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

634 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
closely connected with that of Egypt, remains of which were
discovered in the two principal towns of the Ethiopian kingdom,
at Napata on the Gebel Berkel, and in Meroi, the
present Begerauie.
The Prussian expedition pressed forward deep into the
Soudan, past Khartum on the Blue Nile, with very great
success. On the return journey the Peninsula of Sinai was
visited, from Cairo ; and the copper mines, which according
to the inscriptions and representations cut in the rocks at
Wadi Magara were worked as early as the beginning of the
Old Empire, were examined for the first time. At the same
time the problem of the probable route of the Exodus, which
at that time caused much discussion, was seriously taken up.
Lepsius advanced the opinion that the mountain called by
the monks Gebel Musa was not the Sinai of the Bible, but
that the mountain of God, Horeb or Sinai, corresponded
more probably with the one situated a few days' journey to
called Serbal.
the north of Gebel Musa, which is
The " Monuments from Egypt and Ethiopia " which
were discovered by the Prussian expedition were published
by Lepsius in twelve volumes. They were not arranged
according to geographical order, nor according to the subjects
they contained, but they were put together in historical
order. This historical arrangement was the principal
outcome of the undertaking, securing for Lepsius and
Erbkam a permanent place of honor in the history of their
science.
A new period of Egyptian excavation opened when in the
year 1850 the French savant Augustus Mariette went to
Egypt. His name stands connected with the epoch-making
discoveries on Egyptian soil from 1850 to 1880. The greatest
and most important, which placed Mariette foremost in
the science of Egyptology, was his discovery of the Serapeum,
the burying-place of the sacred Apis bulls in Memphis. As
far back as the time of the Emperor Augustus, when the