The origin of Pa-Ra,[4] the City of the Sun, is also lost in remote antiquity. It stood not far from Memphis, and is better known to us by the name of On. It was the centre of the worship of Ra, as Abydos was of the worship of Osiris, but there was no jealousy or rivalry between the two. They were, in fact, essentially one, and the same individual might be priest or priestess of both sanctuaries.
On was famous from time immemorial as a seat of learning, and its priesthood was held in high repute. The city itself was of small dimensions. ‘The walls may yet be traced,’ says Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, ‘enclosing an irregular square of about half a mile in the measure of each of its sides.’ And of this limited space the great temple of Ra must have occupied about half. The population, one would think, must have been mainly composed of scholars, as the priests’ dwellings would be within the temple precincts. Hither came the young men of Egypt—who shall say how many thousand years ago!—to learn all that the priests could teach at this, the most ancient university of the world. Nor were the priests, who carefully cultivated and taught the various branches of learning, by any means an exclusive caste. They had family ties, mixed in social life, and could hold other than priestly dignities. A royal prince was often priest of a temple, and a priest might be a warrior, an architect, or a court official. So far as we can gather, the teaching at an Egyptian university would comprise a knowledge of the sacred books, besides general teaching in morality. The study of the language itself must have been a somewhat arduous undertaking even for a native-born Egyptian, and to write the hieroglyphic characters, required considerable skill, and even art.[5] Many branches of science must have been pursued—medicine, law, geometry, astronomy, and chemistry, whilst in mechanics a quite marvellous proficiency was attained. Music too was highly prized and carefully taught, and it is not unlikely that architects and sculptors also received their training in these schools.
Long ages afterwards, when Greek and Roman travellers visited Egypt, and sought to learn her wisdom, they heard an ancient tale concerning the mysterious Phœnix, that came once in five hundred years from the far-off land of spices and perfume to the sacred City of the Sun, where he constructed for himself a funeral pile and perished in the flames, but only to rise again in renewed life and splendour; then, spreading his radiant wings, he took his flight to the distant land from whence he came. What special truth this allegory veiled in the minds of those who told it we can only guess; at the same time it may serve us well as a type of the old ‘wisdom’ itself,[6] which did not perish with its primeval seat, but sprang into renewed and glorious existence in what, to us, is ‘ancient’ Greece—then, lost again when Greece was lost, revived once more in our latter days.
But Pa-Ra had a special claim to the veneration of the Egyptians as the birthplace of their sacred literature. Here were written, or, as the priests called it, ‘found,’ the original chapters of the most sacred of the sacred writings, the ‘Book of the coming forth into the Day,’[7] which tells of the conflicts and triumphs of the life after death.
To secure that triumph, a knowledge of the holy book was required. Portions of it are found written on coffin lids and on the walls of tombs; every Egyptian desired to have it buried with him, and whilst the rich would often have an entire copy laid in his tomb, the poor man coveted at least a fragment.
Memphis was founded by the first King of Egypt, but Abydos and On were linked by tradition to the gods.
One beautiful obelisk of red granite stands solitary among the green fields to mark where stood the City of the Sun, and the wild bees store their honey in its deep-cut hieroglyphs.
If any remains at all exist of Abydos, they have long since been buried deep beneath the piled up heaps of sand and mud amongst which has been built a little Arab village named ‘Arabat the Buried.’ Whilst exploring these mounds the famous discoverer Mariette found two temples erected by well-known kings of far later date, Seti i. and Rameses the Great, and dedicated by them to Osiris. Not far off there arises amid the desolation a conical hillock sixty feet high, which is called by the Arabs Kom-es-Sultan, the ‘Mound of the King.’ It is just made up of tombs ‘packed together as closely as they can be wedged,’ above a rock which was believed to have been the sepulchre of Osiris. Here it was that so many during many generations desired to be laid; through the excavations of explorers may be seen countless numbers of the tombs where they hoped to rest in peace. But the mummy cases have been rudely dragged to light, despoiled, and rifled of aught they might have contained of commercial value, while the poor mummies themselves are left, often broken into fragments, exposed to the careless gaze of every passer-by and to the ‘full glare of the noon-day sun.’ Pits sunk in the neighbourhood disclose nothing but tombs, ‘arches upon arches of brick, each an Egyptian grave.’[8]
Mena founded his new capital 360 miles north of Thinis. The Nahsi or Negroes, in the south, were troublesome rather than dangerous neighbours, and the whole length of the Nile valley was protected by the natural defences of the Libyan hills on the west and the Arabian on the east, but the Delta had no such shelter, and through its plains the way to the rich luxuriant valley lay open to an invading force, whether of the fair-haired Libyans from the west or the warlike tribes of the Amu and the Herusha from the east. Memphis was built some miles south of the point where the narrow valley of the Nile opens out into the broad plains of the Delta.[9] Here the river ran near the Libyan hills; so, by Mena’s orders, its course was turned aside to gain a wider space for the new city—Mennefer, he called it—the ‘secure and beautiful.’ He first of all erected a magnificent temple, which he dedicated to Ptah, ‘Father of the beginning’ and ‘Creator of the world,’ of whose worship Memphis continued to be the centre. It was well fortified and guarded against inroads from the north, and protected the entrance to the Nile valley, of which its rulers held the key. And it was fair to look upon, lying along the banks of the great river—with artificial lakes glittering in the cloudless sunshine, and stately temples and palaces embosomed amongst groves of palm, sycamore, and date trees. Thousands of years passed by, and in later days the ruthless tide of war ebbed and flowed around its walls; siege, storm, and havoc did their work—but in spite of all, so late as the 13th century a.d., an Arabian physician who visited the ruins of Memphis tells us that they extended a half-day’s journey every way, and he declares that the wonders he beheld were sufficient to confound the mind; no eloquence could describe them. Every new glance, he says, was a new cause of delight. But the work of ruin was not ended in his day—Mahometan fanaticism spares nothing, however time-honoured or beautiful; besides which, the ruins of Memphis proved a convenient quarry for the building of modern Cairo. Thus the ‘secure and beautiful’ city of King Mena has disappeared at length as utterly as Babylon has done. A few insignificant fragments and blocks are strewn confusedly about, and serve to mark the site. One mighty statue lies prostrate—a colossal figure of Rameses ii., erected by himself in front of the temple of Ptah. It is lying on its face in a broad ditch, deserted and alone, save when some wandering Arab passes by, or cattle come to drink of the water which, for most part of the year, fills the trench and submerges the gigantic figure—