Excerpt from The Shrine of Saft El Henneh and the Land of Goshen (1885)

The Members of the Egypt Exploration Fund may probably ask how it is that they have not sooner received this work, and they may be justly surprised that a memoir so moderate in length should have been in preparation for nearly two years. I can only plead in reply the fact that I was under the necessity of first completing a very heavy task begun several years before, which task is now finished.

The greater part of this Memoir is devoted to the interpretation of a monument which has largely contributed to determine the position of the Land of Goshen; a subject especially within the domain of the Egypt Exploration Fund, in the service of which Society I have thrice had the honour to be engaged. Priceless objects of antiquity are daily disappearing in Egypt, and nowhere does the work of destruction go on so rapidly as in the Delta. While there is yet time - while still the kindly soil preserves some store of unrified treasure - let us endeavour not only to rescue these invaluable relics, but to make use of them for the solution of those important geographical and historical problems which confront the Archaeologist at every step. Burned in the lime-kiln of the fellah, or broken up and sold piecemeal to the passing tourist, the inscriptions which contain the materials necessary to our studies will ere long be wanting.

It may perhaps be said that there is not much in a name; and I admit that the shrine of Saft el Henneh presents fewer points of interest than the store-chambers and inscriptions of Pithom. I nevertheless venture to hope that this Memoir, which is the logical and historical sequel of the first, may receive some modest share of that favour with which Pithom has been honoured.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.