Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/81



1868.]

uring some ten feet from shoulder to shoulder. They are buried up to the bosom in sand, and the scars of over thirty centuries are written on their stony brows. Passing through the propylon, with its massive walls completely covered with hieroglyphics, we enter the portico with its fourteen lofty pillars looking down on heaps of ruins and Arab huts. Scattered about are several statues of cat-headed deities, fragments of walls and columns, and the remains of the body of the temple. Luxor was the fourth in size of the temples of Thebes, and was probably connected by an avenue of sphynxes with the temple of Karnac, two miles distant.

From Luxor to the Tombs of the Kings. A sailacross the river, we land on the western shore, under the shadow of the Memnonium in the gray of the early dawn. We are in our saddles before sunrise, and canter briskly, donkey-back, under the inspiration of the cool morning air. For some two miles we pass over a level and fertile plain, the supposed site of the western section of the great city. Then we come upon a barren waste thickly strewn with mummy-pits, which continue to the base of the mountain, running parallel with the river. Here we enter a deep and narrow defile, surrounded by high and overhanging cliffs of calcareous rock. The road is narrow, and frequently interrupted by immense boulders. Nothing can exceed the barrenness of the scenery. Not a speck of green—not a blade of grass, or shrub, or wild flower relieves the dreary waste. After traversing this road for five or six miles—the same road over which a long line of Pharaohs were borne to their last abode—we enter a secluded valley in the mountains—a veritable "Valley of Death." Our guide suddenly pauses, and gives the signal to dismount. At first we can discern nothing, but a closer scrutiny reveals a small excavation in the side of the hill. This we enter, and in ten seconds find ourselves

in the tomb of one of the earliest and greatest of the Pharaohs—that discovered by Belzoni. Our guide lights his torches, and we grope our way down a flight of steps, with a perpendicular descent of twenty-four feet to the first landing. The great tomb is three hundred and twenty feet long, with a perpendicular depth of one hundred and eighty feet. It contains fourteen chambers, all inscribed with hieroglyphics and sculptures. The entrance hall is twentyseven feet long and twenty feet broad, richly decorated with images of gods and goddesses, and sacred fish, and birds, and reptiles. It opens into another chamber twenty-eight by twenty-five feet, with figures in outline looking as fresh and vivid as if executed but yesterday. The touch of the painter's brush, the mark of the sculptor's chisel, are still there. Another long descent—a magnificent corridor—another long staircase, and we are ushered into an apartment twenty-four by thirteen feet. Here, as in the preceding one, the walls and ceilings are covered with paintings and sculpture—the colors growing brighter and fresher as we advance. The artist inducts us to the mysteries of the nether world. Now the deceased king is ushered into the presence of Osiris, the "judge of the dead;"" now immense serpents, with human legs and celestial crowns on their heads, are receiving the homage of devoted worshippers; now troops of genii are flitting about the Elysian abodes; now owl and cat, and hawk and crocodile, and ape-headed gods are sitting in all the dignity of fullfledged divinities. Farther onstill, and we come to a hall twenty-seven by twenty-six feet, supported by two rows of pillars terminated by a large saloon with vaulted roof. This latter is thirty-two feet in length by twenty-seven feet in breadth, from which open several other chambers. In the centre of the great saloon Belzoni found the beautiful Sarcophagus of King Osiris. And