Ancient Egypt by George Rawlinson

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[Illustration: GREAT HALL OF COLUMNS AT KARNAK (RESTORED.)]

ANCIENT EGYPT

BY

GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A.

CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD AND
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF TURIN; AUTHOR OF "THE FIVE
GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD." ETC., ETC.

_WITH THE COLLABORATION OF_

ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A. AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF ROME," ETC.

_TENTH EDITION_

LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.C.

COPYRIGHT BY T. FISHER UNWIN, 1886 (For Great Britain)

TO REGINALD STUART POOLE, KEEPER OF COINS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
AND CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
MUCH HELP AND MUCH PLEASURE DERIVED FROM HIS EGYPTIAN LABOURS.

CONTENTS.

I.

THE LAND OF EGYPT 1-22

General shape of Egypt, 1--Chief divisions: twofold division, 2;
threefold division, 3--The Egypt of the maps unreal, 4--Egypt, "the gift
of the river," in what sense, 5, 6--The Fayoum, 7--- Egyptian
speculations concerning the Nile, 7, 8--The Nile not beautiful, 8--Size
of Egypt, 9--Fertility, 10--Geographical situation, 11, 12--The Nile, as
a means of communication, 12, 13, Phenomena of the inundation, 13,
14--Climate of Egypt. 14--Geology, 15--Flora and Fauna, 16, 17--General
monotony, 19--Exceptions, 20-22.

II.

THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT 23-45

Origin of the Egyptians, 23--Phenomena of their language and type,
24--Two marked varieties of physique. 25--Two types of character: the
melancholic, 25, 27: the gay, 27-29--Character of the Egyptian religion:
polytheism, 30, 31--Animal worship, 31-33--Worship of the monarch,
33--Osirid saga, 34, 35--Evil gods, 36--Local cults, 37--Esoteric
religion, 38; how reconciled with the popular belief, 39--Conviction of
a life after death, 40, 41--Moral code, 41-43--Actual state of morals,
43--Ranks of society, 44, 45.

III.

THE DAWN OF HISTORY 45-64

Early Egyptian myths: the Seb and Thoth legends, 46, 47--The destruction
of mankind by Ra, 48--Traditions concerning M'na, or Menes, 48--Site of
Memphis, 49--Great Temple of Phthah at Memphis, 50, 51--Names of
Memphis, 51--Question of the existence of M'na, 52, 53--Supposed
successors of M'na, 54--First historical Egyptian, Sneferu, 55--The
Egypt of his time, 56--Hieroglyphics, 57--Tombs, 58--Incipient pyramids,
59, 60--Social condition of the people, 60--Manners, 61--Position of
women, 62-64.

IV.

THE PYRAMID BUILDERS 65-94

Difficult to realize the conception of a great pyramid, 65--Egyptian
idea of one, 66--Number of pyramids in Egypt: the Principal Three,
67--Description of the "Third Pyramid," 67-71; of the "Second Pyramid,"
72; of the "First" or "Great Pyramid," 75-81--The traditional builders,
Khufu, Shafra, and Menkaura, 82; the pyramids their tombs, 82--Grandeur
of Khufu's conception, 83--Cruelty involved in it, 84, 85--The builders'
hopes not realized, 85, 86--Skill displayed in the construction,
86--Magnificence of the architectural effect, 89--Inferiority of the
"Third Pyramid," 90--Continuance of the pyramid period, 91-94.

V.

THE RISE OF THEBES TO POWER, AND THE EARLY THEBAN KINGS 95-119

Shift of the seat of power--site of Thebes, 95--Origin of the name of
Thebes, 96--Earliest known Theban king, Antef I., 97--His successors,
Mentu-hotep I. and "Antef the Great," 98--Other Antefs and Mentu-hoteps,
98, 99--Sankh-ka-ra and his fleet, 99, 100--Dynasty of Usurtasens and
Amenemhats: spirit of their civilization, 100, 101--Reign of Amenemhat
I., 102--His wars and hunting expeditions, 103, 104--Usurtasen I.: his
wars, 105--His sculptures and architectural works, 106--His obelisk,
107, 109--Reign of Amenemhat II.: tablet belonging to his time, 109,
110--Usurtasen II. and his conquests, 111, 112.

VI.

THE GOOD AMENEMHAT AND HIS WORKS 113-123

Dangers connected with the inundation of the Nile, twofold, 113--An
excessive inundation, 114; a defective one, 115--Sufferings from these
causes under Amenemhat III., 115, 116--Possible storage of water,
117--Amenemhat's reservoir, the "Lake Moeris," 118--Doubts as to its
dimensions, 119, 120--Amenemhat's "Labyrinth," 121--His pyramid, and
name of Ra-n-mat, 122, 123.

VII.

ABRAHAM IN EGYPT 124-131

Wanderings of the Patriarch, 124--Necessity which drove him into Egypt,
125--Passage of the Desert, 126--A dread anxiety unfaithfully met,
127--Reception on the frontier, and removal of Sarah to the court,
128--Abraham's material well-being, 129--The Pharaoh restores Sarah,
130--Probable date of the visit, 130--Other immigrants, 131.

VIII.

THE GREAT INVASION--THE HYKSOS OR SHEPHERD KINGS--JOSEPH AND APEPI
132-146

Exemption of Egypt hitherto from foreign attack, 132--Threatening
movements among the populations of Asia, 133--Manetho's tale of the
"Shepherd" invasion, 134--The probable reality, 135, 136--Upper Egypt
not overrun, 137--The first Hyksos king, Set, or Saites, 138--Duration
of the rule, doubtful, 139--Character of the rule improves with time,
140--Apepi's great works at Tanis, 144--Apepi and Ra-sekenen, 145--Apepi
and Joseph, 146.

IX.

HOW THE HYKSOS WERE EXPELLED FROM EGYPT 147-169

Rapid deterioration of conquering races generally, 147, 148--Recovery of
the Egyptians from the ill effects of the invasion, 149--Second rise of
Thebes to greatness, 150--War of Apepi with Ra-sekenen III.,
151--Succession of Aahmes; war continues, 152--The Hyksos quit Egypt,
153--Aahmes perhaps assisted by the Ethiopians, 153-157.

X.

THE FIRST GREAT WARRIOR KING, THOTHMES I. 158-169

Early wars of Thothmes in Ethiopia and Nubia, 158-160--His desire to
avenge the Hyksos invasion, 161--Condition of Western Asia at this
period, 162, 163--Geographical sketch of the countries to be attacked,
164, 165--Probable information of Thothmes on these matters, 167--His
great expedition into Syria and Mesopotamia, 167--His buildings,
168--His greatness insufficiently appreciated, 169.

XI.

QUEEN HATASU AND HER MERCHANT FLEET 170-188

High estimation of women in Egypt, 170--Early position of Hatasu as
joint ruler with Thothmes II., 173--Her buildings at this period,
173--Her assumption of male attire and titles, 174-177--Her nominal
regency for Thothmes III., and real sovereignty, 177, 178--Construction
and voyage of her fleet, 178, 183--Return of the expedition to Thebes,
184--Construction of a temple to commemorate it, 185--Joint reign of
Hatasu with Thothmes III.--Her obelisks, 186--Her name obliterated by
Thothmes, 187.

XII.

THOTHMES THE THIRD AND AMENHOTEP THE SECOND 189-207

First expedition of Thothmes III. into Asia, 189-191--His second and
subsequent campaigns, 191, 192--Great expedition of his thirty-third
year, 192, 193--Adventure with an elephant, 194--Further expeditions:
amount of plunder and tribute, 195--Interest in natural history,
196--Employment of a navy, 197--Song of victory on the walls of the
Temple of Karnak, 198-199--Architectural works, 199-201--Their present
wide diffusion, 202--Thothmes compared with Alexander, 203--Description
of his person, 204--Position of the Israelites under Thothmes III.,
205--Short reign of Amenhotep II., 206.

XIII.

AMEN-HOTEP III. AND HIS GREAT WORKS--THE VOCAL MEMNON 208-222

The "Twin Colossi" of Thebes: their impressiveness, 208-211--The account
given of them by their sculptor, 212--The Eastern Colossus, why called
"The Vocal Memnon," 213, 214--Earliest testimony to its being "vocal,"
214--Rational account of the phenomenon, 215-217--Amenhotep's temple at
Luxor, 217, 218--His other buildings, 219--His wars and expeditions,
219, 220--His lion hunts; his physiognomy and character, 221, 222.

XIV.

KHUENATEN AND THE DISK-WORSHIPPERS 223-230

Obscure nature of the heresy of the Disk-worshippers, 223-225--Possible
connection of Disk-worship with the Israelites, 226--Hostility of the
Disk-worshippers to the old Egyptian religion, 227--The introduction of
the "heresy" traced to Queen Taia, 228--Great development of the
"heresy" under her son, Amenhotep IV., or Khuenaten, 229--Other changes
introduced by him, 230.

XV.

BEGINNING OF THE DECLINE OF EGYPT 231-252

Advance of the Hittite power in Syria, 231--War of Saplal with Ramesses
I., 231--War of Seti I. with Maut-enar, 232--Great Syrian campaign of
Seti, followed by a treaty, 233, 235--Seti's other wars, 236--His great
wall, 237--Hittite war of Ramesses II., 238, 240--Poem of Pentaour,
241--Results of the battle of Kadesh, a new treaty and an
inter-marriage, 242, 243--Military decline of Egypt, 244--Egyptian art
reaches its highest point: Great Hall of Columns at Karnak, 245--Tomb of
Seti, 246, 247--Colossi of Ramesses II., 248--Ramesses II. the great
oppressor of the Israelites, 249--- Physiognomies of Seti I. and
Ramesses II, 250-252.

XVI.

MENEPHTHAH I., THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS 253-268

Good prospect of peace on Menephthah's accession, 253--General sketch of
his reign, 254--Invasion of the Maxyes, 255--Their Mediterranean allies,
256, 257--Repulse of the invasion, 258-261--Israelite troubles,
262-264--Loss of the Egyptian chariot force in the Red Sea,
265--Internal revolts and difficulties, 265--General review of the
civilization of the period, 266-268.

XVII.

THE DECLINE OF EGYPT UNDER THE LATER RAMESSIDES 269-287

Temporary disintegration of Egypt, 269--Reign of Setnekht, 270--Reign of
Ramesses III., 271--General restlessness of the nations in his time
272,--Libyan invasion of Egypt, 273, 274--Great invasion of the Tekaru,
Tanauna, and others, 275, 276--First naval battle on record, 277,
278--Part taken by Ramesses in the fight, 278-281--Campaign of revenge,
282--Later years of Ramesses peaceful, 283--General decline of Egypt,
284--Insignificance of the later Ramessides, 284, 285--Deterioration in
art, literature, and morals, 285, 287.

XVIII.

THE PRIEST-KINGS--PINETEM AND SOLOMON 288-297

Influence of the priests in Egypt, 288--Ordinary relations between them
and the kings, 289--High-priesthood of Ammon becomes hereditary; Herhor,
290--Reign of Pinetem I., 293--Reign of Men-khepr-ra, 294--Rise of the
kingdom of the Israelites, 295--Friendly relations established between
Pinetem II. and Solomon, 296--Effect on Hebrew art and architecture,
297.

XIX.

SHISHAK AND HIS DYNASTY 298-313

Shishak's family Semitic, but not Assyrian or Babylonian, 298--Connected
by marriage with the priest-kings, 299, 300--Reception of Jeroboam by
Shishak, 301--Shishak's expedition against Rehoboam, 302--Aid lent to
Jeroboam in his own kingdom, 303--Arab conquests, 304--Karnak
inscription, 305--Shishak's successors, 306--War of Zerah (Osorkon II.?)
with Asa, 307--Effect of Zerah's defeat, 309--Decline of the dynasty,
310--Disintegration of Egypt, 310, 311--Further deterioration in
literature and art, 311-313.

XX.

THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS--EGYPT UNDER THE ETHIOPIANS 314-330

Vague use of the term Ethiopia, 314--Ethiopian kingdom of Napata,
315--Wealth of Napata, 316--Piankhi's rise to power, 317--His
protectorate of Egypt, 318--Revolt of Tafnekht and others,
318--Suppression of the revolt, 319-323--Death of Piankhi, and revolt of
Bek-en-ranf, 323--Power of Shabak established over Egypt, 324--General
character of the Ethiopian rule, 325--Advance of Assyria towards the
Egyptian border, 325--Collision between Sargon and Shabak, 326--Reign of
Shabatok--Sennacherib threatens Egypt, 327--Reign of Tehrak, 328-330.

XXI.

THE FIGHT OVER THE CARCASE--ETHIOPIA _v_. ASSYRIA 331-341

Egypt attacked by Esarhaddon, 331, 332--Great battle near Memphis,
333--Memphis taken, and flight of Tehrak to Napata, 334--Egypt split up
into small states by Esarhaddon, 334, 335--Tehrak renews the struggle,
336--Tehrak driven out by Asshur-bani-pal, 337--His last effort,
337--Attempt made by Rut-Ammon fails, 338--Temporary success of
Mi-Ammon-nut, 339--Egypt becomes once more an Assyrian dependency,
340--Her wretched condition, 341.

XXII.

THE CORPSE COMES TO LIFE AGAIN--PSAMATIK I. AND HIS SON, NECO 342-359

Foreign help needed to save a sinking state, 342--Libyan origin of
Psamatik I., 344--His revolt connected with the decline of Assyria,
345--Assistance rendered him by Gyges, 345--His struggle with the petty
princes, 346--Reign of Psamatik: place assigned by him to the
mercenaries, 347--His measures for restoring Egypt to her former
prosperity, 348, 349--He encourages intercourse between Egypt and
Greece, 350-352--Egypt restored to life: character of the new life,
353--Later years of Psamatik: conquest of Ashdod, 354--Reign of Neco:
his two fleets, 355--His circumnavigation of Africa, 356--His conquest
of Syria, 357--Jeremiah on the battle of Carchemish, 358--Neco's dream
of empire terminates, 359.

XXIII

THE LATER SAITE KINGS--PSAMATIK II., APRIES, AND AMASIS 360-367

The Saitic revival in art and architecture,360--Some recovery of
military strength, 361--Expedition of Psamatik II. into Ethiopia,
362--Part taken by Apries in the war between Nebuchadnezzar and
Zedekiah, 363--His Phoenician conquests, 364--His expedition against
Cyrene, 364--Invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, 365--Quiet reign of
Amasis, 366--The Saitic revival not the recovery of true national life,
367.

XXIV.

THE PERSIAN CONQUEST 368-380

Patient acquiescence of Amasis in his position of tributary to Babylon,
368--Rise of the Persian power under Cyrus, and appeal made by Croesus to
Amasis, League of Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon, 369, 370--Precipitancy of
Croesus, 371--Fall of Babylon, 371--Later wars of Cyrus,
372--Preparations made against Egypt by Cambyses, 373, 374--Great battle
of Pelusium, 375--Psamatik III, besieged in Memphis, 376--Fall of
Memphis, and cruel treatment of the Egyptians by Cambyses, 377, 378--His
iconoclasm checked by some considerations of policy, 379--Conciliatory
measures of Darius Hystaspis, 379, 380.

XXV.

THREE DESPERATE REVOLTS 380-386

First revolt, under Khabash, easily suppressed by Xerxes, 381,
382--Second revolt under Inarus and Amyrtaeus, assisted by Athens, 382,
383--Suppressed by Megabyzus, 384--Herodotus in Egypt, 385--Third
revolt, under Nefaa-rut, attains a certain success; a native monarchy
re-established, 386.

XXVI.

NECTANEBO I.--A LAST GLEAM OF SUNSHINE 387-392

Unquiet time under the earlier successors of Nefaa-rut,
387--Preparations of Nectanebo (Nekht Hor-heb) for the better protection
of Egypt against the Persians, 388--Invasion of Egypt by Pharnabazus and
Iphicrates, 389--Failure of the expedition, 390--A faint revival of art
and architecture, 391.

XXVII.

THE LIGHT GOES OUT IN DARKNESS 393-402

Reign of Te-her (Tacho), 393--Reign of Nectanebo II. (Nekht-nebf),
394--Revolt of Sidon, and great expedition of Ochus, 394, 395--Sidon
betrayed by Tennes and Memnon of Rhodes, 396--March upon Egypt:
disposition of the Persian forces, 397--Skirmish at Pelusium, and
retreat of Nekht-nebf to Memphis, 398, 399--Capture of Pelusium,
399--Surrender of Bubastis, 400--Nehkt-nebf flies to Ethiopia,
401--General reflections, 402.

INDEX 403

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PILLARED HALL OF SETI I _Frontispiece_

DOM AND DATE PALM TREES 17

FIGURES OF TAOURT 36

FIGURE OF BES 37

TABLET OF SNEFERU AT WADY-MAGHARAH 55

PYRAMID OF MEYDOUM 59

GREAT PYRAMID OF SACCARAH 61

SECTION OF THE SAME 61

GROUP OF STATUARY--HUSBAND AND WIFE 63

SECTION OF THE THIRD PYRAMID 69

TOMB CHAMBER IN THE SAME 69

SARCOPHAGUS OF MYCERINUS 73

SECTION OF THE SECOND PYRAMID 73

SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID 76

KING'S CHAMBER AND CHAMBERS OF CONSTRUCTION IN THE GREAT PYRAMID 77

THE GREAT GALLERY IN THE SAME 79

VIEW OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PYRAMID 87

SPEARING THE CROCODILE 103

OBELISK OF USURTASEN I. ON THE SITE OF HELIOPOLIS 107

BUST OF A SHEPHERD KING 141

HEAD OF NEFERTARI-AAHMES 155

BUST OF THOTHMES I 159

HEAD OF THOTHMES II 171

HEAD OF QUEEN HATASU 171

GROUND-PLAN OF TEMPLE AT MEDINET-ABOU 175

EGYPTIAN SHIP IN THE TIME OF HATASU 183

HOUSE BUILT ON PILES IN THE LAND OF PUNT 181

THE QUEEN OF PUNT AT THE COURT OF HATASU 183

SECTION OF THE PILLARED HALL OF THOTHMES III. AT KARNAC 201

BUST OF THOTHMES III 205

TWIN COLOSSI OF AMENHOTEP III. AT THEBES 209

BUST OF AMENHOTEP III 221

KHUENATEN WORSHIPPING THE SOLAR DISK 225

HEAD OF AMENHOTEP IV. OR KHUENATEN 229

HEAD OF SETI I. 250

BUST OF RAMESSES II. 251

HEAD OF MENEPHTHAH 255

SEA-FIGHT IN THE TIME OF RAMESSES III. 279

CARICATURE OF THE TIME OF THE SAME 286

HEAD OF HER-HOR 291

FIGURE RECORDING THE CONQUEST OF JUDAEA BY SHISHAK 305

HEAD OF SHISHAK 307

PIANKHI RECEIVING THE SUBMISSION OF TAFNEKHT AND OTHERS 320

HEAD OF SHABAK 325

SEAL OF SHABAK 327

HEAD OF TIRHAKAH 329

FIGURE OF ESAR-HADDON AT THE NAHR-EL-KELB 335

HEAD OF PSAMATIK I 344

BAS-RELIEFS OF THE TIME OF PSAMATIK 351

HEAD OF NECO 355

THE STORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.

I.

THE LAND OF EGYPT.

In shape Egypt is like a lily with a crooked stem. A broad blossom
terminates it at its upper end; a button of a bud projects from the
stalk a little below the blossom, on the left-hand side. The broad
blossom is the Delta, extending from Aboosir to Tineh, a direct distance
of a hundred and eighty miles, which the projection of the coast--the
graceful swell of the petals--enlarges to two hundred and thirty. The
bud is the Fayoum, a natural depression in the hills that shut in the
Nile valley on the west, which has been rendered cultivable for many
thousands of years by the introduction into it of the Nile water,
through a canal known as the "Bahr Yousouf." The long stalk of the lily
is the Nile valley itself, which is a ravine scooped in the rocky soil
for seven hundred miles from the First Cataract to the apex of the
Delta, sometimes not more than a mile broad, never more than eight or
ten miles. No other country in the world is so strangely shaped, so
long compared to its width, so straggling, so hard to govern from a
single centre.

At the first glance, the country seems to divide itself into two
strongly contrasted regions; and this was the original impression which
it made upon its inhabitants. The natives from a very early time
designated their land as "the two lands," and represented it by a
hieroglyph in which the form used to express "land" was doubled. The
kings were called "chiefs of the Two Lands," and wore two crowns, as
being kings of two countries. The Hebrews caught up the idea, and though
they sometimes called Egypt "Mazor" in the singular number, preferred
commonly to designate it by the dual form "Mizraim," which means "the
two Mazors." These "two Mazors," "two Egypts," or "two lands," were, of
course, the blossom and the stalk, the broad tract upon the
Mediterranean known as "Lower Egypt," or "the Delta," and the long
narrow valley that lies, like a green snake, to the south, which bears
the name of "Upper Egypt," or "the Said." Nothing is more striking than
the contrast between these two regions. Entering Egypt from the
Mediterranean, or from Asia by the caravan route, the traveller sees
stretching before him an apparently boundless plain, wholly unbroken by
natural elevations, generally green with crops or with marshy plants,
and canopied by a cloudless sky, which rests everywhere on a distant
flat horizon. An absolute monotony surrounds him. No alternation of
plain and highland, meadow and forest, no slopes of hills, or hanging
woods, or dells, or gorges, or cascades, or rushing streams, or babbling
rills, meet his gaze on any side; look which way he will, all is
sameness, one vast smooth expanse of rich alluvial soil, varying only in
being cultivated or else allowed to lie waste. Turning his back with
something of weariness on the dull uniformity of this featureless plain,
the wayfarer proceeds southwards, and enters, at the distance of a
hundred miles from the coast, on an entirely new scene. Instead of an
illimitable prospect meeting him on every side, he finds himself in a
comparatively narrow vale, up and down which the eye still commands an
extensive view, but where the prospect on either side is blocked at the
distance of a few miles by rocky ranges of hills, white or yellow or
tawny, sometimes drawing so near as to threaten an obstruction of the
river course, sometimes receding so far as to leave some miles of
cultivable soil on either side of the stream. The rocky ranges, as he
approaches them, have a stern and forbidding aspect. They rise for the
most part, abruptly in bare grandeur; on their craggy sides grows
neither moss nor heather; no trees clothe their steep heights. They seem
intended, like the mountains that enclosed the abode of Rasselas, to
keep in the inhabitants of the vale within their narrow limits, and bar
them out from any commerce or acquaintance with the regions beyond.

Such is the twofold division of the country which impresses the observer
strongly at the first. On a longer sojourn and a more intimate
familiarity, the twofold division gives place to one which is threefold.
The lower differs from the upper valley, it is a sort of debatable
region, half plain, half vale; the cultivable surface spreads itself out
more widely, the enclosing hills recede into the distance; above all,
to the middle tract belongs the open space of the Fayoum nearly fifty
miles across in its greatest diameter, and containing an area of four
hundred square miles. Hence, with some of the occupants of Egypt a
triple division has been preferred to a twofold one, the Greeks
interposing the "Heptanomis" between the Thebais and the Delta, and the
Arabs the "Vostani" between the Said and the Bahari, or "country of the
sea."

It may be objected to this description, that the Egypt which it presents
to the reader is not the Egypt of the maps. Undoubtedly it is not. The
maps give the name of Egypt to a broad rectangular space which they mark
out in the north-eastern corner of Africa, bounded on two sides by the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the two others by two imaginary
lines which the map-makers kindly draw for us across the sands of the
desert. But "this Egypt," as has been well observed, "is a fiction of
the geographers, as untrue to fact as the island Atlantis of Greek
legend, or the Lyonnesse of mediaeval romance, both sunk beneath the
ocean to explain their disappearance. The true Egypt of the old
monuments, of the Hebrews, of the Greeks and Romans, of the Arabs, and
of its own people in this day, is a mere fraction of this vast area of
the maps, nothing more than the valley and plain watered by the Nile,
for nearly seven hundred miles by the river's course from the
Mediterranean southwards."[1] The great wastes on either side of the
Nile valley are in no sense Egypt, neither the undulating sandy desert
to the west, nor the rocky and gravelly highland to the east, which
rises in terrace after terrace to a height, in some places, of six
thousand feet. Both are sparsely inhabited, and by tribes of a different
race from the Egyptian--tribes whose allegiance to the rulers of Egypt
is in the best times nominal, and who for the most part spurn the very
idea of submission to authority.

If, then, the true Egypt be the tract that we have described--the Nile
valley, with the Fayoum and the Delta--the lily stalk, the bud, and the
blossom--we can well understand how it came to be said of old, that
"Egypt was the gift of the river." Not that the lively Greek, who first
used the expression, divined exactly the scientific truth of the matter.
The fancy of Herodotus saw Africa, originally, _doubly_ severed from
Asia by two parallel _fjords_, one running inland northwards from the
Indian Ocean, as the Red Sea does to this day, and the other penetrating
inland southwards from the Mediterranean to an equal or greater
distance! The Nile, he said, pouring itself into this latter _fjord_,
had by degrees filled it up, and had then gone on and by further
deposits turned into land a large piece of the "sea of the Greeks," as
was evident from the projection of the shore of the Delta beyond the
general coast-line of Africa eastward and westward; and, he added, "I am
convinced, for my own part, that if the Nile should please to divert his
waters from their present bed into the Red Sea, he would fill it up and
turn it into dry land in the space of twenty thousand years, or maybe in
half that time--for he is a mighty river and a most energetic one."
Here, in this last expression, he is thoroughly right, though the method
of the Nile's energy has been other than he supposed. The Nile, working
from its immense reservoirs in the equatorial regions, has gradually
scooped itself out a deep bed in the sand and rock of the desert, which
must have originally extended across the whole of northern Africa from
the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Having scooped itself out this bed to a
depth, in places, of three hundred feet from the desert level, it has
then proceeded partially to fill it up with its own deposits. Occupying,
when it is at its height, the entire bed, and presenting at that time
the appearance of a vast lake, or succession of lakes, it deposes every
day a portion of sediment over the whole space which it covers: then,
contracting gradually, it leaves at the base of the hills, on both
sides, or at any rate on one, a strip of land fresh dressed with mud,
which gets wider daily as the waters still recede, until yards grow into
furlongs, and furlongs into miles, and at last the shrunk stream is
content with a narrow channel a few hundred yards in width, and leaves
the rest of its bed to the embraces of sun and air, and, if he so wills,
to the industry of man. The land thus left exposed is Egypt--Egypt is
the temporarily uncovered bed of the Nile, which it reclaims and
recovers during a portion of each year, when Egypt disappears from view,
save where human labour has by mounds and embankments formed artificial
islands that raise their heads above the waste of waters, for the most
part crowned with buildings.

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