Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1166

 1142 THEBAE AEGYPTI. the statues are formed are composed of a coarse, liard breccia, intermixed with agatised pebbles. (Russegger, Eeisen, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 410.) The village of Medinet-Ahoo stands about one third of a mile SW. of Koum-el-Huttam, upon a lofty mound formed by the ruins of the most splendid structure in western Thebes. It consisted of two portions, a temple and a palace, connected with each other by a pylon and a dro'.nos. The temple was the work of successive monarchs of the name of Thoth- mes, and hence has received the name of the Thoth- meseion. Apparently this site found favour with the sovereigns of Acgypt in all ages, since, either on the main building or on its numerous outworks, which extend towards the river, are inscribed the names of Tirhakah the Aethiopian, of Xectanebus, the last independent king of Aegypt, of Ptolemy Soter II., and of Antoninus Pius. The original Thothmeseion comprises merely a sanctuary sur- rounded by galleries and eight chambers ; the ad- ditions to it represent the different periods of its pa- trons and architects. The palace of Pameses — the southern Rameseion of Champollion — far exceeds in dimensions and the splendour of its decorations the Thothmeseion. It stands a little S. of the temple, nearer the foot of the hills. The dromos which counects them is 265 feet in length. The sculptures on the pylon relate to the coronation of Rameses IV. and his victories over the Aethiopians. A portion of the southern Rameseion seems to have been ap- propriated to the private uses of th« king. The mural decorations of this portion are of singular in- terest, inasmuch as they represent Rameses in his hours of privacy and recreation. The wails of the southern Rameseion generally are covered both on the inside and the out with representations of battles, sacrifices, religious pro- cessions and ceremonies, relating to the 18th dy- nasty. A plain succeeds, bounded by sand-hills and heaps of Nile-mud. It is variously described by modern travellers as the site of a race-course, of a camp or barrack, or an artificial lake, over which, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinsou, the dead were ferried to the neighbouring necropolis. Whatever may have been its purpose, this plain is of considerable extent, being somewhat less than a mile and half in length, and more than half a mile in breadth. The contrast betweeu the portion of Thebes once crowded with the living, and that which was equally thronged with the dead, is less striking now, when the whole city is a desert or occupied only by a few straggling villages. But under the Pharaohs the vicinity of life and death must have been most so- lemn and expressive. From Gounieh to Medinet- Aboo the Libyan hills, along a curve of nearly 5 miles, are honey-combed with sepulchres, and conspicuous among them are the Tombs of the Kings, situated in the valley o^ Bab-el- Melook. The Theban necropolis is excavated in the native cal- careous rock. The meaner dead were interred in the lower ground, where the limestone is of a softer grain, and more exposed to decomposition by wind and water. This portion of the cemetery has, ac- cordingly, fallen into decay. But the upper and harder strata of the hills are of finer and more dur- able texture, and here the priest-caste and nobles were interred. The tombs of the lower orders are generally without sculpture, but filled with mum- mies of animals accounted sacred by the Aegyptians. A favourite companion in death appears to have been THEBAE AEGYPTI. the ape; and such numbers of this animal have been found in one portion of the necropolis that the valley containing their mummies bears the name of the '■ Apes' Burial Place." Upon the graves of the upper classes painting and sculpture were lavished in a measure hardly inferior to that which marks the sepulchres of the kings. The entire rock is tun- nelled by them, and by the galleries and staircases which led to the various chambers. The en- trances to these tombs are rectangular, and open into passages which either pierce the rock in straight lines, or wind through it by ascending and descend- ing shafts. Where the Umestone is of a crumbhng nature, it was supported by brick arches, and drains were provided for carrying off standing or casual water. The walls of these passages and chambers were carefully prepared for the artist. Rough or ca- rious portions were cut out, and their place filled up with bricks and plaster. Their entire surface was then covered with stucco, on which the paintings were designed and highly coloured. The decorations are rarely in relief, but either drawn on the flat sur- face, or cut into the stucco. They are mostly framed in squares of chequer and arabesque work. The subjects portrayed within these frames or niches are very various, — ranging through religious ceremonies and the incidents of public or private life. The or- naments of these tombs may indeed be termed the miniature painting of the Aegyptians. Within a space of between 40 and 50 feet no less than 1200 hieroglyphics are often traced, and finished with a minute delicacy unsurpassed even in build- ings above ground, which were meant for the eyes of the hving. The Royal Sepulchres, however, form the most striking feature of the Theban necropolis. They stand in a lonely and barren valley, seemingly a na- tural chasm in the limestone, and resembling iu its perpendicular sides and oblong shape a sarcophagus. At the lower end of this basin an entrance has been cut — there seems to be no natural mode of ingress — in the rock. Forty-seven tombs were, at one time, known to the ancients. (Diodor. i. 46.) Of these twenty or twenty-one have been counted by mo- dern explorers. Here reposed the Theban Pharaohs from the 18th to the 21st dynasty. The only tombs, hitherto discovered, complete are those of Amunoph III., Rameaes Meiamun, and Rame»es III. To prepare a grave seems to have been one of the duties or pleasures of Aegyptiau royalty ; and since the longest survivor of these monarchs rests in the most sumptuous tomb, it may be in- ferred that the majority of them died before they had completed their last habitation. The queens of Aegypt were buried apart from the kings, in a spot about three-fourths of a mile NW. of the temple of ]S[edinet-A boo. Each of them bears the title of " Wife of Amun," indicating either that their consorts combined with their proper names that also of the great Theban deity, or that, after death, they were dignified by apotheosis. Twenty-four tombs have at present been discovered in this ceme- tery, twelve of which are ascertained to be those of the queens. The least injured of them by time or violence bears the name of Taia, wife of Amun- oph III. On the eastern bank of the Nile, the monuments are even more magnificent. The villages of Luxor and Karnah occupy a small portion only of the true Dios- polis. The ruins at Luxor stand close to the river. The ancient landing place was a jetty of stone, which