The Nile boat or, glimpses of the land of Egypt / by . ge of the desert, we should havebeheld these sixty mausolea of the Memphite sovereigns over-looking their magnificent capital with its gorgeous temples andpalaces extending to the Nile ; its crowded suburbs, the ferryat Rhoda, distant Heliopolis with its obelisk, glittering in thesun, and in the distance the verdant land of Goshen, extendingto the outskirts of the boundless desert of the Exodus. Over what a large portion of the worlds history extend theannals of Memphis ! On its pyramids, then fresh in all theiroriginal perfect
The Nile boat or, glimpses of the land of Egypt / by . ge of the desert, we should havebeheld these sixty mausolea of the Memphite sovereigns over-looking their magnificent capital with its gorgeous temples andpalaces extending to the Nile ; its crowded suburbs, the ferryat Rhoda, distant Heliopolis with its obelisk, glittering in thesun, and in the distance the verdant land of Goshen, extendingto the outskirts of the boundless desert of the Exodus. Over what a large portion of the worlds history extend theannals of Memphis ! On its pyramids, then fresh in all theiroriginal perfection, Abraham may have gazed with wonderupon his migration from the wild pasturages of Canaan. Hitherprobably was Joseph brought as a slave, and rose to be theminister of Pharaoh ; and here may have taken place the sceneof his making himself known to his brethren. Here Moses mayhave been consigned to the Nile in his ark of bulrushes, andhence he may have led the Israelites into the wilderness. Mem-phis was long the capital of Lower Egypt, till, as Thebes arose to. *rm MEMPHIS AND ITS HISTORY. 101 its utmost height of grandeur under the Ramcssean princes, itbecame secondary to that city. It was taken by the Persian kingCambyses, on his invasion of Egypt. After his return fromThebes, dispirited at the loss of a large portion of his army, hefound the people rejoicing at the discovery of a suitable suc-cessor to the bull Apis, who had died. He regarded thefestival as an insult, and commanding the sacred bull to bebrought into his presence, stabbed it with his dagger, andlaughingly told the priests that it was made of flesh and blood,and no god. Here he received numerous embassies and mag-nificent presents from the conquered nations of Asia. Hero-dotus visited Egypt soon after the overthrow of the Persiandynasty, and at Memphis he made his longest stay. He foundthe city then at its greatest size, while Thebes again wasgradually declining: with its citadel and suburbs it had thena cir
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectegyptdescriptionandt
