Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/372

 !82 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. others varied between 200 and 270 feet. For the construction of such places an enormous number of cubic yards of rocky debris had to be cut from the interior of the mountain, and carried up by narrow and steep corridors to be " shot " in the open air. Still more surprising is the elegance and completeness of the decora- tion. In the tombs of Seti and of Rameses III. there is not a single surface, whether of avails, piers, or ceilings, which is not covered with the work of the chisel and the brush, with orna- mental designs, with the figures of gods and genii, of men and ^/////y.>y.yyy//.^/////M///.f/^^^ yy/y/////////////: Fig. 179. — Plan of the tomb of Rameses IT. ; froEL Prisse. , L 10 -.S ^0 tS i!- FiG. 180. — Horizontal section of the same tomb ; from Prisse.^ animals. These figures are far too numerous to count. They swarm like ants in an anthill ; a single chamber often contains many hundreds. Colour is everywhere ; here it is used to give salience to the delicate contours of the figures in relief, there it is 1 The tomb of Seti having been so often reproduced, we have thought it better to give the plan and section of that of Rameses II., which is less generally known. The general arrangements are pretty much the same as those of Seti's tomb, but the plan is a little more complicated.