Dead Men Tell Tales

by Harry Rimmer

When Ramses the Second won his great campaign against the Hittites, he ended a five hundred year period of warfare in which the Egyptians had been consistently defeated. To celebrate his victory, a voluminous account of his valor and skill was carved upon a large number of stelae and erected in prominent centers throughout his kingdom. So also Amenhetep the Third set up a stele to record his conquest of the country of Abhat. This beautifully preserved record may be seen in the British Museum. It is exhibit No. 657 in Bay 6.

In the Egyptian Museum at Cairo there is a stele originally erected by Amenhetep the Third. We shall refer to this one again because his successor Menepthah appropriated this stele, and because it contains his record of the Israelites, who are thus acknowledged by the monarchs of Egypt to have been a people of importance in the annals of their empire.

The most stupendous source of material is found in monuments. The larger and most important type of monument is of course the buildings of antiquity. To the Egyptologist the most entrancing and magnificent spectacle on the face of the earth is the ruined temple at Karnak. The general public is so familiar with the magnitude and extent of these stupendous ruins, it is not necessary to make more than a brief reference to them in this paragraph. Any standard encyclopedia, such as the current Britannica, carries a more or less lengthy article on this subject, and the number of interested observers who have studied these ruins is almost beyond estimating.

The present city of Luxor, in Upper Egypt, was once known as Thebes, and was the center of government in times long past. Three very important sources of study are found in that vicinity. There is the great Valley of the Kings, where so many of the dead great of Egypt were buried. Then also there is the great temple at Luxor, which is still in the process of recovery. It is to be regretted that excavations there have been halted for some time, due to the fanaticism of the Moslems, who refuse to permit a mosque to be moved from the top of the remaining mound, under which the balance of this great temple still lies buried.

Last, but far from least, there is the great temple, called Karnak. The evidences that have been recovered from this site carry us as far back as the early stages of the Old Kingdom, and may indeed be pre-dynastic. There are a number of temples that have been erected upon this site, which contribute to the glory of its past history. The earliest relics found are flint instruments, and there are a number of recoveries from the Middle Kingdom also. While the famed archeologist Legrain was in charge of the work of recovery here, he opened one great pit from which an unbelievable amount of material was recovered. In this one find, seven hundred and fifty large statues were dug up, and more than twenty thousand smaller objects were recovered from this same pit. This was largely a Middle Kingdom deposit. It may be said that the entire history of the land is seen here, from the archaic age to the end of the Ptolemaic period.

There are three major ruins that make up the vast monument of Karnak, which, with the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, is almost a mile in length. Each of these three enclosures has its own story to tell. The smallest one is the most northerly, and was built by Amenhetep the Third. Ramses the Second added to its structure, and the imposing gate was built by Ptolemy Euergetes the First. This magnificent gate is practically all of the original structure that remains today. The outline of the foundation of the original temple may be traced, but its material, with the exception of the gate, has long since disappeared.

The south enclosure contained the temple built to the glory of the goddess Mut by Amenhetep the Third, of which also very little of the original structure remains. Behind this temple, however, is a sacred lake, shaped like a horseshoe, upon which tradition says the barge of the sacred lady used to appear. Indeed, there are fellahin in Egypt today who maintain that at certain times when the moon is just right, this notable barge may still be seen if one is fortunate enough to be on the spot at the right time. (We regret to say that the times that we were there were never the right ones!)

There were small temples and shrines inside both of these enclosures where various kings honoured other deities in the lengthy pantheon. Some traces of these may still be seen here and there, and much more may yet be brought to light by the excavations now being conducted there by the Department of Antiquities.

It is the third enclosure which is the great one, and the really thrilling monument. It is about 1,500 feet square, so that it is at once apparent that it is immense. Undoubtedly it is the largest temple ever constructed by man. Two million, two hundred and fifty thousand feet of floor space make quite a place of worship in any day and age!

The original sanctuary was probably begun by Usertesen the First, who dedicated it to Amon-Ra. Having done so, the king then used the walls, pillars, beams, and all other available space to carve a record of his own reign and greatness; not forgetting, of course, to give Amon-Ra due credit here and there for such divine aid as the Pharaoh may have needed from time to time! The drawings, paintings, and carvings of this monarch are a fine source of information concerning his times and peoples.