The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max
href="#ulink_ce92548a-b50d-5809-89b3-4a1beab2d66b">p. 146). In the ruins of Memphis (at the village of Mitrahinneh) there lies, surrounded by green turf and tall palms, in a depression, the prostrate statue of Ramses II. hewn out of a single block. The feet are wanting, the head wears the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt; in the middle of the girdle are engraved the words Mi Amun Ramses, i.e. Ramses beloved of Ammon. From the knees upwards the fragment measures thirty-five feet; on this scale the total height must have reached forty-two or forty-three feet. At Tanis in the Delta, Ramses II. built or restored a great temple, and erected obelisks. The inscriptions on the ruins speak of his victories in Syria. Here also lies a prostrate and shattered colossus; the name-shields on the back of the throne are those of the second Ramses.[243] Of the buildings of this king for the sepulchral chambers of the Apis bulls at Memphis, the fortification of the border towards Syria, and the canal, we have spoken above (pp. 68, 157).
On the left bank of the Nile, westwards of the temple and the two colossi of Amenophis III., at Medinet Habu, Ramses III. built a splendid temple. A magnificent gate flanked by broad wings sixty-six feet in height leads from the east to the first ante-court, which, as always, is surrounded by a portico, partly supported by massive pillars, and partly by statues of Osiris. From this court a second somewhat smaller gateway leads into a second court; the portico surrounding this is supported to the right and left on strong columns, of seven feet in diameter, the capitals of which are formed by lotus-leaves, and on each of the other sides by eight Osiris pillars. The columns and pillars, in spite of their massiveness, do not seem too heavy to support the blocks which form the roof of the portico. In this court we find the four pictures which represent the war of Ramses III. against the Libyans (p. 164). The ante-temple, to which the entrance lay between the Osiris pillars just mentioned, the inner temple, and the shrine, are in ruins; the bases only and the foundations can still be traced. In the ten reliefs mentioned above the external wall of the second court displays in the most brilliant colours the warlike achievements of Ramses III. against the Temhu and Zakkarj (p. 165). About 120 steps to the south-east of the first gateway are the ruins of another structure of this king, which appears to have been his palace. Two obliquely rising towers enclose a court, surrounded by a building several stories high. The rooms still remaining are paved with slabs; the windows are square. The reliefs represent the king surrounded by his wives, and then at draughts, the instruction which his children receive in reading and writing from a priest, and other household matters. On the right bank of the Nile at the south-west edge of the terrace of Karnak, Ramses III. began to build a temple to the moon-god Chunsu, which was completed by Ramses IV.; and at Karnak itself, in the court before the great hall of Sethos I., he erected a smaller temple, cutting the southern portico of this temple at right angles, which he dedicated to "Ammon Ra, his father," to whom the whole sanctuary belonged.[244]
As at Memphis, so also at Thebes, great care was taken for the dead. Not far from the city, in the first Libyan range of hills, which here rise 300 feet out of the plain, lie the tombs of the inhabitants of Thebes, running on into these hills for two hours' distance in an unbroken series of catacombs. The graves, and the passages which lead to them, are all hewn in the rock, sometimes to a considerable depth. Several rows of chambers lie one over the other. In the lower rows, where the richer class are buried, the chambers are larger and more handsome; those in the upper rows are simpler, smaller, and meaner. Staircases, straight or winding, connect these stories and chambers with each other. Galleries, gangways, and perpendicular shafts break the rows of excavations, and give to this city of the dead the features of an inextricable labyrinth. These catacombs, with their thousands of mummies, innumerable chambers full of papyrus rolls and amulets buried with the corpses, with their sculptures and frescoes on the walls and roofs, which are for the most part preserved in marvellous brilliancy and represent in the truest and most varied manner the occupation of every person buried there of the higher orders, are an almost inexhaustible source for the knowledge of the life and the habits of that distant time.
Separated from the first range of hills by a lonely and desolate ravine, there rises further to the west a second wall of rock, which the Arabs call Biban-el-Moluk, i.e. the gates of the kings. In this lie the largest and most richly-furnished tombs. The kings of the old monarchy heaped mountains of stone over their graves at Memphis, and in like manner the princes of the new kingdom caused vaults and porticoes to be hewn in the rocks for their sepulchral chambers. Here in antiquity forty tombs were enumerated,[245] and the latest investigations have confirmed this enumeration. Spacious, but often barred, passages lead sometimes only fifty, sometimes 360 feet into the rock. The greater part of the tombs consist of a suite of galleries, chambers, and chapels for the offering of sacrifices to the dead; these are followed by the sepulchral chamber, where rests the sarcophagus, sometimes in a deep niche. The Pharaohs of Thebes appear to have carried on their work upon these burying-places in the same manner as the princes of the old kingdom proceeded with the building of their pyramids. They commenced with the entrance, the ante-chapel (a broad and not very long portico, generally supported on pillars), and a small chamber, the real sepulchre.[246] If the length of the reign sufficed, a new passage was driven deeper into the rock from the chamber, a new and larger ante-chapel, a wider and higher sepulchral chamber was excavated. All the graves as yet opened and examined in this wall of rock are entered by square doors of uniform shape, with simple ornamentation. At one time they were provided with wings for security in closing. Behind them the corridor descends somewhat rapidly into the deep rock. As a rule the sculptures on the inner walls begin from the doors immediately behind this entrance. The colouring is still lively, not to say harsh.
The oldest tombs lie to the north-east; but as yet only two chambers have been opened here, one of which is large in size and adorned with beautiful, though very much injured sculptures, the grave of Amenophis III.[247] The tombs of the Tuthmosis have not yet been found. Next, on the south-west, lies the tomb of Ramses I. The rock chamber and the granite sarcophagus, which is still standing there, are without any ornament whatever except a few pictures on the walls, in which the god Tum and the goddess Neith, the great mother, the lady of heaven, the queen of the deities, lead the king before Osiris. The king speaks, "I have come to thee, lord of the gods, mighty god, master of the sky," while Neith says to the king, "I secure to thee the throne of Osiris, on which thou shalt sit for ever."[248] The grave of his successor, Sethos I., consists of a suite of galleries, chambers, and chapels. A corridor leads to a staircase, which ends in a chamber; from this a second staircase leads to a portico, on which abuts a great hall, the roof of which is supported by four pillars. A third staircase leads from this hall on the left into one similarly adorned, of which the pictures remain unfinished, and on the right into a broad vaulted portico sunk more than 300 feet deep into the rock. The roof of this portico is supported by six pillars. Here the corpse of the king rested in a sarcophagus of alabaster, which is covered with sculptures. The sarcophagus, now in the British Museum, was empty when found, and the cover was broken. The sculptures of the first hall display on every side of the pillars the king and a deity. Those on the walls represent the stations of the nightly course of the sun and the hindrances thrown in the way of the sun by the serpent Apep (p. 46), the judgment in the under world, the reward of the good, the punishment of the bad, the constellations of the sky, the five planets in their boats, and the four tribes into which the Egyptians divided mankind. Each tribe is represented by four figures.
Of the grave of Ramses II. but few chambers have as yet been opened.[249] The grave of his son Menephta presents nothing more than