Graffiti on Egypt Monuments

Graffito Graffiti

French soldiers

The Renaissance brought in its vogue, extensive quest for knowledge among the European nationals. This triggered wide scale travels to the various parts of the world and especially those that were noted for their remarkable cultural heritage. Egypt is an abundant resource of cultural and historical richness that has an exquisite attraction and stirs curiosity as well. Many of the visitors that visited the wonderful monuments, spread throughout length and breadth of Egypt have tried to make their mark on them in different ways. Graffiti is the term used for describing such inscriptions or drawings mainly done on walls of ancient ruins and sepulchers.

The first monuments to bear ‘modern’ graffiti are found at Ephesus, the ancient Greek city, which is now a part of Turkey. Graffiti was earlier considered an act of vandalism but in time has added significant information to the archaeological study. It originally referred to writings and pictures drawn on the sidewalks or the outer walls of buildings without permission of the owner of the building. The Romans used graffiti as an art form and carved it on the monuments as well as their own walls for various purposes.

Graffiti in the modern context holds much significance and the 19th century accounts of graffiti, about the Egyptian monuments are important in many ways. Most of these accounts were made by western travelers and almost two-third of them, also carved the accurate date of their visit making it historically significant. These graffiti usually recorded an achievement or visit to the monument.

The use of graffiti is old and you can trace its origin to the beginning of the ancient civilizations. Found on the ancient Egyptian monuments, these simple drawings provide fertile ground for research and study. They throw enough light on the life and society of people that habited the world thousands of centuries back. Be it the Great Sphinx or the unique pyramids, they have been standing on the vast desert at Giza with the same glory and grandeur, hardly affected by the onslaught of adverse forces. One of the most famous graffiti was found on the inside the Khafre pyramid at Giza, it was left by Belzoni that states “Scoperta da G. Belzoni 2 mar 1818.” The graffiti means that Belzoni discovered it on 2 March 1818. Thus, it marks his valuable discovery of the pyramid.

The Greek word ‘hieroglyphica’ signifies ‘sacred carving’. It was an ideal form of inscription to be used on major temples and monuments. The form was not suitable for day-to-day scribbling, so gradually other parallel forms of scripts evolved that replaced it. The hieratic and demotic scripts were similar to the hieroglyphic form. The rise of Christianity further facilitated the extinction of the main Egyptian script with its last remains found on a temple carved in AD394. The temple is located on the Philae Island.

The Island of Philae is rich in natural scenic beauty and magnificent historical ruins. The temple of Philae has a unique splendor consisting of eleven chambers decorated with vibrant colored sculptures and significant hieroglyphs. It is amazing to find inscriptions in Greek and Latin on the lofty towers of the temple. These inscriptions suggested that those people, who visited the site centuries back, become worshippers of the great goddess Isis. Further, there was the emblem of the cross, and marks of defacing and plaster of the faces of Egyptian deities suggesting that it was taken over by the later races practicing Christianity.
graffiti In its travelogue J.L Stephens in 1837 wrote: «In the grand propylon, among the names of tourists and travellers, in a small plain hand, is written – “L’an 6 de la république, le 13 Mercidor, une armée Française, commandée par Buonaparte, est descendue à Alexandrie; l’armée ayant mis, vingt jours après, les Mamelukes en fuite aux pyramides, Dessaix, commandant la première division, les a poursuivi, au de-là des cataractes, où il est arrivé le 13 Ventose, de l’an 7.”». The same inscription, left by the soldiers of the French army in 1799, is quoted in many other travel books of the 19th century. The Egyptian antiquities received greater attention in and after 1798 when Napoleon sent a group of learned men ranging from historians to scientists to make further study on these masterpiece creations. The discovery of Rosetta stone in 1799 added vigor to the expedition.

Roger O. De Keersmaecker in his web site Graffito Graffiti wrote some articles about this inscription, and says: “It is interesting to read in the nineteenth century travel narratives, how the writers react when they read the Napoleonic inscription. Most of the French travellers were proud to read the words, some write that they read the text loud so that the group could hear, and listen with emotion and took their hat off. By other writers it is just a short mention of the text. But it is always curious how the diverse nationalities react.”
Roger is also the author of three volumes titled “Travellers’ Graffiti from Egypt and the Sudan”: the first about graffiti found at “The Kiosk of Qertassi”, the second “The Temples of Semna and Kumma” and the third new one describing those found at “Philae, The Kiosk of Trajan”. All books have the graffiti numbered and their position on a plan, complete with discussions and biographies of the travelers who left them.

Harriet Martineau in 1848 wrote in her Eastern Life: “What an inestimable country this is, where the very rocks by the wayside offer indisputable materials of history to you as you pass by!” and she also noted at Philae: “On a plain space of wall is inscribed the Latitude and Longitude of Philae, as ascertained by the French Commissioners whose names are appended. The same service is much wanted higher up the river. – There are inscriptions in different parts of the temple recording the visits of the expedition sent here by Gregory XVI, and of the French republican army under Dessaix in 1799”.

The two Colossi found on the plains are yet another example where passing human civilization has created its imprint on these ancient monuments effectively. You find inscriptions in all possible languages here among which some of them are of importance. These inscriptions are the firsthand account of the emotions and excitement the travelers felt while visiting these sites. You may find the names of several important figures of history at the feet of the colossus. The name that would surely catch your notice is that of Germanicus, the one whose beneficence is well known throughout the Upper Egypt.

Graffiti takes us to a world of historical interest and (why not?) sometimes of aesthetic beauty: it finds support as an art form through Goldman’s aesthetic theory. He states that art transcends the apparent and takes us to a different world giving us a fulfilling aesthetic and sensual experience.
But looking at the graffiti in both cases – the historical, most important – and the aesthetic one – the result is ultimately a fulfilling experience.

For more about this subject please visit Graffito Graffiti web site.