Fergusson, James: A history of architecture in all countries, from the earliest times to the present day: in five volumes (Band 1) (London, 1893)

134

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE.

Part I.

their walls are coverecl
w i t h paintmgs a n d
hieroglyphics of singular
interest and beauty.
Generally speaking, it
is assumed that the en-
trances of these tombs
were meant to be con-
cealed and hidden from
the knowledge of the
people after the king’s
death. It is hardly con-
ceivable, however, that
so much pains shoulcl
have been taken, and
so much money lavished,
on what was designed
never again to testify to
the magnificence of its
founder. It is also very
unlike the sagacity of
the Egyptians to at-
temptwhatwas sonearly
impossible ; for though
the entrance of a pyra-
micl might be so built
up as to be unrecognis-
able, a cutting in the
rock can never be re-
paired or disguised, and
can only be temporarily
concealed by heaping
rubbish over it. Sup-
posing it to have been
intended to conceal the
entrances, such an ex-
pedient was as clurnsy
and unlikely to have
been resorted to by so
ingenious a people as it
has proved futile, for all
the royal tombs in the
valley of Biban-el-
Molook h a v e b e e n
opened and rifled in a