aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

284 AROUND THE WOELD.
when Herodotus saw it. Among its most magnificent
temples was that of Phtah. Near this temple, at the gate,
were statues, one fifty feet high, made of light-colored
silicious limestone. At the entrance of the east gate, there
lies, at present, the statue of a Memphian god, two-thirds
buried in the sand. It is red granite, about twenty feet in
length, beautifully chiseled, highly polished, and lies nearly
upon the face. Other statues and unique relics have been
found in this vicinity. If you look at them, however, a
swarm of beggars, with their attending flies and fleas, fasten
to you. The pest of travelers are these begging Bedouin
Arabs. Their bullying, gesticulating, importuning impertinences
are supremely contemptible. Giving them less or
more, they are still unsatisfied.
Let us on, over brick-dust, broken pottery, carved images,
and shifting sands, some two miles to Sakkarah, the vast
subterranean tomb-lands of the old empire, called the " Sakkarah
plateau of the dead." With the exception of a
single modern stone building, Sakkarah is a grassless, shrubless,
houseless cemetery of robbed tombs. Acres are honeycombed
and mummiless ;• and still nearly a thousand men,
under the auspices of government, are employed excavating
and digging for relics and antiques. The treasures found
daily are kept secret.
Ascending a Httle hill, the eye could take in, at a single
sweep, eleven pyramids. They are neither of the same size
nor shape, nor have they the same angles. One very large
one before us is square, yet pyramidal-domed. Others,
square at the base, are nearly round up a little distance, and
pagoda-storied near the summit, all clearly indicating that
they were built at different periods, and for diverse purposes.
Travelers mention about one hundred and forty pyramids,
and all within nearly one degree of latitude, clustering in
and along through Middle Egypt. Thebes, on the same
side of the Nile as Cairo, is about ten days up the river.
Tliey measure distances here in the East not by miles, but
by hours and days.