Statue of Rameses II
There are two statues of Rameses II. between the Nile and the Necropolis of Memphis. The larger one is prostrate and surrounded by walls. Steps are provided by which the walls are ascended, and a temporary framework is built above them, and across them, upon which persons may stand and look down upon the colossal statue.
Our view is of the smaller of the statues. This one is broken at the feet and part of the cap is wanting. Rameses II. was frequently called the Pharaoh of the Oppression. This is probably not correct. He was, however, “the new king who knew not Joseph.” He now lies in limestone, prostrate amid the ruins of the city he helped to enrich and adorn. The first in her glory, he is the last in her desolation.
Blanched with the sun of thirty centuries he now lies looking into the deep eastern heavens. His companions were once the proud courtiers of a prodigal court, his companions now are the jackals, whose weird howl lends a melancholy interest to the solemn moan of the palms, the only sentinels left to guard the proud Egyptian king.
The very name of Rameses once struck terror to the hearts of men; he is so quiet and harmless now, in the stone expression he has left of himself, that the lizzards may play hide and seek on the surface of his vast face. The tall rank weeds grow about his mighty form and may lean their dying heads upon his cold and bloodless bosom. A tradition is repeated that Joseph and Mary spent a part of their sojourn in Egypt, at Memphis.
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