Viewing page 178 of 606

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

1910]

Egypt Exploration Fund.

FOUNDED IN ENGLAND IN 1883;
ESTABLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1884.

[[image]]
KHUFU, THE BUILDER OF THE GREAT PYRAMID, 3908 B.C.

Egypt is the land of beginnings and appeals to the historian as well as to the archaeologist. During the past quarter of a century of excavations and investigations by the Fund in Egypt the centuries have slowly unravelled their woven fabric of life and civilization in the Nile valley.

To have found remains of the Libyan occupation of Egypt at Abydos, to have recovered and published in order the history of the early kings, to have shown what the arts and skill of the Egyptians were in those primal days and to have uncovered the successive temples of 4,000 years is the greatest prize ever gained in the history of man and has made Abydos the most interesting spot in the valley of the Nile.

Here was found the first portrait that has ever come to light of the builder of the Great Pyramid. "Khufu's face reveals the energy, the indomitable will, and the firm ability of the man who stamped forever the character of the Egyptian monarchy and outdid all time in the scale of his work." Such is the spirit that pervades the land and its monuments to this day, that holds the archaeologist to his life of self-sacrifice and hard toil in desert places and has recovered site after of famous Biblical and classical cities.

The discovery of Pithom-Succoth, one of the store-cities built by the forced labor of the Hebrews during the Oppression, and of Naukratis the earliest seat of Hellenic civilization in the Delta, the clearing of the Temple of Hatshepsu at Deir el Bahari, the more recent discovery at the same place of the XIth Dynasty Temple of Mentuhetep, as well as the exploration of the royal tombs at Abydos have resulted from the enterprise of the Fund.

Three distinct departments of the Society perform its work in the field and each publishes its annual volume.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-25 13:05:51