Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai, in the years 1842-45 : during the mission sent out by His majesty Fredrick William IV. of Prussia / by Dr. Richard Lepsius ; ed., with notes, by Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie.

  • Karl Richard Lepsius
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia, and the peninsula of Sinai, in the years 1842-45 : during the mission sent out by His majesty Fredrick William IV. of Prussia / by Dr. Richard Lepsius ; ed., with notes, by Kenneth R.H. Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    LETTER III. Caieo. Octoher 16, 1842. We were detained nearly fourteen days in Alexandria. The whole time went in preparations for our journey; the Pasha I saw several times more, and I found him ever favourably disposed towards our expedition. Our scientific researches were inconsiderable. We visited the Pompeian pillar, which, however, stands in no relation to Pompey, but, as the Greek inscription on the base informs us, was erected to the Emperor Diocletian by the Prsefect Publius. The blocks of the foundation are partly formed of the fragments of older buildings ; on one of them the throne-cartouche of the second Psammetichus was yet distinguishable. The two obelisks, of which the one still standing is named Cleopatra's Needle, are much disinte- grated on the weather side, and in parts have become quite illegible.* They were erected by Tuthmosis III. in the sixteenth century a.c. ; at a later period, Hamses Miamun has inscribed [* The mention of Cleopatra's Needle gives me an opportu- nity of asking whether the storm of public applause will ever wipe away the incomprehensible opinions of those who refuse to preserve this memento by bringing it, our own property, to our own Museum, and placing it under proper shelter ? The authorities seem to stand as stiffly against such a com'se as the obelisk itself does against the sky.—K. E. H. M.]
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