消失的法老城市
This magnificent ancient capital was built 3000 years ago by the Egyptianpharaoh Ramesses the Great, but long ago the it disappeared. When finallyrediscovered by early archaeologists, it opened up a bizarre puzzle -because when Piramesse was finally found, it was in the wrong place -somewhere Ramesses the Great could not possibly have built itAnd at the heart of the city (hall), Ramesses built a massive army garrisonhousing thousands of soldiers, charioteers and horsemen. His garrison wouldhave had stabling of hundreds of warhorses and chariots, and it was from Pi-Ramesse that the pharaoh rolled out to his greatest battles.
Ramesses the Great never stopped adding to his capital. Year after year, newstatues of the pharaoh were erected all through the city. A production lineof skilled craftsmen and workers was employed throughout his reign to addand embellish new statues and monuments. As home to the king and seat ofpower, Pi-Ramesse must have looked as if it would last forever. But just acouple of hundred years after it was built, the entire city vanished.
For thousands of years, Pi-Ramesse was utterly lost and the fate of thisgreat city became the stuff of legend. The quest to find it again wouldbaffle experts and provide one of the strangest twists in the history ofarchaeology.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Egyptologists were puzzled. Mostof the great cities of the pharaohs' had already been discovered, all exceptthe famous Pi-Ramesse.
"It'll become almost a holy grail of Egyptologists to actually try and findthis fabulous city."Everyone knew from the ancient texts that Ramesses II didn't build his newcapital near the great temples at Karnak and Luxor, the traditional seats ofpower of ancient Egypt. Nor did he built it at ancient Memphis near present-day Cairo where the great pyramids lay. Instead, he built it where he'dbeen raised, the lush Nile Delta where the river fans out into branches thatflow down to the Mediterranean Sea. The texts were clear: Ramesses had builthis city on the easternmost branch of the Nile in the Delta.
holy grail: often not capitalized an object or goal that is sought after forits great significance |