Egypt Through The Stereoscope

A Journey Through The Land Of The Pharaohs

by James Henry Breasted | 1908 | 103,705 words

Examines how stereographs were used as a means of virtual travel. Focuses on James Henry Breasted's "Egypt through the Stereoscope" (1905, 1908). Provides context for resources in the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA). Part 3 of a 4 part course called "History through the Stereoscope."...

Position 71 - Queen Makere's Expedition To East Africa In The Sixteenth Century Before Christ —reliefs At Der El-bahri, Thebes

We are now at the left end of the colonnade on the left side of the “ascent” leading from the middle to the upper court, and we are looking at the end wall (Plan 14). What a pity that it is so damaged! Time and space do not permit us to follow every step of this expedition; the five vessels composing it have reached their destination, having sailed from some unknown port near the north end of the Red Sea, and having now anchored in some harbor along that strip of coast at the south end of the Red Sea, known as the Somali coast (Map 2) .

The Egyptians called this country the “land of Punt,” and they had traded with it in expeditions by sea as far back as 2600 or 2700 B. C., being the earliest sea voyages known in history. Solomon traded along the same route, but that was six hundred years later than this expedition of Queen Makere in the 16th century B. C. The expedition has now landed and the wall before us shows the first intercourse with the natives of the land of Punt.

The scenes are arranged in rows one above another, and we shall begin with the lowermost. Under this lowest row is a band of wavy lines representing the sea. You notice the fish in the waters. Those fish are so accurately done by the “staff artist” who accompanied the expedition that they have been identified with fish still surviving in the Red Sea. On the right is a file of soldiers with large shields, preceded by their commander leaning upon his staff. At the extreme left where the wall is broken off, you see the prince of the land of Punt, standing with uplifted hands in salutation of the Egyptians.

Before the Egyptian officer is a low table loaded with necklaces and strings of beads, brought, of course, for purposes of traffic. Let us now read the inscriptions which the ancient artist has considerately inserted as an explanation of the scene. Over the table and the Egyptians are the words: “(The arrival) of the king's messenger in the Divine Land (Punt), together with the army which is behind him, before the chiefs of Punt. They have been dispatched with every good thing from the court (of Egypt).” Over the prince of Punt we find: “The coming of the chiefs of Punt, doing obeisance, with bowed head, to receive the army of the king.” You see the queen regularly refers to herself as the “king.”

The name of the Puntite prince is also written before his figure under his uplifted arms, thus: “Parohu.” In the next higher row over the line of soldiers with large shields, you see a large rectangular space with a curved top. That is the Egyptian officer's tent, in front of which he now stands, while the natives of Punt bring before him the products of their country. The figures of these men have now disappeared, but the products which they have brought are piled up before the Egyptian commander.

You see a round-topped heap of myrrh and other fragrant gums, and just where the surface of the wall is broken away two flat baskets filled with gold in commercial rings. Just in front of the Egyptian officer is a short inscription with these words: “Reception of the tribute of the chief of Punt, by the king's messenger.” The tent of the officer also contains an inscription of great interest; it states: “The tent of the king's messenger and his army is pitched in the myrrh-terraces of Punt on the side of the sea, in order to receive the chiefs of this country.

There is offered to them bread, beer, wine, meat, fruit and everything found in Egypt, according to the command of the (Egyptian) court.” In the top row, which is much destroyed, we see that the queen was not content to bring only the myrrh of Punt to Egypt; she must have also the trees themselves which produce the aromatic gum; so that you see up there a tree slung in a basket, suspended from a pole, and carried on the shoulders of four men to the neighboring ships.

Large numbers of these trees are thus carried on board, and together with the myrrh itself, monkeys, dogs, apes, gold, ivory, ebony, panther skins, all sorts of aromatic woods, fragrant gums, and even natives of Punt and their children, are loaded into the waiting ships and sail away for Egypt. Those trees were intended for this very temple in which we stand, and here they were planted. For, as the queen elsewhere explains, she desired to make a “Punt in Egypt.”

Now, as we know from many inscriptions, and as you have already noticed in one of these before us, the myrrh trees grew on the terraced slopes of the hills above the sea in Punt, which the Egyptians called “Myrrh-terraces,” and the resemblance of these terraces to her terraced temple may have occurred to the queen, as she attempted to reconstruct a “Punt in Egypt.”

We might follow the expedition on these walls until it reached Egypt, and we might watch the queen presenting the wealth of this distant land to this splendid temple, we might see her officials weighing up the gold, measuring the myrrh and counting the ivory tusks, as they receive them all in the temple treasury; but there are many other marvels that await us here in Thebes, and we must pass all this and ascend the cliffs which flank this temple.

This next standpoint is given on both Maps 8 and 9. Note particularly the red lines numbered 72, which start in the upper middle portion of Map 8 and branch southeast across the river.

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