Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1168

 1144 THEBAE AEGYPTI. Thebes was inJebted for its j:;reatness oi-if;iually to its being the principal centre of Ammon-worsliip, — a worship which, on the one hand, connected it with Sleroe, and. on tlie otlier, with tlie islands of the Libyan desert. The strength which the Thebaiil and its capital thus acquired not only enabled it to rise superior to Abydus in the earlier period, but also to expel the Assyrian invaders from the Delta. It becomes then an interestinii: question which quarter of Thebes was its cradle? Did it spread itself from the e-astern or the western shore of the Nile? Both Diodorus and Strabo are .'inreed in placing the " old town," with its Ammonian temple, on the eastern bank of the river; and this site too was the more acces- sible of the two, wliether its population came from the left or, as it is more likely they did, from the right shore. Between Luxor and Karnak lies the claim to be considered as the site of the earliest Diospolis. Now in the former place there is no con- spicuous trace of Amnion -worship, whereas the latter, in its ram-headed dromoi, abounds with sym- bols of it. At Karnak, every monument attests the jjresence of Annuon. Osiris indeed appears as hi? .son or coinpanion on the sculptures, and in some of the temple-legends they were represented as joint founders of the shrine. But Ammon was without doubt the elder of the two. We may accordingly infer that the first Thebes stood nearly on the site of the present Karnak, at a period anterior to all record: that it expanded towards the river, and was separated by the whole breadth of the stream and of the plain to the foot of the Libyan hills from the necropolis. Finally, that as its population became too large for the precincts of the eastern plain, a .suburb, which grew into a second city, arose on the opposite bank of the Nile; and thus the original ilistinction between eastern and western Thebes par- tially disappeared, and the river, having thencefor- ^vard habitations on both its banks, no longer parted by a broad barrier the city of the living from the city of the de.ad. (Kenrick, Ancient Aegijpt under the PharauJi^, vol. i. pp. 149 — 178; Heeren, Historical Researches, Thebes and its Monuments, vol. ii. pp. 201 — 342; Ohampollion, Letires sur VEgiipte; Hamilton, Aegyptiaca; Belzoni, Travels, 4'C-) The territory of Thebes was named Tiiebais (Jt &r]§ais, sc. X'^P"? or ol St'w r6iroi, the Upper Country, Ptol. iv. 5. § 62), the modern Sais or Pathros, and was one of tiie three principal divi- sions of Aegypt. Its frontiers to the S. varied ac- cordingly as Aegypt or Aethiopia preponderated, the Tlieban Tharaohs at times ruling over the region above the Cataracts as far S. as Hiera Sycamina lat. 23° 6' N.; while, at others, the kings of Bleroe planted their garrisons N. of Syene, and, at one ))eriod, occupied the Thebais itself. But the ordi- nary limits of Upper Aegypt were Syene to S., lat. 24° .5' N., and Hermopolis Magna to N., lat. 27° 45' N. On the E. it was bounded by the Arabian, on the W. by the Libyan hills and desert. As rain .seldom falls in the Thebais (Herod, iii. 10), and as its general surface is rocky or sandy, the breadth of cultivable land depends on the alluvi.al deposit of the Nile, and this again is regulated by the conformation of the banks on either side. For a similar cause the population of the Thebais was mostly gathered into towns and large villages, both of which are often dignified by ancient writers with the appella- tion of cities. But numerous cities were incom- patible with the physical character of this region, THEBAE AEGYPTL and its population must have been considerably below the estimate of it by the Greeks and Komans. Tiie Thebais was divided into ten nomes(,Strab..vii. p. 787), and consequently ten halls in the Labyrintli were appropriated to its Nonarchs. But tliis num- ber apparently varied with the boundaries of Upper Aegypt, .since Pliny (v. 9) enumerates eleven, and other writers mention fourteen Nomes. The physical aspect of the Thebais requires especial notice, since it differed, both geologically and in its Fauna and Flora, from that of Lower Aegypt. For the most part it is a narrow valley, inter- sected by the river and bounded by a double line of hills, lofty and abrupt on the eastern or Arabian side, lowej- and interrupted by sandy plains and valleys on the Libyan or western. The desert on either side produces a stunted vegetation of shrubs and herbs, which emit a slight aromatic odour. The cultivable soil is a narrow strip on each side of the Nile, forming, with its bright verdure, a strong con- trast to the brown and arid hue of the surrounding district. The entire breadth of this valley, inclu- ding the river, does not exceed 11 miles, and some- times is contracted by the rocky banks of the Nile even to two. Upper Aegypt belongs to Nubia rather than to the Heptanoniis or the Delta. Herodotus (iii. 10) was mistaken in his statement that rain never falls in the Thebais. It is, however, of rare occurrence. Showers fall annually during four or five days in each year, and about once in eight or ten years heavy rains fill the torrent-beds of the mountains, and convert the valleys on either side of the Nile into temporary pools. That this was so even in the age of Hecataeus and Herodotus is proved by the cir- cumstance that the lions on the cornices of the Theban temples have tubes in their mouths to let the water off. But the fertility of the Thebais depends on the overflow of the Nile. From Syene nearly to Lato- polis, lat. 25° 17' N., the cultivable soil is a narrow rim of alluvial deposit, bounded by steep walls of sandstone. On the Arabian shore were the quarries from which the great temples of Upper Aegypt were constructed. At Apollinopolis Magna {Edfu) the sandstone disappears from the W. bank of the river, and on the E. it extends but a little below that city. Four miles below Eilithya, the lime- stone region begins, and stretches down nearly to the apex of the Delta, descending on the Libyan side in terraces to the Mediterranean. At this point a greater breadth of land is cultivable, and in the Arabian hills deep gorges open towards the Red Sea, the most considerable of which are the valleys that run from Eilithya in a SE. direction to Bere- nice, and from Coptos, past the porphyry quarries, to Cosseir on the lied Sea. The tanks and stations for the caravans which the Theban Pharaohs or the Ptolemies constructed in these valleys are still occa- sionally found buried in the sand. At Latopolis the Nile-valley is nearly 5 miles wide, but it is again contracted by the rocks at Gehelein, whore, owing to the precipitous character of the banks, the road quits the river and crosses the eastern desert to Hermouthis. The next material expansion of the Nile-valley is at the plain of Thebes. At this point both chains of hills curve boldly away from the river, and leave an area of more than 5 miles in length and 3 in breadth. At the northern extremity of this plain the banks again contract, and at Gourneh are almost close to the Nile. Re-opening again, the