Topography of Thebes, and general view of Egypt. Being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataract and Wadee Samneh ... with remarks on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians. And the productions of the country / by I.G. Wilkinson [sic].

  • Wilkinson, John Gardner, 1797-1875.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Topography of Thebes, and general view of Egypt. Being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataract and Wadee Samneh ... with remarks on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians. And the productions of the country / by I.G. Wilkinson [sic]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Iiighest encomiums of the ancients. Nor were the Egyptians neglectful of their breed of animals; and horses were among the exports of the country. The price of a horse in the reign of Solomon was one hundred and fifty shekels of silver, and a chariot, the manufacture of Egypt, was usually sold to the Jewish monarch for the large sum of six hundred shekels.* The commerce of Egypt was, however, confined to her intercourse with the main land, nor do her merchants ever appear to have ventured by sea, except perhaps in crossing to Arabia,')' or in coasting along the shores of the Gulf. Whatever may have been the date of the founda¬ tion of Tyre, it is probable that flourishing city was coeval with an early period of the Egyptian monarchy; nor is it impossible, from the usual good understanding which existed between the Phoenicians and Egyptians, that the former may have purchased the corn of the Nile for their own consumption, and trafficked in it with more distant * 1 Kings x. 28, 29. A shekel is about 2s. 6d. English money. f Sesostris was said to have fitted out four hundred ships of war; and Neco, according to Herodotus, had triremes in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf, and fought by sea with the Tyrians; but it may be doubted whether the Egyptian mer¬ chants visited distant countries by sea on commercial speculation; and they even employed Phoenician mariners in a voyage of discovery. h