Egyptian Days (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ...now preserved at Cairo, that it is an admirable likeness. It is, at all events, most serene, most impressive--indescribably august. One might readily accept that staring visage for the face of the emperor who oppressed Israel, but that we are forbid by those who now claim to know better. It is a pity that the old temple of Ptah has perished. It would have been a splendid sight to see these great effigies erect and in their proper place at either side of the pylon. Nevertheless it is true that in their present location, prone on the earth under the shelter of the palms, they have a charm that is peculiar to the spot. Naught else of Memphis remains, save only her cemetery on the distant heights still several miles away to the westward. Toward these the Hakkim and I pushed on--our companions having disappeared on their pattering donkeys far away on the road that wandered along the back of the gisr. We fancied we could see them just where the yellow sands of the desert began to heave themselves up from the greenery of the level plain. Sakkara now lay in full view, marked afar by the majesty of the Step Pyramid, whose terraces the drifting sands had partially filled, much as snow would have done. To the north and south other and more distant pyramids appeared, most notable of all being the curious one with the double angle at Dashur. On the brink of the desert sands toward the north appeared the modern house of the excavators in charge of the work at Sakkara. We buckled to our walk afresh, facing a piping breeze that threatened later to develop into a sand-storm--a threat, alas, only too soon made good. However, travel along the dike proved to be easy and rapid, and in somewhat less than two hours from Bedreschein we found ourselves at the verge of...