Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/343

 The Tomb under the Middle Empire. 253 chambers in very remote times, perhaps before the fall of the antique civilization. The inscriptions and the painted walls alone remained practically intact down to the commencement of the present century. The dryness of the climate, and the difficulty of detaching them from the wall contributed to their preservation, which was nowhere more complete than at Beni- Hassan. But since travelling in Egypt became the fashion their sufferings have begun. The mania for carving names upon every surface, and for preserving souvenirs of all places of interest, has destroyed the whole of one wall. The smoke of torches has also done its work in reducing the brilliant tones and blunting the delicate contours. Happily, the more interesting examples are all reproduced in those great works to which we have already had such frequent occasion to refer. ^^.^^'^ji^^^^^.j'^s.-C^^j'jy' s ,* Fig. 170. — Chess players, Beni-Hassan. (Champollion, pi. 369.) The rich necropolis of Thebes has not preserved any monu- ments from this period in such good condition as those of Abydos, Beni-Hassan, or Siout. M. Maspero has discovered, however, in the district known as the Drak-Aboid-N'co-^-ak, some remains of the royal tombs of the eleventh dynasty. Several of these tombs resemble in their general arrangements those of the feudal princes of Meh and Siout. Thus the sepulchre of the King Ra-Anoub- KJioper-Eiitef is what the Greeks called a hemi-speos, that is, it was partly built and partly hollowed out of the living rock. Before the facade thus built against the mountain, two obelisks were reared. The tombs of the other princes belonging to the family of Entef were built upon the open plain. They were structures