CHAPTER III

.

FIRST THEBAN KINGDOM.

XITH AND XIITH DYNASTY OF MANETHO.

B.C. 2528? Sankhkara reigned 46 years. Amenemhat reigned 38 years. Osirtasen reigned 48 years. Amenemhat III. (Lampares) reigned 8 years. (Builder of Labyrinth.) His successors reigned 42 years. B.C. 2340?

The great culminating period of the old kingdom of Egypt is that belonging to the 4th and 5th dynasties. Nine-tenths of the monuments of the pyramid-builders which have come down to our time belong to the five centuries during which these two dynasties ruled over Egypt (B.C. 3500-3000).

The 6th dynasty was of a southern and more purely African origin. On the tablets of Apap[45] (Apophis), its most famous monarch, we find the worship of Khem and other deities of the Theban period wholly unknown to the pyramid kings. The next four dynasties are of _fainéant_ kings, of whom we know little, not “Carent quia vate sacro,” but because they were not builders, and their memory is lost. The 11th and 12th usher in a new state of affairs. The old Memphite pyramid-building kingdom had passed, with its peaceful contentment, and had given place to a warlike idolatrous race of Theban kings, far more purely African, the prototypes of the great monarchy of the 18th and 19th dynasties, and having no affinity with anything we know of as existing in Asia in those times.

Their empire lasted apparently for more than 300 years in Upper Egypt; but for the latter portion of that period they do not seem to have reigned over the whole country, having been superseded in Lower Egypt by the invasion of the hated Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, about the year 2300 B.C., and by whom they also were finally totally overthrown.

When we turn from the contemplation of the pyramids, and the monuments contemporary with them, to examine those of the 12th dynasty, we become at once aware of the change which has taken place. Instead of the pyramids, all of which are situated on the western side of the Nile, we have obelisks, which, without a single exception, are found on its eastern side towards the rising sun, apparently in contradistinction to the valley of the dead, which was towards the side on which he set. The earliest and one of the finest of these obelisks is that still standing at Heliopolis, inscribed with the name of Osirtasen, one of the first and greatest kings of this dynasty. It is 67 ft. 4 in. in height, without the pyramidion which crowns it, and is a splendid block of granite, weighing 217 tons. It must have required immense skill to quarry it, to transport it from Syene, and finally, after finishing it, to erect it where it now stands and has stood for 4500 years.

We find the sculptures of the same king at Wady Halfah, near the second cataract, in Nubia; and at Sarabout el Kadem, in the Sinaitic Peninsula. He also commenced the great temple of Karnac at Thebes, which in the hands of his successors became the most splendid in Egypt, and perhaps it is not too much to say the greatest architectural monument in the whole world.

As might be expected, from our knowledge of the fact that the Hyksos invasion took place so soon after his reign, none of his structural buildings now remain entire in which we might read the story of his conquests, and learn to which gods of the Pantheon he especially devoted himself. We must therefore fall back on Manetho for an account of his “conquering all Asia in the space of nine years, and Europe as far as Thrace.”[46] While there is nothing to contradict this statement, there is much that renders it extremely probable.

THE LABYRINTH.

It is to this dynasty also that we owe the erection of the Labyrinth, one of the most remarkable, as well as one of the most mysterious monuments of Egypt. All Manetho tells us of this is, that Lampares, or Mœris, “built it as a sepulchre for himself;” and the information we derive from the Greeks on this subject is so contradictory and so full of the wonderful, that it is extremely difficult to make out either the plan or the purpose of the building. As long ago as 1843, the whole site was excavated and thoroughly explored by the officers of the Prussian expedition under Lepsius; but, like most of the information obtained by that ill-conditioned party, such data as have been given are of the most unsatisfactory and fragmentary form. The position which Lepsius claimed for the Labyrinth has been found by Mr. Petrie[47] to be incorrect; the remains supposed to be those of the walls and chambers are of much later date, being only the houses and tombs of the population which destroyed the great structure. The village thus created was established on the outer portion of the site when the destruction of the buildings was first commenced. Mr. Petrie calculates that the Labyrinth was symmetrical with the pyramid, and had the same axis: that it occupied a site of about 1000 feet wide by 800 ft. deep; thus covering an area sufficiently large to accommodate all the Theban temples on the east bank, and in addition one of the largest on the west bank. The essential difference between the Labyrinth and all other temples was that it consisted of a series of eighteen large peristylar courts with sanctuaries and other chambers. Of these, according to Herodotus, there were six, side by side, facing north; six others, opposite, facing south, and a wall surrounding the whole. Herodotus, however, was allowed to see portions only of the Labyrinth, probably those nearest to the entrance. Beyond this, on the north side, Mr. Petrie suggests the existence of a third series of peristylar courts (described by Strabo), with sanctuaries and other chambers, and south of these, halls of columns, and smaller halls, through which Strabo entered. In the hall of twenty-seven columns, mentioned by Strabo, Mr. Petrie places the columns in one row to form a vestibule to the entrances to the courts similar to the temple of Abydos. The whole disposition of the plan, the style of the courts and their peristyles must be conjectural, as no remains of blocks of stone or columns in sufficient preservation have been found on which to base a restoration. On some architrave blocks were found inscriptions of Amenemhat III. and Sebekneferu. The last remains were taken away within our own time by the engineers of the new railway, and apparently with the consent of the officials of the Boulak Museum, who reported that they had been quarried from the native rock.

PYRAMIDS.

The Hawara Pyramid, on the north of the Labyrinth, and erected by the same King Amenemhat III., has been examined by Mr. Petrie and described by him.[48] As the rock on which it was built was little more than hardened sand, a pit was excavated, into which a monolithic chamber of granite, brought from Upper Egypt, and weighing 100 tons, was lowered. The sarcophagus and two other coffins having been placed in it, the chamber was covered over with three granite beams, 4 feet thick, one of which was raised in a hollow chamber, and supported there till after the King’s death and the deposit of his body in the sarcophagus. Round the granite monolith were built walls which carried two courses of stone blocks, the lower horizontal, the upper courses sloping one against the other, as in the Great Pyramid. The rest of the pyramid was constructed in brick, and to prevent the brickwork settling down and splitting on the pointed roof-stones, an arch of five courses of brick, measuring 3 feet deep, was thrown across, resting on bricks laid in mud between the arch and the stonework. The brickwork above the arch was laid in sand, and the whole pyramid covered with a casing of limestone. The size of the pyramid Mr. Petrie calculates to have been about 334 ft. wide and 191 ft. high.

A second pyramid belonging to this dynasty, and erected by Osirtasen II., has also been examined and described by Mr. Petrie.[49] This pyramid (Illahun) is of peculiar construction, being partly composed of the natural rock dressed into form to a height of 40 feet, above which rose the built portion, which was different from that of any other pyramid, being built with a framing of cross walls. The walls ran right through the diagonals up to the top of the building, and had offset walls at right angles to the sides, the walls being of stone in the lower part, and brick above; the filling-in between the walls was of mud and brick, and the whole pyramid, brick, stone, and rock, was covered with a casing of limestone.

AN EGYPTIAN TOWN.

[Illustration: 14. Plans of Houses, Kahun.]

The most remarkable discovery made by Mr. Petrie in the Fayum[50] was the finding of the plan, more or less complete, of the town or village of Kahun, which was built for the workmen and overseers of the Illahun pyramid, and deserted shortly after its completion. The plan would seem to have been laid out from one design, and consisted: of an acropolis or raised space, where the house of the chief controller of the works was placed, and which might have been occupied by the King when he came to inspect the works: a series of large houses (Woodcut No. 14), arranged very much in the same way as those of Pompeii, and containing a great number of halls, courts, and rooms; and many streets of workmen’s dwellings of two or three rooms each. The walls were all built in crude brick, the rooms being covered over with roofs formed of beams of wood, on which poles were placed, and to these bundles of straw and reeds lashed down, the whole being covered inside and outside with mud. In those rooms, which exceeded 8 or 9 ft. in width, columns of stone or wood were employed to assist in carrying the roof; such columns being octagonal or with sixteen sides, fluted or ribbed like the reed or lotus column at Beni-Hasan. The lower portion of a fluted column in wood was found, existing still in situ on its base, which shows that description of column to have had a wooden origin.

TOMBS.

The most interesting series of monuments of this dynasty which have come down to our time are the tombs of Beni-Hasan, in Middle Egypt. They are situated on the eastern side of the Nile, as are also those of Tel-el-Amarna, Sheykh-Said, Kôm-el-ahman, and others. The character of the sculptures which adorn their walls approaches that found in the tombs surrounding the pyramids, but the architecture differs widely. They are all cheerful-looking halls, open to the light of day, many of them with pillared porches, and all possessing pretensions to architectural ornament, either internal or external.

[Illustration: 15. Tomb at Beni-Hasan.]

One of the most interesting of the tombs has in front of it a portico-in-antis of two columns, in architecture so like the order afterwards employed by the Greeks, as to have been frequently described as the Proto-Doric order.[51] The same class of column is also used internally, supporting a plain architrave beam, from which spring curvilinear roofs of segmented form, which there is no doubt are imitations of constructive arch forms.

[Illustration: 16. Proto-Doric Pillar at Beni-Hasan.]

[Illustration: 17. Reed Pillar from Beni-Hasan.]

[Illustration: 18. Lotus pier, Zawyet-el-Mayyitûr. (From Lepsius.)]

There is another form of pillar used at Beni-Hasan at that early age[52] which is still further removed from stone than even the Proto-Doric. It imitates a bundle of four reeds or lotus-stalks bound together near the top, and bulging above the ligature so as to form a capital. Such a pier must evidently have been originally employed in wooden architecture only, and the roof which it supports is in this instance of light wooden construction, having the slight slope requisite in the dry climate of Egypt. In after ages this form of pillar became a great favourite with the Egyptian architects, and was employed in all their great monuments, but with a far more substantial lithic form than we find here, and in conjunction with the hollow—or, as we should call it, Corinthian—formed capital, of which no example is found earlier than the 18th dynasty.

These are meagre records, it must be confessed, of so great a kingdom; but when we come to consider the remoteness of the period, and that the dynasty was overthrown by the Shepherds, whose rule was of considerable duration, it is perhaps in vain to expect that much can remain to be disinterred which would enable us to realise more fully the architectural art of this age.

SHEPHERDS.

Till very recently our knowledge of the Shepherd kings was almost entirely derived from what was said of them by Manetho, in the extracts from his writings so fortunately preserved by Josephus, in his answer to Apion. Recent explorations have however raised a hope that even their monuments may be so far recovered as to enable us to realise to some extent at least who they were and what their aspirations.

Manetho tells us they came from the East, but fearing the then rising power of the Assyrians, they fortified Avaris as a bulwark against them, and used it during their sojourn in Egypt to keep up their communications with their original seat. Recent explorations have enabled M. Mariette to identify San, Zoan, or Tanis, a well-known site on the Bubastite branch of the Nile, with this Avaris. And already he has disinterred a sphinx and two seated statues which certainly belong to the reign of the Shepherd king Apophis.[53]

The character of these differs widely from anything hitherto found in Egypt. They present a physiognomy strongly marked with an Asiatic type— an arched nose, rude bushy hair, and great muscular development; altogether something wholly different from everything else found in Egypt either before or afterwards.

This is not much, but it is an earnest that more remains to be discovered, and adds another to the proofs that are daily accumulating, how implicitly Manetho may be relied upon when we only read him correctly, and how satisfactory it is to find that every discovery that is made confirms the conclusions we had hesitatingly been adopting.

It appears from such fragmentary evidence as has hitherto been gleaned from the monuments, that the Shepherds’ invasion was neither sudden nor at once completely successful, if indeed it ever was so, for it is certain that Theban and Xoite dynasties co-existed with the Shepherds during the whole period of their stay, either from policy, like the protected princes under our sway in India, or because their conquest was not so complete as to enable them to suppress the national dynasties altogether.

Like the Tartars in China they seem to have governed the country by means of the original inhabitants, but for their own purposes; tolerating their religion and institutions, but ruling by the superior energy of their race the peace-loving semi-Semitic inhabitants of the Delta, till they were in their turn overthrown and expelled by the more warlike but more purely African races of the southern division of the Egyptian valley.

##