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Volume II., Part B.

THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE

THE ROYAL PYRAMID BUILDERS:  KHEOPS, KHEPHREN, MYKERINOS—­MEMPHITE LITERATURE AND ART—­EXTENSION OF EGYPT TOWARDS THE SOUTH, AND THE CONQUEST OP NUBIA BY THE PHARAOHS.

Snofrui—­The desert which separates Africa from Asia:  its physical configuration, its inhabitants, their incursions into Egypt, and their relations with the Egyptians—­The peninsula of Sinai:  the turquoise and copper mines, the mining works of the Pharaohs—­The two tombs of Snofrui:  the pyramid and the mastabas of Medum, the statues of Bahotpu and his wife Nofrit.

Kheops, Ehephren, and Myherinos—­The Great Pyramid:  its construction and internal arrangements—­The pyramids of Khephren and Myherinos; the rifling of them—­Legend about the royal pyramid builders:  the impiety of Kheops and Khephren, the piety of Myherinos; the brick pyramid of Asychis—­The materials employed in building, and the quarries of Turah; the plans, the worship of the royal “double;” the Arab legends about the guardian genii of the pyramids.

The kings of the fifth dynasty:  Usirkaf, Sahuri, Kalciu, and the romance about their advent—­The relations of the Delta to the peoples of the North:  the shipping and maritime commerce of the Egyptians—­Nubia and its tribes:  the Uauaiu and the Mazaiu, Puanit, the dwarfs and the Danga—­Egyptian literature:  the Proverbs of Phtahhotpu—­The arts:  architecture, statuary and its chief examples, bas-reliefs, painting, industrial art.

The development of Egyptian feudalism, and the advent of the sixth dynasty:  Ati, Imhotpa, Teti—­Papi I. and his minister Uni:  the affair of Queen Amitsi; the wars against the Hiru-Shaitu and the country of Tiba—­Metesuphis I. and the second Papi:  progress of the Egyptian power in Nubia—­the lords of Elephantine; Hirkhuf, Papinakhiti:  the way for conquest prepared by their explorations, the occupation of the Oases—­The pyramids of Saqqara:  Metesuphis the Second—­Nitokris and the legend concerning her—­Preponderance of the feudal lords, and fall of the Memphite dynasty.

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CHAPTER II—­THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE

The royal pyramid builders:  Kheops, Khephren, Mykerinos—­Memphite literature and art—­Extension of Egypt towards the South, and the conquest of Nubia by the Pharaohs.

At that time “the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth.”  All that we know of him is contained in one sentence:  he fought against the nomads of Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier of the Delta, and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid.