Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé

by F. Barham Zincke

In the Delta there was a large number of populous and wealthy cities. Five of them—Tanis, Bubastis, Sais, Mendes, and Sebennytus—were of sufficient importance to have given rise to dynasties; and, therefore, each had, in turn, become the capital. So many great cities were probably never before arrayed on so small an area. The duster of flourishing commercial and manufacturing towns in the Low Countries, offers the nearest approach to it in modern times. These, however, were supported primarily by manufactures and trade, while those of the Delta were supported primarily by agriculture. The base of the Delta along the air line, from Canopus to Pelusium, was not 140 miles, while its two sides, from its apex to those cities, were only about 100 miles in length.

Every one of these numerous cities of the Delta had its grand temple—some more than one. Many were, even for Egypt, of unusual extent and massiveness. They were generally built of the finest granite. At Tanis there was a temple of this kind. It had been erected by the great Rameses. In one respect, at all events, more had been done for it than for any other temple in Egypt, for it was enriched by at least ten obelisks. In its construction granite had been largely used. As Rameses built with sandstone at Karnak, Luxor, and Thebes, which were different quarters of his great capital, and where he must have wished to make the chief display of his magnificence, why was he not content with it in the Delta? We here find him using a far more costly material, and one which he had to fetch from a greater distance than the sandstone quarries of Silsiléh. The only imaginable reason is, that he desired to build for eternity, and that he was afraid that the sandstone he was employing in Upper Egypt might, in a long series of years, feel the effects of the damp in the Delta, at all events to such an extent as that the sculptures might suffer. The sandstone is remarkably hard and compact, and he was satisfied with it in the dry climate of Upper Egypt; but he had misgivings as to its power of resistance to the climate of Lower Egypt; and therefore, that he might not incur any avoidable risk, he went, in the Delta, to the additional expense of employing granite from Assouan.

And now a word or two about the city itself. This Tanis had from very early days, as we now know, been conspicuously connected with the history of Egypt. The importance of the place had been recognized in the days of the old primæval Monarchy, for we find in it traces of Sesortesen III., a mighty Pharaoh of the XIIth Dynasty, and whose name is found at the other extremity of the land on the Theban temples. Its position it was that gave it this importance, for it was on the flank of all invaders from the North or East; and, too, on the very spot where there were more facilities for establishing a stronghold than anywhere else in Egypt. Being on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, and not far from its mouth, it could receive supplies and reinforcements both by the river, and by sea; and being behind the Pelusiac branch, it could make that its first line of defence against an enemy coming across the desert, who as he would be without boats, and would find no materials for constructing them in such a district, would have but a very slight chance of effecting the passage of the river. As the city was also placed in the low district which now forms Lake Menzaléh, it, doubtless, was in the power of its defenders at any time to lay the surrounding country under water. The forces collected in this strong position, would, if themselves strong enough, be able to attack an invader, while yet in the desert; or, if this were thought more advisable, to fall either on his flank or rear, as he advanced along the Pelusiac branch.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the place is called ‘the Field of Zoan.’ Sân is its present name, and Zoan is probably a nearer approach to the old Egyptian form than the Greek Tanis. The expression of ‘the Field of Zoan’ was, of course, meant to be descriptive of the character of the surrounding country. There would have been nothing appropriate in speaking of the Field of Memphis, or of Thebes. It indicated that the district had been originally, as it is again at the present day, composed of pools and marshes, just what our fens once were, but that by a system of dykes and drains it had been reclaimed. And so, just as we might talk of the Fen of Boston, they talked of the Field, we should say the Fen, of Zoan.

Such having been the character and position of Tanis, it does not surprise us that it was made the royal residence, and in some respect, the capital, in the time of the Hyksos. Not only was it the nearest point to their old home, from which they might at times be glad to receive some assistance, but as it commanded the road into Egypt they had themselves so successfully traversed, they would naturally wish by strengthening the defences of the place, and residing there themselves, to use it as a bar against any who might make a similar attempt. More traces of these conquerors are found here than anywhere else in the land. And it is very interesting to see in these traces that they adopted, just as we might have expected, the religion of Egypt; and yet that they did not, in so doing, abandon that of their old home. For there is evidence that they placed by the side of the temples of the gods of Egypt, temples to Set or Soutekh, the Egyptian name of the Assyrian Baal. This was the obvious compromise of the opposing difficulties that beset them in this matter. They could not abandon their own morality; and, on the other hand, the conquerors and the conquered could never become one people as long as their moral ideas and sentiments were different. Of course the Gods, and the services of religion, were the external embodiment and representation of these ideas and sentiments.

On the expulsion of the Hyksos we find the history of the Great Pharaohs of the XIXth Dynasty closely connected with Tanis. Its magnificent temple, as we have already mentioned, was built by Rameses the Great. Meneptha, his son, was holding his court here at the time of the Exodus; and it must have been with the militia of the neighbourhood, where a considerable force of the military caste was settled, that he pursued the fugitive Israelites. We are, therefore, prepared to find that at last it became the actual recognized capital of Egypt. This was brought about under the XXIst Dynasty. It had come to be seen that under existing circumstances Thebes was no longer the best position from which the country could be guarded and governed. It was now the opposite extremity of the country that needed all the vigilance that could be exercised, and where should be placed the head quarters of the military power of the Empire.

We now come to Bubastis. The great temple of this famous city, of which Herodotus gives a minute account, and which appeared to him more finished and beautiful than any other structure in Egypt, was nearly a furlong in length, and of the same width. It was built throughout of granite. Its sculptures also bear the name of the great Rameses. It was placed on a peninsula, formed in an artificial lake in the middle of the city. The isthmus leading to the sacred enclosure was a strip of land between two parallel canals from the Nile. Each of them was 100 feet wide. They fed the lake which completely surrounded the temple, with the exception of the isthmic entrance. The width of the lake was 1,400 feet. Along the sides of the isthmus were rows of lofty evergreen trees. As the ground on which the city stood had been raised by the earth excavated from the bed of the lake, and by other accumulations, to a considerable height above the temple enclosure, the spectator looked down on the temple of red granite, the green trees, and the water from all sides. We can understand Herodotus’s preference for this temple. Most of the particulars of his description and measurements can still be traced out. Of the temple itself, however, only a few scattered stones remain, but these are sufficient to show of what materials, and by whom, it was built.

It was to Bubastis that the XXIInd Dynasty transferred the seat of Government. Almost all the names of this Dynasty are Assyrian. The strange apparition of these names is accounted for by the probable supposition that its founder was a military adventurer, who, while stationed in this city, had become connected by marriage with the Royal Family. This semi-foreign House occupied the throne for a little more than a century and a half, when Tanis again became the capital under the XXIIIrd Dynasty.

The temple of Sais could not have been inferior, in extent, or in costliness, to those either of Tanis, or of Bubastis. It was built partly of limestone and partly of granite. Here were buried all the kings of the Saite Dynasty. Herodotus dwells upon its magnificence. Its propylæa exceeded all others in dimensions. It, too, had its lake, on which were celebrated the mysteries of the sufferings of the martyred Osiris. Like the temple of Tanis, it had its obelisks, and, besides, several colossi and androsphinxes. The margin of its sacred lake was cased with stone; but its chief ornament was a shrine composed of a single block of granite, in the transport of which, from Elephantiné to Sais, two thousand boatmen had been employed for three years. This shrine was 31 feet long, 22 broad, and 12 high. The lake, but without the stone casing of its margin, and the site of the temple remain, but every other trace of all this magnificence has almost entirely disappeared.

The last Capital of Egypt, in which the wealth, culture, and glory of the old Pharaohnic Empire were completely revived, and exhibited to the world, was Sais. This revival took place under the XXVIth Dynasty; and, fortunately for us, was witnessed and described by the Greeks. Absolutely, and in itself, the country, probably, was then quite as great in all the elements of power as it ever had been in the palmiest days of the famous times of old; but, relatively, the sceptre had departed from Egypt. The arts which minister to and maintain civilization, and endow it with the ability to organize, wield, and support large armies, had travelled to the banks of the Euphrates, and from thence were spreading over the highlands of Media and Persia. By a law of nature civilization first germinated, and bore its precious fruit, in the teeming South, but by a right of nature Empire belongs to the enduring and thoughtful North. History contains the oft-repeated narrative of the fashion in which those, who have successively received the gift, have successively repaid it by subjugating the donors. The Assyrians had already, taking advantage of the disturbed state of the country during the XXVth Dynasty, looted all the great cities of Egypt, from Migdol to Syené. But where prosperity does not depend on the use and profits of accumulated capital, but on the annual bounty of Nature, recovery is very rapid. And to this bounty, which was larger and more varied in Egypt than anywhere else in the world, by reason of its winter as well as summer harvest, there had now been superadded the unbought gains resulting from her having been allowed to become what nature had intended her to be, that is, the centre for the interchange of the commodities of Asia, including India, of Africa, and of Europe.