Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé

by F. Barham Zincke

The mere naked fact that the Great Pyramid was built implies that at that, time, agriculture was so advanced, and, in consequence, so productive, and that society was so thoroughly organized, as to enable the country to maintain for thirty years 100,000 men while occupied in the unproductive labour of cutting and moving the stones employed in its construction. To which we must add the 100,000 men engaged for the ten previous years upon the great causeway which crossed the western plain, from the river to the site of the Pyramid, and over which all the materials for the Pyramid were brought. Modern Egypt could not do this. We should find it an enormous tax even upon our resources.

There is also implied in the cutting and dressing of this vast amount of stone, the supply of a corresponding amount of tools; and as granite was at that time used largely in the construction of some of the tombs and Pyramids, it implies that those tools were of the best temper.

It must also be remembered that some of these Pyramids had crossed the Nile. The unwieldy and ponderous stones of which they were constructed had been quarried in the Arabian range, and brought across the river to the African range on which the Pyramids stand. What granite had been required had been brought, the whole length of the valley, from Syené. How much mechanical contrivance does this imply! All these great blocks had to be lifted out of the quarry, to be brought down to the river, carried across, some even between five and six hundred miles down the river, and then again across the cultivated western plain to the first stage of the Libyan hills. They had to be lowered into the boats and lifted out of them. The inclined causeway was made of dressed and polished blocks of black basalt, a kind of stone extremely difficult to work. It was a mile in length. And when the blocks for the Pyramid had at last reached the further end of the causeway, they had to be lifted into their place in a building that was carried to a height of 480 feet. Herodotus mentions the succession of machines by which they were elevated from the bottom to the top. The mechanical arrangements, then, must have been well planned and executed.

In these great works we see that nothing was overlooked, or neglected. Everything that could happen was anticipated, and calculated with the utmost nicety, and completely and successfully provided for. This would, in itself alone, imply much accumulated knowledge, and habits of mind which nothing but long ages of civilization can give. No rude people can make nice calculations, can summon before themselves for consideration all the conditions of a problem, or take precautions against what may happen thousands of years after their time.

If, then, we look at these structures, such as we have them now before our eyes, and work out in our minds the conditions, both contemporary and precedent, involved in the single fact of their having been built, we see distinctly that we are not contemplating one of the earlier stages, but a very advanced stage, of civilization. All traces of the inception of the useful arts, and of social organization, are utterly wanting. We have before us a great community which, when seen for the first time, appears, Minerva-like, full-grown and completely equipped.

This is seen with equal distinctness in the representations of the common arts, and of the ordinary occurrences and practices of life, as we find them on the tombs. They are such as belong to a civilized people. Among the former we may instance the manufacture of glass, and the enamelling of earthenware with coloured glazes; and among the latter the making of inventories of the property of deceased persons.

The religion, too, we see, had already attained its full development. Its doctrines were matured, all its symbols had been decided upon, and an order of men had been set apart for the maintenance of the knowledge of it, and for the celebration of its services.

The hierarchy also of society was now completely established, and had been long unhesitatingly acquiesced in. There are no indications here either of growth, or of decay, or of any disposition to unsettle anything. The order of society is received as the order of Nature, is administered by a regular form of government, and crowned by a splendid court.

But—and this is as surprising as anything we meet with belonging to those times—they were already in possession of their hieroglyphical method of writing, and were using it regularly and largely in their monumental records; and, which is still more significant, had discovered how to form papyrus-rolls, that is to say paper, for its reception. Nor is there any indication of a time when their ancestors have been without it. In this, as in the other matters I have mentioned, there is no substantial difference between the primæval monarchy, before the invasion of the Hyksos, and the revived monarchy, which flourished after the expulsion of the Hyksos.