A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages, Volume 2 · Observations 2 · Letter – Section 12
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 nature 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 inundation (as is generally believed) than before or after: And when, and in what proportion it encreaſes.
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 Sepulchres 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 Weather, 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 Memphis, 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 procur'd four Stones, the beſt mark'd with thoſe figures 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 demanded 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 incruſtates 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 Porphyry, 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 Monaſtery 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 ſecure 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 otherwiſe 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 rather 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 neither. And of ſuch a ſort of Porphyry is the noted 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 excellent double rows of Pillars in the Church of Bethlehem were hewn; though I went away ſatisfied 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 repreſentation 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 texture.
Wanſleben writes of a great many, more Southerly; 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 Temples, Statues, and Pillars at that diſtance; tho I can't be ſure he ſaid there were any of Porphyry. 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 within 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 dimenſions for breadth and thickneſs with the other. The Franks call them Aguglia's, the Engliſh particularly Cleopatra's Needles, but the Inhabitants content themſelves with the general name of Pillars. They have no Baſis or Pedeſtals 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 little 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 largeſt 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 inſcribed therewith, but I ſpeak of an Original. And if all that is there written were but exactly copied, 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 removed from place to place, is difficult indeed, but not impoſſible. And if one Archimedes (as Athenaeus 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 Mathematicks.
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 Obelisks 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, accompanied with Mr. Anth. Balam and Mr. Jo. Verney, both now in England, whom I thought fit to name for my Compurgators, if you ſhould queſtion 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 diſcern 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.
The Cutts of theſe Pillars are not prefixt to this Paper, becauſe engraven and publiſhed elſewhere. See Philoſoph. Tranſ. N. 178. p. 1252.
Monſieur Cuper, in his Letter to l' Abbe Nicaiſe, informs the World, that he had received Letters from Aleppo, which ſay, that ſome Engliſh Gentlemen, out of curioſity, going to viſit the Ruines of Palmyra, had found 400 Marble Columns, of a ſort of Porphyry, and alſo obſerv'd ſome Temples, yet entire with Tombs, Monuments, Greek and Latine Inſcriptions, of all which he hopes to get Copies. Journal des Seavans, No. 25. An. 1692.