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DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, AND THE PENINSULA OF SINAI,
DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, AND THE PENINSULA OF SINAI,
I N T H E Y E A R S 1842-1845, DURING THE MISSION SENT OUT BY HIS MAJESTY FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. OF PRUSSIA. By DR. RICHARD LEPSIUS. EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE. MEROE. MEROE. SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1853. TO ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, WITH THE DEEPEST RESPECT AND GRATITUDE....
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
The purpose of the Scientific Expedition, sent out in 1842 by his Majesty the King, was an historical and antiquarian research into, and collection of the ancient Egyptian monuments, in the valley of the Nile, and the peninsula of Sinai. It was by royal munificence provided with the means for remaining three years; it rejoiced in the favour and interest of the highest person in the realm, as well as in the most active and kindly assistance of Alexander Von Humboldt; and under such a rare combina
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LETTER I.
LETTER I.
On board the Oriental Steamer. September 5, 1842. All our endeavours were taxed to the utmost to render our departure on the 1st of September possible; one day’s delay would have cost us a whole month, and this month it was necessary to gain by redoubled activity. My trip to Paris, where I arrived in thirty hours from London, was unavoidable; two days were all that could be spared for the necessary purchases, letters, and notes, after which I returned richly laden from that city, ever so interes
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LETTER II.
LETTER II.
Alexandria. September 23, 1842. My last letter I posted on the 7th of September, at Gibraltar, where we employed the few hours allotted to us in examining the fortress. The African continent lay before us, a bright stripe on the horizon; on the rocks beneath me climbed monkeys, the only ones in Europe in a wild state, for which reason they are preserved. In Malta, where we arrived on the eleventh of September, we found the painter Frey, from Basle, whose friendship I had made at Rome. He brought
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LETTER III.
LETTER III.
Cairo. October 16, 1842. We were detained nearly fourteen days in Alexandria. The whole time went in preparations for our journey; the Pasha I saw several times more, and I found him ever favourably disposed towards our expedition. Our scientific researches were inconsiderable. We visited the Pompeian pillar, which, however, stands in no relation to Pompey, but, as the Greek inscription on the base informs us, was erected to the Emperor Diocletian by the Præfect Publius. The blocks of the founda
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LETTER IV.
LETTER IV.
At the Foot of the Great Pyramid. January 2, 1843. Still here! in full activity since the 9th of November, and perhaps to continue so for some weeks of the new year! How could I have anticipated from the accounts of previous travellers, what a harvest we were to reap here,—here, on the oldest stage of the chronologically definable history of mankind. It is remarkable how little this most-frequented place of all Egypt has been examined hitherto. But I will not quarrel with our predecessors, since
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LETTER V.
LETTER V.
Pyramids of Gizeh. January 17, 1843. The inscription composed in commemoration of the birthday festival of His Majesty has become a stone tablet, after the manner of the ancient steles and proscynemata. Here it is:— and its contents, which, the more they assimilate with the Egyptian style, become proportionately awkward in the German, are as follows:— “Thus speak the servants of the King, whose name is the Sun and Rock of Prussia, Lepsius the scribe, Erbkam the architect, the brothers Weidenbach
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LETTER VI.
LETTER VI.
Pyramids of Gizeh. January 28, 1843. I have ordered ten camels to come here to-morrow night, that we may depart early, before sunrise, the day after, with our already somewhat extensive collection of original monuments and gypsum casts, for Cairo, where we shall deposit them until our return from the south. This will be the commencement of our movement toward Saqâra. A row of very recently discovered tombs, of the dynasties immediately following that of Cheops, has once retarded our departure. T
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LETTER VII.
LETTER VII.
Saqâra. March 18, 1843. A short time ago, I made a trip, in company with Abeken and Bonomi, to the more distant pyramids of Lisht and Meidûm. The latter interested me particularly, as it has solved for me the riddle of pyramidal construction, on which I had long been employed. [19] It lies almost in the valley of the plain, close by the Bahr Jussuf, and is only just removed from the level of inundation, but it towers so loftily and grandly from the low neighbourhood that it attracts attention fr
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LETTER VIII.
LETTER VIII.
Saqâra. April 13, 1843. I hasten to inform you of an event which I should not like to be first communicated to you from other quarters, and perhaps with distorted exaggeration. Our camp was attacked and robbed a few nights since by an armed band, but none of our party have been seriously hurt, and nothing has been lost that is not to be replaced. The matter is past, and the consequences can only be favourable to us; but I must first go back a few days in my report. On the 3rd of April, H.R.H. Pr
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LETTER IX.
LETTER IX.
Cairo. April 22, 1843. A severe cold, which has for some time stopped my usual activity, has brought me hither from our camp near Saqâra. The worst of it is, that we are obliged to postpone our journey, although we should all have liked to quit Saqâra. Certainly everything that such a place offers is of the highest importance; but its wealth almost brings us into a dilemma here. To the most important, but most difficult and time-occupying pursuit, belongs that of Erbkam, our architect. He has th
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LETTER X.
LETTER X.
At the Ruins of the Labyrinth. May 31, 1843. After my return to the camp at Saqâra, I required but three days to finish our labours there. I made a last visit to the ruins of ancient Memphis, the plan of which had, meanwhile, been completed by Erbkam; a few interesting discoveries closed our examination. On the 19th of May we at length departed with twenty camels, two dromedaries, thirteen donkies, and a horse. As I am speaking of camels and dromedaries, it may not be superfluous to remark what
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LETTER XI.
LETTER XI.
Labyrinth. June 25, 1843. From the Labyrinth these lines come to you; not from the doubtful, or, at least, always disputed one, of which I could form no idea from the previous and more than meagre descriptions of those who placed the Labyrinth here, but the clearly-identified Labyrinth of Mœris and the Dodecarchs. There is a mighty knot of chambers still in existence, and in the midst is the great square, where the Aulæ stood, covered with the remains of great monolithic pillars of granite, and
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LETTER XII.
LETTER XII.
Labyrinth. July 18, 1843. Our tour in the Faiûm, this remarkable province so seldom visited by Europeans, which may be called the garden of Egypt by reason of its fertility, is now ended; and as these regions are almost as unknown as the distant Libyan oases, it may be pleasing to you to hear something more about this from me. I set out on the 3rd of July, in company with Erbkam, Ernst Weidenbach, and Abeken; from the Labyrinth we followed the Bahr Wardâni, which traverses the eastern boundary o
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LETTER XIII.
LETTER XIII.
Cairo. August 14, 1843. Unfortunately , I received, soon after our return to Cairo, such very questionable news of Frey’s health, that Abeken and Bonomi have determined to go to the camp and bring him, in a litter they took with them, from the Labyrinth to Zani, on the Nile, and thence by water hither. As soon as Dr. Pruner had seen him, he declared that the only advisable course was to let him depart immediately for Europe. Disease of the liver, in the way it developed itself in him, is incurab
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LETTER XIV.
LETTER XIV.
Thebes. October 13, 1843. On the 16th of August, I went from Cairo to the Faiûm, where our camp was broken up on the 21st. Two days later we sailed from Benisuef, sent the camels back to Cairo, and only took the donkeys with us, as it was found, upon careful consideration, that the originally-intended land journey by the foot of the mountains, far away from the river, was altogether impossible during the season of the inundation, and, on the eastern side, it was not only too difficult, but perfe
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LETTER XV.
LETTER XV.
Korusko. November 20, 1843. [44] Our journey from the Faiûm through Egypt was obliged to be much hastened on account of the advanced season of the year; we have, therefore, seldom stopped at any place longer than was necessary to make a hasty survey of it, and have confined ourselves in the last three months to a careful examination of what we have, and to extending our important collection of paper impressions of the most interesting inscriptions. We have obtained, in our rapid journey to Wadi
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LETTER XVI.
LETTER XVI.
Korusko. January 5, 1844. With not a little sorrow, I announce to you that we shall probably have to give up the second principal object of our expedition,—our Ethiopian journey, and return northward hence. We have waited here in vain since the 17th of November, for the promised but never-coming camels, which are to bring us to Berber, and there seems to be no more chance of our getting them now than at first. What we heard on our arrival, I am sorry to say, is confirmed; the Arab tribes, who ar
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LETTER XVII.
LETTER XVII.
E’ Damer. January 24, 1844. Our trouble has at last come to an end, though at a late period. Yesterday I arrived here with Abeken, yet two days’ journey from the pyramids of Meroë, and our whole camp probably was also yesterday pitched near Abu Hammed, at the southern end of the great desert. After the last little encouraging communication from Berber, I set out on the 8th of January about noon, with Abeken, the dragoman Juffuf Sherebîeh, a cook, and ’Auad, our Nubian lad. We had eight camels, o
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LETTER XVIII.
LETTER XVIII.
On the Blue River, Province of Sennâr. 13° North Latitude , March 2, 1844 . To-day we reach the southernmost boundary of our African journey. To-morrow we go northward and homeward again. We shall come as far as the neighbourhood of Sero, the frontier between the provinces of Sennâr and Fasoql. Our time will not admit of more stay. I have travelled from Chartûm hither with Abeken only. We gave up the desert journey to Mandera, the rather as the eastern regions are now unsafe by reason of the war
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LETTER XIX.
LETTER XIX.
Chartum. March 21, 1844. Here we first obtained more particulars concerning the military revolt at Wed Médineh, which was of the most serious nature, and we should have incurred great danger had we stopped two days longer in that city. The whole of the black soldiers have rebelled, owing to the stay of Emin Pasha. The drill-master and seven white soldiers were immediately killed, the Pasha besieged in his own house and shot at, his overtures disdained, the powder magazine seized. All the guns an
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LETTER XX.
LETTER XX.
Pyramids of Merοë. April 22, 1844. We left Chartûm en the 30th of March, toward evening, and sailed half the night by moonshine. On the next day we reached Tamaniât. Almost the whole village had disappeared, and only a single wide stretching ruin was to be seen. The slaves had laid everything in ashes on their revolt; only the walls of the factory are yet standing. As I had left the bark on foot, I was quite unprepared to come in the neighbourhood of the still smoking ruins, upon a frightful sce
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LETTER XXI.
LETTER XXI.
Keli, opposite Meroe. April 29, 1844. Franke did not return from his expedition at Ben Naga until the 23rd. He brought the altar hither in sixteen blocks, on a bark. The stones which we shall have to take hence, a wearisome journey of six or seven days through the wilderness, are a load for about twenty camels, so that our train will be considerably greater than before. Unfortunately, we have been unable to bring away anything from Naga, in the desert, on account of the difficulty of transportat
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LETTER XXII.
LETTER XXII.
Barkal. May 9, 1844. The desert of Gilif, which we traversed on our way hither, in order to cut off the great eastern bend of the Nile, takes its name from the principal mountain lying in the midst of it. On the maps it is confused with the desert of Bahiûda, joining it on the south-east, and through which lies the road from Chartûm to Ambukôl and Barkal. Our direction was at first due east to a well, then north-west through the Gilif mountains to the great Wadi Abû Dôm, which then conducted us
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LETTER XXIII.
LETTER XXIII.
Mount Barkal. May 28, 1844. I expect every moment the transport-boats requested of Hassan Pasha, which set out eleven days ago, and are to take up our Ethiopian treasures, and bring ourselves to Dongola. The results of our researches at this place are not without importance. On the whole, it is perfectly settled that Ethiopian art is only a later branch of the Egyptian. It does not begin under native rulers until Tahraka. The little which yet remains to us of a former age belongs to the Egyptian
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LETTER XXIV.
LETTER XXIV.
Dongola. June 15, 1844. Before our departure from Barkal, I undertook an excursion up the Nile into the district of the cataracts, which we had cut off in our desert journey. I also wished to learn the character of this part of the country, the only portion of the valley of the Nile which we had not traversed with the caravan. We went by water to Kasinqar, and remained there the night. From here arise wild masses of granite, which form numerous islands in the rivers, and stop the navigation. Wit
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LETTER XXV.
LETTER XXV.
Dongola. June 23, 1844. We returned yesterday from a four day’s trip to the next cataract, which we were able to reach with the boat. Our collection was unexpectedly rich. We have found a great number of old monuments of the time of the Pharoahs, the only ones in the whole province of Dongola, and part of them very ancient. On the island of Argo we discovered the first Egyptian sculpture of the time of the Hyksos, and near Kermân on the right hand shore, traces of an extensive city, spread wide
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LETTER XXVI.
LETTER XXVI.
Korusko. August 17, 1844. Our departure from Dongola did not take place till the 2nd July. We journeyed slowly down the west side of this river; and on the same day we came to large fields of ruins, the inconsiderable remains of once flourishing cities whose names are lost. The first we found opposite Argônsene, others near Koï and Mosh. On the following day we passed near Hannîk, opposite Tombos, in the province of Máhas; here begins the Cataract district and a new Nubian dialect, which extends
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LETTER XXVII.
LETTER XXVII.
Philae. September 1, 1844. I am only now first able to end my report from Korusko, which we quitted on the evening of the 18th of August, to sail for Sebûa. From thence to Philae the valley is called Wadi Kenûs, “the valley of Beni Kensi,” a tribe often mentioned in the Arabic accounts. The upper valley from Korusko to Wadi Halfa is generally called Wadi Nuba on all the maps, a name certainly used by Burckhardt, but which must rest on an error. Neither our Nubian servant Ahmed, born at Derr, nor
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LETTER XXVIII.
LETTER XXVIII.
Thebes, Qurna. November 24, 1844. We arrived here, at the last great station of our journey, on the 4th of November, and feel much nearer to our native land. During our stay here, which is certain to run over several months, we have established ourselves in a charming rock fort, on a hill of Abd el Qurna; it is an ancient tomb, enlarged by erections of brick, whence the whole Thebaîc plain can be overlooked at one view. I should be afraid of being almost annihilated by the immense treasure of mo
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LETTER XXIX.
LETTER XXIX.
Thebes, Qurna. January 8, 1845. We have lately received the cheering intelligence that our colossal Ram and the other Ethiopian monuments have arrived safely at Alexandria. From here, too, we shall bring some important monuments; amongst them a beautiful sarcophagus, of fine white limestone, and partially covered with painted inscriptions, belonging to the Old Empire, the earliest era of the growing power of Thebes. [93] I have succeeded in making another conquest to-day, which causes me double
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LETTER XXX.
LETTER XXX.
Thebes. February 25, 1845. We have now dwelt for more than a quarter of a year, in our Thebaïc Acropolis, upon the hill Qurna, each of us busy in his own way, from morning till evening, in examining, describing, and drawing the most important monuments, taking off inscriptions on paper, and making out plans of the architecture, without being able to finish even the Lybian side, where there yet remains twelve temples, twenty-five king’s tombs, fifteen tombs of royal wives or daughters, and a numb
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LETTER XXXI.
LETTER XXXI.
Upon the Red Sea, between Gebel Zeit and Tôr. Good Friday, March 21, 1845. Our ship lies motionless on the water, in sight of the distant coast of Tôr, which we hoped to have reached last night. I take pen and paper in hand, to quiet the most dreadful impatience, which is caused by an unbearable calm under a hot sun, in a vessel only intended for packages. On the 20th of February we crossed from Thebes from the west to the east shore from Qurna to Karnak. Here we settled ourselves in some of the
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LETTER XXXII.
LETTER XXXII.
Convent of Sinai. Easter Monday, March 24, 1845. We landed on Good Friday evening, by moonlight, at Tôr. The harbour is so full of sand, that our vessel was obliged to remain some hundred paces from the shore. A skiff took us to land. Here we were received by the old Greek, Nikola Janni, who had formerly also received Ehrenberg, Léon de Laborde, Rüppell, Isenberg, and other well-known travellers, and who had favourable testimonials to show of his conduct towards them. After a long bargaining wit
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LETTER XXXIII.
LETTER XXXIII.
On the Red Sea. April 6, 1845. I shall employ the time of our quiet seavoyage, which will take some days, in arranging the manifold materials collected on the peninsula, and to mark down the principal events of our journey. I will send a more copious account from Thebes. [107] These lines, however, will be given to Seid Hussen, at Qeneh, and be forwarded by the first opportunity. We left the convent on the 25th of March toward evening, and went down the broad Wadi e’ Shech. I chose this roundabo
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LETTER XXXIV.
LETTER XXXIV.
Thebes, Karnak. May 4, 1845. On the 6th of April we had quitted Tôr, where we stopped one night. We landed every night on the shell and coral-rich African coast during our far voyage, until, on the 10th, we reached Kossêr, where the brave Seïd Mahommed from Qeneh was awaiting us, in order to provide us with camels for our return to Thebes. In four days we passed along the broad Rossaffa road over the mountains by Hamamât, and arrived at our head-quarters in Thebes on the 14th. We found everythin
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LETTER XXXV.
LETTER XXXV.
Cairo. July 10, 1845. Our first halting-place after leaving Thebes, on the 16th of April, was Dendera, the magnificent temple of which is the last northward, and, although it is only of a late, almost merely Roman period, it furnished much matter for our portfolios and note-books. There we employed nine whole days on the remarkable rock-tombs of Amarna, of the government of Amenophis IV., that royal puritan, who persecuted all the gods of Egypt, and would only admit the worship of the sun’s disk
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LETTER XXXVI.
LETTER XXXVI.
Cairo. July 11, 1845. Allow me now briefly to add some thoughts which have occupied me much of late. [149] I have never lost sight of your desire to decorate the New Museum in a manner appropriate to its contents. I hope very much that it is still your intention to do so. I have heard with great pleasure of the arrangement of the Egyptian halls through Herr Hertel, and have heard from him that the decorations of the walls are yet in suspenso . So favourable an opportunity will scarcely again pre
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LETTER XXXVII.
LETTER XXXVII.
Jaffa. October 7, 1845. The taking down the tombs proceeded quickly; but as was to be expected, the transport and embarkment caused our greatest hindrance. Also the exportation of the whole of the monuments required a particular permission from the Viceroy. I set off, consequently, on the 29th August to Alexandria, in order to take leave of Mohammed Ali, and to obtain at the same time an official termination to our mission. The Pasha received me in his former friendly manner, and immediately gav
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LETTER XXXVIII.
LETTER XXXVIII.
Nazareth. November 9, 1845. My last letter of the 26th of October from Jerusalem, I am sorry to say, you will not receive, as the courier (of Dr. Schulz, our consul), to whom I had given it, with five others, was attacked by robbers on the road to Berut, near Cesarea, much ill-used, and robbed of all his despatches, together with the little money he had with him. The want of order in this country is very great. The Turkish authorities, to whom the country has been again given up by Christian bra
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LETTER XXXIX.
LETTER XXXIX.
Smyrna. December 7, 1845. From Nazareth we went down the plain of Jesreel to Mount Carmel, where we passed the night in the stately newly-built convent. The next morning we ascended from thence the mountain which commands the sea, with its fragrant shores, and down to Haipha (Hepha), sailed across the creek to Acca (Ako, Ptolemais), and rode then along the coast upon the wet sand, with the continued view of the accompanying mountains, through Sur (Tyrus) and Saida (Sidon) to Berut (Berytos), whe
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A P P E N D I X.
A P P E N D I X.
NOTE A. ( Letter XXXIII. , p. 350.) Since Procopius, in the sixth century, tradition had evermore exclusively decided the Gebel Mûsa to be the Mount of the Law, without doubt on account of the church founded at its foot by Justinian. I am unacquainted with any late travellers or scholars who have doubted the truth of this. Burckhardt, also, does not do this, although he conjectured, from the numerous inscriptions at Serbâl, that that mountain had once been erroneously taken for Sinai by the pilg
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I N D E X
I N D E X
OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. A , B , C , D , E , F , G , H , I , J , K , L , M , N , O , P , Q , R , S , T , U , W , Z A. Abahuda, 270 . Abatou, 123 . Abdebab, 146 . Abd el Qurna, 274 , 309 . Abdîn, 187 . Abke, 269 . Abu Dôm, 247 , 256 . Abu el Abás, 185 . Abu Hammed, 132 , 137 , 146 , 148 . Abu Haras, 132 , 178 . Abu Hashîn, 151 . Abu Nugara, 146 . Abu Roash, 35 , 64 . Abu Shar, 330 . Abu Simbel, 270 . Abu Tleh, 238 . Abu Zelîmeh, 333 , 348 . Abydos, 94 , 114 . Acca, 349 . Adererât, 146 . Agamîeh, 88
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