Baron Alexander von Uxkull (1822-23)

Biography

Written by Julia Schulz

Fig. 1: Portrait of Baron Alexander von Uxkull.

Alexander von Uxkull (see fig. 1) was born on March 29, 1800, in St. Petersburg. After his discharge from the army in 1818, the artistical and philological oriented Uxkull studied in Göttingen and Prague.1

In December 1822, the young Baron and his companion Théodore-Antoine-Lopez de la Sainte Trinité Lesseps started their ascent of the Nile commencing in Cairo. The four-month long trip from December 12, 1822 to April 12, 1823 took them up and beyond the Second Cataract and was written down by Alexander von Uxkull in his diary (see fig. 2).2 The drawings he made along the way are sadly no longer available.3

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Fig. 2: Exemplary page from the diary of Baron Alexander von Uxkull.

As Friedrich W. Hinkel remarks in his publication about Baltic German travellers (including Baron Alexander von Uxkull), the predominant assumption was that Peter Graf von Medem4 accompanied Uxkull and Lesseps on this journey.5 Hinkel rejects this presumption and states that they were part of two independent travel groups that met up coincidentally on two occasions during their journey. Another interesting encounter of Uxkull’s party was the German philologist and art historian Gustav F. C. Parthey. They met in Luxor on May 10, 1823, while Parthey was on his way back from Nubia where he visited Qasr Ibrim.6

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Uxkull’s diary entries on the First Cataract

Aswan and the First Cataract

Uxkull begins his account of the First Cataract with their approach of Aswan on January 15, 1823. He mentions that they passed by the ruins of a Coptic monastery on the west side of the Nile which he attributes to a “petit marabout”7 and which Hinkel identifies as the Monastery of St. Simeon.8

Uxkull’s travel group goes on to visit modern Aswan as well as the ruins of old Syene. During a smoking break facing the island of Elephantine, Uxkull describes the rocks and river course of the First cataract:

“Sur les rochers de granit & sur les débris de Syène nous fumes nous établir, en face de l’isle d’Eléphantine; le Nil arrété souvent par les rochers de la première cataracte, déployait ses long détours & son immence cours jusqu’à ce qu’il se perdait derrière la chaine arabique et lybique; (…)”9

He seems to have a great respect for the dangerous rapids of the First Cataract region which is confirmed when their boat nearly keels over while navigating the torrents. Apparently, they must also have explored the shore along the First Cataract as Uxkull mentions discovering huts between the rocks and very cautious interactions with the people living there. On their way back to their boat some of the locals sell the travel group “quellques belles médailles grecques” of which one bought by Lesseps is specified to be of Ptolemaic origin.10

Elephantine

After crossing over to the island of Elephantine Uxkull and his company are led to the ancient ruins and shown a good spot for “fruitful” excavations. They decide to dig around the “restes mutilés du temple de Couphis”11 starting on January 21 until the 23rd. Uxkull ends this attempt after determining that they will probably find nothing of interest for them:

“Je rétourne aux fouilles l’on avait déblaye jusqu’aux fondements du portique qui étaient à 13 pieds de profondeure, tellement les décombres se sont accrus. N’ayant plus aucun motif de croire pouvoir trouver quelque chose d’intéressant, nous congédions le monde avec la résolution de finir là nos fouilles; (…)”12

Philae

On January 26, Uxkull and his group depart on camels to Philae, planning on staying there for a few days. Passing graves on their journey, Baron von Uxkull writes:

“(…) nous trouvames parmi les nombreux tombaux des Maméluques, intéressants par les pierres monumentales dont chaque tombe est ornée & sur laquelle en langue turque on lit une courte biographie du défunt.”13

Approaching Philae, Uxkull is fascinated by its ancient monuments and describes them in detail:

“(…) temples magnifiques d’Isis & d’Osyris se trouvent dans un beau désordre avec des palmiers, des longues colonnades, des shynxes, des obélisques: presque tout au tour de l’isle règne un quée très élévé, bati en grandes pierres de tailles, (…)”14

The Baron uses much of his time on the island exploring the temples and sketching his surroundings. Paying a visit to the neighboring island of Biggeh, Uxkull describes the remains of an unfinished structure seemingly from the same period as the unfinished temple on Philae:

“Je […] arrive[r] vis-à vis de l’isle de Philae; ici sont quelques restes d’un édifice non-àchevé: il semble datter du même tems que le temple carré long non-achevé de Philae car les chapitaux de deux colonnes sont du même style & aussi achevé pour la beauté de la sculpture que ceux-ci. Quelques cabanes sont construitte à coté de cet édifice, auquel dans un tems postérieur l’on a ajouté une voute.”15

On February 1, Uxkull and his travel group commence their voyage south passing and visiting among other sites Debod, Kertassi, Kalabsche and Qasr Ibrim, Abu Simbel. They travel up until Wadi Halfa and Semna where Uxkull and Lesseps engrave their names at the temple16 before turning back and returning to Aswan on March 3.17

Uxkull’s diary contains a summary of his journey “sur la Nubie” (see fig. 3), featuring the First Cataract region on pages 200-206.18

Fig. 3: Headline for Uxkull’s summary of his journey to Nubia from his diary.

Sources

  1. Hinkel 2002, vii. ↩
  2. The diary of Baron Alexander von Uxkull was handed to Friedrich W. Hinkel by Uxkull’s descendant Dr. J. Detlev Freiherr von Uexküll. Friedrich W. Hinkel published the excerpt detailing Uxkull‘s trip up the Nile in his book “Zwei baltendeutsche Reisende in Ägypten und Nubien, 1815 und 1823” in 2002 (Hinkel 2002, viii). ↩
  3. Hinkel 2002, vii. Hinkel does not specify what happened to the drawings, only that they probably would have been a valuable addition considering Uxkull’s educational background (Hinkel 2002, vii). ↩
  4. Grad Piotr de Medem was the consul general from Russia in Egypt under the reign of Muhammad Ali (Hinkel 2002, vii). ↩
  5. Hinkel 2002, vii. ↩
  6. Hinkel 2002, viii. ↩
  7. Hinkel 2002, 16. ↩
  8. Hinkel 2002, 16. ↩
  9. Hinkel 2002, 17. ↩
  10. Hinkel 2002, 20. ↩
  11. Hinkel 2002, 18. ↩
  12. Hinkel 2002, 19. ↩
  13. Hinkel 2002, 20. ↩
  14. Hinkel 2002, 21. ↩
  15. Hinkel 2002, 23. ↩
  16. They wrote their names on the north side of the southernmost pillar of the eastern portico of the temple of Dedwen and Senusret III (Hinkel 2002, viii). ↩
  17. Hinkel 2002, 24-45; 47. ↩
  18. Hinkel 2002, 46-8. ↩