the claims of archæology under the notice of the Khedive Sa‘îd Pâshâ, who, soon after his succession in 1854, ordered that a Museum of Egyptian Antiquities should be founded, and appointed Mariette as its first Keeper. With the important work of the Suez Canal in hand, it was unlikely that the Egyptian Government would vote money for the building of a museum to hold the monumental remains of a nation of "ignorant unbelievers," whom every Egyptian believed God had wiped off the face of the earth because of their "unclean wickedness," and Mariette had therefore to take any empty rooms in any Government building which could be found in which to house his collection.

After much difficulty Mariette induced the authorities to transfer to him portions of the old post-office at Bûlâk, the port of Cairo, and in these the first Khedivial collection of Egyptian antiquities was placed. It goes without saying that the building was unsuitable in every way, for the floors were bad, the walls were too thin, the rooms were small, and the most inexperienced thief could easily break in and help himself to the smaller objects which were placed in the wretched receptacles which served as exhibition cases. It was found in a very short time that the collection was growing too rapidly for the space which Mariette had at his disposal, and, when all the rooms were filled, he was obliged to store the cases of antiquities in an outhouse or shed near, and to leave them packed up. Whilst the work of collecting was thus going on, Mariette devoted himself to the excavation and clearing out of temples and other buildings in all parts of the country. In 1881 the great collection of royal mummies from Dêr al-Baḥarî arrived, and the interest of these was so great that the cultured opinion of the civilized world demanded that some systematic arrangement of the contents of the Bûlâk Museum should be made, and that steps should be taken for their better preservation, for it was found that the damp in the old post-office was doing harm to the more fragile of the antiquities. The situation of the museum itself was alarming. flowed the Nile, which more than once threatened to sweep the whole building away, and the waters of which, on one occasion, actually entered the courtyard, and on the other were a number of warehouses of the flimsiest construction, filled with inflammable stores, which might at any moment catch fire and burn down the museum. Early in winter mornings the building was often full of the white, clinging,

On the one side

drenching mist, which is common along the banks of the river, and it was no rare thing to see water trickling down inside the glass cases which held the mummies of the great kings of Egypt.

At length the Egyptian Government was compelled to consider seriously the problem of housing the monuments of the Pharaohs, but the authorities were hampered by want of funds; finally, after much discussion, it was decided to transfer the whole collection to the Palace of Gîzah, which stands on the left bank of the Nile, just opposite the Island of Rôḍah. This palace was built by Isma'îl Pâshâ to accommodate his harim, and cost between 4 and 5 millions of pounds sterling! The fabric itself was not strong for a building of the kind, and the walls of hundreds of its rooms were made of lath and plaster gilded and painted; the outcry usually raised by irresponsible persons against any proposal connected with antiquities was made, but, under the circumstances, the Government did the right thing. It fell to the duty of Sir Francis (now Lord) Grenfell, K.C.B., to make arrangements for the prevention of fire, and with the precautions taken by him, and the rules which he enforced in person, the collection became comparatively safe.

The removal of the antiquities from Bûlâk to Gîzah was carried out in 1889. In 1895 the Public Debt Commissioners voted the sum of £E.110,000 for the building of a new fireproof museum, and the design of M. Dourgnon, a Parisian architect, was selected by the jury, which consisted of an Englishman, a Frenchman, and an Italian. The building was offered for tender in 1896, the foundations were laid in 1897, and the museum was finished towards the close of 1901; up to the end of 1900 the total cost had been E. 169,000. The total cost of the museum has been £E.251,000, and already LE. 50,000 has been spent on the catalogue. The transfer of the antiquities from Gîzah to the new museum began on December 3rd, 1901, and was completed on July 13th, 1902. The inauguration ceremonies were performed in the presence of Lord Cromer, Lord Kitchener, and about 100 of the nobles and notables of Cairo on November 15th following.

As already said, the first Keeper of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was F. A. F. Mariette, who was born at Boulognesur-Mer on February 11th, 1821, and who died at Cairo in 1881. He was appointed on the staff of the Louvre in 1848; he set out on a mission to Egypt in search of Coptic and Syriac MSS. in 1850; he discovered and excavated the Serapeum in 1852,

with a grant of 50,000 francs which had been voted by the French National Assembly; he carried on excavations for the Duc de Luynes at Gîzah in 1853; and in 1854 he was appointed Assistant Curator at the Louvre. In the same year he was appointed Keeper of the Bûlâk Museum, and the Khedive Sa'îd Pâshâ made him a Bey. From 1855 to 1871 he worked indefatigably, and the excavations which he carried out comprise some of the greatest works of the kind ever done in Egypt. Tanis, Abydos, Edfû, Karnak, Denderah, Madinat Habû, Dêr al-Baḥarî, and many other sites were more or less thoroughly explored by him; he explored hundreds of maṣṭăbahs in the cemeteries of Gîzah, Sakkârah, and Mêdûm, and he opened the "Maşțăbat al-Fir'aun." Whilst engaged in such works he found time to write a Guide to the Museum, entitled "Notice des principaux monuments exposés dans les galéries provisoires du Musée d'Antiquités de S. A. le Khédive à Boulaq," which went through several editions; he edited facsimiles of papyri, and published several volumes of valuable Egyptian texts. The zeal and enthusiasm of Mariette contributed largely to the advance of Egyptological science, and, as a worker on broad, general lines of study, his equal will not quickly be found. He died in 1881, and his body was entombed in a marble sarcophagus which first stood in the courtyard at Bûlâk, then was removed to Gîzah in 1889, and to the new Museum in Cairo in 1902. A statue and a monument to Mariette Pâshâ were set up in 1904.

Mariette was succeeded by Professor Gaston Maspero, K.C.M.G., who was born at Paris on June 23rd, 1846. He took the degree of Docteur en Lettres in 1873 at l'École Normale, was made Professor of the Collège de France, in the room of de Rougé, and Member of L'Académie des Inscriptions in 1883, and Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. in 1886. As soon as he was appointed he began to arrange and catalogue the antiquities at Bûlâk, and for the first time it became possible to obtain an idea of the value and sequence of the objects exhibited. The "Guide du Visiteur au Musée de Boulaq” was a most useful work, for in it Professor Maspero not only described his objects, but explained their use and signification, and his "Guide" was in reality a manual of archæology. In addition to his work in connection with the Museum at Bâlâķ, Professor Maspero carried out the excavation of Luxor temple in 1884, 1885, and 1886, at the expense of a fund which was raised by the Journal des Débats; it has

been customary to ascribe this work to M. Grébaut, but this savant only removed from Luxor to Cairo the antiquities which Professor Maspero had found. In 1884 Professor Maspero discovered the necropolis of Akhmîm, from which such excellent results were obtained; he repaired Karnak, and the eastern part of the hypostyle hall; he cleared the Ramesseum at Thebes, and repaired the temples at Abydos; he rebuilt the west part of the girdle wall at Edfû, covered over the sanctuary, and repaired the little temple; and he carried on works of repair and excavation and clearing at Kôm Ombo, Al-Kâb, Aswân, Shêkh 'Abd al-Kûrnah, Asyût, Barshah, Beni Ḥasan, Tall al-'Amârnah, Şakķârah, etc. Professor Maspero was the author of a large number of works, many of them containing editions of most valuable texts, and his Histoire Ancienne in three volumes is a monument of learning. One of his greatest works undoubtedly is the edition of the texts that were found in the pyramid tombs of Unas, Teta, and other early kings, which he published with translations in French. These documents are of priceless value for the study of the religion of ancient Egypt, and their decipherment and publication are the greatest triumph of Egyptology. They reveal a phase of civilization in Egypt of which there are no other records than these in writing, and certain portions of them must be coeval with the historic culture of Egypt. In 1886, for private reasons, Professor Maspero resigned his appointment as Keeper of the Bûlâk Museum, and was succeeded by M. Grébaut, the author of an excellent edition of a famous Hymn to Amen-Ra; he increased the collection under his charge considerably, and brought many valuable monuments from all parts of Egypt to the Museum at Gîzah; he discovered a large number of the mummies of priests of Åmen, with their coffins, etc., at Dêr al-Baḥarî. Under his rule the Egyptian collection was removed from Bûlâk to the Palace of Gîzah.

M. Grébaut was, in turn, succeeded in 1892 by M. J. Marie de Morgan, who was born on June 3rd, 1857, at the Château de Bion, Loir-et-Cher; though he studied archæology for more than 20 years, he is a trained mathematician, engineer, and geologist, and he has turned his training to good account, for he has conducted excavations according to scientific methods, with unusually successful results. Since 1897, when he resigned his appointment, he has been engaged in carrying out excavations at Susa and other places in the country which was called

Elam by ancient nations; fortune has favoured his labours, and made him the discoverer of the basalt stele which is inscribed in Babylonian characters with the text of the "Code of Laws" of Khammurabi, king of Babylon, about 2200 B.C. M. de Morgan has travelled over all Persia, Lûristân, Kûrdistân, Armenia, and Mesopotamia, and is the author of numerous learned works. In connection with Egyptology it may be mentioned that he was the discoverer of the pre-dynastic and early archaic tombs at Nakâdah in Upper Egypt, and it was he who first showed the correct position in the history of Egypt of the people who were erroneously called the New Race.

M. de Morgan was succeeded in 1897 by M. Victor Loret, who is the author of Manuel de la Langue Egyptienne, Paris, 1891; of La Flore pharaonique, Paris, 1892; and of several articles in various publications. In 1898 he discovered in the tomb of Amen-hetep II at Thebes the mummies of several kings of the XVIIIth and later dynasties, and among them was the mummy of Menephthah, the "Pharaoh of the Oppression," whom many believed to have been drowned in the "Red Sea" when the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the days of Moses. In 1899 M. Loret resigned, and M. Maspero returned to his former position of Keeper of the Egyptian Museum, and during the second period of his rule he renewed the wise and liberal policy with which all are familiar. Under his guidance the Egyptian collection was removed from the Palace of Gîzah to the new Museum in the European quarter of Cairo, and the interests of Egyptology, both archæological and philological, were well guarded. Those who are interested in watching the progress of archæological works in Egypt under his direction should consult his Report for 1904, published in the Report upon Public Works for 1904 by Sir William Garstin, Cairo, 1905, his Les Temples Immergés, Cairo, 1909-10, etc. Maspero resigned the directorship of the Service of Antiquities in 1914, and died in Paris in 1916. He was succeeded by Monsieur E. Lacau. The various Keepers of the Egyptian Museum were for 40 years or more ably seconded in all their endeavours by Emil Brugsch Pâshâ (brother of Dr. H. Brugsch, the eminent Egyptologist), the Conservator of the Museum, to whom the arrangement and classification of the antiquities therein were chiefly due. He left Egypt soon after the outbreak of the War in 1914. The Assistant-Conservators are M. Ģ Daressy and Aḥmad Kamâl Bey, etc.