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The
part of Egypt of which we now speak, is famous for several
rarities,
each
of which deserves a particular examination. I shall mention only
the
principal,
such as the obelisks, the pyramids, the labyrinth, the lake of
Mœris,
and the Nile.
SECT.
I. THE OBELISKS.—Egypt
seemed to place its chief glory in raising
monuments
for posterity. Its obelisks form at this day, on account of
their
beauty as well as height, the principal ornament of Rome; and the
Roman
power, despairing to equal the Egyptians, thought it honour
enough
to
borrow the monuments of their kings.
An
obelisk is a quadrangular, taper, high spire or pyramid, raised
perpendicularly,
and terminating in a point, to serve as an ornament to
some
open square; and is very often covered with inscriptions or
hieroglyphics,
that is, with mystical characters or symbols used by the
Egyptians
to conceal and disguise their sacred things, and the mysteries
of
their theology.
Sesostris
erected in the city of Heliopolis two obelisks of extreme hard
stone,
brought from the quarries of Syene, at the extremity of
Egypt.(267)
They
were each one hundred-and-twenty cubits high, that is, thirty
fathoms,
or one hundred and eighty feet.(268) The emperor Augustus, having
made
Egypt a province of the empire, caused these two obelisks to be
transported
to Rome, one whereof was afterwards broken to pieces. He dared
not
venture to make the same attempt upon a third, which was of a
monstrous
size.(269) It was made in the reign of Rameses: it is said that
twenty
thousand men were employed in the cutting of it. Constantius,
more
daring
than Augustus, caused it to be removed to Rome. Two of these
obelisks
are still to be seen there, as well as another a hundred cubits,
or
twenty-five fathoms high, and eight cubits, or two fathoms, in
diameter.
Caius Cæsar had it brought from Egypt in a ship of so odd a
form,
that, according to Pliny, the like had never been seen.(270)
Every
part of Egypt abounded with this kind of obelisks; they were for
the
most
part cut in the quarries of Upper Egypt, where some are now to be
seen
half finished. But the most wonderful circumstance is, that the
ancient
Egyptians should have had the art and contrivance to dig even in
the
very quarry a canal, through which the water of the Nile ran in
the
time
of its inundation; from whence they afterwards raised up the
columns,
obelisks,
and statues on rafts,(271) proportioned to their weight, in
order
to convey them into Lower Egypt. And as the country was
intersected
every
where with canals, there were few places to which those huge
bodies
might
not be carried with ease; although their weight would have broken
every
other kind of engine.
SECT.
II. THE PYRAMIDS.—A
PYRAMID is a solid or hollow body, having a
large,
and generally a square base, and terminating in a point.(272)
There
were three pyramids in Egypt more famous than the rest, one
whereof
was
justly ranked among the seven wonders of the world; they stood
not
very
far from the city of Memphis. I shall take notice here only of
the
largest
of the three. This pyramid, like the rest, was built on a rock,
having
a square base, cut on the outside as so many steps, and
decreasing
gradually
quite to the summit. It was built with stones of a prodigious
size,
the least of which were thirty feet, wrought with wonderful art,
and
covered
with hieroglyphics. According to several ancient authors, each
side
was eight hundred feet broad, and as many high. The summit of the
pyramid,
which to those who viewed it from below seemed a point, was a
fine
platform, composed of ten or twelve massy stones, and each side
of
that
platform sixteen or eighteen feet long.
M.
de Chazelles, of the Academy of Sciences, who went purposely to
the
spot
in 1693, gives us the following dimensions:
The
side of the square base 110 fathoms; the fronts are equilateral
triangles,
and therefore the superficies of the base is 12100 square
fathoms;
the perpendicular height, 77-3/4 fathoms; the solid contents,
313590
cubical fathoms. A hundred thousand men were constantly employed
about
this work, and were relieved every three months by the same
number.
Ten
complete years were spent in hewing out the stones, either in
Arabia
or
Ethiopia, and in conveying them to Egypt; and twenty years more
in
building
this immense edifice, the inside of which contained numberless
rooms
and apartments. There were expressed on the pyramid, in Egyptian
characters,
the sums it cost only for garlic, leeks, onions, and other
vegetables
of this description, for the workmen; and the whole amounted to
sixteen
hundred talents of silver,(273) that is, four millions five
hundred
thousand French livres; from whence it was easy to conjecture
what
a
vast sum the whole expense must have amounted to.
Such
were the famous Egyptian pyramids, which by their figure, as well
as
size,
have triumphed over the injuries of time and the Barbarians. But
what
efforts soever men may make, their nothingness will always
appear.
These
pyramids were tombs; and there is still to be seen, in the middle
of
the
largest, an empty sepulchre, cut out of one entire stone, about
three
feet
deep and broad, and a little above six feet long.(274) Thus all
this
bustle,
all this expense, and all the labours of so many thousand men for
so
many years, ended in procuring for a prince, in this vast and
almost
boundless
pile of building, a little vault six feet in length. Besides,
the
kings who built these pyramids, had it not in their power to be
buried
in
them; and so did not enjoy the sepulchre they had built. The
public
hatred
which they incurred, by reason of their unheard-of cruelties to
their
subjects, in laying such heavy tasks upon them, occasioned their
being
interred in some obscure place, to prevent their bodies from
being
exposed
to the fury and vengeance of the populace.
This
last circumstance, which historians have taken particular notice
of,
teaches
us what judgment we ought to pass on these edifices, so much
boasted
of by the ancients.(275) It is but just to remark and esteem the
noble
genius which the Egyptians had for architecture; a genius that
prompted
them from the earliest times, and before they could have any
models
to imitate, to aim in all things at the grand and magnificent;
and
to
be intent on real beauties, without deviating in the least from a
noble
simplicity,
in which the highest perfection of the art consists. But what
idea
ought we to form of those princes, who considered as something
grand,
the
raising by a multitude of hands, and by the help of money,
immense
structures,
with the sole view of rendering their names immortal; and who
did
not scruple to destroy thousands of their subjects to satisfy
their
vain
glory! They differed very much from the Romans, who sought to
immortalize
themselves by works of a magnificent kind, but, at the same
time,
of public utility.
Pliny
gives us, in few words,(276) a just idea of these pyramids, when
he
calls
them a foolish and useless ostentation of the wealth of the
Egyptian
kings;
_Regum pecuniæ otiosa ac stulta ostentatio._ And adds, that by a
just
punishment their memory is buried in oblivion; the historians not
agreeing
among themselves about the names of those who first raised those
vain
monuments: _Inter eos non constat à quibus factæ sint, justissimo
casu
obliteratis tantæ vanitatis auctoribus._ In a word, according to
the
judicious
remark of Diodorus, the industry of the architects of those
pyramids
is no less valuable and praiseworthy, than the design of the
Egyptian
kings is contemptible and ridiculous.
But
what we should most admire in these ancient monuments, is, the
true
and
standing evidence they give of the skill of the Egyptians in
astronomy;
that is, in a science which seems incapable of being brought to
perfection,
but by a long series of years, and a great number of
observations.
M. de Chazelles, when he measured the great pyramid in
question,
found that the four sides of it were turned exactly to the four
quarters
of the world; and, consequently, showed the true meridian of that
place.
Now, as so exact a situation was, in all probability, purposely
pitched
upon by those who piled up this huge mass of stones, above three
thousand
years ago, it follows, that during so long a space of time, there
has
been no alteration in the heavens in that respect, or (which
amounts
to
the same thing) in the poles of the earth or the meridians. This is
M.
de
Fontenelle’s remark in his eulogium of M. de Chazelles.
SECT.
III. THE LABYRINTH.—What
has been said concerning the judgment we
ought
to form of the pyramids, may also be applied to the labyrinth,
which
Herodotus,
who saw it, assures us, was still more surprising than the
pyramids.(277)
It was built at the southern extremity of the lake of
Mœris,
whereof mention will be made presently, near the town of
Crocodiles,
the same with Arsinoë. It was not so much one single palace,
as
a magnificent pile composed of twelve palaces, regularly
disposed,
which
had a communication with each other. Fifteen hundred rooms,
interspersed
with terraces, were ranged round twelve halls, and discovered
no
outlet to such as went to see them. There was the like number of
buildings
under ground. These subterraneous structures were designed for
the
burying-place of the kings, and also (who can speak this without
confusion,
and without deploring the blindness of man!) for keeping the
sacred
crocodiles, which a nation, so wise in other respects, worshipped
as
gods.
In
order to visit the rooms and halls of the labyrinth, it was
necessary,
as
the reader will naturally suppose, for people to take the same
precaution
as Ariadne made Theseus use, when he was obliged to go and
fight
the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. Virgil describes it in
this
manner:—
Ut
quondam Cretâ fertur labyrinthus in altâ
Parietibus
textum cæcis iter ancipitémque
Mille
viis habuisse dolum, quà signa sequendi
Falleret
indeprensus et irremeabilis error.(278)
Híc
labor ille domûs, et inextricabilis error.
Dædalus,
ipse dolos tecti ambagésque resolvit,
Cæca
regens filo vestigia.(279)
And
as the Cretan labyrinth of old,
With
wand’ring ways, and many a winding fold,
Involv’d
the weary feet without redress,
In
a round error, which deny’d recess:
Not
far from thence he grav’d the wond’rous maze;
A
thousand doors, a thousand winding ways
SECT.
IV. THE LAKE OF MŒRIS.—The
noblest and most wonderful of all the
structures
or works of the kings of Egypt, was the lake of Mœris:
accordingly,
Herodotus considers it as vastly superior to the pyramids and
labyrinth.(280)
As Egypt was more or less fruitful in proportion to the
inundations
of the Nile; and as in these floods, the too great or too
little
rise of the waters was equally fatal to the lands, king Mœris, to
prevent
these two inconveniences, and to correct, as far as lay in his
power,
the irregularities of the Nile, thought proper to call art to the
assistance
of nature; and so caused the lake to be dug, which afterwards
went
by his name. This lake was in circumference about three thousand
six
hundred
stadia, that is, about one hundred and eighty French leagues, and
three
hundred feet deep.(281) Two pyramids, on each of which was placed
a
colossal
statue, seated on a throne, raised their heads to the height of
three
hundred feet, in the midst of the lake, whilst their foundations
took
up the same space under the water; a proof that they were erected
before
the cavity was filled, and a demonstration that a lake of such
vast
extent
was the work of man’s hands, in one prince’s reign. This is what
several
historians have related concerning the lake Mœris, on the
testimony
of the inhabitants of the country. And M. Bossuet, the bishop of
Meaux,
in his discourse on universal history, relates the whole as fact.
For
my part, I will confess that I do not see the least probability in
it.
Is
it possible to conceive, that a lake of a hundred and eighty leagues
in
circumference,
could have been dug in the reign of one prince? In what
manner,
and where, could the earth taken from it be conveyed? What should
prompt
the Egyptians to lose the surface of so much land? By what arts
could
they fill this vast tract with the superfluous waters of the
Nile?
Many
other objections might be made. In my opinion, therefore, we ought
to
follow
Pomponius Mela, an ancient geographer; especially as his account
is
confirmed
by several modern travellers. According to that author, this
lake
is but twenty thousand paces; that is, seven or eight French
leagues
in
circumference. _Mœris, aliquando campus, nunc lacus, viginti
millia
passuum
in circuitu patens._(282)
This
lake had a communication with the Nile, by a great canal, more
than
four
leagues long,(283) and fifty feet broad. Great sluices either
opened
or
shut the canal and lake, as there was occasion.
The
charge of opening or shutting them amounted to fifty talents, that
is,
fifty
thousand French crowns.(284) The fishing of this lake brought the
monarch
immense sums; but its chief utility related to the overflowing of
the
Nile. When it rose too high, and was like to be attended with
fatal
consequences,
the sluices were opened; and the waters, having a free
passage
into the lake, covered the lands no longer than was necessary to
enrich
them. On the contrary, when the inundation was too low, and
threatened
a famine, a sufficient quantity of water, by the help of
drains,
was let out of the lake, to water the lands. In this manner the
irregularities
of the Nile were corrected; and Strabo remarks, that, in
his
time, under Petronius, a governor of Egypt, when the inundation of
the
Nile
was twelve cubits, a very great plenty ensued; and even when it
rose
but
to eight cubits, the dearth was scarce felt in the country;
doubtless
because
the waters of the lake made up for those of the inundation, by
the
help
of canals and drains.
SECT.
V. THE INUNDATIONS OF THE NILE.—The
Nile is the greatest wonder of
Egypt.
As it seldom rains there, this river, which waters the whole
country
by its regular inundations, supplies that defect, by bringing, as
a
yearly tribute, the rains of other countries; which made a poet
say
ingeniously,
“the Egyptian pastures, how great soever the drought may be,
never
implore Jupiter for rain:”
Te
propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,
Arida
nec pluvio supplicat herba
Jovi.(2
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