DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0169
Bk. I. Ch. IV.
KINGDOM OF THE PHARAOHS.
133
everywhere fringed with these singular monuments, which, if taken
in the aggregate, perhaps required a greater amount of labour to
excavate and to adorn than did even all the edifices of the plain.
Certain it is that there is far more to be learnt of the arts, of the
habits, and of the history of Egypt from these tornbs than from all
the other monuments. No tomb of any Theban king has yet been
discovered anterior to the 18th dynasty • but all the tombs of that
and of the subsequent dynasty have been found, or are known to
exist, in the Valley of Biban-el-Molook, on the western side of the
plain of Thebes.
It aj^pears to have been the custom with these kings, so soon as
they ascended the throne, to begin preparing their final resting-place.
The excavation seems to have gone on uninterruptedly year by year,
the painting and aclornment being finished as it progressed, till the
hand of cleath endecl the king’s reign, ancl simultaneously the works
of his tomb. All was then left unfinished; the cartoon of the painter
ancl the rough work of the mason ancl plasterer were sucldenly broken
off, as if the hour of the king’s demise callecl them, too, irrevocably
from their labours.
The tomb thus became an inclex of the length of a king’s reign as
well as of his magnificence. Of those in the Valley of the Ivings the
most splenclid is that openecl by Belzoni, ancl now known as that of
Meneptah, the builder of the hypostyle hall at-Karnac. It descencls,
in a sloping clirection, for about 350 ft. into the mountain, the upper
half of it being tolerably regular in plan ancl direction ; but after pro-
gressing as far as the unfinished hall with two pillars, the clirection
changes, ancl the works begin again on a lower level, probably because
they came in contact with some other tomb, or in consequence of meet-
ing some flaw in the rock. It now terminates in a large and splenclicl
chamber with a coved roof, in which stoocl, when openecl by Belzoni,
the riflecl sarcophagus ;1 but a clrift-way has been excavated beyoncl
this, as if it hacl been iutencled to carry the tomb still further had the
king continued to reign.
The tomb of Rameses Maiamoun, the first king of the 19th clynasty,
is more regular, ancl in some respects as magnificent as this, ancl that of
Amenhotep III. is also an excavation of great beauty, ancl is adornecl
with paintings of the very best age. Like all the tombs, however, they
clepend for their magnificence more on the paintings that cover the
walls than on anything which can strictly be callecl architecture, so
that they hardly come properly within the scope of the present work :
the same may be saicl of private tombs. Except those of Beni-ITasan,
already illustratecl by Woodcuts Mos. 16 to 18, these tombs are all
mere chambers or corridors, without architectural ornament, but
1 Now in Sir John Soane’s Museum, in Lincolir's-Inn-Fields.
KINGDOM OF THE PHARAOHS.
133
everywhere fringed with these singular monuments, which, if taken
in the aggregate, perhaps required a greater amount of labour to
excavate and to adorn than did even all the edifices of the plain.
Certain it is that there is far more to be learnt of the arts, of the
habits, and of the history of Egypt from these tornbs than from all
the other monuments. No tomb of any Theban king has yet been
discovered anterior to the 18th dynasty • but all the tombs of that
and of the subsequent dynasty have been found, or are known to
exist, in the Valley of Biban-el-Molook, on the western side of the
plain of Thebes.
It aj^pears to have been the custom with these kings, so soon as
they ascended the throne, to begin preparing their final resting-place.
The excavation seems to have gone on uninterruptedly year by year,
the painting and aclornment being finished as it progressed, till the
hand of cleath endecl the king’s reign, ancl simultaneously the works
of his tomb. All was then left unfinished; the cartoon of the painter
ancl the rough work of the mason ancl plasterer were sucldenly broken
off, as if the hour of the king’s demise callecl them, too, irrevocably
from their labours.
The tomb thus became an inclex of the length of a king’s reign as
well as of his magnificence. Of those in the Valley of the Ivings the
most splenclid is that openecl by Belzoni, ancl now known as that of
Meneptah, the builder of the hypostyle hall at-Karnac. It descencls,
in a sloping clirection, for about 350 ft. into the mountain, the upper
half of it being tolerably regular in plan ancl direction ; but after pro-
gressing as far as the unfinished hall with two pillars, the clirection
changes, ancl the works begin again on a lower level, probably because
they came in contact with some other tomb, or in consequence of meet-
ing some flaw in the rock. It now terminates in a large and splenclicl
chamber with a coved roof, in which stoocl, when openecl by Belzoni,
the riflecl sarcophagus ;1 but a clrift-way has been excavated beyoncl
this, as if it hacl been iutencled to carry the tomb still further had the
king continued to reign.
The tomb of Rameses Maiamoun, the first king of the 19th clynasty,
is more regular, ancl in some respects as magnificent as this, ancl that of
Amenhotep III. is also an excavation of great beauty, ancl is adornecl
with paintings of the very best age. Like all the tombs, however, they
clepend for their magnificence more on the paintings that cover the
walls than on anything which can strictly be callecl architecture, so
that they hardly come properly within the scope of the present work :
the same may be saicl of private tombs. Except those of Beni-ITasan,
already illustratecl by Woodcuts Mos. 16 to 18, these tombs are all
mere chambers or corridors, without architectural ornament, but
1 Now in Sir John Soane’s Museum, in Lincolir's-Inn-Fields.