| Southport : Original Sources in Exploration | | |
Voyage in Lower and Upper Egypt, during the Campaigns of General Bonaparte. Vivant Denon | | | | |
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Chapter 45: Cataracts. - Island and Monuments of Philae. (p.212)
A
league and a half beyond the quarries the rocks multiply, and form a
bar, where we found the boats of the Mamluks fixed between the rocks
until the first flood of the river; the surrounding peasants had taken
the equipment and provisions. There we left the small boat in which we
had come, and, going back on foot for a quarter of an hour, we saw what
we agree to call the cataract. It is only a break of the river which
flows through the rocks, forming in some places waterfalls a few inches
high; they are so insignificant that we could barely express them in a
drawing: I (p.213) made only two of the bar where the navigation ends,
in order to destroy the idea we had of the fall of these famous
cataracts; Besides, they would make a beautiful picture if painted with
the color that characterizes them.
These
mountains, all bristling with black and sharp asperities, are reflected
in a dark manner in the mirror of the waters of the river, constrained
and narrowed by a number of granite points which divide it by tearing
its surface, and crisscross it with long white traces; these austere
shapes and colors are contrasted by the tender green of the groups of
palm trees thrown here and there across the rocks and the azure vault
of the most beautiful sky in the world: this well-done painting would
have the singular advantage of offering everything at once the image of
a true and completely new nature. When we have passed the cataracts,
the rocks rise, and at their summits blocks of granite pile up, which
seem to pyramid and balance themselves to produce picturesque effects.
It is through this harsh and austere nature that we suddenly discover
the superb monuments of the island of Philae, which form a brilliant
contrast and one of the most wonderful surprises that a traveler can
experience.
The Nile makes a detour as if to come and seek out
and enclose this enchanted island, where the monuments are separated
only by a few clumps of palm trees, or rocks, which only seem preserved
to group the riches of nature with the magnificence of the art, and
make a bundle of all the most picturesque and most imposing things they
can muster. The enthusiasm that the traveler feels at any moment at the
sight of the monuments of Upper Egypt may appear to the reader as a
perpetual emphasis, a monotonous exaggeration, and is, however, only
the naive expression of the feeling imposed by the sublimity of their
character; it is the distrust that I have of the insufficiency of my
drawings to give the idea of this great character, which means that I
seek, by my (p.214) expressions, to restore to these edifices the
degree of surprise that they inspire, and that of admiration which is
due to them.
"No.
1.—View of the island of Philae; equally picturesque in all aspects: I
thought I could not repeat the image too often; this is taken from the
east to the west of the setting sun, as I first saw it; the rocks which
are on the right, and which look like ruins, are other islands: in the
small plain which is below, we still find monuments: it is necessary,
for the understanding of the localities, to consult the map, Plate 38,
and its explanation." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
There
were no inhabitants on the mainland, they had even left Philae, and had
retired to a second, larger island, where they made savage cries, which
we were assured were cries. of fear; we did what we could to persuade
them to send us a boat which was on board; we couldn't get anything
from it. Moreover, as this branch of the Nile is narrow, this did not
prevent me from taking views of the island under the three aspects that
it could offer us. We returned very happy with our day; but this
overview did not seem sufficient to me for such important antiquity
objects, for such important monuments, so well preserved, and whose
details should be so interesting.
Fig.1: Map of Philae, showing Bigeh Island at left [from Volume I of Description de l'Egypte [1] (ed. Jomard), 1809, Plate 8.]
A few days later we learned
that the Mamluks from the right bank were coming to forage up to two
leagues from us; we set about repelling them; we left with four hundred
men, and we advanced on Philea by the land road through the desert:
what is particular about this road is that we see that it was traced,
raised as a causeway, and very practiced in the past.; this space was
the only one in Egypt where a major road was absolutely necessary; the
Nile ceasing to be passable because of the cataracts, all the
merchandise from Ethiopia's trade which came to land at Philea, had to
be transported by land to Syene, where they were embarked again. All
the blocks encountered on this road are covered with hieroglyphics, and
seemed to be there to entertain passengers. I made drawings of several
of these rocks; a stranger one has the shape of a seat which was
finished by making a staircase in the solid mass to reach the stride
(p.215) of the armchair; all covered with hieroglyphics, most of which
are very careful; I made the drawing of this block, and that of the
inscription.
"No.
2.—Another view of Philae at the moment when the inhabitants, naked,
and holding in their hands large sabers, long pikes, guns and shields,
mounted on the top of the rock, declare war on us: this painting was as
beautiful by the colors, by the forms of nature, as by the monuments
and the groups of inhabitants who visited them." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
Another particularity of this road are the ruins
of lines built of earthen bricks baked in the sun, the base of which is
fifteen to twenty feet thick: this entrenchment ran along the valley
bordering the road, and led to rocks and to forts nearly three leagues
from Syene. Although these walls were built of less precious materials,
they were manufactured at an expense which attests to the importance
that was placed on the defense of this point: could these be the
remains of the famous wall built by a queen of Egypt called Zuleikha,
daughter of Ziba, one of the Pharaohs, and which extended from ancient
Syene to where El-Arych is now, and whose fragments the Arabs call
Haļf-źladjouz, or the wall of Old ?
Plate 40-2: View of Philae facing north side (Denon 1802 vol.3, plate 40).
"No.
2.—Northern part of the island of Philae, with the development of all
its monuments (See the Map, Plate 38, and its explanation): one may be
surprised to find on the border of Ethiopia [3] a large number of
monuments of this magnificence, so well preserved after so many
centuries." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
We
found the inhabitants of Philae returned to their dwellings, but
determined not to receive us; we again attributed this ill will to the
fear we caused them, and we continued our journey: beyond Philea the
river is absolutely free and navigable; after passing an Arab fort and
a mosque from the same time, the shore of the Nile gradually becomes
impassable; instead of this profusion of monuments and inscriptions, we
saw only poor nature, left to itself, and on the rocks a few dwellings
which looked like savages' huts; we entered a desert cutting an angle
of the Nile to shorten the path; and after having climbed and descended
for several hours valleys as hollow as if we had been in a region
subject to storms and torrents, we emerged on the Nile by a ravine
which brought us to Taudi, a poor village on the bank of the river; As
we approached, the Mamluks had just abandoned this village, leaving
their dishes, their pots, and even the soup that they had (p.216)
prepared, and which they were to eat as soon as the sun set; because it
was the month of Ramadan, a kind of Lent, during which the Muslims,
even the soldiers, do not eat as long as the sun is on the horizon.
"No.
1.—View of Philae, from west to east at sunrise; This island is so
picturesque that I tried to present it in all its aspects and at all
times of the day." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
Chapter 46: The Gonblīs. (p.216)
We
sent a spy during the night; We learned at daybreak that at Demiet,
four leagues higher than Taudi, the Mamluks still finding themselves
too close to us, after having refreshed their horses, had left at
midnight. Our hut to keep them away being full, we took the road to
Syene. I had already had enough of Ethiopia, of the Goublis, and their
wives, whose extreme ugliness can only be compared to the atrocious
jealousy of their husbands: I saw some of them; as I inspired less fear
in the husbands than the soldiers, they placed a certain number of them
under my protection in a cabin, in front of the door of which I had
established myself to spend the night. Surprised by our circuitous
march, at nightfall, they did not have time to flee and hide in the
rocks, or to swim across the river: they absolutely had the fierce
stupidity of savages.
A harsh soil, fatigue, and insufficient
food undoubtedly alter in them all the charms of nature, and even give
to their youth the mark and degradation of decrepitude. It seems that
men are of another species, for their features are delicate, their skin
fine, their countenance lively and spiritual, and their eyes and teeth
admirable. Lively and intelligent, they put so much clarity and
conciseness into their language that a short sentence is always the
complete answer to the question asked of them: their (p.217) character
of liveliness is more analogous to ours than that of other orientals;
they hear and serve quickly, steal even more nimbly, and are greedy for
money, which can only be justified by their excessive poverty, and
compared only to their frugality. It is to all these reasons that their
thinness must be attributed, which is not due to their poor health,
because their color, although black, is full of life and blood, but
their muscles are only tendons: I do not I haven't seen a single fat
one, not even fleshy.
Chapter 47: Capture of the island of Philae. (p.217)
It
was necessary to starve the country to keep the enemy away; we bought
the cattle, we paid for the harvest in grass, the inhabitants
themselves helped us to harvest what it promised them in terms of
provisions, and followed us with what animals they had. Thus taking the
entire population, we left behind us only a desert. On my way back, I
was again struck by the sumptuousness of the buildings of Philea; I am
convinced that it was to produce this effect that the Egyptians had
brought this splendor of monuments to their border. Philae was the
warehouse of an exchange trade between Ethiopia and Egypt; and wanting
to give the Ethiopians a great idea of their means and their
magnificence, the Egyptians had raised a number of sumptuous buildings
to the confines of their empire, to their natural border, which was
Syene and the cataracts.
We had another talk with the
inhabitants of the island; it was more explanatory: they told us that
for two months in a row we would come every day without us ever being
allowed to reach them. This time again we had to take it for granted,
because we had no means (p.218) to change their decision: but as it
would have been a bad example for a handful of peasants to be insolent
four steps from our establishments, we put off making observations to
them until the next day that could change something in their
determination. We actually returned there with two hundred men; they
did not see them before they put themselves in a state of war: it was
declared in the manner of savages, with cries repeated by the women.
The inhabitants of the neighboring island came running with weapons
which they flashed like wrestlers; there were some completely naked
holding a large saber in one hand, a shield in the other, others with
matchlocks and long pikes; in a moment the entire eastern rock was
covered with groups of enemies.
We shouted to them again that we
had not come to harm them, that we were only asking them to enter the
island in a friendly manner: they replied that they would never give us
the means to do so, that their boats would not come. to look for us,
and that finally they were not Mamluks to retreat before us: this
boasting was covered by cries of unanimity which resounded from all
sides: they wanted to fight; they had defended themselves against the
Mamluks; they had beaten their neighbors; they wanted to have the glory
of resisting us, and even of braving us. Immediately the order was
given to our sappers to tear down the roofs of the huts on dry land
which could provide us with wood to make a raft: this act was the
declaration of war: they fired on us; posted and hidden in the cracks
of the rocks, they covered us with very well adjusted bullets. At this
moment a piece of cannon arrived, the very sight of which carried their
rage to the last degree; from then on there was no more communication
between the great island and the island of Philea; those of the great
one took their flocks, made them cross the arm of the river, and went
to lose them in the desert.
We noticed that the palm wood was
too heavy and was taking on water, (p.219) the descent had to be
postponed until the next day: the troop remained; everything needed to
make a raft big enough to carry forty soldiers was brought in. This
work occupied the whole of the next day; this delay increased the
insolence of these unfortunate people, who dared to propose to the
general to pay a hundred piastres to pass alone and unarmed on the
island: but the scene changed when suddenly they saw the large island
flooded with our volunteers whose descent had been protected by grape
cannon; terror followed, as usual, insufficient audacity; men, women,
children, everyone threw themselves into the river to swim away;
retaining the character of ferocity, mothers were seen drowning the
children they could not take away, and mutilating girls to protect them
from the violence of the victors. When I entered the island the next
day, I found a little girl of seven or eight years old, to whom a
sewing done with as much brutality as cruelty had deprived her of all
the means of satisfying her most pressing need, and caused her serious
problems. horrible convulsions: it was only with a counter-operation
and a bath that I saved the life of this unfortunate little creature
who was quite pretty. Others, of a more advanced age, were less austere
and chose their own winners.
Finally this island colony found itself dispersed in a few moments,
having
caused, relative to his means, an immense and irreparable loss. They
had plundered the boats that the Mamluks had not been able to bring up,
and had made stores of this booty, which, in comparison with their
neighbors, made them of unexampled wealth, and were able to ensure
their ease and their rest. for number of years; In a few hours they
found themselves deprived of the present and the future, they went from
ease to need, and were obliged to seek asylum from those among whom
they had brought war a few days previously. The evacuation (p.220) of
the stores located on the large island occupied the soldiers for the
rest of the day; and I used this time to make drawings of the rocks and
the antiquities found there.
Chapter 48: Description of the Ruins of Philae. (p.220),
These
ruins consist of a small sanctuary, preceded by a portico of four
columns with very elegant capitals, to which another portico was later
added which was undoubtedly due to the circumvaliation of the temple.
The oldest part, worked with more care, was much more decorated; the
use made of it by Catholicity has distorted its character, by adding
arches to the square shapes of the doors. In the sanctuary, right next
to the figures of Isis and Osiris, we can still see the miraculous
impression of the feet of S. Anthony or of S. Paul, a hermit.
The
next day was the best day of my trip: I was in possession of seven to
eight monuments in the space of three hundred toises, and above all I
did not have at my side any of these curious impatient people who
always believe they have enough seen, and who relentlessly urge you to
move on to something else; no drums beating the gathering or departure,
no Arabs, no peasants; alone at last, and enjoying my ease, I began to
make the map of the island and the plan of the buildings with which it
is covered. I was on my sixth trip to Philae; I had used the first five
to take the views of the outside and surrounding areas.
This
time, which was the first time I touched the ground of the island, I
began first by exploring its entire interior, to become acquainted with
its various monuments, and to form a general idea of it, one (p .221)
kind of topographic map, containing the island, the course of the
river, and adjacent features. I was able to convince myself that this
group of monuments had been built at different times, by various
nations, and had belonged to various cults, finally that the union of
these buildings, each of which was regular, offered an irregular
ensemble as magnificent as it was picturesque. I distinguished eight
sanctuaries at the particular temple, more or less large; built at
different times, one had been respected in the construction of the
other, which had harmed the regularity of the whole.
"Plan
of the island of Philae, located beyond the cataracts of the Nile, at a
bend in the river, lying in its length from northwest to southeast; it
is approximately 800 toises long and 120 wide; it is almost entirely
covered with the most sumptuous monuments from various centuries; the
southwest of its upper part is occupied by a beautiful, very
picturesque rock, whose harsh and wild appearance seems to add to its
magnificence, and to highlight the beautiful regular lines of the
architecture of the temples which surround it. The current of the
river, hitting up to the foot of the rock, letter &, dispensed with
making a quay in this part: at the moment when the rock was missing, a
lined quay began, about 86 feet high, decorated with a torus, above
which rises a parapet at support height; on this parapet rise two small
sandstone obelisks, without hieroglyphics, and of mediocre workmanship;
there is only one left standing."
"The quay continues on an
embankment, in the northern part of the island, with posterns (No. 28)
which open and embark on the river: this was through which the
inhabitants passed when they fled, and abandoned the island to us (See
the Journal, page 217): No. 27 is a ramp which led from the river to a
gate; the wall continued as far as another door, where it resumes and
is lost in ruins; this is all that remains of the Egyptian
circumvallation. The two doors are beautiful and well preserved."
No.
3 is a peripteral temple [3]; the columns engaged up to a third, the goblet
capitals surmounted by a head of Isis (See Plate XLIV, No. 1), carrying
an architrave and a cornice without cover, and closing with two doors
without bedsteads. No. 4, a gallery 250 feet long [4]; this gallery was
made up of fairly well carved columns, with flared capitals, surmounted
by a thimble, an architrave, and a groove; there are differences in
almost all the capitals: this part of the building was less old than
the temple, but more than that which is parallel to it, No. 5, and
which, I believe, was never completed build, although it is more in
ruins than the first; they served as a corridor for a number of cells,
No. 6, which we can believe to have been priests' rooms. No. 10 are two
rooms forming a separate building, a sanctuary of the oldest, and
undoubtedly revered, because it seems that it was to spare its
existence that all the lines of the general plan were distorted; the
sculptures are in preciously carved bas-reliefs."
"No. 9 are two large embankment piers, each 47 feet wide and 22 feet thick, which flank a large and magnificent gate."
"They
are bordered at the corners by a torus, and surmounted by a groove; the
panels, covered with two rows of gigantic hieroglyphs, representing
five great deities; at the bottom, large figures, holding a raised ax
in one hand, and in the other the hair of a group of thirty kneeling
figures imploring their clemency; on the reverse of this building four
figures of priests, carrying a boat, in which is an emblem similar to
that which is in the boat of the bas-relief of the temple of
Elephantine; on both sides of the door there were two small granite
obelisks, 18 feet high, covered with very purely carved hieroglyphics,
and in front were two sphinxes 7 feet in proportion; all this is
reversed. No. 11 [5] is another courtyard, 80 feet by 45, flanked by two
columnar galleries, behind which on the right is a series of cells 10
feet deep, and on the left a particular building, composed of two
porticos (No. . 13 and 14), and three rooms of various sizes,
communicating with each other, and opening onto the porticos: it is the
only one I have seen of this kind; if it were more lit, one could
believe: that it would have been a main apartment; its execution is
very careful, and its effect very picturesque."
"No. 15 is
another sanctuary, smaller than all the others, leaning against two
other embankment piers, a third smaller than the first, and serving as
a portal to the largest and most regular building of all. this group:
the piece that follows, No. 17 and No. 18, is a kind of. portico, [6]
decorated with ten columns and eight pilasters 4 feet in diameter, as
magnificent as it is elegant; the columns and walls covered in
hieroglyphic paintings, sculpted in the massif, perfected in stucco,
and painted; the portico and two returns covered in flowerbed ceilings,
sculpted and painted in an astronomical picture, or in an azure
background with white stars. The part numbered 17 is open to the sky,
which produces a beautiful daylight, and one of the most beautiful
architectural effects: an exact painting made with natural colors would
be as imposing and as pleasant as it would be new and curious; the
relief of the architecture and the sculpture giving shadows to the flat
tones of the painting, here completing the rotation; it took on a
harmony and a magnificence which amazed me: I could not tear myself
away from this superb and astonishing piece, of which I would have to
draw all the details, I only had time to take the plan. (See Journal,
page 221.)"
"This open portico succeeded the closed part of the
temple, 60 feet deep by 30 feet wide, divided along its length into
four rooms communicating by four doors diminishing in opening; the
first of 7-4, the second of 6-4, the third of 5-6, the fourth of 4-8; a
glance at the plan gives a clearer idea than a description, where the
repetition of the same expressions rather distracts the attention than
enlightens the imagination: it would be very difficult to assign the
use of these various rooms, of which there are some so long, so high,
so narrow, so decorated, and so obscure; in the back room is still an
altar or an inverted pedestal, and at the right corner, No. 22, is a
kind of tabernacle or monolite temple, bearing as decoration the door
of a temple 7 feet high by 3 feet wide, and 2 feet 8 inches deep, of a
single granite stone: we can still see in the stone the hollow where
the hinges of the door were sealed, which was 3 feet high by 1 foot 6
inches wide ; in the side room, on the right, there was the same
monument in the same material, of which I made a separate drawing, No.
I, Plate XLI."
"These tabernacles were undoubtedly intended
either to contain what was most precious in the temples, such as sacred
things, gold, or precious stones, or perhaps God himself; in this case
it could only be a reptile or a bird, and the door would have been a
grate, to allow air to the animal, if it were alive. I have since
found, on a mummy swaddle, which was from time immemorial in the
library of the French Academy, and which has since passed to that of
the Institute, the representation of one of these small temples, with a
grilled and closed door, and another with the door open, a bird in the
temple, and a man who brings it food, and a third, where the guardian
of the birds watches them while they take the air. This discovery seems
to me to leave no doubt about the use of these monolite sanctuaries."
"After
this series of buildings the most considerable monument is a long
square portico, No. 25, [7] 64 feet long by 44 wide; four columns in
front, and five on the side; two 9-foot doors without box springs; this
building, open to the sky, was only enclosed by a base, which only
reached half the height of the column; this monument, undoubtedly
erected in the last moments of Egyptian power, was never finished; but
what exists attests that Part had then reached its last degree of
perfection: the capitals are the most beautiful, the most ingeniously
composed, and the best executed of all those I have seen in Egypt; the
lotus is intertwined with infinite grace with the volutes of the Ionic
and Composite capital; there are only two base panels that have been
completed. The lotus was the ornament that reigned everywhere in this
building."
"No. 23 is still a sanctuary, very difficult to
separate from its own rubble and that of other buildings. No. 24 is a
small sanctuary of perfect conservation; the nobility of its
proportions Illusions the smallness of its dimensions; it consists of a
portico decorated with two columns, and a sanctuary 11 feet 6 inches
deep by 8 feet wide; the ornaments are very finished and of exquisite
taste; it is a real temple to antes, amphiprostyle. (See its Frieze,
Plate LVI. No.2).
"No. 28 are bastioned parapets, which can
make one believe that this entire island was surrounded by walls: it is
however possible that it is of Roman construction, as is certainly the
factory to which they lead, letter A, which served as a port or arrival
point; the vaults and the Doric style of these ruins leave no doubt
that these are no longer Egyptian constructions: could this be a Roman
customs house? a stepped ramp, and a small reef opposite make it still
a small harbor for boats."
"The letter D is a wall, decorated
with Doric pilasters, opposite which the bases of columns announce that
there was a covered gallery, and behind the wall other ruined
buildings."
"The monument of the letter E is the ruin of the
Greek church, with its nave and the closed choir; it had been built of
ancient materials, to the sculptures of which crosses, foliage, and
other ornaments in the style of the time had been added."
"The
rest of the island offers only a few small crops grown in the land,
gathered by the alluvium of the river; and a few plantations of trees,
which blend admirably well with the rocks, the monuments, the river,
and beautiful depths, offer at every moment the most varied and
interesting pictures." (Comments by Vivant Denon in vol.2, Explanations of Plates.)
Part of the
increases had only been made to connect what had been built previously,
saving as skillfully as possible false squares and general
irregularities. This kind of confusion of architectural lines, which
appear errors in the plan, produces picturesque effects in the
elevation that geometric straightness cannot have, multiplies the
objects, forms groups, and offers the eye more richness than cold
symmetry. There I was able to convince myself of what I had already
noticed at Tentira and at Thebes, that the system of construction was
to raise masses, in which one. worked for centuries on the details of
decoration, starting with architectural lines, then moving on to the
sculpture of hieroglyphic figures, and finally to stucco and painting.
All these different periods in the works are very sensitive here, where
there is nothing finished except what is of the highest antiquity; part
of the constructions which served to connect the various monuments had
neither been smoothed out, nor sculpted, nor even completed; the large
and magnificent long square monument is of this number: it would be
difficult to assign a use to this building, if the details of the
ornaments representing offerings did not indicate that it must still
have been a temple.
However, it has neither the shape of a
portico nor that of a sanctuary; the columns which make up its
perimeter, and which are only engaged (p.222) up to half their height,
carry only an entablature and a cornice without a roof or platform; it
was only opened by two doors without simes which crossed its length.
Raised undoubtedly in the last era of Egyptian power, art is manifested
there in its ultimate purity; the capitals are of admirable beauty and
execution, the volutes and leaves, excavated as in the good times of
Greece, symmetrically diversified as at Apollinopolis, that is to say,
varied among themselves and similar in their correspondents, and all
subject to the same parallel.
Fig.3: Reconstruction of the portico of the Temple
of Isis on Philae, by La Pere, an architect with the French expedition
(published as Plate 18 in Description de l'Egypte, vol. 1, 1809.)
I had no little difficulty in
clearing out in my imagination these long galleries cluttered with
ruins, in following the lines of the quays, in raising the sphinxes and
obelisks, in connecting the communications of the ramps and staircases:
attracted by the paintings, by the sculptures, I was assailed at the
same time by all kinds of curiosity, and, in fear of sharing my errors
with those to whom I intended to give an account of my sensations and
my operations, I would have liked to be able to trace on my plan the
state of the ruins and the mixture of rubble, and on this plan
communicate to them my doubts and my uncertainties, and discuss them
with them. What could this large number of sanctuaries so close
together and so distinct mean? Were they dedicated to different
deities? Were they votive chapels, or places of station for cult
ceremonies? The most secret sanctuaries contained even more mysterious
sanctuaries, monolite temples, which were tabernacles which contained
what was most precious, what was most sacred, and perhaps even the
sacred bird which represented the god of the temple, the hawk, for
example, which was the emblem of the sun, to which precisely this
temple was dedicated.
Under the same portico were painted on the
ceilings astronomical paintings, theories of the elements, and on the
walls, religious ceremonies, (p.223) images of priests and gods; next
to the doors, the gigantic portraits of some sovereigns, or emblematic
figures of strength and power threatening a group of suppliant figures,
whom they hold with one hand by their gathered hair. Are these
rebellious subjects? are they defeated enemies? I would lean towards
the latter opinion, because the figures representing Egyptians never
have long hair. Besides this large enclosure, where this number of
temples was attached and grouped by the priests' lodgings, there were
two isolated temples; the large one, of which I have already spoken,
and a second, the prettiest that one can imagine, perfectly preserved,
and of a size so small that it makes you want to take it away. I found
inside the remains of a household, which seemed to me to be that of
Joseph and Mary, and brought to my mind the picture of a flight into
Egypt in the truest and most interesting style. If we ever wanted to
transport a temple from Africa to Europe, we would have to choose this
one, apart from the fact that it offers all the possibilities through
the smallness of its size, it would give a palpable testimony to the
noble simplicity of the architecture. Egyptian, and would become a
striking example that the character and not the extent makes the
majesty of a building.
In addition to the Egyptian monuments,
there are Greek or Roman ruins to the south-east of the island, which
appeared to me to be the remains of a small port, and a customs house,
the facade wall of which is decorated with Doric pilasters and arcades;
a few torn columns formed in front of an open gallery, a kind of
portico: between these ruins and the Egyptian monuments, we can notice
the base of a Catholic church, built of ancient fragments, mixed with
crosses and early Greek ornaments; for humble catholicity seems never
to have been opulent enough in these countries to completely separate
its cult from the splendor of idolatrous temples. After having
established its saints through the Egyptian divinities (p.224), it
often paints S. John or S. Paul next to the goddess Isis, and disguises
Osiris as S. Athanasius; When she left the temples, she degraded them,
taking the ready-made stones to build her churches.
So many
objects to question! and time passed; I would have liked to hold back
the sun: I had spent many hours observing, I began to draw, to measure:
I saw the end of the removal of the stores, I could no longer hope to
return to Philae: my good people from Elephantine were not here, and
the troops had already been too tired from the siege of this little
island. I left her with my eyes tired of so many objects, and my soul
filled with the memories attached to them; I left at nightfall, loaded
with my loot, and my little daughter, whom I handed over to the sheikh
of Elephantine, who returned her to her parents.
We had planned
to put Syene in a state of defense: the engineer Garbé had chosen to
build a fort a platform on an eminence, to the south of the town, which
commanded all the approaches, and from where we discovered all the
surrounding country. We lacked shovels, picks, hammers and trowels; we
forged everything: we had no wood to make bricks; we brought together
all those from the old Arab factories. Similar to the Roman cohorts who
had already inhabited the same place, the brave twenty-first
experienced no difficulties, or overcame them all. Each individual was
taxed two trips per day for the transport of materials; many had
difficulty carrying themselves, and no one was spared a single trip:
the bastions were laid out, and the work carried out with such
celerity, that in a few days we saw the fortress emerge from its
foundations; at the same time a Roman factory was bastioned and
crenellated, well built and fairly well preserved, which had been a
(p.225) bath, and which, by its location, had the double advantage of
protecting the course of the river.
The end of the French march
to Egypt was inscribed on a granite rock beyond the cataracts. I took
advantage of the opportunity of a reconnaissance which was carried out
in the desert of the left bank, to seek out the quarries of which
Pococke speaks, and an ancient convent of cenobites [8]; after an hour's
walk we discovered this monument in a small valley, surrounded by
decrepit rocks and the sand produced by their decomposition.
The detachment, continuing its route, left me to my research in this place.
The
detachment had barely left when I was terrified at my isolation. Lost
in long corridors, the prolonged sound that my footsteps made under
their sad vaults was perhaps the only one that for several centuries
had disturbed the silence. The monks' cells resembled the animal huts
of a menagerie; a seven-foot square was only lit by a skylight six feet
high: this refinement of austerity, however, only hid from the recluses
the view of a vast expanse of the sky, of an equally vast horizon of
sand, of an immense light as sad and more attenuating as the night, and
which would perhaps have penetrated them even more with the distressing
feeling of their solitude: in this dungeon a layer of brick, a recess
serving as a cupboard were all that art had added to the smoothness of
the four walls: a tower placed next to the door further proves that it
was in isolation that these solitary people took their austere meal.
A
few truncated sentences, written on the walls, alone attest that humans
inhabited these lairs: I thought I saw in these inscriptions their last
feelings, a last communication with the beings who betray their
survival, a hope which time, which erases everything, has given them.
still frustrated. I imagined them dying and wanting to say a few words
that they did not (p.226) have the strength to articulate. Oppressed by
the feeling that this series of melancholy objects inspired in me, I
ran to find space in the courtyard: surrounded by high crenellated
walls, covered paths, and cannon embrasures, everything there announced
that the storms of war had , in this disastrous place, succeeded by the
horror of silence; that this building, taken from the cenobites who had
built it with so much zeal and constancy, had at various times served
as a retreat for defeated parties, or as an advanced post for
victorious parties. The different characters of its construction can
still serve as eras in the history of this monument: begun in the first
centuries of Catholicity, everything that was built by it still retains
grandeur and magnificence; what the war added was done in haste, and is
more ruined than the first constructions.
In the courtyard a
small church built of unfired bricks further attests that a smaller
number of solitaries returned at a later time to reclaim possession;
finally, a more recent devastation suggests that it is only a few
centuries ago that this place was completely given up to the
abandonment and silence to which nature had condemned it [8]. The
detachment which had left me there came to take me back; and it seemed
to me as I was coming out of a tomb. I had drawn a drawing of this sad
place while waiting for the detachment. Regarding the quarries that I
found near there, they were not those where the obelisks were carved;
the obelisks are always made of granite; the granite rocks are far from
this place, and these rocks are sandstone. What remains curious are the
fragments of inclined roads, on which the masses were slid, which were
thus taken to the river to be embarked there and used in the
manufacture of the various buildings.
We learned that the
Mamluks, who had fled before us at Permet, had taken the desert on the
right, and had gone down to join Assan-bey; that Mourat, after lively
discussions, had gathered all that the upper country could provide him
with provisions, and that he was returning through the left desert,
leaving behind him only old Soliman, who held Bribe with eighty Mamluks
. Having nothing more to do in Syene, we left on February 25 [1799]: I would
have happily stayed there for another two weeks; but I would have
feared seeing the burning winds of spring arrive there: I had already
painfully experienced the shock; three days of east wind in January had
inflamed the atmosphere as it is in our heatwave; then followed a north
wind so cold that in four hours it gave me a fever. Hoping to rest, I
got into the boats; they had to march at the same height as the troops
who were returning to the route I had already taken; and I hoped by
that of the river to see Ombos, and the quarries of Gebel Silsilis,
which I had left on the left while going up.
Footnotes:
1. Detailed accounts of Philae and the neighboring sites of Syene and Elephantine Island are given in Description de l'Egypte, a
monumental series of reports and illustrations by members of the
French expedition, published in Paris between 1809-1818. The Description
also covers the sites in Upper and Lower Egypt that Denon first briefly
described. Philae was visited by Jomard and other authors and artists
of the Description
in the September of 1799, about 7 months after Denon was there
with the military expedition pursuing the Mamluks, departing Feb. 25,
1799.
2. The area of
the upper Nile anciently called Nubia, now part of Sudan, was identified in the late 18th century as Ethiopia.
3. The
rectangular structure at area 3 on Denon's plan is now identified as
the Temple of Nectanebus II, the third and last pharaoh of the
Thirtieth Dynasty, reigning from 358 to 340 BC. He was the last native
ruler of Egypt, preceding the Greek-led Ptolemaic dynasty. This
temple is possibly the oldest remaining structure at Philae. (see plan
in fig.2)
4. The long row of columns in area 4 on Denon's plan
is now called the West Colonnade, which was part of a processional area
leading to the Temple of Nectanebus II (see plan in fig.2).
5.
The courtyard of area 11 on Denon's plan is now called the Birth House
or Mammisi, a common feature of Ptolemaic temples. It was erected
beside the temple of Isis during the reigns of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus (284-246 BC) and his son Ptolemy III Euergetes
(246-221 BC), and was dedicated to the young Horus (see plan in
fig.2).
6. Areas 17, 18, and 22 on Denon's
plan are now identified as comprising the Temple of Isis, the main
temple on the island, built during the reign of Ptolemy II (284-246 BC).
This replaced an earlier temple of Isis, thought to have been erected
either by Taharka of the 25th dynasty (690-665 BC) or Psamtik II of the
26th dynasty (595-589 BC) (see plan in fig.2, and reconstruction of portico in fig.3).
7. This structure (Denon's area 25), called the East Temple in the Description de l'Egypte, and now named the Kiosk, is identified as a Roman structure dating from the period of Trajan (AD 98-117) (see plan in fig.2).
8.
Ruins of the monastery of St. Simeon on Syene or Aswan (abandoned in
the 13th c. AD) are located 700 meters from the west bank of the
Nile. It was originally called the monastery of Anba-Hatra, founded by
the anchorite Hatra, who died in the time of Emperor Theodosius I (AD
379-395). Wall paintings found in the rock caves under the brick ruins
are dated to the 6th-7th century.The church ruins visted by Denon were
built in the first half of the 11th century. (For more information, see
Gawdat Gabra. "Coptic Monasteries: Egypt's Monastic Art and
Architecture;" and Monnaret de Villard, 1927.)
.
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