Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/29

 these mounds the famous discoverer Mariette found two temples erected by well-known kings of far later date, Seti and Rameses the Great, and dedicated by them to Osiris. Not far off there arises amid the desolation a conical hillock sixty feet high, which is called by the Arabs Kom-es-Sultan, the 'Mound of the King.' It is just made up of tombs 'packed together as closely as they can be wedged,' above a rock which was believed to have been the sepulchre of Osiris. Here it was that so many during many generations desired to be laid; through the excavations of explorers may be seen countless numbers of the tombs where they hoped to rest in peace. But the mummy cases have been rudely dragged to light, despoiled, and rifled of aught they might have contained of commercial value, while the poor mummies themselves are left, often broken into fragments, exposed to the careless gaze of every passer by and to the 'full glare of the noon-day sun.' Pits sunk in the neighbourhood disclose nothing but tombs, 'arches upon arches of brick, each an Egyptian grave.'