[In hieroglyphics the king's name is always written in an oval or cartouch, thus :—This reads Shura or Solis.] Before the death of Darius, however, the Egyptians rebelled, but were again subdued by Xerxes, who made his brother Achxmenes governor of the country. Under Artaxerxes Longi manus they again revolted, as above re ferred to, and in the loth year of Darius Nothus contrived to throw off the Persian yoke, when Amyrtteus the Saite became the sole king of the 2Sth dynasty. After having ruled 6 years, he was suc ceeded by the first king of the.29th or Mendesian dynasty. Of the four kings comprising it little is known, and the dates are uncertain. It was followed by the last, or 3oth dynasty of Se bennyte kings. The first of these was Nectanebo, or Nekht-har-heb, who successfully defended his country against the Persians, had leisure to adorn the temples, and was probably the last Pharaoh who erected an obelisk. His son, Teos or Tachos, was the victim of a revolt, from which he took re fuge in the Persian court, where he died, while his nephew Nectanebo II., or Nekht-nebf, ascended the throne as the last native king of Egypt. For some time he successfully opposed the Persians, but eventually succumbed to Artaxerxes Ochus, about B.C. 350, when Egypt once more became a Persian province. From that time till our own day,' says Mr. Poole, `a period of 22 centuries, no native ruler has sat on the throne of Egypt, in striking fulfilment of the prophecy There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt,' Ezek. xxx.
Country, etc.—We shall not attempt to pursue the history of Egypt further, since under the Ptole mies and thenceforth it becomes of classical rather than of Biblical interest, but some description of the country and its monuments may now be acceptable. The northern coast of Egypt is low and barren, presenting no features of interest, and affording no indication of the character of the country which it bounds. It is a barrier generally of sand-hills, but sometimes of rock, for the most part destitute of vegetation, except a few wild and stunted date palms. Immediately behind are desolate marshy tracts of extensive salt-lakes, and then the fertile country, consisting of a wide plain intersected by the two branches of the Nile and by many canals, of which some were anciently branches of the river, and having a soil of great richness, though in this particular it is excelled by the valley above. The deserts which enclose the plain on either side are rocky tracts of very slight elevation, having their surface overspread with sand, pebbles, and debris. Of the towns on the northern coast the most western is Alexandria or El-Iskendereeyeh, founded B.C. 332, by Alexander the Great, who gave it the form of a Macedonian chlamys or mantle. Proceeding eastward, the first place of importance is Er-Rasheed or Rosetta, on the west bank of the branch of the Nile named after this town. In ascending the Rosetta branch the first spot of interest is the site of the ancient SaIs, on the eastern hank, marked by lofty mounds and the remains of massive walls of crude brick. It was one of the oldest cities of Egypt, and gave its name to the kings of the 26th dynasty. The god dess Neith, supposed to be the origin of Athene, was the local divinity, and in her honour an annual festival was held at SaIs, to which pilgrims resorted from all parts of Egypt. On the eastern side of the other branch of the Nile, to which it gives its name, stands the town Dimyat or Damietta, a strong place in the time of the Crusades, and then regarded as the key of Egypt. It has now about 28,Ooo inhabitants. To the eastward of Damietta is the site of Pelusium, the Sin of Scripture, and the ancient key of Egypt, towards Palestine. No im portant remains have been found here. Between this site and the Damietta branch are the mounds of Tanis or Zoan, the famous Avaris of the Shep herds, with considerable remains of the great tem ple, of which the most remarkable are several fallen obelisks, some of them broken. This temple was as ancient as the time of the 12th dynasty, and was beautified by Rameses II. Tanis was on the east ern bank of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, now called the canal of El-Mazz. A little south of the modern point of the Delta, on the eastern bank of the river, is the site of the ancient Helio polis, or On, marked by a solitary obelisk, and the ruins of a massive brick wall. The obelisk bears the name of Seserstesen I., the head of the 12th dynasty. At a short distance south of Heliopolis stands the modern capital, Cairo or El-Kahireh. The ancient city of Memphis, founded by Menes, stood on the western bank of the Nile, about ten miles above Cairo. The kings and people who dwelt there chose the nearest part of the desert as their burial-place, and built tombs on its rocky edge or excavated them in its sides. The kings raised pyramids, round which their subjects were buried in smaller sepulchres. The site of Mem phis is marked by mounds in the cultivated tract.
A few blocks of stone and a fine colossus of Ra meses II. are all that remains of the great temple of Ptah, the local deity. There is not space here for a detailed account of the pyramids, suffice it to say that the present perpendicular height of the great pyramid is 45o ft. 9 in., and its present base 746 ft. It is about 3o ft. lower than it was originally, much of the exterior having been worn off by age and man's violence. Like all the other pyramids it faces the cardinal points. The surface presents a series of great steps, though when first built it was cased, and smooth, and polished. The platform on the summit is about 32 ft. square. The pyramid is almost entirely solid, containing only a few chambers, so small as not to be worthy of con sideration in calculating its contents. It was built by Khufa (Cheops), or Shufu (Suphis). The se cond pyramid stands at a short distance south-west of the great pyramid, and is not of much smaller dimensions. It is chiefly remarkable for a great part of its casing having been preserved. It was built by Khafra or Shafra (Chephren), a king of the same period. The third pyramid is much smaller than either of the other two, though it is constructed in a more costly manner. It was built by Mycerinus or Mencheres, the fourth ruler of the 4th dynasty. Near the three pyramids are six smaller ones, three of them are near the east side of the great pyramid, and three on the south side of the third pyramid. They are supposed to he the tombs of near relatives of the kings who founded the great pyramid. To the east of the second pyramid is the great sphinx, 188 feet in length, hewn out of a natural eminence in the solid rock, some defects of which are supplied by a partial stone casing, the legs being likewise added. In the tract between the pyramids of Salckarah and Aboo-Seer are the remains of the Serapeum, and the burial-place of the bulls Apis, both discovered by M. Mariette. They are in closed by a great wall, having been connected, for the Serapeum was the temple of Apis. The tomb is a great subterranean gallery, whence smaller passages branch off, and contains many sarcophagi in which the bulls were entombed. Serapis was a form of Osiris, his name being Osir-hapi or Osiris Apis. In ascending the river we arrive at the ancient Ahnas, supposed by some to be the Hanes of Isaiah, and about sixty miles above Cairo, at Bence-Suweyf, the port of the province of the Feiyoom. In this province are supposed to be the remains of the famous Labyrinth of Mceris, pro bably Amen-em-ha III., and not far off, also, may be traced the site of the Lake 1liceris, near the ancient Arsinoe or Croiodilopolis, now repre sented by Medeenet-cl-Feiyoom. The next objects of peculiar interest are the grottoes of Benee Hasan, which are monuments of the t2th dynasty, dating about 200o B.C. Here are found two columns of an order which is believed to be the prototype of the Doric. On the walls of the tombs are depicted scenes of hunting, fishing, agricul ture, etc. There is also an interesting representa tion of the arrival of certain foreigners, supposed to be Joseph's brethren ; at least illustrative of their arrival. In the town of Asyoot, higher up the river, is seen the representative of the ancient Lycopolis. It was an important place ;Soo years ago, and has thus outlived Thebes and Memphis, Tanis and Pelusium. Further on,
a few miles south-west of Girga, on the border of the Libyan desert, is the site of the sacred city of Abydus, a reputed burial-place of Osiris, near which, also, must have been situated the very ancient city of This, which gave its name to the 1st and 2d dynasties. About forty miles from Abydus, though nearly in the same latitude, is the village of Denderah, famous for the remains of the temple of Athor, the Egyptian Venus, who presided over the town of Tentyra, the capital of the Tentyrite nome. This temple dates from the time of the earlier Cmsars, and the names of the last Cleopatra and Cwsarion her son, are found in it. About twenty miles higher than Denderah, and on the western bank of the Nile, are the ruins of Thebes, the No-Amon of the Bible. In the hieroglyphic inscriptions the name of this place is written Ap-t, or with the article prefixed T-ap, and Amen-ha, the abode of Amen. The Copts write the former name Tz.ne, which becomes, in the Memphitic dialect, and thus ex plains the origin of the Greek The time of its foundation is unknown, but remains have been found which are ascribed to the close of the it th dynasty, and it probably dates from the com mencement of that first Diospolite line of kings. Under the 18th and two following dynasties it attained its highest prosperity, and to this period its greatest monuments belong. The following description of this celebrated locality by Mr. Poole will be read with interest :—` The monuments of Thebes, exclusive of its sepulchral grottoes, oc cupy a space on both sides of the river, of which the extreme length from north to south is about two miles, and the extreme breadth from east to west about four. The city was on the eastern bank, where is the great temple or rather collection of temples, called after El-Karnak, a modem village near by. The temple of El-Karnak is about half a mile from the river, in a cultivated tract. More than a mile to the south-west is the temple of El Uksur on the bank of the Nile. On the western bank was the suburb bearing the name Memnonia. The desert near the northernmost of the temples on this side almost reaches the river, but soon recedes, leaving a fertile plain generally more than a mile in breadth. Along the edge of the desert, besides the small temple just mentioned as the northernmost, are the Ramesetim of El-Kurneh, and that of Medeenet-Habou less than a mile farther to the south-west, and between them, but within the culti vated land, the remains of the A menophium, with its two gigantic seated colossi. Behind these edifices rises the mountain which here attains a height of about 12oo feet. It gradually recedes in a south westerly direction, and is separated from the culti vated tract by a strip of desert in which are nu merous tombs, partly excavated in two isolated hills, and two small temples. A tortuous valley, which commences not far from the northernmost of the temples on this bank, leads to those val leys in which are excavated the wonderful tombs of the kings near the highest part of the mountain which towers above them in bold and picturesque forms." EGYPT, Encyclopaedia p. sob. At the entrance to the temple of El-Uksur stood two very fine obelisks of red granite, one of which is now in the centre of the Place de la Concorde. There is also a portal with wings 200 feet in width, covered with sculptures of the highest interest, illus trating the time of Ramcses II. Within is a magnifi cent avenue of 14 columns, having capitals of the bell-shaped flowers of the papyrus. They are sixty feet high and elegantly sculptured. These are of the time of Amenoph III. On a south portal of the great temple of El-Karnak is a list of countries subdued by Sheshonk I. or Shishak, the head of the zzd dynasty. Among the names is that of the kingdom of Judah as before mentioned. The great hypostyle hall in this temple is the most magnificent work of its class in Egypt. Its length is 170 feet, its width 329 ; it is supported by 134 columns, the loftiest of which are nearly 7o feet in height and about 12 in diameter, and the rest more than 40 feet in height and about 9 in diameter. The great columns, t2 in number, form an avenue through the midst of the court from the entrance, and the others are arranged in rows very near together on each side. There is a transverse avenue made by two rows of the smaller columns being placed fur ther apart than the rest. This great hall is, there fore, crowded with columns, and the effect is surpassingly grand. The forest of pillars seems interminable in whatever direction one looks, pro ducing a result unequalled in any other Egyptian temple. This great hall was the work of Sethee I., the head of the 19th dynasty, who came to the throne cir. B.C. 1340, and it was sculptured partly in his reign and partly in that of his son and successor, Rameses II. It is impossible here to enter further into a description of this mag nificent temple. The reader is referred to the numerous accounts given of it elsewhere. The Rameseum remains to be briefly noticed. This temple on the edge of the desert is perhaps the most beautiful ruin in Egypt as Karnak is the grandest. It also records the glories of Rameses II., of whom there is in one of its courts a colossal statue hewn out of a single block of red granite, supposed to weigh nearly 90o tons, and trans ported thither from the quarries of Syene. This temple is also noted for containing the celebrated astronomical ceiling, one of the most precious records of ancient Egyptian science. Not the least interesting among the monuments of Thebes are the tombs of the kings. The sepulchres are 20 or 21 in number. Nineteen are sculptured, and are the mausolea of kings, of a queen with her consort, and of a prince, all of the 18th, 19th, and loth dynasties. The paintings and sculp tures are almost wholly of a religious character, referring chiefly to the future state. Standing on the resting-places of kings and warriors who figured in the history of Egypt while the world was yet young, and long before the age of others whom we are accustomed to consider heroes of antiquity, it seems as though death itself were immortalised ; and proudly indeed may those ancient Pharaohs, who laboured so earnestly to preserve their memory on earth, look down upon the paltry efforts of later aspirants, and their slender claims to be regarded as either ancient or immortal. About twenty miles further south is the village of Adfoo, representing the town called by the Greeks Apollinopolis Magna, where is still found in a comparatively perfect state a temple of the Ptolemaic period. Above Adfoo, at Gebel-es-Silsileh, the mountains on either side, which have for some time confined the valley to a narrow space, reach the river, and contract its course ; and higher still, about 3o miles, is the town of Aswan, which represents the ancient Syene, and stands among the palm trees on the eastern bank opposite to the island of Elephan tine. The bed of the river above this place is ob structed by numerous rocks and islands of granite, which form the rapids called the first cataract. During the inundation boats are enabled, by a strong northerly wind to pass this cataract without aid, and in fact at other times the principal rapid has only a fall of five or six feet, and that not per pendicular. The roaring of the troubled stream, and the red granite islands and rocks which stud its surface, give the approach a wild picturesqueness till we reach the open stream, less than two miles further, and the beautiful island of Philm suddenly rises before our eyes, completely realizing one's highest idea of a sacred place of ancient Egypt. It is very small, only a quarter of a mile long and 500 feet broad, and contains monuments of the time of the Ptolemies. In the desert west of the Nile are situate the great and little wahs (oases), and the valley of the Natron lakes, containing four Coptic monasteries, the remains of the famous anchorite settlement of Nitria, recently noted for the discovery of various Syrian MSS. In the eastern desert the chief town of importance is Es-Suweys or Suez, the ancient Arsinoe, which gives its name to the western gulf of the Red Sea.