I left my comrades here, who went direct to Abu Dôm at five o’clock, and proceeded to Nuri. Soon there gleamed towards us the blue heights of Mount Barkal, which rises alone with steep sides and a broad platform from the surrounding plain, and immediately attracts attention by its peculiar shape and situation. At six o’clock, the Nile valley lay before us in its whole and somewhat broad extent; a sight long desired, after the desert, and which excites the attention of travellers as much as the nearing coasts after a sea-voyage.
Our road turned, however, to the right, and proceeded through the mountains, which still consist of masses of porphyry. When we reached Barkal, right opposite us, I observed on our left a number of black, round, or pyramidal grave-hillocks, with which I had been acquainted from Meroe. Probably it was the general burying-place of Napata, still the metropolis of the Ethiopian kings in the time of Herodotus, and situated on the opposite shore; there must then have also been a considerable city on the left bank of the Nile, by which the position of the pyramids of Nuri on the same side is explained. Yet I have not been able to discover any ruined mounds answering to such a conjecture. Only behind the village of Duêm, and near Abu Dôm, I saw such, which were called Sánab, but they were not of any considerable extent. We did not come into the neighbourhood of this important group of pyramids until half-past seven, and we quartered ourselves for the night with the sheikh of the village.
Before sunrise I was already at the pyramids, of which I counted about twenty-five. They are partially statelier than those of Meroe, but built of soft sandstone, and therefore much disintegrated; a few only have any smooth casing left. The largest exhibits the same principle of structure within which I have discovered in those of Lower Egypt; a smaller inner pyramid was enlarged in all directions by a stone casing. At one part of the west side the smoothened surface of the innermost structure was distinctly visible within the eight foot thick, well-joined, outer mantle. Little is to be found here of ante-chambers, as at Meroe and the pyramids of Barkal; I believe I have only found the remains of two; the rest, if they existed, must have been quite ruined or buried in the rubbish. Some pyramids stand so close before one another, that by their position it would be impossible for an ante-chamber to exist, at least on the east side, where they were to be expected. For the rest, the pyramids are built quite massively, of free-stone; I could only find that the most eastern of all was filled up with black, unhewn stones. A pyramid with a flaw, like that of Dahhshur, is also here; but here the lower angle was probably originally intended, as there the upper one, as it is too inconsiderable for a structure in steps. Although I could, unfortunately, find no inscriptions, with the exception of one single fragment of granite, yet several things combine to assure me that this is the elder group, that of Barkal the younger.
I arrived at Abu Dôm after ten o’clock, where I found my companions. The crossing of the Nile occupied us the whole day, and we first came to Barkal at sunset.
Georgi had, to my great joy, arrived here some days ago from Dongola. His assistance is doubly welcome to us, as everything must be drawn here that is discovered. The Ethiopian residence of King Tahraka, who also reigned in Egypt, and left architectural remains behind him,—the same who went forth to Palestine in Hiskias’ time against Sanharib,—is too important for us not to becoming completely exhausted.
LETTER XXIII.
Mount Barkal.
May 28, 1844.
I expect every moment the transport-boats requested of Hassan Pasha, which set out eleven days ago, and are to take up our Ethiopian treasures, and bring ourselves to Dongola. The results of our researches at this place are not without importance. On the whole, it is perfectly settled that Ethiopian art is only a later branch of the Egyptian. It does not begin under native rulers until Tahraka. The little which yet remains to us of a former age belongs to the Egyptian conquerors and their artists. It is wholly confined here, at least, to one temple, which Ramses the Great erected to Amen-Ra. Certainly the name of Amenophis III. has been found on several granite rams, as upon the London lions of Lord Prudhoe;[87] but there are good grounds for suspecting that these stately colossi did not originally belong to a temple here. They were transported hither at a later period from Soleb, as it would seem, probably by the Ethiopian king whose name is found engraven on the breast of the lions above mentioned, and which has, on account of the erroneous omission of a sign, been hitherto read Amen Asru, instead of Mi Amen Asru.
But I have found these rams so remarkable, chiefly on account of their inscriptions, that I have resolved to take the best of them with us. The fat sheep may weigh 150 cwt. Yet he had been drawn to the shore on rollers within three hot days by ninety-two fellahs, where he awaits his embarkation. Several other monuments are to accompany us hence, the weight of which we need not fear, now we have the deserts behind us. I only mention an Ethiopian altar four feet high, with the cartouches of the king erecting it; a statue of Isis, on the back pillar of which there is an Ethiopian demotic inscription in eighteen lines, and another from Méraui; as also the peculiar monument bearing the name of Amenophis III., which was copied by Cailliaud, and taken for a foot, but in reality is the underpart of the sacred sparrow-hawk. All these monuments are of black granite.[88]
The city of Napata, the name of which I have often found hieroglyphically, and already on Tahraka’s monuments, was doubtless situated somewhat lower down the river by the present place Méraui, where considerable mounds testify for such a conjecture. In the neighbourhood of the mountain the temples and pyramids only were situated. In the hieroglyphical inscriptions, this remarkable rock-mass bears the name of the “holy mountain,”