THE VALLEY OF THE NILE. 321 



elevation thus produced, and it was assumed to be five 

 inches in a century. This general average was consistent, 

 however, with great differences at different parts, and Mr. 

 Homer, therefore, did not consider himself justified in 

 applying this estimate to particular cases, even if he had 

 been satisfied with the evidence on which it rested. He 

 preferred to examine the accumulation which had taken place 

 round monuments of known age, and selected two namely, 

 the obelisk at Heliopolis, and the statue of Rameses II. in 

 Memphis. "The obelisk is believed to have been erected 

 2300 years B.C., and adding 1850, the year when the observa- 

 tion was made (June, 1851, i.e. before the inundation of that 

 year), we have 4150 years in which the eleven feet of sedi- 

 ment were deposited, which is at the rate of 3.18 inches in a 

 century."* But Mr. Horner himself admits that "entire 

 reliance cannot be placed on this conclusion, principally 

 because it is possible that the site originally chosen for the 

 temple and city of Heliopolis was a portion of land somewhat 

 raised above the level of the rest of the desert." He relies, 

 therefore, principally on the evidence supplied by the colossal 

 statue in Memphis. In this case the present surface is 10 

 feet 6f inches above the base of the platform on which the 

 statue stood. Assuming that the platform was sunk 14f 

 inches below the surface of the ground at the time it was 

 laid, we have a depth of sediment from the present surface 

 to that level of 9 feet 4 inches. Eameses is supposed by 

 Lepsius to have reigned from 1394 to 1328 B.C., which would 

 give an antiquity of 3215 years, and consequently a mean 

 increase of 3 inches in a century. Having thus obtained an 

 approximate measure of the rate of deposit in that part of the 

 Nile valley, Mr. Horner dug several pits to a considerable 

 depth, and in one of them, close to the statue and at the 



* Horner, Phil. Trans. 1858, p. 73. 



21 



