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Title: The Treasury of Ancient Egypt
Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology
Author: Arthur E. P. B. Weigall
Release Date: July 1, 2005 [EBook #16160]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Photo by N. Macnaghten.
A statue of the hawk-god Horus in front of the temple of Edfu.
The author stands beside it.
FRONTISPIECE.
The Treasury of
Ancient Egypt
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Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient
Egyptian History and Archæology
BY
ARTHUR E. P. B. WEIGALL
INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES
AUTHOR OF 'TRAVELS IN THE UPPER EGYPTIAN DESERTS,' 'THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF AKHNATON, PHARAOH OF EGYPT,' 'A GUIDE TO THE
ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,' ETC., ETC.
RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1912
TO
ALAN H. GARDINER, ESQ.,
M.A., D.LITT.
LAYCOCK STUDENT OF EGYPTOLOGY AT WORCESTER
COLLEGE, OXFORD,
THIS BOOK,
WHICH WILL RECALL SOME SUMMER NIGHTS UPON
THE THEBAN HILLS,
IS DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
No person who has traveled in Egypt wil require to be told that it is a country in which a
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considerable amount of waiting and waste of time has to be endured. One makes an excursion
by train to see some ruins, and, upon returning to the station, the train is found to be late, and
an hour or more has to be dawdled away. Crossing the Nile in a rowing-boat the sailors
contrive in one way or another to prolong the journey to a length of half an hour or more. The
excursion steamer wil run upon a sandbank, and wil there remain fast for a part of the day.
The resident official, traveling from place to place, spends a great deal of time seated in
railway stations or on the banks of the Nile, waiting for his train or his boat to arrive; and he
has, therefore, a great deal of time for thinking. I often try to fil in these dreary periods by
jotting down a few notes on some matter which has recently been discussed, or registering
and elaborating arguments which have chanced lately to come into the thoughts. These notes
are shaped and "written up" when next there is a spare hour, and a few books to refer to; and
ultimately they take the form of articles or papers, some of which find their way into print.
This volume contains twelve chapters, written at various times and in various places, each
dealing with some subject drawn from the great treasury of Ancient Egypt. Some of the
chapters have appeared as articles in magazines. Chapters iv., v., and vii. were published in
'Blackwood's Magazine'; chapter vi. in 'Putnam's Magazine' and the 'Pal Mal Magazine'; and
chapter ix. in the 'Century Magazine.' I have to thank the editors for alowing me to reprint
them here. The remaining seven chapters have been written specialy for this volume.
LUXOR, UPPER EGYPT,
November 1910.
CONTENTS.