conversion of Constantine, the power of the church was effectually exerted to co-operate with the provincial rulers in supporting the rights of the empire, and in repelling the inroads of the barbarians from the east and south. Nor was it till a new religion arose in Arabia, and gave birth to a dynasty of warlike sovereigns, that Egypt, wrested from its European conquerors, was forced to receive more arbitrary masters, and submit to a severer yoke. This era, however, constitutes the point in our historical retrospect at which we announced our intention to interrupt the narrative, until we shall have laid before the reader an account of the arts, the literature, and commerce of the ancient Egyptians.

CHAPTER IV.

Mechanical Labours of the Ancient Egyptians.

The Magnitude of Egyptian Edifices-Their supposed Object connected with the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis-Proposal made to Alexander the Great-Lake Maris; its Extent-The Narrative of Herodotus; supported by Diodorus and Pomponius Mela-Opinion that the Nile originally flowed through the Valley of the Dry River-Facts stated by Denon; and by Belzoni-Lake Moris not a Work of ArtThe River of Joseph, and Canals connecting it with the Nile-Pyramids; Account by Herodotus; Researches of Davison; of Caviglia; of Belzoni; Dimensions of Pyramids-Sphinx; Exertions of Caviglia -Monolithic Temple-Tombs-Reflections.

THE history of Egypt presents nothing more wonderful than the magnitude and durability of the public works which were accomplished by her ancient inhabitants. Prodigal of labour and expense, her architects appear to have planned their structures for the admiration of the most distant posterity, and with the view of rendering the fame of their mechanical powers coeval with the existence of the globe itself. It has been suspected, indeed, that the omnipotent spirit of religion mingled with the aspirations of a more earthly ambition in suggesting the intricacies of the Labyrinth, and in realizing the vast conception of the

Pyramids. The preservation of the body in an entire and uncorrupted state during three thousand years, is understood to have been connected with the mythological tenet that the spirit by which it was originally occupied would return to animate its members, and to render them once more the instruments of a moral probation amid the ordinary pursuits of the human race. The mortal remains even of the greatest prince could hardly have been regarded as deserving of the minute care and the sumptuous apparatus which were employed to save them from dissolution, had not the national faith pointed to a renewal of existence in the lapse of ages, when the bodily organs would again become necessary to the exercise of those faculties from which the dignity and enjoyment of man are derived. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Egypt was indebted to the religious speculations of her ancient sages for those sublime works of architecture which still distinguish her above all the other nations of the primitive world.

It must at the same time be acknowledged that, in all countries comparatively rude, vastness of size takes precedence of all other qualities in architectural arrangement. As a proof of this, it will not be denied that even the Pyramids sink into insignificance when compared with an undertaking proposed by Stesicrates to Alexander the Great. Plutarch relates that this projector offered to convert Mount Athos into a statue of the victorious monarch. The left arm was to be the base of a city containing ten thousand inhabitants; while the right was to hold an urn, from which a river was to empty itself into the sea. But our object in this chapter is not to describe the fanciful dreams of a panegyrist, but to give an account of works which were actually effected, and of which the remains continue at the present day to verify at once the existence and the grandeur.

We shall begin with Lake Moris, which, although, upon the whole, it owes more to nature than to art, is nevertheless well worthy of notice, both for its great extent and for its patriotic object. Herodotus, our best authority for its original appearance, informs us that the circumference of this vast sheet of water was three thousand six hundred stadia, or four hundred and fifty miles,-that it stretched from north to south,—and that its greatest depth was about

three hundred feet. He adds that it was entirely the product of human industry; as a proof of which, he states that in its centre were seen two pyramids, each of which was two hundred cubits above and as many beneath the water, and that upon the summit of both was a colossal statue, placed in a sitting attitude. The precise height of these pyramids, he concludes, is therefore four hundred cubits, or six hundred Egyptian feet.

The waters of the lake, he continues, are not supplied by springs on the contrary, the ground which it occupies is of itself remarkably dry; but it communicates by an artificial channel with the Nile,-receiving during six months the excess of the inundation, and during the other half of the year emptying itself back into the river. Every day during the latter period the fishery yields to the royal treasury a talent of silver,-whereas, as soon as the ebb has ceased, the produce falls to a mere trifle. "The inhabitants affirm of this lake, that it has a subterraneous passage westward into the Libyan Desert, in the line of the mountain which rises above Memphis. I was anxious to know what became of the earth which was dug out of the lake, and made inquiry at those who dwelt on its shores." The answer given to this very natural question seems to have imposed on the credulity of the historian. They assured him that the soil was carried to the river, and washed down by the current into the sea,-an explanation with which he was perfectly satisfied.

In reference to this narrative, which exhibits the usual characteristics of truth and simplicity, we may remark that it is substantially confirmed by the statements of Diodorus Siculus and of Pomponius Mela. According to the former of these writers, the circumference of the lake was exactly that which has been already quoted from the more ancient historian; while the latter magnifies it to the extent of five hundred miles. They all agree in representing that its object must have been to save the country from the effects of an excessive inundation, and at the same time to reserve a supply of moisture for the arid lands in the vicinity, or for the wants of a dry season in the Delta. It may, however, be thought probable that it was rather to prevent an evil than to secure a benefaction; for we find that the water

has not only a disagreeable taste, but is almost as salt as the sea, a quality which it is supposed to contract from the nitre with which the surrounding land is every where impregnated.

Last century, according to Dr. Pococke, Lake Moris was about fifty miles long and ten broad. The older French writers estimated its circumference at a hundred and fifty leagues, a result not materially different from that of the English traveller. Mr. Browne, who was more lately in Egypt, thought that the length did not exceed thirty or forty miles, and that the greatest breadth was not more than six. It is hence manifest that the limits of this inland sea have been much contracted; and, moreover, that the process of diminution is still going on at a rate which is distinctly perceptible. In ancient times, there can be no doubt, the water covered a large portion of the valley of Fayoum, and probably, when the inundation exceeded certain limits, found an outlet from the eastern extremity along the valley of the Bahr-bela-Maieh. It is equally manifest that the level of the Nile itself must, in those days, have been higher than it is at present, and that the branch which is now called Joseph's River must have conveyed no small share of its flood along the foot of the Libyan hills. At the remote epoch when the Delta was a bay of the Mediterranean, the main current of the descending flood would naturally seek an issue in the direction of those very hollows which continue to display the most convincing evidence that they were long washed as the channel of a mighty stream.

That the Nile originally flowed through the valley of the Dry River is admitted by the most intelligent among modern travellers. M. Denon, for example, regards as proofs of this fact the physical conformation of the adjoining country,the existence of the bed of a river extending to the sea, but now dry, its depositions and incrustations,—the depth of the lake, its extent,-its bearing towards the north on a chain of hills which run east and west, and turn off towards the north-west, sloping down to follow the course of the valley of the dry channel, and likewise the Natron Lakes. And, more than all the other proofs, the form of the chain of mountains at the north of the Pyramid which shuts the entrance of the valley, and appears to be cut perpendicularly, like almost all the mountains at the foot of which the

Nile flows at the present day,-all these offer to the view a channel left dry, and its several remains.*

The opinion that the river of Egypt penetrated into the Libyan Desert, even to the westward of Fayoum, is rendered probable by some observations recorded in the second volume of Belzoni's Researches. In his journey to the Oasis of Ammon, he reached one evening the Bahr-bela-Maieh. "This place is singular and deserves the attention of the geographer, as it is a dry river, and has all the appearance of water having been in it, the bank and bottom being quite full of stones and sand. There are several islands in the centre; but the most remarkable circumstance is, that, at a certain height upon the bank, there is a mark evidently as if the water had reached so high: the colour of the materials above that mark is also much lighter than those below. And what would almost determine that there has been water there, is that the island has the same mark, and on the same level with that on the banks of the said dry river. I am at a loss to conjecture how the course of this river is so little known, as I only found it marked near the Natron Lakes, taking a direction of north-west and southeast, which does not agree with its course here, which is from north to south as far as I could see from the summit of a high rock on the west side of it. The Arabs assured me that it ran a great way in both directions, and that it is the same which passes near the Natron Lakes. If this be the case, it must pass right before the extremity of the Lake Mæris, at the distance of two or three days' journey in a western direction. This is the place where several petrified stumps of trees are found, and many pebbles with moving or quick water inside."+

In its present contracted dimensions, the Lake of Moris is called by the Arabs the Birket-el-Karoun, and is recognised at once as a basin formed by nature, and not by art. The details collected by Herodotus, and the other writers of Greece and Rome, must therefore have applied to the works which were necessary not only to connect the Nile with the lake, but also to regulate the ebb and flow of the inundation. The canal, called Joseph's River, is about a hundred and twenty miles in length; which, when it enters † Belzoni, vol. ii. p. 183.

* Denon, vol. i. p. 163,