What We Saw in Egypt

by Anonymous

The first instalment of the journal was brought by a gentleman with whose dahabieh they fell in off Benisooéf. It was eagerly opened and read aloud, while we listened with all our ears and eyes.

Journal on the Nile.

The wind was fair when we left Boulak. We passed Roda, the Nilometer, and Old Cairo. Then a long reach of the river brought us to the village of E Deyr, which is inhabited by Copt Christians. We next passed, on our left, El Masarah, where there are large stone quarries. The stone for the Great Pyramid was taken from these quarries.

At Bedreshyn we landed, Mohammed procured donkeys for us, and we set off to see the Pyramids of Sakkara.

We rode first to the village of Mitrahenny, where the ancient city of Memphis once stood. The country round it is very pretty. The village itself stands in a wood of palm-trees. We were told that at the time at which the Nile overflows its banks the people leave their houses and live in the palm-trees, where they put up a sort of scaffolding to sleep on. When the river falls again, they leave the trees, repair their mud huts, and live in them till the next overflow.

Memphis, formerly such a splendid city, is gone. There is scarcely a trace left of this once busy capital of Lower Egypt in which Moses lived, where the poor Jewish captives toiled to make up the tale of bricks for Pharaoh's taskmasters. Some few remains of foundation-walls are found in the sand. But nothing is left to tell of the temples and palaces of this ancient city, except only a part of a colossal statue of Rameses, called Sesostris. It is of a pure white, made of polished limestone, and must have been more than forty feet in height. The statue lay on its face, and we could not see the features. It has a scroll in its hands. Pieces of the legs and feet were lying about. All around are magnificent palm-trees.

BRICKMAKING (from Egyptian Sculpture).

The Pyramids of Sakkara are near the village of the same name. The largest of them is called by the Arabs "the Pyramid of Degrees." It has outside six stories or degrees, each smaller than the one below it. Inside are passages and chambers.

Near the pyramids are the famous pits, in which are ibis mummies. The ibis was a sacred bird among the Egyptians. We bought one of these mummies. It was enclosed in a round earthen jar, the top of which was shaped like a cone, and was fastened down strongly with cement.