The Rape of the Nile
Page 30
8. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, trans. C. H. Oldfather (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), 1:67. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias, a sonnet written in 1818 in friendly competition with another poet, Horace Smith, who wrote a poem on the same subject. The poem is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Shelley e4, fol. 85r.
9. On Strabo, see H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer, The Geography of Strabo (London: G. Bell, 1906), vol. 3, bk. 17, p. 261.
10. Quotes in this paragraph come from ibid., 262ff.
11. On Rudolph von Suchem, see Greener, op. cit. (1966), 14; and Georges Goyon, Inscriptions et Graffiti des voyagers sur la grande pyramide (Cairo: Société Royale de Géographie, 1944).
12. Caius Plinius Cecilius Secundus (AD 23–79), known as Pliny the Elder, was a scholar, naturalist, and encyclopedist. Despite an active and distinguished public career, he found time to write at least seventy-five books, of which only one, Natural History, published in AD 77, survives. This remarkable work drew on an astonishing range of sources and remained an important reference work right into the Middle Ages. Pliny died during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii.
13. Grene, op. cit. (1987), bk. 2.168, p. 196.
14. Hypostele halls with their many columns are distinctive features of later Egyptian temples, symbolic depictions of the columns that supported the celestial realm of the sky. Said the pharaoh Amenophis III of Karnak in an inscription there: “Its pillars reach heaven like the four pillars of heaven.” The columns also represented the marshland vegetation with its reeds that sprang up around the primeval mound of Egyptian creation.
15. For the Valley of the Kings, see Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996).
16. Quotes in this and the preceding paragraphs come from J. M. Cohen, ed., The Natural History of C. Plinius Secundus (London: Centaur, 1962), 440–441.
17. Quoted in Greener, op. cit. (1966), 23.
18. Ibid., 26.
Chapter 3: “Mummy Is Become Merchandise”
Guide to Further Reading
John David Wortham, The Genesis of British Egyptology (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), is a basic source on the period. Leslie Greener, op. cit., is an entertaining account of the early period of Egyptology and later events. Karl A. Dannenfeldt, “Egypt and Egyptian Antiquities in the Renaissance,” Studies in the Renaissance 6 (1959): 7–27, is a beautifully written study of early Egyptologists. For early decipherment, see Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins, The Keys of Egypt (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
1. The temple of Horus at Edfu was begun by Ptolemy III in 237 BC and completed 180 years later in 57 BC. Edfu was the traditional location of the mythic battle between the gods Horus and Seth and was sometimes called the “Exaltation of Horus.”
2. H. Idris Bell, Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1948), 55.
3. Greener, op. cit. (1966), 27.
4. Ibid., 86.
5. Ibid., 87.
6. Ibid., 26.
7. Ibid., 27–29.
8. Leo Africanus, History and Description of Africa (London: Halkuyt Society, 1896), 37.
9. Greener, op. cit. (1966), 40.
10. Ibid., 42.
11. Ibid., 43.
12. Ibid., 86.
13. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt, eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature (New York: Norton, 1999), 7:1580; Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (1869; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 632.
14. Letter from Cairo dated September 18.1638. Quoted in Greener, op. cit. (1966), 46.
15. James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh: Robinson, 1970), 23.
16. Greener, op. cit. (1966), 61.
17. Benoit de Maillet (1656–1738) made a large collection of Egyptian antiquities, many of which ended up in the royal collections. He later wrote the monumental Description de l’Égypte (1735), which Napoléon’s savants took to Egypt with them. Quoted in Greener, op. cit. (1966), 66.67.
18. Ibid., 74.
19. Joan Evans, A History of the Society of Antiquaries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 233.
20. William George Browne (1768–1813) was an inveterate English traveler who visited Egypt in 1792 and wandered as far as Darfur in the southern Sahara. He was murdered while traveling from England to Tartary in 1813.
CHAPTER 4: NAPOLÉON ON THE NILE
Guide to Further Reading
Christopher Herold’s Bonaparte in Egypt (New York: Harper and Row, 1962) is definitive. Henry Laurens, L’Éxpédition d’Égypte (Paris: A. Collins, 1989), is a standard French history, while Pierre Bret, L’Éxpedition d’Égypte (Paris: Technique et Documentation, 1999), commemorates the bicentennial of the expedition. Dominique-Vivant Denon’s travels are best read in French, but the English translation, Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt (London: Hurst, 1803), is readily available. It is worth going a long way to pore over the Description de l’Égypte (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1809–1828). Only those who have admired the plates firsthand can appreciate their true significance. A fair number of English translations and reproductions have appeared in recent years, but their smaller format does not do justice to the original illustrations. Jean Baptiste Prosper Jollois, Journal d’un Ingénieur attaché a l’Expédition d’Égypte, 1798–1802 (Paris: E. Leroux, 1904), is informative on Desaix de Veygoux’s campaign. Henry Dodwell’s Founder of Modern Egypt (1931; reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967) remains the scholarly and definitive account of Muhammad Ali’s career. On Henry Salt, see D. Manley and P. Rée, Henry Salt: Artist, Traveller, Diplomat, Egyptologist (London: Libri, 2001). See J. J. Halls’s typically nineteenth-century hagiography, The Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt, Esq., F. R. S. (London: R. Bentley, 1834).
1. The American edition is Frederick Lewis Norden, The Travels of Frederick Lewis Morgan Through Egypt and Nubia (New Haven: Sydney’s Press, 1814).
2. Ibid., 56.66. The Battle of Kadesh between the Egyptians and Hittites, fought in 1275 BC, involved 20,000 Egyptian troops and ended in a draw. Both sides, especially Rameses, claimed it as a great victory.
3. A discussion of early theories will be found in Adkins and Adkins, op. cit. (2000), 57ff.
4. Count Constantin-François Chasseboeuf Volney (1757–1820) enjoyed a varied career, spending four years in Egypt and Syria, which resulted in his Voyage en Égypte et en Syrie, published in 1787, a book that is said to have strongly influenced Napoléon, although the count was not an avid supporter of the Corsican.
5. The stela was originally thought to be basalt, but recent cleaning has shown it is gray granite with pink veining. Early-nineteenth-century scientists darkened the stone, perhaps with boot polish, to highlight the inscriptions.
6. Quoted in Adkins and Adkins, op. cit. (2000), 35, where an account of the Rosetta stone’s discovery will be found.
7. Reeves, op. cit. (2000), 14. Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205–180 BC) ascended Egypt’s throne at a young age and was crowned at Memphis during a period of major civil disorder in 196 BC. He allocated land grants and announced tax remissions as part of his coronation, whence the inscription on the Rosetta stone.
8. Quotes in this paragraph come from Denon, op. cit. (1803), 28.
9. Ibid., 66.
10. Greener, op. cit. (1966), 95.
11. Quotes in this and the next paragraphs in ibid., 101–102.
12. Edmé François Jomard (1777–1862) was an engineer, geographer, and antiquarian who was a prominent member of the Scientific Commission. He devoted much of his remaining career to the publication of the Description and is also remembered for his opposition to Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs.
13. Ronald T. Ridley has done Egyptology a great service with his Napoleon’s Proconsul in Egypt (London: Rubicon Press, 1998). In particular, he highlights Drovetti’s remarkable diplomatic skills and his considerable charm
, which served him well in the antiquities business. Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (1776–1839) traveled widely in the Near East dressed in male garments before settling in a remodeled, fortified convent among the Druze of Lebanon, who hailed her as a prophetess, a role she embraced with enthusiasm. Quote from ibid., 57.
14. Aksum (AD 100 to 650) is one of the least-known preindustrial states. Centered on the Ethiopian highlands, its rulers traded with both Mediterranean markets and India through their port at Adulis. Their capital boasts of spectacular royal graves adorned with high stelae modeled like multistory buildings. Aksum declined in the face of Islamic expansion during the seventh century.
15. Sir Joseph Banks (1730–1820) exercised a controlling interest over much of British science for the second half of the eighteenth century. A true polymath, he was at heart an expert botanist. William Hamilton (1730–1803), a diplomat and antiquarian, collected antiquities from Pompeii and elsewhere. He served British interests in Naples during the Napoleonic Wars, where his wife, Emma, dallied with Admiral Lord Nelson.
CHAPTER 5: THE PATAGONIAN SAMPSON
Guide to Further Reading for Chapters 5–10
The literature about Giovanni Belzoni is diffuse, and the number of travelers who refer to his work in their travelogues is enormous. In writing this account I have relied very heavily on his own Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia (London: John Murray, 1820). Belzoni’s book is long, often self-serving, and stylistically clumsy. But it glows with vivid action and restlessness. There is a gusto about it that led me to regard it as a primary source if critically used. Everyone who writes about Belzoni will rely heavily on Stanley Mayes’s definitive and recently reissued biography, The Great Belzoni (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). This is a comprehensive study that involved extensive research into primary sources about Belzoni (a rarity). I found it an invaluable source of background reading and references, and a reliable guide to a complex man. It contains a useful appendix on Belzoni’s finds in the British Museum, which helped me through a spellbound afternoon in the Egyptian Galleries. Maurice Willson Disher’s Pharaoh’s Fool (London: Heinemann, 1957) concentrates on Belzoni’s theatrical exploits, while Colin Clair’s Strong Man Egyptologist (London: Oldbourne, 1957) is a small-scale biography.
1. Mayes, op. cit. (2003), 19.
2. Ibid., 42.
3. Quoted in John Thomas Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day (1803; reprint, London: Bentley, 1861), 63. See Mayes, op. cit. (2003), 51.
4. Gentleman’s Magazine (1821); Mayes, op. cit. (2003), 56.
5. Mayes, op. cit. (2003), 70.
6. Youssef Boghos Bey (1768–1844) was of Armenian descent and was Ali’s most trusted servant and adviser. He effectively controlled the issuance of firmans for excavation throughout Egypt.
7. Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds (1799–1883) was a French geographer and engineer who began his career as a naval surveyor and then traveled in the Near East. He executed many drawings for the antiquarian William Bankes, whose activities are described below, as well as maps of Egypt. In later life, he was actively involved in the planning of the Suez Canal.
8. Bubonic plague was a regular visitor to Egypt until 1844, when it mysteriously disappeared. Cholera, introduced from India, was troublesome in the late nineteenth century. The only known protection was isolating oneself indoors or, for returning travelers to Europe, quarantine.
9. William Turner (1792–1867) traveled extensively in Egypt and later became a diplomat, serving as British envoy to Columbia. His Journals of a Tour of the Levant appeared in three volumes in 1820.
10. The Ibn Tulun mosque was built by the Iraqi Ahmad Ibn Tulun in AD 876–879 and was the short-lived focal point of the city. The mosque is famous for its majestic simplicity and elegant stucco work. For Cairo, see André Raymond, Cairo (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).
11. Quotes in this paragraph come from Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 7–8. Foreign travelers usually donned Turkish dress for safety when traveling in, and certainly outside, Cairo, as Belzoni subsequently did.
12. Ibid., 22.
CHAPTER 6: THE YOUNG MEMNON
1. Burckhardt letter quoted in Mayes, op. cit. (2003), 142.
2. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 26–28. It’s interesting to speculate as to exactly how much the strongman knew about ancient Egypt before he undertook his first expedition. Henry Salt’s library was at his disposal; he is known to have owned a copy of the Description that Belzoni could have consulted. Our hero would certainly have read Denon’s book, as well as other early travelers. Undoubtedly, most of his knowledge came as he went along.
3. Ibid., 30.
4. Ibid., 37–38.
5. Ibid., 39.
6. Ibid., 48.
7. Ibid., 47.
8. Ibid., 50.
9. Ibid., 54.
10. Ibid., 62. Kom Ombo boasts of a Ptolemaic temple to the gods Horus and Sobek, a crocodile-headed deity associated with the first pharaoh of Egypt. Elephantine was revered as the source of the life-giving waters of the Nile.
11. Ibid., 65–66.
12. Ibid., 66.
13. Kalabsha is a late Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the Nubian god HorusMandulis, also to Isis and Osiris. The 13,000 sandstone blocks of the temple were moved to higher ground and the temple reassembled just south of the Aswan High Dam in 1962–1963.
14. Ibid., 76.
15. Ibid., 90. Askut was an important Middle Kingdom trading post.
16. Ibid., 100.
17. Ibid., 104.
18. Ibid.
19. For a description of Karnak, see Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 55ff.
20. Medinet Habu was the main temple of Rameses III (1182–1151 BC) of the New Kingdom and contains more than 7,000 square meters (75,350 square feet) of decorated surfaces. The temple was modified continually from New Kingdom to Roman times.
21. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 125.126.
CHAPTER 7: “MUMMIES WERE RATHER UNPLEASANT TO SWALLOW”
1. Giovanni Battista Caviglia (1770–1845) was an energetic Genovese sailor who owned a trading vessel in Malta and dabbled in archaeology. Salt employed him to excavate the Sphinx at Giza, where he discovered the steps leading to the statue and the pavement between its paws. He also explored the pyramids, where he acquired new information about the interior of the Great Pyramid. After working briefly with Colonel Howard-Vyse at Giza in 1835–1836 (see Chapter 12, note 15), he retired in Paris.
Henry William Beechey (?–ca. 1870) was by profession an artist, son of a wellknown portrait painter. He served as Salt’s secretary from 1815 to 1820, accompanying both Belzoni and Athanasi on their expeditions, as well as drawing Abu Simbel. He and his brother made a successful survey of much of the North African coast in 1821–1822. Beechey emigrated to New Zealand in 1855.
2. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 152–153.
3. Ibid., 155.
4. Ibid., 156.
5. Ibid.
6. Quotes in these two paragraphs come from ibid., 156–157.
7. Ibid., 157.
8. Ibid., 181.
9. Charles Leonard Irby (1789–1845) retired as a naval captain on half pay because of ill health in 1815 and traveled widely. James Mangles (1786–1867) also retired from naval service with the same rank in 1815. They published Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor in 1817 and 1818 in 1821 (privately printed). Mangles was one of the founder fellows of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
10. Giovanni Finati (1787-?1829) entered Muhammad Ali’s service after deserting from the French army, converted to Islam, then became a dragoman and interpreter to European travelers, among them Belzoni and William Bankes.
11. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 213.
12. Irby and Mangles, op. cit. (1821), 125.
13. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 223.
14. Ibid., 227–228. The tomb of
Prince Montuherkhepeshef is tomb KV-19, cut into a cliff at the head of the second eastern branch of the Valley of the Kings. Rameses-Mentuherkhepshef was a son of pharaoh Rameses IX (1098–1070 BC) of the Twentieth Dynasty. KV-19 was visited repeatedly after Belzoni’s time, but only cleared by American Theodore Davis’s excavator Edward Ayrton in 1906. It is the only prince’s tomb open to the public in the valley.
15. Rameses I (1293–1291 BC) was a former soldier and vizier who succeeded his confidant Horemheb as pharaoh. His family came from Avaris in the delta. Rameses reigned for but two years. His sepulcher shows many signs of hasty interment, with an unfinished burial chamber that had been planned as an antechamber to a much larger room. Disappointed looters robbed his tomb in antiquity. They smashed small gold-coated statuettes against the plastered walls—to which minute fragments of the foil still adhere. His mummy was sold to the United States in the 1860s and was recently returned to Egypt from Emory University in Atlanta.
16. Neith is the Greek name for the ancient goddess Nit, “Opener of the Ways,” patroness of hunting and weaving.
17. Belzoni, op. cit. (1820), 229.
18. The sepulcher of the New Kingdom pharaoh Seti I (1291–1278 BC), known today as tomb KV-7. KV-7 is the longest and deepest of all the royal burial places in the Valley of the Kings. The richly decorated corridors descend more than 100 meters (300 feet) and the same depth underground to reach the burial chamber and feature a false burial room designed (unsuccessfully) to thwart tomb robbers. The actual chamber has an unusual astronomical ceiling, showing the constellations in the northern sky. The sarcophagus is covered with hieroglyphs, once delineated with blue-green paint.
Seti’s mummy was moved one step ahead of grave robbers and survived as part of the Deir el-Bahri cache, described in Chapter 13. The king’s face is exceptionally well preserved and displays the pharaoh’s decisive character.