Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

632 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
their wish, the young scholar Karl Richard Lepsius was intrusted
with the mission, and a staff of eminent co-workers
accompanied him, among others the architect Krbkam and
the draughtsmen Karl and Ernst Weidenbach. The expedition
under Champollion in the main had been a voyage
of discovery, concerned only with those monuments which
chance happened to throw in his way. Lepsius, on the
other hand, armed with greater knowledge of the localities
to be examined, could attempt to supply the gaps which his
predecessor had left.
Above all things, he had set about to bring historical
order into the arrangement of the monuments, to devote a
certain amount of time to each monument, and later to place
Egyptian history, art, and civilization on a permanent basis.
That this methodical system was followed by the best results
is well known to-day.
The Prussian expedition began its explorations on the
pyramid field of Memphis, the importance of which did not
seem to have struck Champollion and consequentlv had been
left by him almost untouched. Lepsius, and especially Erbkam,
undertook the investigation of the pyramids which had
been begun by Perring and Vyse, and attempted to find the
history of the building of these greatest of royal tombs of
the world. They came to the conclusion that the Egyptian
kings did not raise up these structures to their enormous
height at one time. Every king began building his pyramid
as soon as he ascended the throne, beginning on verv small
lines in order to be sure of his
tomb even if he occupied the
throne only tor a short time. As his reign increased in
years, so the pyramid increased in size by means of laying
on outside casings. These monuments of the dead were
therefore always commensurate with the lives of their builders.
For if a king died while his pyramid was in the course
of construction, it was finished with an outside mantle or
casing, the pyramid thus corresponding in size to the length