[117] In Egyptian, Aaranatu.
[118] In Egyptian, Kateshu. “Aujourdhui encore il existe une ville de Kades près d’une courbe de l’Oronte dans le voisinage de Homs.” Leçons de M. de Rougé, Professées au Collége de France. See “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” Egyp. and Assyr., vol. ii, p. 269. Also a valuable paper, entitled “The Campaign of Rameses II Against Kadesh,” by the Rev. G. H. Tomkins, “Trans. of the Soc. of Bib. Arch., vol. viii, part 3, 1882. The bend of the river is actually given in the bas-reliefs.
[119] “La légion S’ardana de l’armée de Ramsès II provenait d’une premiére descente de ces peuples en Égypte. ‘Les S’ardana, qui étaient des prisonniers de sa majesté,’ dit expressément le texte de Karnak, au commencement du poëme de Pentaur. Les archéologues ont remarqué la richesse de leur costume et de leurs armures. Les principales pièces de leur vêtements semblent couvertes de broderies. Leur bouchier est une rondache: ils portent une longue et large épée de forme ordinaire, mais on remarque aussi dans leurs mains une épée d’une longueur démesurée. Le casque des S’ardana est très caracterisque; sa forme est arrondie, mais il est surmonté d’une tige qui supporte une boule de métal. Cet ornament est accompagné de deux cornes en forme de croissant.... Les S’ardana de l’armée Égyptienne ont seulement des favoris et des moustaches coupés très courts.”—“Memoire sur les Attaques Dirigées contre l’Égypte,” etc. E. de Rougé. “Revue Archéologique,” vol. xvi, pp. 90, 91.
[120] A rich treasure of gold and silver rings was found by Ferlini, in 1834, immured in the wall of one of the pyramids of Meröe, in Upper Nubia. See Lepsius’ Letters, translated by L. and J. Horner, Bohn, 1858, p. 151.
[121] This cast, the property of the British Museum, is placed over a door leading to the library at the end of the northern vestibule, opposite the staircase. I was informed by the late Mr. Bonomi that the mold was made by Mr. Hay, who had with him an Italian assistant picked up in Cairo. They took with them some barrels of plaster and a couple of ladders, and contrived, with such spars and poles as belonged to the dahabeeyah, to erect a scaffolding and a matted shelter for the plasterman. The colossus was at this time buried up to its chin in sand, which made the task so much the easier. When the mold of the head was brought to England, it was sent to Mr. Bonomi’s studio, together with a mold of the head of the colossus at Mitrahenny, a mold of the apex of the fallen obelisk at Karnak, and molds of the wall-sculptures at Bayt-et-Welly. Mr. Bonomi superintended the casting and placing of all these in the museum about three years after the molds were made. This was at the time when Mr. Hawkins held the post of keeper of antiquities. I mention these details, not simply because they have a special interest for all who are acquainted with Abou Simbel, but because a good deal of misapprehension has prevailed on the subject, some travelers attributing the disfigurement of the head to Lepsius, others to the Crystal Palace Company, and so forth. Even so careful a writer as the late Miss Martineau ascribes it, on hearsay, to Champollion.
[122] “A castle, resembling in size and form that of Ibrim; it bears the name of Kalat Adda; it has been abandoned many years, being entirely surrounded by barren rocks. Part of its ancient wall, similar in construction to that of Ibrim, still remains. The habitations are built partly of stone and partly of brick. On the most elevated spot in the small town, eight or ten gray granite columns of small dimensions lie on the ground, with a few capitals near them of clumsy Greek architecture.”—Burckhardt’s “Travels in Nubia,” 1819, p. 38.
In a curious Arabic history of Nubia written in the tenth century A.D. by one Abdallah Ben Ahmed Ben Solaïm of Assûan, fragments of which are preserved in the great work of Makrizy, quoted by Burckhardt and E. Quatremere (see foot note, p. 202), there occurs the following remarkable passage: “In this province (Nubia) is situated the city of Bedjrasch, capital of Maris, the fortress of Ibrim, and another place called Adwa, which has a port, and is, they say, the birthplace of the sage Lokman and of Dhoul Noun. There is to be seen there a magnificent Birbeh.” (“On y voit un Berba magnifique.”)—“Mémoires Géographiques sur l’Égypte,” etc. E. Quatremere, Paris, 1811; vol. ii, p. 8.
If Adwa and Adda are one and the same, it is possible that in this passage we find preserved the only comparatively modern indication of some great rock-cut temple, the entrance to which is now entirely covered by the sand. It is clear that neither Abou Simbel (which is on the opposite bank, and some three or four miles north of Adda) nor Ferayg (which is also some way off, and quite a small place) can here be intended. That another temple exists somewhere between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh, and is yet to be discovered, seems absolutely certain from the tenor of a large stela sculptured on the rock a few paces north of the smaller temple at Abou Simbel. This stela, which is one of the most striking and elaborate there, represents an Egyptian gateway surmounted by the winged globe, and shows Rameses II enthroned and receiving the homage of a certain prince whose name, as translated by Rosellini, is Rameses-Neniseti-Habai. The inscription, which is in sixteen columns and perfectly preserved, records the titles and praises of the king, and states how “he had made a monumental abode for Horus, his father, Lord of Ha’m, excavating in the bowels of the Rock of Ha’m to make him a habitation of many ages.” We know nothing of the Rock of Ha’m (rendered Sciam by Rosellini), but it should no doubt be sought somewhere between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh. “Qual sito precisamente dinotisi in questo nome di Sciam, io non saprei nel presente stato delle cose determinare: credo peraltro secondo varie loughi delle iscrizioni che lo ricordano, che fosse situato sull’ una o l’altra sponda del Nilo, nel paese compreso tra Wadi-halfa e Ibsambul, o poco oltre. E qui dovrebbe trovarsi il nominato speco di Horus, fino al presente occulto a noi.”—Rosellini Letterpress to “Monumenti Storici,” vol. iii, part ii, p. 184. It would hence appear that the Rock of Ha’m is mentioned in other inscriptions.
The distance between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh is only forty miles, and the likely places along the banks are but few. Would not the discovery of this lost temple be an enterprise worthier the ambition of tourists, than the extermination of such few crocodiles as yet linger north of the second cataract
[123] See foot note [page 265.]