450 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Dkc. .^, 



rvlatixc position of the neeiU • and coil will be but slightly 

 affectt-d by a deflection of the former, and, cousc(iuently, 

 tlie strength of the current will bo iu i-roportion to the 

 tangent of the an^le of delleetion. 



WAS 11 AMESES II. THE PHAT^AOH 

 OF THE OPPRESSION? 



Bv Amelia B. Edwards. 

 XIV.-TEL EL-MASKllCTA. 



OlTi difficulty when attempting to identify Tel ^\.l>oo- 

 Sooleyuian with the mound of Pa-Tuiu is the absence 

 c f monumental evidence. No such diliioulty confronts us, 

 liowever, when we interrogat*' the mound of ISlaskluita. 

 Evidence of everj' description — monumental, documentary, 

 local, direct, indirect, circumstantial, inferential — lies ready 

 to hand. Our emljarrassmeut, if we are embarrassed, is the 

 embarrassment of wealth. 



I will endeavour to state this evidence clearly and 

 briefly. 



First in order stands the fact that the neighbouring 

 village preservet. its ancient name. The name of thc^ 

 mound — tlie mere mound — would seem to have varied 

 from time to tiuie ; or, more correctly perhaps, the mound 

 uould seem to have been equally well-known during the 

 present half-century by some three or foin- diU'crent 

 names— as Tel AVioo-Kesched, Tel Aboo-Kesheeb, Tel- 

 el-.Sakeeyah, Tel-el-Masroota, JIashoota, Mahuta, and 

 Maskhuta. This multiplication of names, arising from 

 load circumstances, is a common feature of modern Egyp- 

 tian topography. Al>oo Kesched, or Kesheeb, is " father " 

 Kesched, or Kesheeb, and means probably that some holy 

 man of tliat name elected to live on the mound. Tel el- 

 Sakeeyah, •' tlie mound of the water-wheel," shows that 

 once upon a time a water-wheel was erected on the 

 spot; and so on. In the same way, Wady Tumilat 

 is sometimes calle<l Wady Seba Biar, or " the Valley 

 of the Seven Wells." The inhabiU-d village at Tel-el- 

 Maskhuta, though a mere cluster of mud-huts, is at all 

 events the genuine representative of the ancient city ; 

 and it is called Ji'ntimiii to this day. Ix'psius, as we 

 have seen,* found it so called in I8b5 ; and in the 

 last edition of Isandjert's " Itineraire de I'Orient" (Guides 

 .Joanne), Is'tS (the Egyptological parts edited by Mariettc 

 Pasha and Professor Maspero), it is expressly said, " jirex 

 fix ninal Abou Dibab" (the New Freshwater Canal) " x/' 

 iroore Jiamiiis, rjni rnpjiell'' civlemment uiic anckiiw villi- 

 ilr liaiiiJiif jxugie gouti uil'iiri; jmr leu hinlorie/u profdmn.'" 

 ["near the Canal of Al^u Dibab is found Ramsis, which 

 evidently coiumemorates an ancient city of Rameses, 

 passed over in silence by the writers of profane history."] 

 I quoU- tliis pa.ssage to show that " Ramsis " is not, as it 

 lia., generally be«n supjwsed, a merely fanciful name given 

 U> tlie railway station by the French constructors of the 

 line; but that it is actually a Pharaonic survival. 



The mound itself, described by the Ti,M» correspondent 

 OS " of considerable height and size " (see the rimm, Aug. 

 •-•■"<>, is suiail in comj^arison with the mounds of Tanis, 

 Memphis, Helio|:K>li8, and otlier great capital cities. Its 

 appearance, in fact, so di«ai.point<;d Professor Sayce in 

 l?-iO, that he doubted whether it was indeed the famous 

 " trca»ure<ity " of Pharaolt But, as I then jjointed 

 out, in a letter to the Armlmy, a treasure-city, or 

 li'khrn, wa« not necessarily a place of very great extent 



• 8«- K.M.wLKi^K," vol. ii., pj.. 260-201. 



The name is elastic, and may apply to a small enclosure or 

 to a mighty stronghold. In its ordinary acceptation, it 

 would seem to stand for a military storehouse and fort, 

 where provisions and arms were kept for expeditions 

 acro.ss the desert, and where booty might lie deposited. 

 The mound of Tel-el-^Iaskhoota is, at all events, more 

 than large enough to co\ot the ruins of a very con- 

 sideri\ble fortress; and of that fortress, the massive wall 

 of circuit may yet be traced. The bricks of which 

 this wall is built are stamped, according to the testi- 

 mony of Professor Ebers, with the name of Meneph- 

 tliah, the successor of Barneses I [. The mound, which 

 has never been excavated, is thickly strewn with frag- 

 ments of granite and with immense quantities of pot- 

 sherds ; biit the one relic which has chiefly made its 

 reputation is a huge monolith, sculptured on the one side 

 with a group of three figures, represcntmg Barneses IT. 

 between the gods Ba and Turn, and, on the other side, with 

 the name of this Pharaoh in a royal oval, six times repeated. 

 So long ago ns the time of the first French expedition, this 

 important monument was first discovered, and there it still 

 lies : thelast traveller to rcportupon it being Professor Sayce, 

 in ISSO. Till of late years it was the only work of art 

 known to exist at Tel-el-Maskhuta ; but in 187G, when the 

 new Freshwater Canal was in course of excavation, M. 

 Paponnot, chief engineer of the works, discovered under a 

 bed of alluvial deposit, at a spot closely adjoining the 

 mound, the remains of a paved causeway, or dromos, and 

 two fine sphinxes engraved with the ovals of Rameses II. 

 Tli«re can be no doubt that the c;iuseway and the sphinxes 

 forme;l part of the approach to a temple, and further 

 excavations in that direction would in all probability 

 lead to the discovery of an avenue bordered by sphinxes, 

 and finally to the remains of the temple itself. Another, 

 and a \ery interesting relic — \\hich, however, is far from 

 being unique — was brought from Tcl-el-Maskhuta in 184.''i 

 by Ur. Lepsius, and by him prc^sented to the Museum of 

 Berlin. The relic in question is an enormous brick of sun 

 dried clay, measuring rather more than 17 in. long by 01 in. 

 wide, and nearly 5 in. thick. It is made of alluvial mud, 

 from clay-beds found in the neighbourhood, mixed with 

 chopped straw, and stamped with the oval of Rameses TI. 

 There are plenty of these bricks to be found in and about 

 the mound ; but they must not be confounded with the 

 bricks of Mcnephthah more lately discovered by Professor 

 Ebers in the wall of circuit. It is important that we bear 

 this distinction in memory. If, however, the mound of 

 Tel-el-Maskhuta be in truth the mound of " Raamses," 

 then thesf! bricks — the bricks of Menephthah, no less than 

 the bricks of Barneses II. — were unquestionably made by 

 the hands of tht; Hebrews in Go.shen. 



Finally, some four or five miles westward of Tel el 

 Maskhuta, going towards Tel-el-Kebeer, there lies to the 

 south side of the Sweetwater Canal a large sheet of water 

 called Lake Mahsamah.* This lake, which is utilised as a 

 r<tservoir by the Canal Company, was formerly fed from 

 th'! annual inundation of the Nile. 



I must now ask those who have accompanied me in the 

 present inquiry, to go back over some of the ground wt 

 first traversed, and to examine whether the mound of 

 Maskhuta, in its position, its surroundings, and in regard 

 of such few ancient remains as have been there discovered 

 or arc yet visible upon the surface, answers more satisfac 

 to'ily to the Pji-Bamcscs of the monuments and the 

 " Raamses" of the Bible, than Tanis, Pelusium, ITeliopolis 

 or any other site as yet proposed by Egyptologists. 

 {To be continued.) 

 • 8ee Map of Wady Tamilat, vol. ii., j). 357. 



I 



