The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max

[232] Brugsch, loc. cit. p. 203; Mariette, "Ath. Franç." 1855, Oct. p. 86.

[233] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 206.

      CHAPTER VII.

      THE MONUMENTS OF THE HOUSE OF RAMSES.

       Table of Contents

      More than ten centuries seem to have elapsed from the founding of the kingdom of Memphis before Egypt ventured beyond her natural borders. The peninsula of Sinai, the shores of the Red Sea opposite Thebes, and Semne in Nubia were the extreme limits in the times of the kings who built the pyramids, of the Sesurtesen and Amenemha. The impulse given by the successful war of liberation carried Egypt beyond these boundaries. When Amosis and Tuthmosis III. had restored the kingdom, it reached the summit of its greatness and splendour under the latter and Amenophis III., Sethos I., and Ramses II., while Ramses III. strengthened anew and maintained the position which his great forefathers had obtained for Egypt. Four centuries of glory and victory had now passed over Egypt (1650–1250), the victorious arms of the Pharaohs had been carried to Nubia and Dongola, to the Negroes, to Libya and Syria in repeated campaigns; more than once the Euphrates had seen the Egyptian armies. In these centuries Egypt was the first kingdom in the ancient world, not in civilisation merely, or in art, but in military power, though her lasting acquisitions were limited to the Upper Nile. For yet another century and a half the successors of Ramses III. could enjoy undisturbed the fruits of the exertions of their ancestors.

As the new kingdom surpassed the old in power, so did the new capital Thebes eclipse the older Memphis. None of these princes neglected to offer his booty to Ammon of Thebes; from the time of Tuthmosis I. to Ramses III. no king omitted to adorn Thebes with new buildings. The city must have presented a most marvellous appearance when the works of the Tuthmosis and Amenophis, of Sethos, of Ramses II. and III. stood erect and rose up from the earth solid and massive as rocks on either bank of the Nile, while the multitude of obelisks and colossi towered up like a forest of stone. Fancy might imagine that she looked upon a city built by giants. The houses of the people also, though built of brick only, as Diodorus tells us, were three or four stories high. Diodorus fixes the circuit of the city at more than fifteen miles; for us it is still marked by the remains of the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Gurnah, and Medinet Habu.[234]

We have spoken above of the buildings erected by Tuthmosis I. and III. at Karnak, and Amenophis III. at Luxor and Medinet Habu. It was Sethos I. who on the west of the oblong court, the gateway, and obelisks of Tuthmosis I. at Karnak, added a hall on the most magnificent scale, the entrance to which is also formed by a gateway. This hall, the most splendid monument of Egyptian architecture, is 320 feet long, and over 160 feet broad; the roof rests on 134 pillars, which on each side towards the north and south form seven naves, each of nine pillars. The central space, supported on either side by six pillars of 12 feet in diameter and 68 feet in height, rises higher than the naves at the side. On the external wall of this hall are displayed the triumphs of Sethos over the Schasu, the Cheta, and the Retennu; there are recorded the campaigns already mentioned against the tribes of Cush, the Punt, and the Naharina. Opposite Karnak, on the left bank of the Nile, north east from the colossi of Amenophis III., at the village of Gurnah, he built a temple to Ammon, and at Abydus a large sanctuary to Osiris.[235]

None of the Pharaohs undertook such numerous works and left behind so many monuments as Ramses II. He completed the hall of his father at Karnak,[236] and extended on a magnificent scale the temple of Amenophis III. at Luxor, by adding on the north-east a second court, and adorning the entrance to it by a lofty gateway. Before this he placed two seated colossi, statues of himself—at present, like the lower parts of all the ruins at Luxor, they are covered to a considerable height with sand—and two obelisks of red granite, of which one still rises in splendour to the blue sky, and displays the long, sharply-cut rows of the hieroglyphics in all the brightness of the uninjured polish. The other is at Paris, in the Place de la Concorde. On the left bank of the Nile, between the colossi of Amenophis III. and his father's temple, a little further to the west, and immediately at the foot of the Libyan range, he built a large temple. A massive gateway rises on a slightly elevated terrace, leading to a rectangular court. This is surrounded by a double row of pillars supporting the portico, of which two only are now standing. On this follows a second court, of which the portico is supported on the right and left by double pillars, on the front transverse side by single pilasters, and on the back by double pilasters, against the first row of which lean colossal images of Osiris. At the entrance from the first into the second court, on the left, was the greatest of all the detached colossi in Egypt, the seated statue of Ramses, hewn out of a block of red granite from Syene. Sixty feet in height, this statue once overlooked both courts; now it lies prostrate on the ground. The length of the middle finger is four feet. There was apparently a second colossus on the other side of the entrance corresponding to this. From the second court, in which are the remains of two smaller colossi, three gates of black granite led into a great hall, built on a higher level. The roof of this, the remains of which exhibit a blue ground with gold stars, was supported by sixty pillars in ten rows. Of these rows four are still standing; the pillars are 35 feet in height and six feet in diameter. On this great hall adjoin three smaller ones, on both sides of which lay chambers, and the roof of one is adorned with a large astronomical painting. The back part of the building was formed by vaulted porticoes of brick, and each brick is stamped with the name-shield of Ramses II.[237]

The inscriptions on the second court and in the hall tell us, "that the gracious god, i.e. the king, erected this great structure in honour of his father Ammon-Ra, the king of the gods: by his own arm he has erected it, the royal sun, the champion of justice, established by Ra, the child of the sun, Ramses, beloved of Ammon, beloved of the goddess Mut." On the walls of the portico between the first and second court is represented a great procession to the altar of Ammon. Two rows of men carry the statues of thirteen predecessors of Ramses on their shoulders (p. 24). Further on the king, with a sickle, is cutting a sheaf of corn from the field, a priest receives this from the hand of the king, and offers it to a white bull. Then the priest bids the four geese belonging to the four spirits of the quarters of the sky to fly south, north, east, and west, in order to announce to the gods of each quarter, "that Horus the son of Osiris, that king Ramses, established by Ra, has put on the double crown."[238] The sculptures of the front side of the gateway exhibit the king in intercourse with the gods, and symbolise the divine expressions of favour towards Ramses. Gods lead him to the greater gods. The god Tum places him before Mentu (p. 51). Mentu takes the hand of the king, and says, "Come to the heavenly mansions, to behold thy father the king of the gods, who will bestow upon thee length of days, to rule over the world and reign upon the throne of Horus." Mentu leads the king to Ammon, over whose figure we read, "Ammon-Ra, king of the gods, who dwells in Ramses' house at Thebes, speaks thus: Beloved son of my race, Ramses, lord of the world, my heart is glad in that I behold thy good works; thou hast built me this house; I grant thee a pure life to live upon the throne of Seb" (p. 55). In the hall Ammon is holding the crook from his throne towards the king, and says, "I certify that thy building shall continue as the heavens." The goddess Bast (p. 49) lifts her right hand to the head of the king, and says, "I have prepared for thee the diadem of the sun, that this helmet should remain upon thy brow, where I have placed it." On another sketch in this hall Ammon is giving to Ramses the scythe, the whip, and the crook