Egypt

E'GYPT, the valley of the Nile, in the north-eastern part of Africa, and one of the most remarkable countries in ancient history, famous for its pyramids, sphinxes, obelisks, and wonderful ruins of temples and tombs. It figures largely in the Bible as the cradle of the people of Israel, and the training-school of its great leader and legislator. Names. — In Hebrew, Egypt is called Mizraim, a dual form of the word, indicating the two divisions, Upper and Lower Egypt, or (as Tayler Lewis suggests) the two strips on the two sides of the Nile. It is also known as the Land of Ham, Ps 105:23, Gen 1:27, and Rahab, ("the proud one"). Ps 89:10; Ps 87:4; Isa 51:9. The Coptic and older title is Kemi, or Chemi, meaning "black," from the dark color of the soil. The name "Egypt" first occurs in its Greek form in Homer, and is applied to the Nile and to the country, but afterward it is used for the country only. Situation and Extent. — Egypt lies on both sides of the Nile, and in ancient times included the land watered by it, as far as the First Cataract, the deserts on either side being included in Arabia and Libya. Ezekiel indicates that it reached from Migdol (now Tell es-Semut, east of the Suez Canal) to Syene (now Aswan or Assouan), on the border of Nubia, near the First Cataract of the

Nile. Eze 29:10, margin. The Delta and the valley of the Nile are estimated to have an area of about 9600 square miles (or a little more than the State of New Hampshire), of which only 5626 miles are fit for cultivation. In the more extended sense of later times, Egypt is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by the Red Sea and Arabia, on the south by Nubia, and on the west by the Great Desert. The length of the country in a straight line from the Mediterranean to the First Cataract is about 520 miles; its breadth is from 300 to 450 miles, and its entire area is about 212,000 square miles. Nubia, Ethiopia, and other smaller districts bordering on the Nile to the south of Egypt, have been brought under its sway. The following statement of the area and population of Egypt and dependencies is from the official report of 1876: Egypt proper has thus an area almost as large as that of New York. Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana combined, and the present ruler of Egypt controls a territory nearly half as large as the United States of America. Physical Features. — The country has three great natural divisions: (1) the Delta; (2) the Nile valley; (3) the sandy and rocky wastes. The Delta is one vast triangular plain, watered by the branches of the Nile and numerous canals, and covered with remains of ancient cities and villages and groves of palm trees, which stand on mounds of great antiquity. The Delta extends along the Mediterranean for about 200 miles and up the Nile for 100 miles. The Tanitic branch of the Nile is on the east of the Delta, and the Canopic branch on the west, though the Delta is now limited chiefly to the space between the Rosetta and the Damietta branches, which is about 90 miles in extent. The valley of the Nile extends to the lower or First Cataract, near the island of Philae, which is about 500 miles south of Cairo. It is in a rich state of cultivation, but is very narrow, and hemmed in by low mountains or rocky table-land, rarely rising into peaks, though often approaching the river in bold promontories. Behind the rocky range, which varies from 300 to 1000 feet in height, on either side of the Nile, are deserts rocky and strewn with sand. The valley is scarcely more than 10 miles wide, and there is little fruitful land beyond its limits, or such portions as are reached by its fertilizing waters on the rise and overflow of the river. See Nile. Climate and Productions. — The climate of Egypt is remarkably equable, the atmosphere dry and clear except on the sea-coast; the summers are hot and sultry, the winters mild; rain, except along the Mediterranean, is very rare, the fertility of the land depending almost entirely upon the annual overflow of the Nile, or upon artificial irrigation by canals, water-wheels, and the shadoof. Winds are strong, those from a northerly source being the most prevalent, while the simoon, a violent whirlwind and hurricane of sand, is not infrequent. The chief fruits are dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, oranges, apricots, peaches, lemons, bananas, melons of various kinds, mulberries, pears, and olives. Among the vegetables are beans, peas, onions, leeks, lentils, gourds, cucumbers, caraway, coriander, cummin, anise, and pepper; and of grains, wheat, barley, millet, maize, and rice. Among plants are the indigo-plant, cotton, flax, poppy, madder, and a species of saffron. Many kinds of reeds were found in the country, but they have wasted away, as predicted, Isa 19:6-7; even the famous papyrus, or byblus, from which paper was made, has nearly, if not quite, disappeared. Of animals, the camel, horse, mule, ass, sheep, and goat are common, and the wolf, fox, jackal, hyena, weasel, jerboa, hare, gazelle, hippopotamus, and crocodile were all found in considerable numbers; but the last two are now found only in the upper Nile. Of birds, the vulture (Pharaoh's hen), eagle, falcon, hawk, kite, crow, lark, sparrow, hoopoe (a sacred bird), and the ostrich were the most common; and of reptiles, the cobra, cerastes, and other species of venomous snakes abounded, and are yet

the dread of native and of traveller. Fish abound in the Nile and in Lake Menzaleh. Insects are well represented, the scorpion being among the most dangerous, while swarms of flies, fleas, beetles (the Scarabaeus being held sacred by the ancient Egyptians), and bugs of various kinds attack man and beast, and occasionally swarms of locusts sweep over the land, reminding one of the plague preceding the Exodus, and of the description of the invading army by the prophet Joel. Ex 10:12-15; Joel 2:1-11. The principal minerals are granite, syenite, basalt, porphyry, limestone, alabaster, sandstone, and emeralds. The first four were formerly prized for the purposes of architecture and sculpture. Language. — The sources of knowledge respecting ancient Egypt are chiefly four: (1) the Pentateuch; (2) the writings of Manetho, b.c. 300-250, whose work is lost, but fragments of which have come down to us through Josephus, Julius Afrieanus, and Eusebius; (3) the accounts of Greek travellers —

Herodotus, b.c. 454, Diodorus Siculus, b.c. 58, and Strabo, b.c. 30; (4) the monumental inscriptions and papyrus rolls in the temples and tombs or about mummies. Copies of the inscriptions and many of the papyrus rolls have been discovered during the present century and transferred to museums in London, Paris, Berlin, Leyden, Turin, and Bulak, and have been deciphered by Egyptologists. The hieroglyphic signs on the monuments are partly ideographic or pictorial, partly phonetic. The hieroglyphic, the shorter hieratic, and the demotic alphabets were deciphered by Champollion and Young by means of the famous trilingual Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, and the Coptic language "which is essentially the same with the old Egyptian. For a summary of the respective merits of Young and Champollion with regard to the interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphic, see Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, vol. iii. p. 2902. The process of decipherment was, briefly, as follows: The Rosetta Stone had an inscription in three characters, hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. The Greek, which was easily read, declared that there were two translations, one in the sacred, the other in the popular, language of the Egyptains, adjacent to it. The demotic part was next scrutinized, and the groups determined which contained the word Ptolemy. These were compared with other framed symbols on an obelisk found at Philae. The symbol on the obelisk which occurred in connection with the name Ptolemy was conjectured to be Cleopatra, as the number of letters also indicated. The two groups were then compared: he took to be Ptolemais. The second symbol in the second group, a lion, Champollion took to be I, and the same symbol has the fourth place in the first group. By a similar process of comparison, the nine letters of Cleopatra's name were ascertained, while the different letters in the case of Ptolemy were afterward verified by comparing them with the names of other kings, and particularly with that of Alexander the Great as below: — The prevailing opinion is that the ancient Egyptians were of Asiatic rather than of African origin. Their language was Egyptian, and was related, though it has not yet been proved as belonging, to the Semitic family. It had two dialects, that of Upper and that of Lower Egypt, and by degrees a vulgar dialect was formed, which became the national language not long before the formation of the Coptic. The written character of the Egyptian language was the hieroglyphic — a very complex system, which expressed ideas by symbols or by phonetic signs, syllabic and alphabetic, or else by a combination of the two methods. From this combination was formed the hieratic, a runninghand, or common written form of the hieroglyphic, principally used for documents written on papyrus. The later Coptic language was written in Greek letters, with the addition of six new characters to that alphabet. The writings of the ancient Egyptians which have come down to our times are disjointed, and, from a literary point of view, have disappointed the expectations even of warm admirers of Egyptian civilization. See Poole in Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Ed., vol. vii. (1878). Learning and Art. — The progress of the Egyptians in the various sciences was equalled by that of no other ancient people except the Greeks, and perhaps the Babylonians and the Assyrians. In astronomy, geometry, chemistry, and the arts their knowledge is attested by the cycles they formed for the adjustment of different reckonings of time, and by their skill in shaping and moving vast blocks of stone used in building, which, considering their want of iron and the very simple mechanical appliances at the command of Egyptian builders, are an enigma to modern engineers. The hardening of bronze tools

with which they cut granite and the mode in which Moses destroyed the golden calf indicate the progress they had made in using metals. In medicine also they were inferior only to the Greeks. In architecture the Egyptians occupy the most distinguished place among the nations of antiquity. None have equalled them in the grandeur, massiveness, and durability of their structures. Mr. Fergusson says: "Neither Grecian nor Gothic architects understood more perfectly all the gradations of art and the exact character that should be given to every form and every detail. They understood also, better than any other nation, how to use sculpture in combination with architecture, and to make their colossi and avenues of sphinxes group themselves into parts of one great design, and at the same time to use historical paintings, fading by insensible degrees into hieroglyphics on the one hand and into sculpture on the other, linking the whole together with the highest class of phonetic utterance and with the most brilliant coloring, thus harmonizing all these arts into one great whole unsurpassed by anything the world has seen during the 30 centuries of struggle and aspiration that have elapsed since the brilliant days of the great kingdom of the Pharaohs." — Handbook of Architecture. And Poole observes: "In the whole range of ancient art Egyptian may take its place next after Greek. Indeed, in some instances it excels Greek, as when in animal forms the natural is subordinated to the ideal. The lions from Gebel Barkel . . . are probably the finest examples of the idealization of animal forms that any age has produced." — Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. vii. The pyramids and sphinxes, the immense temples, tombs, and remarkable obelisks, have called forth the admiration alike of the past and of the nineteenth century. Religion. — In religion the ancient Egyptians had an idea of one supreme, self-existent creator, but this idea was mixed with the basest forms of polytheism and idolatry. Every town had its local divinities and its sacred animal or fetish. Herodotus remarked that it was easier to find a god than a man on the Nile. Seth, the destructive power of Nature, was for many centuries the special divinity of Lower Egypt, but he was at length displaced. There appear to have been various orders of gods, each town having a cycle called a society of the gods, or "the nine gods." The Egyptians explained this cycle as the self-development of Ra, the chief or supreme god, already The Principal Egyptian Triad, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. (After Eiehm.) mentioned, and who appears to be identified in Egyptian history of the "eighteenth dynasty" with the sun and sunworship. Two lists of their deities are given: the first is according to the system of Memphis, the earlier capital, whose chief gods were Ptah, Ra, Shu or Mu, Temple at Karnak. Columns in the Great Hall. (Afier Photographs by Sebak.) Temple of Medinet Abou at Thebes. (After Photographs by heoak.)

Seb, Hesiri or Osiris, Hes, Seth or Sethos, and Har. Those of the system of Thebes, the later capital, were, according to Lepsius, Amen, Mentu, Atmu, Shu, Seb, Hesiri, Set, liar, and Sebek. These two systems, however, may be treated as one, consisting of male divinities with whom are associated goddesses. Wilkinson gives a list of thirteen triads of gods, two of whom were usually of equal rank and the third subordinate. At Philae was the triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Sun-worship was the primitive form of the Egyptian religion. Ra was represented as a hawk-headed man, generally bearing on his head the solar disk. Osiris (in Egyptian Heairi) was usually represented as a mummy with a royal cap having ostrich plumes; he is the good being, the judge of all the dead, and is opposed to Seth, the evil being. The worship of these gods required priests, sacrifices, offerings of fruits, libations, and at some early periods human victims. Vast temples were built in honor of the deities, each town usually having at least one temple, and immense tombs were also constructed as a religious duty and connected with the worship of some of the gods, usually that of Osiris or a divinity of that group. The Egyptians had a very strong belief in a future life, and were taught to consider their abode here merely as an inn upon the road to a future existence where there was no distinction in rank. After death the body was embalmed and often kept in the house for months or a year before the burial. See Embalm. The mummy of a deceased friend was sometimes introduced at their parties and placed in a seat at the table as one of the guests. Herodotus says that the Egyptians were the first to maintain the immortality of the soul. They also believed in the transmigration of souls. Though "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," the system of worship and religion which was given to the Hebrews under him is in marked contrast to the polytheistic and idolatrous forms of Egypt, and attests its divine origin. Chronology and History. — As the father of nations, Egypt in its early history antedates all records, and is lost in obscurity. Egyptian history may be divided into 6 great periods: (1) The Pharaohs or native kings, to b.c. 525; (2) the Persian, to b.c. 332; (3) the Ptolemies, to b.c. 30; (4) the Roman, to a.d. 640; (5) the Arab; (6) the Turk. Egyptian chronology is in a confused and unsettled condition. New information from the monuments has simply increased the difficulty of settling the many conflicting statements and establishing dates on a satisfactory basis. The principal facts that appear to be generally accepted are: (1) Menes is an historical person, and the first known king of Egypt. (2) The great Pyramid, at Gizeh, dates from the fourth dynasty, and is an imperishable monument of the skill and resources of the people at that very remote period. (3) Manetho's lists of dynasties were chiefly, though not entirely, consecutive, as appears from the two lists of the first Pharaohs found in the temple of Abydos, the lists at Sakkarah, and another in Thebes: the duration of these dynasties, however, is not settled. (4) The Hyksos, or Shepherd -kings of Manetho, conquered and ruled Lower Egypt for centuries, breaking the continuity of the empire, but they were expelled by Amasis I. These Hyksos are not to be confounded with the Hebrews, whom Manetho deridingly calls "Mepers." (5) During the eighteenth dynasty the empire of Egypt was in the height of its splendor, its conquests reaching to Babylon and Nineveh on the Euphrates, and over Nubia in the south. (6) No dates can be definitively fixed before the beginning of the twenty-second dynasty. The two noted authorities on this subject — M. Mariette and Prof. Lepsius — differ over 1100 years in their tables as to the length of dynasties I.-XVII. See J. P. Thomson in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1877, and Poole in Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. vii. Some have conjectured that Menes, the founder of Egypt, was identical with Mizraim, a grandson of Noah. Gen 10:6. Egypt and the Bible. — To the Bible reader the chief points of interest in Egyptian history are those periods when that country came in contact with the patriarchs and the Israelites. chronologies of both are in such an unsettled state that there cannot fairly be said to be an irreconcilable difference between them until both are more fully and definitively established. The ablest Egyptologists vary in their estimates of the duration of the empire about 3000 years. Menes, the first Pharaoh, began to reign, according to Boeckh, b.c. 5702; Mariette, b.c. 5004; Brugsch, b. c. 4455-4400; Chabas, b.c. 4000; Lepsius and Ebers, b.c. 3892; Bunsen, b.c. 3623-3039; Birch, b.c. 3000; Poole, b.c. 2700; Wilkinson, b.c. 2691; G. Rawlinson, b.c. 2450. Egyptologists generally agree that the chronology is wholly uncertain, and that we must wait for further light and better agreement among scholars. Bible chronology is likewise unsettled, some theologians holding to the "long" system of the Septuagint, which dates the Creation b.c. 5400 (Hales, 5400; Jackson, 5426), and others to the shorter system of the Hebrew text (Ussher, 4004; Petavius, 3983); hence no agreement can be attempted until the age of Solomon. From his time down there is no material disagreement in the two chronologies of Egypt and the Hebrew records. Entrance to Tomb at Beni-Hassan. (From a Photograph.) of a distinguished nomad chief with his family, seeking protection under Osirtasen II. customs of that age. Inscriptions on the monuments speak of the dreams of Pharaoh; the butler's and baker's duties are indicated in pictures; one of the oldest papyri relates the story that a foreigner was raised to the highest rank in the court of Pharaoh; and Dr. Brugsch believes an inscripition on a tomb at el-Kab to contain an unmistakable Profile of Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the Oppression. (After Lepsius.) allusion to the 7 years of famine in Joseph's time, as follows: "I gathered grain, a friend of the god of harvest. I was watchful at the seed-time. And when a famine arose through many yearn I distributed the grain through the town in every famine." Portrait of Menephthah II., the Pharaoh of the Exodus. (From Riehm.) the spoil from the Amalekites, 1 Sam 30:11, etc.; Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh and married his daughter, 1 Kgs 3:1; Gezer was spoiled by Pharaoh and given to Solomon's wife,1 Kgs 9:16; Solomon brought horses from Egypt; Hadad fled thither for refuge, as did also Jeroboam, 1 Kgs 10:28; 1 Kgs 11:17; 1 Kgs 12:2; Shishak plundered Jerusalem and made Judaea tributary, 1 Kgs 14:26, and a record of this invasion and conquest has been deciphered on the walls of the great temple at Karnak, or el-Karnak. In this inscription is a figure with a strong resemblance to Jewish features, which bears Egyptian characters that have been translated "the king of Judah." Pharaoh-necho was met on his expedition against the Assyrians by Josiah, who was slain. 2 Kgs 23:29-30. Pharaoh-hophra aided Zedekiah, Jer 37:5-11, so that the siege of Jerusalem was raised, but he appears to have been afterward attacked by Nebuchadnezzar. The sway of Egypt was checked, and finally overcome, by the superior power of Babylonia, and its entire territory in Asia was taken away. 2 Kgs 24:7; Jer 46:2. The books of the prophets contain many declarations concerning the wane and destruction of the Egyptian power, which have been remarkably fulfilled in its subsequent history. SeeIsa 19; Isa 20; Isa 30:3; Isa 31:3; Isa 36:6; Jer 2:36; Jer 9:25-26; Jer 43:11-13; Jer 44:30; Jer 46; Eze 29; Eze 30; Eze 31; Eze 32; Dan 11:42; Joel 3:19; and "the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." Zech 10:11. In the N.T. there are several references to the relations of the Israelites to Egypt as they existed in O.T. times; see Acts 2:10; Acts 7:9-40; Heb 3:16; Heb 11:26-27; but the interesting fact in the N.T. period was the flight of the holy family into Egypt, where the infant Jesus and his parents found a refuge from the cruel order of Herod the Great. Matt 2:13-19. Among the various other allusions to Egypt in the Bible are those to its fertility and productions. Gen 13:10; Ex 16:3; Num 11:5; to its mode of irrigation as compared with the greater advantages of Canaan, which had rain and was watered by natural streams, Deut 11:10; its commerce with Israel and the people of western Asia, Gen 37:25, Eze 23:36; 1 Kgs 10:28-29; Eze 27:7; its armies equipped with chariots and horses, Ex 14:7; Isa 31:1; its learned men and its priests, Gen 41:8, Gen 41:45; Gen 47:22; Ex 7:11; 1 Kgs 4:30; its practice of embalming the dead, Gen 50:3; its aversion to shepherds, and its sacrifices of cattle. Gen 46:34; Ex 8:26; how its people should be admitted into the Jewish Church, Deut 23:7-8; the warnings to Israel against any alliance with the Egyptians, Isa 30:2; Isa 36:6; Eze 17:15; Ex 29:6; and to the towns of the country. Eze 30:13-18. The records on existing monuments have been found to confirm the accuracy of all these allusions to the customs of the people. History. — The history of Egypt, as drawn from other sources than the Scriptures, is confused, like the chronology upon which it depends for clearness and order. Of the thirty dynasties from Menes to the second Persian conquest, b.c. 340, some of the most noted earlier kings were Thothmes I. and III., Amenoph II. and III., Scthos or Sesostris, and Rameses II. and III. These built many of the vast and grand

temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and carried their conquests to Assyria and Ethiopia. Among the later rulers were Shishak or Sheshonk, Pharaoh-necho, Pharaoh-hophra, and Psammetichus. Its most populous cities were Thebes. Latopolis, Apollinopolis, Syene, Memphis, Heraclopolis, Arsinoe, Heliopolis, Bubastis, Sais, Busiris, Tanis, and Pelusium. The statements of some Greek and Roman writers that Egypt in its prosperity had 7,000,000 population and 20,000 cities are believed to be greatly exaggerated. This would require it to have sustained an average population to the square mile, exclusive of the desert, twice as great as the most densely-peopled lands of modern times. Egypt was conquered by Cambyses the Persian about b.c. 525; regained its independence under Amyrteus, of the twenty-eighth dynasty of native kings; was again conquered by the Persians under Darius Ochus, b.c. 340, by Alexander the Great, b.c. 332, when he founded Alexandria. After Alexander's death it formed a kingdom under the Grecian and Macedonian Ptolemies, the Greeks becoming the dominant class (the last of the Ptolemies reigned jointly with his sister and wife, the famous Cleopatra). After the battle of Actium, b.c. 30, Egypt became a Roman province. Under the Roman rule Alexandria continued to be the great mart of trade and the centre of learning and philosophy; for three centuries it was under Roman rule, and during that period Egypt was accounted the granary of Rome. On the transfer of the seat of empire to Constantinople, the Christians, who had been severely persecuted under its Roman rulers, gained the sway over the pagans, and for three centuries theological controversies raged with great fierceness. The Arab conquest under Caliph Omar came a.d. 640, followed by the Fatimite dynasty, a.d. 970, when Cairo was founded and made the capital. Saladin, the noted prime minister of the last of the Fatimites, assumed the sovereignty, with the title of sultan, a.d. 1170, and was a vigorous opposer of the Crusaders. The government was overturned by the Mamelukes about a.d. 1250; again conquered by Selim I., a.d. 1517; by Napoleon in 1798; by the combined forces of the English and the Turks in 1801; and, soon after, Mehemet Ali, an Albanian adventurer, was made pasha, being nominally a vassal of Turkey, but his power was nearly absolute. Under the reign of his grandson, the present khedive or viceroy (since 1863), Egypt has been restored to some extent from its low condition, schools and colleges have been founded, commerce and manufactures encouraged, numerous reforms introduced, the Suez Canal completed and opened to the commerce of the world, railways and telegraphs have been constructed; but the condition of the people has not been improved, and poverty and misery prevail. The treasury of the khedive is nearly bankrupt. Egypt is "the old house of bondage under new masters." The Presbyterian Church has established flourishing mission schools in Alexandria, Cairo, and Osiout, among the Copts. Monuments and Ruins. — "Egypt is the monumental land of the earth," says Bunsen, "as the Egyptians are the monumental people of history." Among the most interesting ancient cities are: (1) On or Heliopolis, "the city of the Sun," 10 miles north-east of Cairo, where are traces of massive walls, fragments of sphinxes, and an obelisk of red granite, 68 feet high, bearing an inscription of Osirtasen I. of the twelfth dynasty, and erected, therefore, previous to the visit of Abraham and Sarah to the land of the Pharaohs. Formerly the two "Needles of Cleopatra" stood here also, but were removed to Alexandria during the reign of Tiberius; and one of them has lately been transported to London, and now stands on the banks of the Thames. Joseph was married at Heliopolis, Gen 41:45, and there (according to Josephus) Jacob made his home; it was probably the place where Moses received his education, where Herodotus acquired most of his skill in writing history, and where Plato, the Greek philosopher,studied. (2) Thebes "of the hundred gates," one of the most famous cities of antiquity, is identified with No or No-Amnion of Scripture. Jer 46:25; Eze 30:14-16; Nah 3:8. The ruins are very extensive, and the city in its glory stretched over 30 miles along the banks of the Nile, covering the places now known as Luxor, Karnak, and Ascent of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. (From a recent Photograph.)

Thebes. (3) Memphis, the Noph of Scripture, Jer 46:10. "Nothing is left of its temples and monuments but a colossal statue of Rameses II., lying mutilated on the face in the mud." Only a very brief notice of the wonderful monuments can be given here. For convenience these may be grouped into two classes: (a) The pyramids, obelisks, and statues; (b) the palaces, temples, and tombs. The Obelisk of On. (Helopolis. From a Photograph by Good.) (a) The number of pyramids still existing in Egypt is variously stated at from 45 or 65 to 130. Brugsch says "more than 70;" Lepsius speaks of no less than 30 that had escaped the notice of former travellers (1842-1844); others count as many as 130, including all pyramidal structures, ancient and modern. Piazzi Smyth (1874) reduces them all to 28, and gives a list of them. The largest and most remarkable are those near Memphis, at Sakkara, Aboosir, Dashoor, and Gizeh. The three at Gizeh are the most interesting of all. The largest of these is that of Cheops, which was erected from 2000 to 3000 years before Christ. It was old when Rome was built, when Homer sang, when David reigned, and even when Moses led out the Israelites. This pyramid, according to General Vyse, is 450 feet 9 inches high (it was formerly about 30 feet higher), the present length of its base is 746 feet (it was formerly 764 feet), and it covers an area of about 13 acres. It has been stripped of its polished stone casing in centuries past to adorn the palaces of Greeks, Romans, and Saracens. It is the largest, and probably the oldest, structure in the world. The second pyramid is scarcely inferior to the first in height, being 447 feet 6 inches high and having a base 690 feet 9 inches square. A great part of its casing has been preserved. The third pyramid is smaller than either of the other two, but in beauty and costliness of construction is unexcelled by any other pyramid. These colossal structures were erected as monuments and tombs of the kings. The body of the dead monarch was embalmed, placed in a stone sarcophagus, put into the massive tomb, and the entrance closed. See Schaff's Bible Lands, p. 40. Near the pyramids is the great Sphinx, a massive man-headed lion in a recumbent posture, nearly 190 feet long, with immense paws, formerly 50 feet in length. The vast figure is buried in the sand, except his colossal head. There are also six other smaller pyramids near the three here described, three standing to the east of the Great Pyramid and three to the south of the third one. Southward of those at Gizeh are the pyramids at Aboosir, and about 2 miles still farther are those of Sakkara, while about 5 miles beyond are those of Dashoor, two of which are built of stone and three of brick. (b) Of the palaces, temples, and tomb-structures, the most remarkable is the famous Labyrinth, in the Feiyoom district, which Bunsen calls the most gorgeous edifice on the globe; it includes 12 palaces and 3000 saloons. The temples at Karnak and Luxor are the most interesting, the grandest among them Temple of Hathor or Athor at Denderah. (After Photographs.) Front of Temple at Aloe Simbet, Nubia. (After Photographs.) Avenue of Sphinxes and Propylou at Karuak. (After Photographs.)

all being the magnificent temple of Rameses II. See No and No-Ammon. There are ruins of temples at Denderah, Abydos, Philae, Heliopolis, and at Ipsamboul, 170 miles south of Philae, in Nubia. Among the noted tombs are those at Thebes, Beni-Hassan, and Osiout, and among the obelisks are those at Luxor, Karnak, Heliopolis, and Alexandria. These wonderful ruins attest the magnificence and grandeur, but also the absolute despotism and slavery, of this land in the earliest ages and as far back as before the days of Abraham, and they also attest in the most impressive manner the fulfilment of prophecy. Judgment of the Dead. (After Riehm.) In a cave near Thebes 39 royal mummies and various other objects were discovered in 1881. Among the mummies was that of Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the oppression, which has been fully described by Maspero. A trilingual inscription, perhaps a century older than the Rosetta Stone, has also been lately found, and one of the oldest pyramids opened. The Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul, and that when the soul reached the Hall of Double Justice, the heart in its vase was placed in one scale, and the goddess of Truth in the other. Horus and a cynocephalus conducted the process of weighing, Anubis superintended, Thoth recorded the result, and Osiris, with 42 counsellors, pronounced sentence. If the heart was light, the soul suffered the torments of hell, or was sent into a pig or some unclean animal, then returned to begin life anew, and have another trial by judges. If the heart was heavy, the soul was sent to the regions of the blest. (See Baedeker's Lower Egypt, p. 137.) For ancient Egypt see the following works: Caylus, Comte de, Recueil d'Antiquités Egyptiennes, etc., Paris, 1761-67, 7 vols. 4to; Alexander, Egyptian Monuments now in the British Museum, collected by the French Institute, 1805-7, 5 parts roy. fol.; Birch, S., Fac-similes of the Egyptian Relics discovered at Thebes in the Tomb of Aah Hotep, 1820, oblongfol.: Rosellini, I Monumenti dell'Egitta e della Nubia, Pisa, 1832-44, 3 vols, atlas fol. and 9 vols, 8vo of text; Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions from the British Museum, etc., London, 1835-65, 2 series roy. fol.; Bonomi and Arundale. Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum with Inscriptions by Birch, 1844, 2 parts; Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History, 1848-67, 5 vols. 8vo, vol. v. being a hieroglyphical lexicon and grammar by S, Birch; Lepsius, Chronologie der Egypter, etc., Berlin, 1849, imp. 4to; Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Berlin, 1849-59, 12 vols, eleph. fol. and 1 vol. of introductory text, imp. 4to; Rouge, Rituel Funeraire de Anciens Egyptiens, Paris, 1861-66, 5, livraisons, imp. fol.; Pleyte, Etudes Egyptologiques, Leide, 1866-69, 7 parts 4to; Brugsch, Dictionnaire Hieroglyphique, Leipzig, 1867, fol.: Ebers, AEgypten und die Bucher Mose's, vol. i., Leipzig, 1868, 8vo; Pleyte, Les Papyrus Rollin de la Bibliotheque Imperiale de Paris, 1868, atlas 4to; Frith, Eqypt and Palestine Photographed and Described, 1870, 2 vols. roy. fol.;

Wilkinson, Sir J. G., The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, new edition by S. Birch, LL.D.. London, 1879, 3 vols. 8vo; Brugsch-Bey, Geschichte Aegypten's unter den Pharaonen. Nach den Denkmulern, Leipzig, 1877; Engl. translation, London, 2d ed., 1881, 2 vols.; F. Vigouroux, La Bible et les decouvertes modernes en Eygpte et en Assyrie, Paris, 1877, 2 vols.; Ebers, Aegypten im Bild imd Wort, Leipzig, 1879. On modern Egypt: Lane, The Modern Egyptians, 2 vols., London, 5th ed., 1871; Zinke, Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive, Lond., 1873; Klunzinger, Upper Egypt, London, 1878.