out from single .pieces of granite and are qovereft with immense slabs of the same kind of stone. Each is large enough. to contain a good sized animal, and some of them are covered with hieroglyphics giving the pedigrees of the blue-blooded occupants. These caskets, of the royal line rest in' subter ranean vaults hewn out of rock and connected by spacious halls. Still nearer to Cairo, only six miles away, in fact, are the great pyramids of Gizeh Cheops and Khephren. These have been described so often that any elaborate comment upon them might weary the reader. We climbed to the sum mit of the largest, and by doing so not only gained an idea of the immensity of this three million cubic feet of stone but obtained an ex cellent view of the green valley on the one side and the yellow plain of shifting sand upon the other, for these pyramids stand upon the dividing line between Egypt's far famed fertile lands and one of the most barren' of earth's-deserts. Wo also followed the narrow passage which leads to the center of the pyramid and peered into tho empty granite sarcophagus which for more than ,iaW)few -b, JjJf& &. 4.atfflftk v