Geographical informations about the Philae area
Philae itself is an island situated at the beginning
of the First Cataract, from which the river descends on its way to the Mediterranean
Sea . Today a modern road skirts the Cataract and follows the crest of the
first Aswan Dam, giving a splendid view of the Cataract and the island of
Siheil where traders inscribed their names on the numerous rocks and boulders
before continuing on their way to Central Africa, the " Land of Ghosts
" .
On the west side of this island are the ruins of a temple built by
Ptolemy IV, Philopator, in honour of the gods of the Cataract . Philae is the
island, which has withstood the erosion of the debris-filled river since
earliest times, owes its safety to the strength of the crystalline rock of
which it is formed . This emergence of the earth's crust occurs frequently here
and has provided the enduring stone for the monuments of the country . There
are numerous islands in the region – Bigeh, Agilkia, groups of small islands at
Awad and El-Heissa, and, below the Cataract, Siheil and Elephantine .
Fifteen miles north of Kom Ombo lie the Great
sandstone quarries of Silsila ( also called Gebel el-Silsila ) from which the
temples of the Ptolemies, including Philae, were built . Limestone had been in
universal use until the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty ( c. 1567-1320 B.C. ),
when sandstone almost entirely superseded its rival ; practically all the
temples of Upper Egypt are of this material . Luxor, Karnak, El-Qurna, The
Ramesseum, Medinet Habu, Deir el-Medina, Dendera, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Philae
and the Nubian temples are all of sandstone, though limestone is also employed
in some instances in small quantities . This change of material must have made
the sandstone cliffs at Silsila one of the busiest places in Ancient Egypt .
From the Eighteenth Dynasty until A.D. 200, when the building of the
Romano-Egyptian temples ceased, the quarry was worked by probably the most
skilful masons the world has ever known . Seventeen centuries later, in 1906,
the quarries were reopened to provide stone for the great barrage which
stretches across the river at Esna .
The secret of this magnificent work did not lie in
numbers but in the almost perfect organization and unlimited patience which
enabled these first masons to cut and transport stones with what we would
regard today as utterly inadequate tools and appliances . Lining the banks of
the river are the remains of shrines and inscriptions left by the Pharaohs and
their chief officials of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties . This place
held a special religious attraction for the Ancient Egyptians long before the
precious stone was exploited for its building qualities .
We now reach the small island of Philae, which lies
about two miles beyond the Aswan Dam . The island is about 500 yards long from
north to south and 160 yards broad from east to west and is almost entirely
covered with temples and monuments which were protected from the river by high
walls, quays and terraces . It consists of a mass of rose granite mixed with
hornblende . Nile mud has accumulated to a considerable depth above the rock in
most places ; but the granite shows itself at the north-eastern corner, and in
the court of the temple of Isis, behind the second pylon . Part of the
foundations of these ancient constructions rest on the underlying granite and
the remainder are deeply set into the earth . The oldest monument on the island
is the altar built by Taharqa and will referred to later .
Historical informations about the Philae area
At the northern end of the First Cataract stood the
great outpost of Ancient Egypt, the bustling city now known as Aswan . It was
the starting-point of the caravan and shipping routes leading to Nubia and the
strange unknown country of central Africa, " The Land of Ghosts " .
Through it passed the earliest commercial and military expeditions of the
Egyptians . Strategically it commanded the First Cataract, the waterway linking
Egypt with Nubia . It was also important for its huge quarries which yielded
fine, coloured granite containing a large proportion of translucent quartz and
yellow, brown, pink and black mica . Building works were conducted on an
enormous scale and King Mycerinus ( Menkaure or Menkaura ) of the Fourth
Dynasty actually attempted to obtain enough granite from Aswan to face the
whole of his pyramid at Giza, which then stood 218 feet high and had a base
length of 356 feet . The east bank of the river swarmed with quarrymen, whose
statues and obelisks were sent all over Egypt . The erection of these
enormously heavy shafts is a tribute to the skill and inventiveness of the
ancient engineers .
Upper Egypt was traditionally divided into 22
administrative regions called nomes, the first of these being Elephantine .
Here the governor and his officials maintained law and order . It was the
military post from which relief expeditions could be sent to beleaguered
fortresses on the upper stretches of the Nile .
The name Aswan comes from the Ancient Egyptian
designation of the place, Sunu ( in Greek, Syene ), which means market . This
market was a flourishing trading centre fed by a continuous stream of
merchants, caravans and adventurers . Nubians and perhaps Sudanese brought to
it all kinds of strange and delightful objects - gold, leopard-skins, ostrich
feathers, incense, sandalwood, ebony, ivory, fans, shields made of hide,
gazelles, lions, baboons, giraffes, antelopes and cattle . The temple for the
gods of the area was also on Elephantine ; they were a triad composed of Khnum,
the ram-headed god of Elephantine ; Anukis ( also called Anuket ), goddess of
the Cataract of the Nile and Lower Nubia in general, worshipped especially at
Elephantine near the First Cataract, and wife of Khnum ; and their daughter
Satis ( also called Satet ), who was the goddess of Siheil and wore a white
crown with antelope horns .
In ancient times, travellers made their devotions at
Philae before continuing through the dangerous territory of the south to the
" Land of Ghosts " . Everywhere the rocks and temples bear witness to
their prayers . Nearby on the island of Siheil are more than two hundred and
fifty rock inscriptions dating from the Fourth Dynasty down to Ptolemaic times
. Pepi I, as early as c. 2280 B.C., cut canals through the cataract to assist
the boat crews on their way to the calm water above Philae . It was to the
" Land of Ghosts " that Herkhuf, a seasoned explorer, went on his
fourth expedition during the ninety-year reign of Pepi II .
The account of his adventure is recorded on the façade
of his tomb on the west bank of the Nile opposite the island of Elephantine .
On this occasion he returned with a pigmy from Central Africa . When Pepi heard
the news he wrote him a letter which said :
Come
northward to the court at once . Thou shalt bring this dwarf with thee that
thou hast brought alive, prosperous and healthy from the Land of Ghosts, for the
dance of the god, to gladden and rejoice the heart of the King of Upper and
Lower Egypt, Neferkare, Pepi II who liveth for ever . When he goes down with
thee into the vessel, take care lest he should fall into the water . When he
sleeps at night appoint excellent people to sleep beside him in the tent,
inspect him ten times a night . My Majesty desires to see this dwarf more than
the gifts of Sinai and of Punt . If thou arrivest at the court, bringing this
dwarf with thee alive and prosperous and healthy, my Majesty will do for thee a
greater thing .
The rocky islets of Konosso
On our way to Philae we pass the rocky islets of
Konosso, off the northern end of the larger island . These are was generally
submerged ; but two of the inscriptions on the rocks are worthy of notice . One
is the long inscription in which Tuthmosis IV, the father of Amenophis III (
Amenhotep III ), describes how he was instructed by an oracle of Amun to
proceed on an expedition against the rebels of Nubia, and how he carried out
the instructions of the god . The passage referring to the expedition is as
follows : ' After these things His Majesty proceeded to overthrow the negro in
Nubia ; mighty in his barque like Re ( or Rê ) when he shows himself in his
celestial barque ... His army of his victories was with him on both banks ...
and the ship was equipped with his attendants, as the King proceeded up-stream
like Orion ( In Greek mythology was a giant huntsman ) he illuminated the South
with his beauty ; men shouted because of his kindness, women danced at the
message .... The fear of him entered into every body ; Re put the fear of him
among the lands, like Sekhmet in the year of the dew .... He coursed through
the eastern highland, he traversed the ways like a jackal .... ' . Which is all
very fine, only one would have liked to hear the Nubian version of this
wonderful progress .
The other inscription is of Amenophis III, son of
Tuthmosis IV . He also had to do over again the work which his father had so
miraculously accomplished, and which had lasted for so short a time : ' Year 5
; His Majesty returned, having triumphed on his first victorious campaign in
the land of Kush the wretched ; having made his boundary as far as he desired,
as far as the four pillars which bear the heaven . He set up a tablet of
victory as far as " Pool-of-Horus " ; there was no king of Egypt who
did the like beside His Majesty, the mighty, satisfied with victory, Nebmaetre
[ Amenophis III ] is He ' . One would have liked to know where the Pool of
Horus was, where Amenophis III set up his tablet of victory . We know, at all
events, that the Egyptian frontier in Nubia reached, in the days of Amenophis,
the Fourth Cataract, which was its utmost extension in any time . Other
inscriptions are of Psammetichus II ( also called Psamtik II ) and Apries ; but
the two quoted above are the most interesting among a collection which is not
likely to be visited again .
The naming of Philae
The name Philae is a Greek equivalent for the Ancient
Egyptian name Pilak or the ' island of Lak ' – which is of
uncertain meaning, though the Coptic form Pilakh means an End or
Corner or Remote Place, because it was the most southern border of Egypt or
probably refers to its marking the boundary with Nubia, which is probably of
Nubian origin . Under Islam, Philae came to be regarded as a legendary fortress,
its Arabic name is " Anas Al-Wogud " in reference to a myth with the
same name in " The One Thousand Nights and Night " stories, the name
is known as Qaṣr Anas Al-Wogud .
There is a myth told about Philae . The island is
usually called by the local inhabitants Qasr Anas Al-Wogud after the hero of
one of the tales in the Arabian " Thousand and One Nights ", which
had its scene transferred to Philae in the Egyptian version :
The king's
son, Anas Al-Wogud, fell in love with the vizier's daughter the Princess Zahr El-Ward
" Flower of the Rose " ( also called El-Ward fil-Akmam ) . The two
young people met secretly until they were discovered by the imprudence of the
maiden's servant . The vizier was enraged and in order to bring the affair to
an end imprisoned his daughter in the temple of Isis under close guard . Anas Al-Wogud
wandered far and wide in search of his beloved and in the course of his
wanderings showed kindness and compassion to animals . One day a hermit told
him that Zahr El-Ward was on the island of Philae and Anas Al-Wogud hurriedly
made his way there . Alas, the water surrounding the island teemed with
crocodiles, but as he stood lamenting his fate, one of the monsters offered to
carry him to the island on its back out of gratitude for the prince's previous
kindness to animals . On his arrival, birds belonging to his sweetheart told
him that she was on the island, but he could never obtain sight of her .
Meanwhile " Flower of the Rose ", unable to endure her fate, let
herself down from her window by a rope made from her clothes and was conveyed
from the island by a compassionate shipmaster . Finally after another long
period of search, the lovers found one another and with the consent of their
families were happily wed .
To be
continued ....
Part ( 3 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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