Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

546 EGYPT.
Egypt- ference to the origin and real nature of animal worship.1
The chambers above ground, which he had himself seen
and examined, the same historian describes as greater than
all other human works. The communications between
these multitudinous chambers, and the winding passages
leading from one court into another, were so varied as to oc¬
casion infinite surprise and no little dismay. These passa¬
ges led from the chambers into porches, from the porches
again into other apartments, and from these chambers into
other courts; the roof and walls of all of them were of
stone, and covered with sculptures ; each court was sur¬
rounded by a colonnade of white stone, the blocks of
which were joined as closely as possible ; and at-the angle
which terminated the Labyrinth was a pyramid of forty
orgyias, or about two hundred and fifty feet, in height, on
which was sculptured large figures of beasts, and the en¬
trance to which was under ground. Such is the account
of this extraordinary structure given by Herodotus, from
whom Strabo does not materially differ ; but other ancient
writers seem to be at variance with both, probably from
not attending to the circumstance that the work was
executed at intervals by different princes. Commenced
by Mendes, it was continued by Tithoes or Petesuccus,
and finished by the twelve kings, and Socharis the son
of Sesostris. The pyramid of the Labyrinth alone re¬
mains.2
Still descending the Nile, and passing, for the present,
Birket-el-Keroun or Lake Moeris, we come to the ruins
of Memphis, the second capital of Egypt, the foundation
of which was ascribed to the first king of that country,
named Menes.3 After the successive generations of Per¬
sians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, who have plundered
Memphis in the wantonness of victory, or for the purpose of
transferring its monuments to Alexandria dr to Cairo, we
may well wonder that, exclusively of those eternal struc-
-tures the pyramids, enough should still remain to enable us
to determine the exact site of this capital of the Pharaohs.
The temple of Phtha, the Hephaestus or Vulcan of the
Egyptians, was, according to Herodotus, a most wonder¬
ful edifice; and adjoining to it was a temple dedicated to
Osiris, in which the sacred bull Apis was kept, another
consecrated to Hathor or Venus, and a third to Serapis.
The Serapeion stood in a place where the sand was so loose
and deep that the sphinxes forming the avenue in front of
it were buried, some one half, and others up to the neck,
and a person proceeding to the temple ran some risk if
overtaken by a tempest, owing to the columns of sand
raised and drifted about by the wind. Of the great tem¬
ple of Memphis nothing but debris remains; yet the
blocks of granite and breccia scattered about attest its
dimensions to have been nearly equal to those of the most
gigantic monuments of the Thebaid ; whilst the fragments
of columns, colossal statues, obelisks, and propyla, are per¬
haps the relics of the great northern vestibule, which is
usually enumerated amongst the works of Mceris.4 In
the time of Strabo, Memphis was second only to Alexan¬
dria in point of size and population ; and there were ports
for shipping both before the city and the palace. The
latter had been built on a rising ground near to the lower
part of the town, in a grove of its own, with a port adjoin¬
ing; but at the period when Strabo wrote it was unoccu- %
pied and in ruins. The site and name of this ancient city ;
were well known in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries^5
as appears from the account of it given by El-Idrisi under
the denomination of Menph or Memph, which is merely
an abbreviation of the Egyptian word Memfi or Memphi.
Amongst the antiquities specified by Abdu’l-latif may be
mentioned the Beit-al-akhdar or Green Tabernacle, a mo¬
nolithic temple thirteen feet and a half in height, twelve
feet in length, and ten feet and a half in breadth, having
a chamber formed within it ten and a half feet in height,
nine feet in length, and seven feet and a half in breadth,
and covered both within-and without with sculptures, some
cut into the stone and some in relief, and with inscrip¬
tions in ancient characters. On the outside there was a
representation of the sun in the eastern quarter of the
heavens, with many figures of stars and spheres ; in front
were two large statues of stone, and within was one of
gold representing Aziz, the eyes of which were two va¬
luable gems. This tabernacle or temple was fixed upon
a basis of large massive blocks of granite, and the mono¬
lith out of which it had been formed was of the same de¬
scription of rock. Another monument also mentioned by
the Arabian geographer was an idol or statue, consisting
of a single block of red granite, which, exclusively of its
pedestal, was about forty-six feet in height, fifteen feet
from side to side, and from back to front in proportion.
“ What talent, resolution, and patience must have been
combined to produce such works as these; what various
instruments and unremitting labour; and to what an ex¬
tent must not the forms and proportions of bodies, espe¬
cially those of the human body, have been studied, to
enable the artist to determine so exactly the mutual rela¬
tions, distance, and proximity, as well as the correspond¬
ing articulations of every limb !” Such is the natural and
just remark elicited from Abdu’l-latif after surveying the
ruins of Memphis, which even in his time occupied a space
of about nine miles in every direction. Yet so rapid has
the work of destruction proceeded, especially since the
fourteenth century, that few points have been more de¬
bated in modern times than the site of this celebrated
city; and, excepting its pyramids, and the great plain of
mummies, which attest the vicinity of the spot whereon
stood the second capital of Egypt, it might almost be
said, Etiarn periere mince. But its distance from the Py¬
ramids and the apex of the Delta having been clearly
pointed out by Strabo, Pococke and Bruce were hence
led to fix upon the neighbourhood of Mokhnan and Mon-
yet-Kahineh, two villages on the left or western bank of
the Nile, as the ground on which Memphis had once
stood; and this opinion was completely established by the
French during their occupation of Egypt. At Monyet-
Rahineh, about one league from Sakhara, they found so
many blocks of granite covered with hieroglyphics and
sculptures around and within an esplanade three leagues
in circumference, inclosed by heaps of rubbish, that they
were convinced these must be the ruins of Memphis;
and the site of some fragments of one of those colossuses
which, according to Herodotus, were erected by Sesos¬
tris at the entrance of the temple of Phtha, would have
1 On this subject see a chapter full of ingenuity and originality in Sir William Drummond’s Origines.
2 Herodotus, Traduction de Lurcher, tom. ii. pp. 496, 505. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, art. Egypt. 3 Herodotus, ii- 99.
4 Hamilton’s Egyptiaca, p. 315. Belzoni was so much occupied in exploring the interior passages and chambers of the Pyramids,
that he entirely neglected Memphis; and the same observation applies to a later and much more gifted traveller, M. Champollion.
The latter indeed promised to examine the whole plain of Memphis, from Monyet-llahineh to Djizeh ; “ je pousserai de Ik (Monyet-
Rahineh) des reconnaissances sur Sakharah, Daschour, et toute la plaine de Memphis, jusqu’ aux grandes pyramides de Gizeh ; et
apres avoir couru le sol de la seconde capitale Kgyptienne, je mettrai le cap sur Thebes.” But if he carried his design into execution,
the results have not been communicated to us. (Lettres, p. 62.)
* Geographia NuMcnsis, p. 98.