Читать книгу The History of the Ancient Civilizations - Duncker Max - Страница 18

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More than ten centuries seem to have elapsed from the founding of the kingdom of Memphis before Egypt ventured beyond her natural borders. The peninsula of Sinai, the shores of the Red Sea opposite Thebes, and Semne in Nubia were the extreme limits in the times of the kings who built the pyramids, of the Sesurtesen and Amenemha. The impulse given by the successful war of liberation carried Egypt beyond these boundaries. When Amosis and Tuthmosis III. had restored the kingdom, it reached the summit of its greatness and splendour under the latter and Amenophis III., Sethos I., and Ramses II., while Ramses III. strengthened anew and maintained the position which his great forefathers had obtained for Egypt. Four centuries of glory and victory had now passed over Egypt (1650–1250), the victorious arms of the Pharaohs had been carried to Nubia and Dongola, to the Negroes, to Libya and Syria in repeated campaigns; more than once the Euphrates had seen the Egyptian armies. In these centuries Egypt was the first kingdom in the ancient world, not in civilisation merely, or in art, but in military power, though her lasting acquisitions were limited to the Upper Nile. For yet another century and a half the successors of Ramses III. could enjoy undisturbed the fruits of the exertions of their ancestors.

As the new kingdom surpassed the old in power, so did the new capital Thebes eclipse the older Memphis. None of these princes neglected to offer his booty to Ammon of Thebes; from the time of Tuthmosis I. to Ramses III. no king omitted to adorn Thebes with new buildings. The city must have presented a most marvellous appearance when the works of the Tuthmosis and Amenophis, of Sethos, of Ramses II. and III. stood erect and rose up from the earth solid and massive as rocks on either bank of the Nile, while the multitude of obelisks and colossi towered up like a forest of stone. Fancy might imagine that she looked upon a city built by giants. The houses of the people also, though built of brick only, as Diodorus tells us, were three or four stories high. Diodorus fixes the circuit of the city at more than fifteen miles; for us it is still marked by the remains of the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Gurnah, and Medinet Habu.[234]

We have spoken above of the buildings erected by Tuthmosis I. and III. at Karnak, and Amenophis III. at Luxor and Medinet Habu. It was Sethos I. who on the west of the oblong court, the gateway, and obelisks of Tuthmosis I. at Karnak, added a hall on the most magnificent scale, the entrance to which is also formed by a gateway. This hall, the most splendid monument of Egyptian architecture, is 320 feet long, and over 160 feet broad; the roof rests on 134 pillars, which on each side towards the north and south form seven naves, each of nine pillars. The central space, supported on either side by six pillars of 12 feet in diameter and 68 feet in height, rises higher than the naves at the side. On the external wall of this hall are displayed the triumphs of Sethos over the Schasu, the Cheta, and the Retennu; there are recorded the campaigns already mentioned against the tribes of Cush, the Punt, and the Naharina. Opposite Karnak, on the left bank of the Nile, north east from the colossi of Amenophis III., at the village of Gurnah, he built a temple to Ammon, and at Abydus a large sanctuary to Osiris.[235]

None of the Pharaohs undertook such numerous works and left behind so many monuments as Ramses II. He completed the hall of his father at Karnak,[236] and extended on a magnificent scale the temple of Amenophis III. at Luxor, by adding on the north-east a second court, and adorning the entrance to it by a lofty gateway. Before this he placed two seated colossi, statues of himself—at present, like the lower parts of all the ruins at Luxor, they are covered to a considerable height with sand—and two obelisks of red granite, of which one still rises in splendour to the blue sky, and displays the long, sharply-cut rows of the hieroglyphics in all the brightness of the uninjured polish. The other is at Paris, in the Place de la Concorde. On the left bank of the Nile, between the colossi of Amenophis III. and his father's temple, a little further to the west, and immediately at the foot of the Libyan range, he built a large temple. A massive gateway rises on a slightly elevated terrace, leading to a rectangular court. This is surrounded by a double row of pillars supporting the portico, of which two only are now standing. On this follows a second court, of which the portico is supported on the right and left by double pillars, on the front transverse side by single pilasters, and on the back by double pilasters, against the first row of which lean colossal images of Osiris. At the entrance from the first into the second court, on the left, was the greatest of all the detached colossi in Egypt, the seated statue of Ramses, hewn out of a block of red granite from Syene. Sixty feet in height, this statue once overlooked both courts; now it lies prostrate on the ground. The length of the middle finger is four feet. There was apparently a second colossus on the other side of the entrance corresponding to this. From the second court, in which are the remains of two smaller colossi, three gates of black granite led into a great hall, built on a higher level. The roof of this, the remains of which exhibit a blue ground with gold stars, was supported by sixty pillars in ten rows. Of these rows four are still standing; the pillars are 35 feet in height and six feet in diameter. On this great hall adjoin three smaller ones, on both sides of which lay chambers, and the roof of one is adorned with a large astronomical painting. The back part of the building was formed by vaulted porticoes of brick, and each brick is stamped with the name-shield of Ramses II.[237]

The inscriptions on the second court and in the hall tell us, "that the gracious god, i.e. the king, erected this great structure in honour of his father Ammon-Ra, the king of the gods: by his own arm he has erected it, the royal sun, the champion of justice, established by Ra, the child of the sun, Ramses, beloved of Ammon, beloved of the goddess Mut." On the walls of the portico between the first and second court is represented a great procession to the altar of Ammon. Two rows of men carry the statues of thirteen predecessors of Ramses on their shoulders (p. 24). Further on the king, with a sickle, is cutting a sheaf of corn from the field, a priest receives this from the hand of the king, and offers it to a white bull. Then the priest bids the four geese belonging to the four spirits of the quarters of the sky to fly south, north, east, and west, in order to announce to the gods of each quarter, "that Horus the son of Osiris, that king Ramses, established by Ra, has put on the double crown."[238] The sculptures of the front side of the gateway exhibit the king in intercourse with the gods, and symbolise the divine expressions of favour towards Ramses. Gods lead him to the greater gods. The god Tum places him before Mentu (p. 51). Mentu takes the hand of the king, and says, "Come to the heavenly mansions, to behold thy father the king of the gods, who will bestow upon thee length of days, to rule over the world and reign upon the throne of Horus." Mentu leads the king to Ammon, over whose figure we read, "Ammon-Ra, king of the gods, who dwells in Ramses' house at Thebes, speaks thus: Beloved son of my race, Ramses, lord of the world, my heart is glad in that I behold thy good works; thou hast built me this house; I grant thee a pure life to live upon the throne of Seb" (p. 55). In the hall Ammon is holding the crook from his throne towards the king, and says, "I certify that thy building shall continue as the heavens." The goddess Bast (p. 49) lifts her right hand to the head of the king, and says, "I have prepared for thee the diadem of the sun, that this helmet should remain upon thy brow, where I have placed it." On another sketch in this hall Ammon is giving to Ramses the scythe, the whip, and the crook (the symbols of dominion), and says, "Take the scythe of battle to subdue the nations without, and to smite off the head of the unclean; take the whip and the crook to rule over Chemi (Egypt)." On the exterior of the wings of the gateway are represented the wars which in the fifth year of his reign Ramses carried on against the Cheta, and in the eighth year against Maram, Dapur, and Salam (p. 152). In one of the side chambers of the hall Ramses and his consort, together with the moon-god, Chunsu, and the goddess Mut, are carried to Ammon by the priests. The goddess Mut says: "I come to pay worship to the king of the gods, that he may secure long years to his son, to king Ramses, who loves him." Chunsu says: "We come to honour thee, Ammon, king of the gods; grant to thy son who loves thee, the king of the world, a safe and pure life." The king and queen also speak to Ammon; Ramses says: "I come to my father escorted by the gods whom he at all times allows in his presence." And over the queen we read: "Behold what the divine consort says, the royal mother, the mighty mistress of the world:—I come to worship my father Ammon the king of the gods; my heart is gladdened by thy favour. O thou who hast established the seat of thy power in the dwelling of thy son Ramses, lord of the world, grant to him a safe and pure life, and let his years be numbered by the periods of the festivals." Finally, Ramses is represented under an arbor vitæ (Persea) before the throne of Tum. Tum and Thoth write the name of the king on leaves of the arbor vitæ, and Tum says to Ramses: "I write thy name for a series of days that it may be upon the divine tree." In another chamber we find the figures of the children of Ramses; twenty-three sons and more than thirteen daughters are mentioned in the inscription.[239]

This is the structure of which Diodorus gives the following account, though he had not seen the work himself. "The entrance to the monument of the king whom they call Osymandyas—such is the account in Diodorus—was formed by a gateway covered with sculptures, 200 feet broad, and forty-five cubits in height; through this you passed into a rectangular court surrounded by pillars, measuring 400 feet on each side, but in the place of pillars are statues sixteen cubits high, each hewn in the antique style out of a single block. The roof of the portico is two fathoms in width; it also is built of monoliths painted with stars upon a blue ground. Behind this court there is a second gateway similar to the first, but adorned with still richer sculptures. At the entrance stand three monolithic statues. The middle one is the seated image of Osymandyas, the largest in all Egypt, for the feet are more than seven cubits in length; the two others, on the right and left, which represent the wife and daughter of the king, are inferior in height. This statue is not only remarkable for the size, but also for the excellence of the art and the nature of the stone. In spite of the enormous size, a chip or split is not to be found in it. There, too, is the statue of the mother of Osymandyas, twenty cubits high, and also a monolith. Behind this gateway is a second court, more marvellous even than the first, in which various sculptures represent the war against the Bactrians. This nation had revolted from the king, but with 400,000 foot and 20,000 horse he marched out against them, divided his army into four parts, and put each under the command of one of his four sons. On the first wall we see the king fighting at the head of his army against a fortress surrounded by a river; a lion is seen at his side assisting him (as a fact in the picture of the great battle against the Cheta on the gateway a lion is found beside the chariot of the king.) On the second wall the prisoners are brought forward: they are without their hands and members, in order to indicate that they fought without spirit. The third wall contains reliefs of various kinds and sketches representing the king's sacrifice of bulls, and his triumphant return. In the middle of the court stands an altar of marvellous size and workmanship. Before the fourth wall are two seated colossi 27 cubits high, and beside these three entrances lead into a colonnade, of which the sides measure 200 feet. In this hall are a number of statues of wood representing men in expectation of the decision of their law-suits, and looking towards the judges. These, thirty in number, are engraved on one of the walls; in their midst is the chief judge, on whose neck hangs a picture of truth with closed eyes; beside him lie a great quantity of books. Then you pass into a space intended for walking, where are represented many of the most delicate kinds of food. Here also the image of the king is engraved, and brightly coloured, showing how he offered to the god the gold and silver which came to him year by year from the mines of Egypt, and the total is written down close by; estimated in silver, it amounted to 320,000 minæ. Then follows the sacred library, and after this the images of all the gods of Egypt, and of the king, who offers to each god the appropriate gifts, in order as it were to show to Osiris and his assessors in the under world that the king had lived a life just towards men and pious towards the gods. On the walls of the library abuts another building, in which are twenty couches, the images of Zeus and Hera, and the images of the king. In this chamber the king appears to be buried. In a circle round this chamber are yet many other rooms containing very beautiful pictures of all the animals worshipped in Egypt. Through these chambers we reach the top of the sepulchre, a golden circle 365 cubits in circumference, and one cubit thick. On this circle are marked divisions for every day in the year, and in each is noted the rising and setting of the stars, and the influence which the Egyptian astrologers attributed to these constellations."[240]

The temple built by Ramses II. to Ammon, in Dongola, on Mount Barkal, has been mentioned before (p. 154). A memorial stone discovered at Dakkeh tells us that he caused wells to be dug in Ethiopia.[241] In Nubia also, five or six days' journey to the south of Dakkeh, at Abu Simbel, on the left bank of the Nile, a small valley with almost perpendicular walls of rock breaks at right angles the ridge running by the river side. In these walls of brownish yellow sandstone two temples have been cut. The northern and larger is dedicated to Ra by Ramses; the smaller, on the opposite side, is dedicated by Ramses' wife, Nefruari, to the goddess Hathor. Before the temple of Hathor are six colossi, three on either side of the entrance. In each triad the middle statue represents the queen, the two others the kings. Before the temple of Ramses are four seated colossi, with the arms upon the hips, hewn out of the natural rock. All are statues of Ramses, and in height are over sixty, or, counting the thrones, over seventy feet. The breadth across the shoulders is twenty-five feet; from the elbow to the tip of the finger measures fifteen feet. Seen from a distance, these statues are very impressive, owing to their severe and calm beauty, and the correctness of the proportions, notwithstanding the enormous scale. The entrance to the temple lies deep down between the thrones of the colossi. First we pass into a spacious portico, of which the roof is supported by eight pillars, against which lean as many standing colossi about 30 feet high, with arms crossed, the whip and the symbol of life in their hands. All are images of Osiris. From this portico, out of which doors open on either hand into side halls, we arrive through two chambers into the sanctuary of the goddess, which lies 200 feet deep in the rock. The whole excavation consists of fourteen chambers. The sculptures, painted throughout, are uninjured still, and of the most brilliant colours. The most striking pictures among them have been mentioned above (pp. 153, 154). Below Abu Simbel, at Derr Sebua and Gerf Hussein, on the Nile, Ramses II. built temples to Ra, Ammon, and Ptah. Here, as at Abu Simbel, new cities rose round the temples.[242] Further downwards at Beth-el-Walli, a temple was hewn in the rocks at the west side of the Nile, the sculptures of which exhibit the exploits of Ramses II. against the Negroes, and the booty of these campaigns—gazelles, ostriches, giraffes (p. 153); while the ruins of the temple which he built beside the larger one of his father to Osiris at Abydus, is evidence of the honour which he paid to his predecessors in the kingdom (pp. 24, 169).

Herodotus and Diodorus told us that Sesostris had set up before the temple of Hephæstus (i.e. of Ptah) at Memphis statues of himself, his wife, and his sons, on a colossal scale (p. 146). In the ruins of Memphis (at the village of Mitrahinneh) there lies, surrounded by green turf and tall palms, in a depression, the prostrate statue of Ramses II. hewn out of a single block. The feet are wanting, the head wears the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt; in the middle of the girdle are engraved the words Mi Amun Ramses, i.e. Ramses beloved of Ammon. From the knees upwards the fragment measures thirty-five feet; on this scale the total height must have reached forty-two or forty-three feet. At Tanis in the Delta, Ramses II. built or restored a great temple, and erected obelisks. The inscriptions on the ruins speak of his victories in Syria. Here also lies a prostrate and shattered colossus; the name-shields on the back of the throne are those of the second Ramses.[243] Of the buildings of this king for the sepulchral chambers of the Apis bulls at Memphis, the fortification of the border towards Syria, and the canal, we have spoken above (pp. 68, 157).

On the left bank of the Nile, westwards of the temple and the two colossi of Amenophis III., at Medinet Habu, Ramses III. built a splendid temple. A magnificent gate flanked by broad wings sixty-six feet in height leads from the east to the first ante-court, which, as always, is surrounded by a portico, partly supported by massive pillars, and partly by statues of Osiris. From this court a second somewhat smaller gateway leads into a second court; the portico surrounding this is supported to the right and left on strong columns, of seven feet in diameter, the capitals of which are formed by lotus-leaves, and on each of the other sides by eight Osiris pillars. The columns and pillars, in spite of their massiveness, do not seem too heavy to support the blocks which form the roof of the portico. In this court we find the four pictures which represent the war of Ramses III. against the Libyans (p. 164). The ante-temple, to which the entrance lay between the Osiris pillars just mentioned, the inner temple, and the shrine, are in ruins; the bases only and the foundations can still be traced. In the ten reliefs mentioned above the external wall of the second court displays in the most brilliant colours the warlike achievements of Ramses III. against the Temhu and Zakkarj (p. 165). About 120 steps to the south-east of the first gateway are the ruins of another structure of this king, which appears to have been his palace. Two obliquely rising towers enclose a court, surrounded by a building several stories high. The rooms still remaining are paved with slabs; the windows are square. The reliefs represent the king surrounded by his wives, and then at draughts, the instruction which his children receive in reading and writing from a priest, and other household matters. On the right bank of the Nile at the south-west edge of the terrace of Karnak, Ramses III. began to build a temple to the moon-god Chunsu, which was completed by Ramses IV.; and at Karnak itself, in the court before the great hall of Sethos I., he erected a smaller temple, cutting the southern portico of this temple at right angles, which he dedicated to "Ammon Ra, his father," to whom the whole sanctuary belonged.[244]

As at Memphis, so also at Thebes, great care was taken for the dead. Not far from the city, in the first Libyan range of hills, which here rise 300 feet out of the plain, lie the tombs of the inhabitants of Thebes, running on into these hills for two hours' distance in an unbroken series of catacombs. The graves, and the passages which lead to them, are all hewn in the rock, sometimes to a considerable depth. Several rows of chambers lie one over the other. In the lower rows, where the richer class are buried, the chambers are larger and more handsome; those in the upper rows are simpler, smaller, and meaner. Staircases, straight or winding, connect these stories and chambers with each other. Galleries, gangways, and perpendicular shafts break the rows of excavations, and give to this city of the dead the features of an inextricable labyrinth. These catacombs, with their thousands of mummies, innumerable chambers full of papyrus rolls and amulets buried with the corpses, with their sculptures and frescoes on the walls and roofs, which are for the most part preserved in marvellous brilliancy and represent in the truest and most varied manner the occupation of every person buried there of the higher orders, are an almost inexhaustible source for the knowledge of the life and the habits of that distant time.

Separated from the first range of hills by a lonely and desolate ravine, there rises further to the west a second wall of rock, which the Arabs call Biban-el-Moluk, i.e. the gates of the kings. In this lie the largest and most richly-furnished tombs. The kings of the old monarchy heaped mountains of stone over their graves at Memphis, and in like manner the princes of the new kingdom caused vaults and porticoes to be hewn in the rocks for their sepulchral chambers. Here in antiquity forty tombs were enumerated,[245] and the latest investigations have confirmed this enumeration. Spacious, but often barred, passages lead sometimes only fifty, sometimes 360 feet into the rock. The greater part of the tombs consist of a suite of galleries, chambers, and chapels for the offering of sacrifices to the dead; these are followed by the sepulchral chamber, where rests the sarcophagus, sometimes in a deep niche. The Pharaohs of Thebes appear to have carried on their work upon these burying-places in the same manner as the princes of the old kingdom proceeded with the building of their pyramids. They commenced with the entrance, the ante-chapel (a broad and not very long portico, generally supported on pillars), and a small chamber, the real sepulchre.[246] If the length of the reign sufficed, a new passage was driven deeper into the rock from the chamber, a new and larger ante-chapel, a wider and higher sepulchral chamber was excavated. All the graves as yet opened and examined in this wall of rock are entered by square doors of uniform shape, with simple ornamentation. At one time they were provided with wings for security in closing. Behind them the corridor descends somewhat rapidly into the deep rock. As a rule the sculptures on the inner walls begin from the doors immediately behind this entrance. The colouring is still lively, not to say harsh.

The oldest tombs lie to the north-east; but as yet only two chambers have been opened here, one of which is large in size and adorned with beautiful, though very much injured sculptures, the grave of Amenophis III.[247] The tombs of the Tuthmosis have not yet been found. Next, on the south-west, lies the tomb of Ramses I. The rock chamber and the granite sarcophagus, which is still standing there, are without any ornament whatever except a few pictures on the walls, in which the god Tum and the goddess Neith, the great mother, the lady of heaven, the queen of the deities, lead the king before Osiris. The king speaks, "I have come to thee, lord of the gods, mighty god, master of the sky," while Neith says to the king, "I secure to thee the throne of Osiris, on which thou shalt sit for ever."[248] The grave of his successor, Sethos I., consists of a suite of galleries, chambers, and chapels. A corridor leads to a staircase, which ends in a chamber; from this a second staircase leads to a portico, on which abuts a great hall, the roof of which is supported by four pillars. A third staircase leads from this hall on the left into one similarly adorned, of which the pictures remain unfinished, and on the right into a broad vaulted portico sunk more than 300 feet deep into the rock. The roof of this portico is supported by six pillars. Here the corpse of the king rested in a sarcophagus of alabaster, which is covered with sculptures. The sarcophagus, now in the British Museum, was empty when found, and the cover was broken. The sculptures of the first hall display on every side of the pillars the king and a deity. Those on the walls represent the stations of the nightly course of the sun and the hindrances thrown in the way of the sun by the serpent Apep (p. 46), the judgment in the under world, the reward of the good, the punishment of the bad, the constellations of the sky, the five planets in their boats, and the four tribes into which the Egyptians divided mankind. Each tribe is represented by four figures.

Of the grave of Ramses II. but few chambers have as yet been opened.[249] The grave of his son Menephta presents nothing more than a picture referring to the under world. Beside Menephta, Amenmessu (p. 162) and Menephta's son, Sethos II., found their resting places in these rocks, which also conceal Menephta II. (p. 163). The grave of Sethos II. is distinguished by paintings and sculptures. The sarcophagus of red granite is intended to exhibit on the lid the image of the king, but this remained unfinished.[250] The grave of Ramses III. comes nearest to that of Sethos I. in size and splendour of adornment. Galleries following one upon the other, on the side of which are small chambers, lead to a large portico in which rests the sarcophagus. The sculptures in these chambers exhibit scenes of court life, of agriculture, of the banquet, musicians, boats, and weapons; those of the galleries and the portico represent scenes of the under world and existence beyond the grave. The grave of Ramses IV., far smaller and incomplete, still contains the shattered sarcophagus of granite.[251] On the other hand, the tomb of Ramses V., one of the most handsome, displays on the arching of the roof of the great portico, where the sarcophagus stood, the outstretched form of the goddess of the sky, in which are enclosed the stars. On the walls are depicted the fortunes of the soul in the next world, and the king in the boat of the sun-god. These representations of the judgment in the under-world, which recur perpetually in the tombs at Biban-el-Moluk, and of the life to come, are wholly unknown to the pyramids and the tombs surrounding them, the burying-places of the ancient kingdom.