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The Alexandrian Isis of the Gizeh Museum is clad as the Isis of Pharaonic times; but she has lost the old slender shape and straitened bearing. A mutilated effigy of a Prince of Siût, also at Gizeh, would almost pass for an indifferent Greek statue. The head is good, though in a somewhat dry style.
There are numerous catacombs in Egypt, the principal of which are at Alexandria; at Sakkara, near Cairo; at Siut, near the ancient Lycopolis or City of the Wolf; at Gebel Silsilis, on the banks of the Nile between Etfu and Ombos, the site of one of the principal quarries of ancient Egypt; and at Thebes.
From a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles above Fayum on the left bank of the Nile is Siut, where Ramses XIII took a rest of two days. He was even obliged to halt there, for the mummy of the late pharaoh was still in Abydos, where they were making solemn prayers at the grave of Osiris. Siut was one of the richest parts of Upper Egypt.
The Mussulman cemetery at Siût perpetuates the like arrangement, and enables us to this day to realise the aspect of the Memphite necropolis towards the close of the ancient empire. This platform is scattered over with terracotta vases, nearly buried in the loose rubbish. These lie thickly over the hollow interior, but are more sparsely deposited elsewhere. The walls are bare.
The wall-paintings of Siût, of Bersheh, of Beni Hasan, and of Asûan, are not equal to those in the mastabas of Sakkarah and Gizeh; nor are the most carefully-executed contemporary statues worthy to take a place beside the "Sheikh el Beled" or the "Cross-legged Scribe."
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