Chapter VII: Letter VI

PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. _January 28, 1843._

I have ordered ten camels to come here to-morrow night, that we may depart early, before sunrise, the day after, with our already somewhat extensive collection of original monuments and gypsum casts, for Cairo, where we shall deposit them until our return from the south. This will be the commencement of our movement toward Saqâra. A row of very recently discovered tombs, of the dynasties immediately following that of Cheops, has once retarded our departure. The fifth dynasty, which appears as an Elephantine contemporaneous dynasty in Africanus,[14] and was not at all to be expected as such here, now lies completed before us, and in general precisely as I had constructed it in Europe. The gaps have been filled up with three kings, whose names were then unknown. Also some kings, formerly hanging in mid-air, have been won for the seventh and eighth dynasties, of which we had previously no monumental names whatever. The proof of the fifth dynasty following the fourth immediately would in itself richly recompense us for our stay of several months at this place; and besides this, we have still much to do with structures, sculptures, and inscriptions, which, by the continually increasing certitude of the royal names, are formed into one cultivated epoch, dating about the year 4000 B.C. One can never recall these till now incredible dates too often to the memory of one’s-self and others; the more criticism is challenged, and obliged to give a serious examination to the matter, the better for the cause. Conviction will follow criticism, and then we shall arrive at the consequences that are linked with it in every branch of archæology.

With this letter you will receive a roll containing several drawings which have been copied from the tombs here. They are splendid specimens of the oldest architecture, sculpture, and painting that art-history has to show, and the most beautiful and best preserved of all those that we have found in the Necropolis. I hope we shall some day see these chambers fully erected in the New Museum at Berlin.[15] They would certainly be the most beautiful trophy that we could bring with us from Egypt. Their transportation would probably be attended with some difficulty; for you may judge by the dimensions that ordinary means will not suffice to do it. I have therefore asked, in a letter addressed directly to His Majesty the King, whether it would not be possible to send a vessel next year, or at the close of the expedition, with some workpeople and tools, in order to take these monuments to pieces more carefully than we can do, and bring them with the rest of the collections to Berlin.

Six of the enclosed leaves are drawings of a tomb which I myself discovered under the sand, and the paintings of which are almost as fresh and perfect as you may perceive them in the drawing.[16] It was the last resting-place of Prince Merhet, who, as he was a priest of Chufu (Cheops), named one of his sons Chufu-mer-nuteru, and possessed eight villages, the names of which were compounded with that of Chufu; and the position of the grave on the west side of the pyramid of Chufu, as well as perfect identity of style in the sculptures, renders it more than probable that Merhet was the son of Chufu, by which the whole representations are rendered more interesting. This prince was also “Superintendent-General of the royal buildings,” and thus had the rank of Ober-hof Baurath (High Court-architect), a great and important post in these times of magnificent architecture, and which we have often found under the direction of princes and members of the royal family. It is therefore to be conjectured that he also over-looked the building of the Great Pyramid. Would not this alone have justified the undertaking of transporting to Berlin the well-joined grave-chamber of this princely architect, which will otherwise be destroyed at a longer or shorter period by the Arabs, and built into their ovens, or burnt in their kilns! There, at least, it would be preserved, and accessible for the admiration or scientific ardour of the curious, as indeed European art and science teaches us to respect and value such monuments. For its re-erection it would require a width of 6 métres 30´, a height of 4 m. 60’, and a depth of 3 m. 80´; and such a space can certainly be reserved for it in the New Museum.[17]

I must remark, in addition, that such chambers form only a very small portion of the tomb, and were not intended for the mummy. The tomb of Prince Merhet is more than 70 feet long, 45 broad, and 15 high. It is massively constructed of great blocks of freestone, with slanting outer surfaces. The chamber only is covered with rafters, and one, or in this case two, square shafts lead from the flat roof through the building into living rock, at the bottom of which, sixty feet below, rock-chambers open at each side, in which the sarcophagi were placed. The remains of the reverend skull of the Cheoptic prince, which I found in his mummy-chamber, I have carefully preserved. To my sorrow we found but little more, because this grave, like most of the others, has long been broken into. Originally the entrance was closed with a stone slab. Only the supersurfacial chamber remained open always, and was therefore adorned with representations and inscriptions. Thither were brought the offerings to the departed. It was dedicated to the religious belief of the dead person, and thus answered to the temple that was built before each pyramid for the adoration of its royal inmate. In the same way as those temples, so these chambers always open to the east. The shafts, like the pyramids, lie behind to the west, because the departed was supposed to be in the west, whither he had gone with the setting sun to Osiris in Amente.

Finally, the seventh leaf contains two pillars and their architrave, from the tomb of a royal relative, who was also the prophet of four kings, named Ptah-nefru-be’u. The grave was constructed at a later period than that of Prince Merhet, in the fifth dynasty of Manetho.[18] It belongs to a whole group of tombs, the architectural disposition and intercommunication of which are very curious, and which I have therefore laid quite open to the daylight, while before neither the entrance nor anything else but the crown of the outer wall was to be seen.

I also send you the complete plan of it, besides that of the neighbouring graves, but only think of bringing the architrave and the two finely-painted pillars of the southern space, which may be easily removed. On the architrave the legend of the departed is inscribed, who is also represented on the four sides of the pillars in full size. In front, on the north pillar, is seen the father of the dead person, Ami; on the southern one is his grandfather, Aseskef-anch. The pillars are about twelve feet in height, are slim, and are always without capitals, but with an abacus.

At the tomb of Prince Merhet I have had the whole chamber isolated, but have given up the design of taking it down for the present, as the season is not the most favourable for transporting it. I have therefore filled this grave and the other with sand, and to-morrow, on my arrival in Cairo, I shall obtain an order interdicting the removal of any of the stones of those tombs which we had opened. For it is most annoying to see great caravans of camels coming hither from the neighbouring villages, and going off in long strings loaded with slabs for building. Fortunately,--for what is not fortunate under circumstances!--the lazy Fellahs are rather attracted by the tombs of the age of the Psammetici than by those of the older dynasties, the great blocks of which are not handy enough for them. I am more seriously alarmed, however, for the tombs of the fifth and seventh dynasties, which are built of more moderately sized stones. Yesterday the robbers threw down a fine, steady, fully-inscribed pillar when our backs were turned. Their efforts to break it up seem not to have been successful. The people have become so feeble here, that, with all their mischievous industry, their powers are not sufficient to destroy what their mighty ancestors had raised.

Some days ago, we found, standing in its original place in a grave of the beginning of the seventh dynasty, an obelisk of but a few feet in height, but well preserved, and bearing the name of the person to whom the tomb was erected. This form of monument, which plays so conspicuous a part in the New Empire, is thus thrown some dynasties farther back into the Old Empire than even the obelisk of Heliopolis.