Volume I Part 26 (1/2)

[Illustration: FIG 191--The tomb of Petamounoph Drawn in perspective from the plans and elevations of Prisse]

It ined that all the tombs were decorated; there are many which have received neither painted nor carved ornament, and in others the ornament has never been carried beyond the first sketch

But even in those which are quite bare, the walls are, in nearly every instance, covered with a coat of white stucco

[Illustration: FIG 192--The most simple form of Theban tomb; from Rhind]

[Illustration: FIG 193--Tomb as represented upon a bas-relief; from Rhind]

As the funerary chapel was contained in the tomb itself, no effort could be ly was taken advantage of for the display of ornament But no attempt was made to cut architectural facades in the cliffs like those at Beni-Hassan; not more than one or two sepulchres have yet been discovered which have facades made up of those columns which have been called _protodoric_ Thethe surface of the rock above and around the entrance

The latter, with its sloping lintel above a cornice, stands in the centre of an alround In the uninjured state of the sepulchre this as more or less concealed by a construction si of the to to all appearances, one of these little buildings, a cube of masonry crowned by a pyramidion, was placed before the doorway of every tomb It is difficult to say whether it was of sufficient size to contain a funerary chamber or not It may have been no more than a solid erection of small size, meant only to mask the entrance and to indicate its situation to those concerned The wealthy, indeed, may have been only too pleased to thus call public attention to the position of their gorgeously decorated sepulchres

The little pyraular rocky slopes of the _Kournet-el-Mourrayi_, above the little -shaped openings hich the rock is honeycombed, probably answered a si, and others have left unmistakable traces upon, the slope They seereat numbers in this part of the necropolis, which seehteenth dynasty, for the priests

Although they hardly varied from the two or three types consecrated by custos could easily have been ht differences one from another When they existed in their entirety, they iven a very different aspect to the cemetery from that which it presents with its rocky slopes burnt by the sun into one harsh andmouths of the countless tombs The sides which they turned to the city and the river were adorned with those brilliant colours of which the Egyptian architects were so fond, and, spaced irregularly but never very far apart, they were sprinkled over the ground froes of the hills Nearly all of the dimensions of their bases and their different levels above the plain, gave diversity to the prospect, while here and there the slender apex of an obelisk rose above the private to

It has been very justly reyptian ceained by a visit to one of those Italian _Campo-Santos_, that of Naples, for exaether under a blazing sun[270]

There, too, many sepulchral facades rise one above another upon the abrupt slope of a hill into which the graves are sunk A comparison with the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, or with that at Constantinople, would not be just because no trees could flourish in the Theban rocks, at least in the higher part of the necropolis In those districts which border closely upon the irrigation channels, the toardens and fountains Palms and sycamores appear to have been planted about them, and here and there, perhaps, the care of survivors succeeded in rearing flohich would shed their perfumes for the consolation of the dead[271]

[270] RHIND, _Thebes_, etc p 55

[271] MASPERO, _Recueil de Travaux_, vol ii p 105 The forenerally found upon the funerary steles of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties hints at this: ”That I may walk daily upon the border of my fountain; that arden which has been made for me, that each day I may be out under my sycamore!” These desires may be taken literally, as is proved by two steles in the museums of Turin and Boulak, which bear representations of tombs upon their lower portions The latter, which we reproduce, comes from the Theban necropolis

Were there statues in the courtyards by which many of these tombs were surrounded? There is no doubt that such statues were placed in the rock-cut sepulchres; all the museums of Europe have specimens which come from the Theban tombs The latter were opened and despoiled, however, at such an early period that very few of these figures have been found in place by those who have visited the ruins of Egypt for legitimate motives We have, however, the evidence of explorers who have penetrated into tombs which were practically intact They tell us that the statue of the deceased, accoainst the further wall of the innermost chamber[272] In some tombs, a niche is cut in the wall for this purpose,[273] in others a dais is raised three or four steps above the floor of the chaus, in basalt when the defunct was able to afford such a luxury, and the canopic vases, which were sometimes of stone, especially alabaster, sometimes of terra cotta, and now and then of wood, and were used to hold the viscera of the deceased These vases were four in number, protected respectively by the Goddesses Isis, Nephtys, Neith, and Selk (Fig 196)

[272] Most of these statues were of calcareous stone, but in the _Description de l'egypte_ (_Antiquites_, vol iii p 34) two granite ones are mentioned

[273] In the tomb of Amenemheb, for instance, discovered by Professor Ebers See also _Description de l'egypte_, vol iii

p 41

[274] _Description de l'egypte_ (_Antiquites_, vol iii p

34)

During the period of which we have just been treating, the taste for these huge rock-cut tombs was not confined to Thebes and its immediate vicinity; we find obvious traces of theypt, nan resided as viceroy It was in the reign of Rameses II, that the fourth of his hundred and seventy children began what is now called the little Serapeuhbourhood of the Great Pyramids[275] Until then each Apis bull had had a to was of small dimensions This royal prince was especially vowed to the worshi+p of Ptah and Apis, for whorand gallery, and lined it on each side with small chambers which were increased in number as each successive Apis died and required a sepulchre This gallery and its chas 197 and 198)

[275] It is no part of our plan to describe this discovery, which did so y of Mariette We refer all those who are interested in the matter to the article contributed by M E Desjardins to the _Revue des Deux-Mondes_ of March 15, 1874, under the title: _Les Decouvertes de l'egyptologie francaise, les Missions et les Travaux de M Mariette_ Many precious details will also be found, soypte a petites Journees_ of M ARTHUR RHONe (pp 212-263)

This work includes two plans, a general plan and a detailed plan of the subterranean galleries, which were supplied by the illustrious author of the excavations hiiven, and reproductions of various objects found in the course of the exploration We may also mention the _Choix des Monuraved plates published by Mariette, and the great work, unfortunately incomplete, which he commenced under the title: _Le Serapeum de Memphis_ (folio, Paris, Gide, 1858) In the second volume of _Fouilles et Decouvertes_ (Didier, 8vo, 1873, 2 vols) BEULe has given a very good description of the bold but fortunate caht fa ue to contend against

[Illustration: FIG 194--Stele in the Boulak Museuardens about them Frous of a royal scribe, 19th dynasty Louvre]

[Illustration: FIG 196--Canopic vase of alabaster Louvre]

[Illustration: FIG 197--View of the grand gallery in the Apis Mausoleum; from Mariette]

The funerary architecture of the Sait epoch seeinality of its own, but we are unable to for remains Not a trace is extant of those tombs in which the princes of the twenty-sixth dynasty were, according to Herodotus, placed one after another Here are the words of the Greek historian: ?? d? (the Egyptians) ?? (Apries) ?p?p???a?, ?a? ?pe?ta ??a?a? ??

t?s? pat???s? taf?s?--a? d? e?s? ?? t? ??? t?? ????a???, ????t?t?

t?? e????? ?s???t? ???ste??? ?e???--??a?a? d? Sa?ta? p??ta? t??? ??

???? t??t?? ?e??????? as???a? ?s? ?? t? ??? ?a? ??? t? t??