A collection of curious travels & voyages in two tomes ... / by John Ray ...

A Letter from Dublin, concerning the Porphyry Pillars in Egypt. By Dr. Huntingdon.

SIR,

YOU engage me after a very undeniable manner, as I perceive by the minutes of your Philosophical Society, to send you some account of the Porphyry Pillars in Egypt; and though I could have satisfied your Curiosity much better in this matter, had you thought of it when I was amongst my Papers in Oxford, yet rather than hazard your good Opinion, or give the least pretence of disrespect to your worthy Company, for whose Persons and Designs I have so just an esteem and veneration: I here send not what's fit for me to write, or you to read, but what I can remember upon this subject.

Nor do I intend to speak concerning the na∣ture or composition of Stones in general, or of Porphyry more particularly, but meerly as to matter of Fact, so far chiefly as it fell under my own cognizance, i. e. if you please, rather like an Historian than a Philosopher.

In the first place then, I think it may be taken for granted, that there is no such Quarry, or Rock of Stone rather, in all the lower parts of Egypt; for so far as the Nile o'erflows is perfect Soil. A Sample whereof I hope you still retain, and let me entreat you to be very exact in weighing it this year, that you may be sure

whether it be heavier in the time of the inunda∣tion (as is generally believed) than before or after: And when, and in what proportion it en∣creases.

The Boundaries of this overflow (which are never ten miles from the Channel, that I saw, generally scarce half of it, and in some places but a mile or two, (the Delta still excepted, which is universally covered, all but the North side to the Sea, and a little to the East for some miles above Damiata) are rising Hills of Sand, beyond which is perfect Desart, upon the Africk side, the Lybian. [Higher South I have been told, there are Rocks nearer the River, and in some places streighten it] but under those Sands is a yielding Stone, not much harder than Chalk, though not so white, and very easily managed, as at the Mummies, deep spacious Vaults, which were the old Repositories for the Dead. And the like also may be said of those Cells or Sepul∣chres which are hewn purely out of the Rocky Earth three quarters of a mile on the South of Alexandria. Albeit nearer the Sea there are Stones of a harder kind, and with which they build; but by their mouldering away, as appears by the Remains of Houses within the Walls of the City, 'tis plain they can't endure the Wea∣ther, which is sufficiently corroding there. The Iron which once plated their thick wooden Gates being mostly eaten away, and the deep Characters upon the sides of these very Porphyry Pillars exceedingly defaced. Indeed about Mem∣phis, i. e. by the Pyramids, they have a milder Air, and the Hieroglyphicks cut in those Stones will last well enough, till they shall be removed into a rougher: But then they'l crizle and scale, as I found by sad experience. For having pro∣cur'd

four Stones, the best mark'd with those fi∣gures of Antiquity I could meet with, and sent them down to Alexandria, in order to their transportation for England, I found them, upon my second Voyage into Egypt, very much injur'd, being put into the Custom-house-yard (where they lye still embargo'd) by the Aga, who de∣manded an intolerable Sum for liberty to ship them, as you may remember I told you the Story.

But yet farther in the Country there are Mountains of harder Stone: In the Nitrian, now the Desart of St. Macarius, and not far from the Lake where the Latroon or true Nitre incru∣states upon the top of the Water, there are many, and some of them not utterly unlike Porphyry. That which nearest resembles its colour, though not its Consistence, is the vein that produces the Eagle-stone, of which there are many in the Bahr Batama, a great Sandy Valley: But these Stones are of a different complexion from Por∣phyry, as you may perceive by those I sent you, which also will assist your conjectures of their original.

However, I can't pronounce that there is no Porphyry hereabouts; for in the chief Mona∣stery of the four now remaining (of 366, as many as are days in the longest year) dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; the two Stones which se∣cure their entrance are of the like, if not the very same substance; which I more particularly observ'd upon the account of their ingenious contrivance; for these poor People, lying other∣wise at the mercy of the roving Arabs, with these two Mill-stones (for that's their make) thus make good their Gate against them, (or ra∣ther their passage) into which they run them,

and then drive a great wooden Wedge between them on the inside, which so fastens them, that they cannot be loosed, but upon the inside nei∣ther. And of such a sort of Porphyry is the no∣ted Sphynx (a mighty head and shoulders 110 feet in compass) yet standing by the Northern Pyramids.

I have indeed been told of the place upon Mount Sinai, whence this Porphyry came, but so they shew the very Rock where the two excel∣lent double rows of Pillars in the Church of Bethlehem were hewn; though I went away sa∣tisfied that 'twas a quite different sort of Stone. Another tells of a Pillar of the same make yet lying there; and if this be certain, you need seek no further. Albeit, I must tell you, that the Stones brought thence with the representati∣on of a Buck (it must needs be called) upon them, some of which you had, though reddish, are of a much finer, and more even tex∣ture.

Wansleben writes of a great many, more Sou∣therly; but I know him too well to believe all that he says for Gospel. And a more sober man, Father Carlo Francisco d' Orleans, now Superior of the Capucines at Cairo, who went 300 leagues up the Nile in the year 69, told me of many Tem∣ples, Statues, and Pillars at that distance; tho I can't be sure he said there were any of Por∣phyry. But since 'twas in Thebais, why may we not suppose them of that black, white, and red speckled Thebaick Marble, famous in the World, and wherewith the lesser Pyramid perhaps was crusted, yet to be seen upon the ground about it, and when polish'd looks finely.

Those which I have my self seen, are one of them at the Matarea, three or four miles East of Grand Cairo, and two at Alexandria, just with∣in the Wall upon the North side of the City; (for Pompey's Pillar, as they call it) half a mile without the Gate to the South, is quite of another make and matter: One of these is thrown down and broken into pieces, but was of the same di∣mensions for breadth and thickness with the other. The Franks call them Aguglia's, the En∣glish particularly Cleopatra's Needles, but the In∣habitants content themselves with the general name of Pillars. They have no Basis or Pede∣stals above ground; and if they never had, they must needs be very deep in the Earth. The Draughts I here send you will excuse all farther Description. One of them was very well taken by Monsieur Brute a French Druggerman, the other by a Dutch Painter, who, you'l see, has but lit∣tle commended his Art.

If you have a fancy, upon the sight of'em, to sift out the Hieroglyphick character with which they are engraven, perhaps you'l find it to be the aboriginal Egyptian Letter, long since worn out of common use in the Country, as the Samaritan (so 'tis now generally call'd) was amongst the Jews; and that it bears proportion with the China (now in use) where each note represents a word, or rather an entire signification. And moreover, that 'tis wrought the same way too, from the top to the bottom; as you have seen in the Board I brought from a Door in the Village Succara (which is next to the Mummies) the lar∣gest piece of Egyptian Writing, perhaps, at this day in Europe. I confess that in the Vaults or Priests Chambers cut out of the Rock, close by the second Pyramid, the whole Walls are inscri∣bed

therewith, but I speak of an Original. And if all that is there written were but exactly co∣pied, it might be then lawful to hope, that the Language so long since dead and buried in the House of Bondage, might have its resurrection in the Land of Liberty.

That such vast Monuments might be remo∣ved from place to place, is difficult indeed, but not impossible. And if one Archimedes (as Athe∣naeus preserves the Story for us) could lanch the vast Ship of Hiero, which all the Strength of Syracuse was not able to bring to Sea; what might not many great Masters in the same Art perform, and upon their own Dunghil too? for I may call Egypt the Mother of the Mathema∣ticks.

Besides, some of these Mountains are near the Red-Sea, and Suss from Cairo but two or three days, from Nile less: And how possible it is to convey mighty weights by Water, let the Obe∣lisks at Rome declare; which were all of them brought from this very Country: And that such things may be done by Land too, though not by every one, is plain enough, because we see they have been done. At Baalbec, which is 14 hours from Damascus, (for thence I went, accom∣panied with Mr. Anth. Balam and Mr. Jo. Verney, both now in England, whom I thought fit to name for my Compurgators, if you should que∣stion the credit of Story:) There is a Stone about 66 foot long on the North side of the Castle-wall, and two more of 60 each: And I believe we saw the way they travel'd, having left one of their Company, though not quite so big in the Road, as a Monument thereof to this very day.

If you have got the piece of this Aguglia, (for I have nothing here) you will thereby best di∣scern its colour and composition. 'Tis something more lively than the Porphyry of St. John's Font (for by that name 'tis known) at Ephesus, much more vivid than those four tall square Pillars at Tadmore (in its middle age Palmyra) which are each of them but of, I think, one piece, whilst all the rest, exceeding many, of another sort of Stone, are of several pieces, and round. If you'l attribute the clearness of their Complexion in part to the Air, which corrodes them especially upon the North and East; I impose not upon the liberty of your Reason.

If the Ichnography of them (which I desire you to reserve for me) wont excuse me from any farther description, I beg your pardon that I have said thus much, and hazarded my Judgment to demonstrate my Affection, how much I am, and endeavour to be,

Your faithful Friend, And humble Servant, R.H.