The temple itself covered more than a thousand acres, but many of the walls are now in ruins and debris clutters many of the superb halls. Between the Hall of Pillars and the second pylon are two obelisks of Thotmes I, only one now standing; but by far the largest and most beautiful obelisk at Karnak is that erected by Queen Hatasu, a monolith of pink granite. The Sanctuary is in ruins, but beyond this is a court built by Thotmes III, in which was found the famous Tablet of Ancestors, by means of which we learned the names and length of reigns of all the Egyptian kings since the time of Menes. The outer wall of the Great Hall is covered with reliefs showing the battles of King Seti I. Holding a number of his enemies suspended by the hair of their heads from his left hand, with his right this valorous king calmly chops their heads off. Returning from his wars he always brings his captives and spoils to Karnak to lay at the feet of Amon-Ra, the Supreme God to whom this vast temple was dedicated.
Thotmes III made upon the walls inscriptions of his beautiful botanical gardens, in which are represented many kinds of rare plants, and many strange animals brought from foreign lands he had conquered. That most persistent builder of all the Egyptians, Ramses II, is much in evidence in the temple of Karnak, and broken statues of him are to be seen scattered on every side. Most of the columns represent the papyrus or the lotus-bud, the latter being especially graceful and beautiful.
At the east of the temple is the Sacred Lake, which, without any visible supply of water, has never been known to dry up. Many think that in time of invasion by the Persians, Saracens and others, the priests cast their treasures into this lake, the bottom of which is yet strewn with precious metals and jewels; but all attempts to exhaust the water have proved futile. The vast treasures of Karnak have never been accounted for, and were doubtless buried.
On every side stand pylons which marked the original boundaries of the temple, and all the buildings were surrounded by a great wall. The best preserved portion of the edifice is the really fine temple of Ramses III, who received his Sword of Victory directly from the hands of Amon-Ra, and so erected this temple in his honor. There is also a splendid temple erected to Khonsu, the Moon God, and you must remember that this thousand-acre temple consisted of many small temples built at different periods by different kings; yet so closely were they grouped that it appeared to be one vast temple. The temple of Khonsu dates from fifteen-hundred years before Christ, and from its pylon an avenue of sphinxes led to the temple of Luxor, connecting the two together.
The inscriptions at Karnak are interesting as showing the development of art during the different reigns. Those of Seti I, for example, are in high relief, and much more artistic than those executed under the direction of his son and successor, Ramses II, who employed bas-relief.
The Temple of Luxor loses much of its charm by standing in the center of the modern town of Luxor, the buildings of which crowd close to its ancient walls. Also it is but a fifteen minute journey from Karnak. But Luxor excels in beauty, as Karnak does in massive grandeur, and its fame is scarcely less.
The Temple of Luxor was built by the combined efforts of Amenophis III and Ramses II. It is dedicated to the Theban Triad — Amon-Ra (the Sun), Khonsu (the Moon), and Mut (the Goddess of Nature). The inscriptions on the inner walls are sacrificial, and on the outer walls records of great battles. There are many statues of Ramses, who during his lifetime is said to have erected ten thousand statues to himself, and beside one of these he permitted his wife to be sculptured. The lady may have appreciated the honor, but although perfectly proportioned she is so exceedingly small that you have to look closely to see her at all, and her lord might easily have put her in his pocket if she had really been as tiny as she is represented.
At Luxor are two beautiful red granite statues of Ramses seated, and in front of them is the immense obelisk covered with hieroglyphics relating how he built the temple. He certainly intended the world to know what a great man he was, for although he was the greatest builder Egypt or any other country has ever known his vanity was so great as to render him almost ridiculous. During his reign of nearly sixty-seven years he restored many of the ancient temples built by his predecessors, but he always took occasion to carve his own cartouche on every possible place and to set up statues to himself. He was the Pharaoh of the Oppression, and at the Ramesseum are storehouses made of the “bricks without straw” which the captive Hebrews found so grievous a task to manufacture. Each one is stamped with the cartouche of Ramses II.
Every temple has its “birth-house.” The one at Luxor records the marvelous birth of Amenhotep III. We see the god Khonsu — watched by Isis — molding two infants on a potter’s wheel. One of these is Amenhotep, the other his double, or Ka, a spiritual companion necessary to every Egyptian. The balance of the inscriptions depict in detail the birth of the child.
It is a deplorable fact that most of the faces on the inscriptions carved upon the great Egyptian temples were mutilated by the early Christians, while Cambyses the Persian, who successfully invaded Egypt, had a trick of breaking the nose off of every statue he could find. The destruction of the Christians was inspired by ignorance and bigotry; Cambyses explained his vandalism by saying the noses of all the statues were “turned up in pride” and could not be endured by the nation’s conqueror. Earthquakes are also responsible for much destruction in Egypt. But in this dry climate the monuments of the great builders can never crumble or decay, and much still remains in our age to inspire us with awe and wonder and to teach us accurately the manner of life and the historical deeds of the actual founders of our civilization.
Having now visited both Karnak and Luxor, on Wednesday morning we crossed the Nile in small boats and then mounted donkeys for a fifteen-mile jaunt to the Tombs of the Kings. We were now on the site of Thebes of the Hundred Gates, but the most famous city of ancient days has disappeared almost as completely as has Memphis. Some of its temples and the Colossi we saw later, but practically the great city has become a desert.
After stopping for a brief visit to the unimportant temple of Kurna, we mounted the hills and rode through the somber Death Valley, a trail over the mountains of the wildest character. For miles not a particle of vegetation was visible and the earth and stones were a dull, cheerless red. There are forty royal tombs in the mountains back of Thebes. Twenty-nine of them have been opened, but in visiting four of these we obtained a fair idea of the character of all. They are built on an incline descending far into the heart of the mountains, and each has twelve distinct portals, representing the twelve hours of the night — symbolic of the trials and temptations one must overcome in order to reach eternal life. A huge snake guards each portal, and on the walls are depicted the terrors of hell and the evils that beset the human soul. The demons and evil spirits are always painted black. The inner chambers of the tombs bear inscriptions of hymns to the sunrise, and many extracts from the Book of the Dead — the earliest religious treatise of the Egyptians.
In the tomb of Ramses IX we went down fully two-hundred feet to where the sarcophagus rested. It was, of course, empty. In the tomb of Mer-em-ptah, who was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, we found in the mummy chamber the elaborate sarcophagus which Cambyses smashed into bits. In a chamber one-hundred feet farther down we came upon a white marble image of this king, which is in perfect condition. In the tomb of Amenophis III that great king — or his mummy — still lies within its case, which is strewn with flowers and other offerings placed there more than three thousand years ago. In a separate chamber of this tomb we found the mummies of three royal princesses. There were no decorations except on four beautiful square pillars set up in the mummy chamber of the king.
The fourth tomb visited was that of Seti I. Its many chambers were very artistically inscribed with extracts from the Book of the Dead, for whatever was done in the reign of Seti I represents the best of Egyptian art. In the colorings we find lapis lazuli and malachite used, neither of which were found in Egypt, but must have been brought from foreign lands. This tomb
penetrates fully five-hundred feet into the mountain.
All of the Tombs of the Kings which have been excavated are now lighted by electric lights and cared for by the Egyptian government, which seems to realize the importance of preserving these treasures of the past. To mutilate a temple or tomb, or chip off a bit of rock for a souvenir is a crime very severely punished.
Climbing the crest of the mountains we now descended into a valley on the other side, where we had luncheon at Cook’s Rest House. A camel loaded with ice and other camels bearing provisions had been sent on from the river, and we lunched as well as if we had been aboard our palatial steamer.
Near the Rest House is the Temple of Queen Hatasu, one of the few women that ever reigned over Egypt. However, it is related of her that she was dressed in male apparel from the day of her birth, and affected the manners and ways of a man. The most interesting inscriptions in Hatasu’s temple are those describing the relief of her expedition into the Land of Punt, where she went to procure fragrant trees and shrubs for incense. Her temple was never finished, but it is called “Der-el-bahi,” which means “the most splendid of all.”
This day’s excursion was very fatiguing, and we were glad to reach the boat late in the afternoon and get a little rest. The next morning, Thursday, we resumed our explorations and crossed the river to Thebes again, First we visited the Ramesseum, the palace built by Ramses II. Before it is the ten-thousand-ton sitting statue overthrown by Cambyses. The invader drilled holes into the figure and then drove wooden wedges into the holes and soaked them with water. When the wedges swelled they cracked the great statue in two, and the upper half toppled to the ground, killing fifty Persians in its fall. The Ramesseum is greatly ruined. One of the best inscriptions remaining is the famous epic of Pentaurt, the Egyptian poet. The vast storehouses back of the Ramesseum were, as I have said, built by the Israelites, and each brick bears the cartouche of Ramses the Great.
Next we visited the Tombs of the Queens — a perfect little temple dedicated to Hathor. Over the door are carved seven heads of Hathor, and the columns are all Hathor-headed. The picture-writing in one of the rooms shows Osiris judging the dead. Beside Osiris is shown a lotus on which stand four genii; then comes the Devourer of the Wicked — part lion and part hippopotamus, but with the head of a crocodile. Anubis and Horus stand by the scales in which the heart is weighed against the feather, and Truth makes the record. Ranged about are forty-two figures representing the forty-two questions the dead must answer, and near the deceased are two figures of Mast (or Truth) waiting to conduct the judged to the nether world.
We now come to Medinet Habu, formerly a palace and temple of Ramses III. Both L. F. and I consider this one of the best and most interesting ruins we have yet seen. It consists of a pylon, first court, second pylon, second court, hypostyle hall and the sanctuary. The rooms of the palace were at one side. The reliefs on the walls are cut three or four inches in depth, and are exceedingly symmetrical and beautiful. They show the king in battle, with his trained lion running beside his chariot; his rare skill with the bow and arrow; a pile of hands and a pile of tongues cut from prisoners, and the processions of the priests welcoming him on his return.
A donkey ride brought us to the Colossi of Memnon, two gigantic statues now quite ruined. The vocal one has never sung since it was rebuilt after having been overthrown by an earthquake. Once a gateway to Thebes, with an immense temple behind them, the Colossi now stand in cultivated fields, solitary reminders of a glorious past.
We returned to the steamer for luncheon, and in the afternoon I went sailing on the Nile with a company of friends. The native boatmen sang; a boy played on reeds while another danced in Eastern fashion. We floated on the same water-way, between the same banks, that were familiar to Antony and Cœsar and Cleopatra — yes, even to the great Ramses himself — and it seemed easy to bridge the ages between then and now.
Donkeys are important cattle in Egypt. Without them we could never manage to see the relics of antiquity half so well. They are swift, docile, and rugged, with immense heads and slender legs. Some of the names given them by the donkey-boys are remarkable. Mine at Luxor was called “Lovely Sweet,” and I liked him so well that I kept the same donkey and the same donkey-boy the three days I was there. George Ade told me he had the same outfit afterward. The donkeys all belong to the sheik, and the donkey-boys run beside them all day for the sake of the backshish to be gained.
Today, March 3rd, we passed from Upper Egypt into Nubia.
LETTER VII. NUBIA AND THE CATARACT
On Board the “Ramses.”
To those who have never been under the spell of the Nile country I fear my descriptions of its many ancient temples may prove tedious; but present-day Egypt is a land preserved from antiquity, and bordering the Nile are nearly all the famous shrines that the first civilization has bequeathed us. When you have done with Egypt you have done with the most valuable records of the past, so each of the temples seems to me worthy of notice.
On Friday, March 2nd, we reached Esna and visited its temple, which was built during the Roman period. Only the hypostyle hall has been excavated as yet, and we were obliged to go down a flight of thirty or more stone steps to get into it. The twenty-four columns are unique because each capital is carved to represent a certain tree, and scarcely two are alike. The roof is intact and covered with astronomical designs. Native mud houses have covered the site of this temple for ages, and do today except for those parts that have been excavated.
The traveler often wonders how so much rubbish could have accumulated on the sites of these temples, in many cases covering them so completely that cities have been built above them. But when you consider that the Egyptians and Arabs never sweep, but allow the dirt to accumulate, it is easy to understand that a few centuries will create quite a litter. When one of the native houses fills up they consider it easier to build a new one than to clean it out.
The same afternoon we reached Edfu, where we took donkeys to the temple of Horns. This temple is a duplicate of the one at Dendarah, but is considered the better of the two. It was built only about two-thousand years ago, or 272 B.C., and that seems to me quite modern after visiting Thebes and Karnak. The pylon is elaborately decorated and an inner court runs all around the main temple — a plan quite unusual. On each side of the pylon is a colossal figure of the king holding his enemies by the hair of their heads. In the court before the hypostyle hall stands the great altar where offerings were made to the gods. A small room at one side was used as a library, and on the walls is inscribed a catalogue of the books preserved there. In the sanctuary still remains the shrine where the holy boat was kept — the only one now to be seen in any of the temples. It was constructed of granite and had a pointed roof supported on pillars. It reminded me somewhat of a huge modern safe without a door. The granite was exquisitely polished and of a dark, rich color. Of similar stone is the altar standing just before the shrine, where votive offerings were made by the people of Edfu to Horus. The inscriptions of the temple are much like those described on other edifices.
We mounted two-hundred and forty-two steps to the top of the temple, the steps being in relays of fourteen; and at each landing a chamber is cut in the solid masonry and lighted by small windows. Two immense hawks of black granite are preserved in the temple, representing Horus, who was often depicted hawk-headed. Workmen are now repairing parts of the temple of Edfu, which is one of the best preserved in Egypt.
Saturday morning found us at Kom Ombos, which is over the edge of Upper Egypt in Nubia. The temple stands on the bank of the Nile facing the east, and is remarkable in being duplex, it having been jointly dedicated to Sebek, the crocodile god, and Heru-ur, or Horus the Elder, sometimes called Haraeris. The entrance to the shrines is through three chambers, each having two doors. Some of the reliefs at Kom-Ombos are very skillfully executed, and they are the first I saw in which the curve of a woman’s hips is shown. Upon the wall is a scene showing a throng of prisoners who
have but one arm, the other arm having been cut off and fed to the crocodiles to concilate Sebek. Another relief showed a huge lion being fed on human hands.
The situation of the temple is one of the most beautiful in Egypt. It faces the Nile, with a stretch of fertile country opposite and the desert and mountains in the distance.
Saturday afternoon the “Ramses” came to anchor off the quaint town of Aswan, which lies at the edge of the First Cataract, some seven-hundred miles from Cairo. The temperature was here ninety-two degrees in the shade; but when we found ourselves face to face with the world-famed Island of Elephantine — ” The Key to Egypt” of the ancients — we could not resist the temptation of landing. We clambered over boulders of granite still bearing the cartouches of the Great Ramses, executed thousands of years ago, and wandered through groves and orchards so antique in appearance that it was hard to realize we were living in the year 1906, and not in the time of the Pharaohs.
The native boatmen then ran us across to the town, where we visited the bazaars, unique at this point in being stocked mainly with Sudanese articles.
All day Sunday we lounged aboard the steamer, watching the groups of Bishareens or native gypsies who always flock to the bank as soon as a tourist boat appears. In the evening, in company with three or four friends, we went ashore and dined at the Cataract House, a house that would do credit to London or New York. And we sailed back by moonlight over the beautiful Nile, with native Nubians singing their weird chants to the accompaniment of tomtoms and others dancing a slow and graceful muscle dance to entertain us. These Nubians are black as coal and are like children in their dispositions. They are easily pleased and very lighthearted, but grow sullen and unresponsive if treated with arrogance. This moonlight ride was more like a dream than a reality, and I shall never forget its charm. If the ancient Egyptians were lotus-eaters they should not be blamed. I do not see how they could have been anything else. And the Egypt of today is the Egypt of yesterday. The centuries have scarcely left a mark here.
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 898
