176 to which I shall occasionally add what I myself have witnessed.-Menes*, the first sovereign of Ægypt, as I was informed by the priests, effectually detached the ground on which Memphis " stands, from the water. Before his time the river flowed entirely along the sandy mountain on the side * Menes, though he is mentioned by Herodotus as the first king of Egypt, was very far from being such as I have shewed in the introduction to that treatise published a few years ago, entitled, The Chronology of the Hebrew Bible vindicated. He was indeed the first king of Memphis, and seems to have transferred the seat of empire from Thebes to Memphis, for Diodorus positively says that Memphis was not built till eight generations after the building of Thebes, and that the rise of Memphis was the downfal of Thebes.Journal from Grand, Cairo to Mount Sinai, by Bishop Clayton. 176 Memphis.]-Authors are exceedingly divided about the site of ancient Memphis. The opinions of a few of the more eminent are subjoined. Diodorus Siculus differs from Herodotus with regard to the founder. "Uchoreus," says he, "built the city Memphis, which is the most illustrious of all the cities of Ægypt." "It is very extraordinary," observes Pococke, "that the situation of Memphis should not be well known, which was so great and famous a city, and for so long a time the capital of Egypt." See what this writer says farther on the subject, vol. i. 39, which, after all, perhaps better ascertains the situation of Memphis than either Gibbon or Savary. Besides the temple of Vulcan, here mentioned, Memphis was famous for a temple of Venus. "Is it not astonishing," remarks Savary," that the site of the ancient metropolis of Egypt, a city near seven leagues in circumference, containing magnificent temples and palaces, which art laboured to render eternal, should at present be a subject of dispute amongst the learned. Pliny," continues Savary, removes the difficulty past doubt. The three 66 grand side of Libya. But this prince, by constructing a bank at the distance of a hundred stadia from Memphis, towards the south, diverted the course of the Nile", and led it, by means of a new canal, through the centre of the mountains*. Even grand pyramids, seen by the watermen from all parts, stand on a barren and rocky hill, between Memphis and the Delta, one league from the Nile, two from Memphis, and near the village of Busiris." Gibbon does not speak of the situation of ancient Memphis with his usual accuracy and decision, "On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of the pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient kings." D'Anville, the most accurate of all geographers, places it fifteen miles above the point of the Delta, which he says corresponds exactly with the measurement of three schani." Whatever doubts may before have existed on this subject, they are now effectually removed by the luminous investigation of Major Rennel, in his excellent work on the Geography of Herodotus, p. 494, et Seq. 177 Diverted the course of the Nile.]-The course of this ancient bed is not unknown at present: it may be traced across the desert, passing west of the lakes of Natroun, by petrified wood, masts, and lateen yards, the wrecks of vessels by which it was anciently navigated.—Savary. The idea of petrified masts, &c. is now exploded. Both General Andreossi and Hornemann viewed the petrified wood at perfect and uninterrupted leisure. They found it to be parts of trees without any mark of a tool. See Memoir sur l'Ægypte, and Hornemann, p. 8.—T. * Rather, perhaps, midway between the two chains of hills, or in other words, through the middle of the valley. See Rennel, p. 494, et Seq.-T. Even at this present period, under the dominion of the Persians, this artificial channel is annually repaired, and regularly preserved. If the river were here once to break its banks, the whole town of Memphis would be greatly endangered. It was the same Menes who, upon the solid ground thus rescued from the water, first built the town now known by the name of Memphis, which is situate in the narrowest part of Egypt, To the north and the west of Memphis, he also sunk a lake, communicating with the river, which, from the situation of the Nile, it was not possible to effect towards the east. He moreover erected on the same spot a magnificent temple in honour of Vulcan, C. The priests afterwards recited to me from a book, the names of three hundred and thirty sovereigns (successors of Menes); in this continued series eighteen were Ethiopians 175, and one a female native of the country, all the rest were men and Ægyptians. The female was called Nitocris, which was also the name of the Babylonian princess. They affirm that the Ægyptians having slain her brother, who was their sovereign, she was appointed his successor; and that afterwards, to avenge his death, she destroyed by artifice a great number of Egyptians. By her orders 178 Eighteen were Ethiopians.]-These eighteen Æthiopian princes prove that the throne was not always hereditary in Egypt.-Larcher. a large a large subterraneous apartment was constructed, professedly for festivals, but in reality for a different purpose. She invited to this place a great number of those Ægyptians whom she knew to be the principal instruments of her brother's death, and then by a private canal introduced the river amongst them. They added, that to avoid the indignation of the people, she suffocated herself in an apartment filled with ashes. CI. None of these monarchs, as my informers related, were distinguished by any acts of magnificence or renown, except Moeris, who was the last of them. Of this prince, various monuments remain. He built the north entrance of the temple of Vulcan, and sunk a lake, the dimensions of which I shall hereafter describe. Near this he also erected pyramids *, whose magnitude, when I speak * It is very surprising that the pyramids, which from their first foundation must have been looked upon with wonder and attention, should not have preserved a more certain tradition of the time when they were founded, or of the names of the founders. Pliny reckons up a number of authors who have written of the Pyramids, and all of them he tells us disagree concerning the persons who built them.Shaw. The same author adds:-Neither is there an universal consent for what use or intent they were designed. Pliny asserts that they were built for ostentation, and to keep an idle people in employment others, which is the most received opinion, that they were to be the sepulchres of the Ægyptian kings. I speak of the lake, I shall particularize. These are lasting monuments of his fame; but as none of the preceding princes performed any thing memorable, I shall pass them by in silence. kings. But if Cheops, Suphis, or whoever else was the founder of the great pyramid, intended it only for his sepulchre, what occasion was there for such a narrow sloping entrance into it, or for the wall, as it is called, at the bottom of the gallery, or for the lower chamber, with a large nich or hole in the eastern wall of it, or for the long narrow cavities in the walls or sides of the large upper room, which likewise is incrustated all over with the finest granite marble, or for the two anti-chambers, and the lofty gallery, with benches on each side, that introduce us into it. As the whole of the Ægyptian theology was clothed in mysterious emblems and figures, it seems reasonable to suppose that all these turnings, apartments, and secrets in architecture, were intended for some nobler purpose; and that the deity, which was typified on the outward form of this pile, was to be worshipped within. No places could certainly have been more ingeniously contrived, for those secret chambers or adyta, which had so great a share in the Ægyptian mysteries and initiations. The following beautiful passages from different authors, on the hidden sources of the Nile, should have been inserted at p. 245. Lucan, B. 10. Quæ tibi noscendi Nilum, Romane, cupido est Venit |