DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0118
RETURN FROM UPPER EGYPT.
85
The people of Gournon live in huts, or in sepul-
chres on the sides of the mountains, and make use of
the fragments of mummies and of their cases for fuel,
and for other purposes. Mr. Hay had formerly a house
near the village; and Signore Werdie, a Greek, has resided
there for the last ten years.
The approach to Biban El Moluc is by a natural
valley, through which however it may be concluded
that a sufficient road formerly existed for the processions
which, according to the evidence of antient sculpture,
attended funeral ceremonies. Were it not for these re-
presentations, it might be supposed that interments were
performed with secrecy, and that concealment of the
tombs was the main object, as the entrances are in ob-
scure and hidden situations, and as the surface of the
mountains has been left entirely in a natural state. These
lonely glens are however highly picturesque, and form
a strong contrast to the elaborate decoration of the
interior of those sepulchres. The mountains are of
an imposing grandeur, but in many places of a loose
friable texture. Shortly after you enter the valley it
becomes narrower, and winds round towards the south-
east, where it is connected by a steep path with the
plain of Thebes.
The tombs that are accessible have been numbered,
so that reference can easily be made to Mr. Wilkinson's
book.4 The first I visited was No. 17, discovered by
With the idea of a superintending Providence ; as scarcely a heroic
achievement is recorded by the antient poets without an invocation for
supernatural assistance, or a hero represented in Egyptian sculpture
without a tutelary deity.
4 This book, to which I have so often referred, is equally useful
on the eastern side of the mountain ; but it is to be lamented, that
85
The people of Gournon live in huts, or in sepul-
chres on the sides of the mountains, and make use of
the fragments of mummies and of their cases for fuel,
and for other purposes. Mr. Hay had formerly a house
near the village; and Signore Werdie, a Greek, has resided
there for the last ten years.
The approach to Biban El Moluc is by a natural
valley, through which however it may be concluded
that a sufficient road formerly existed for the processions
which, according to the evidence of antient sculpture,
attended funeral ceremonies. Were it not for these re-
presentations, it might be supposed that interments were
performed with secrecy, and that concealment of the
tombs was the main object, as the entrances are in ob-
scure and hidden situations, and as the surface of the
mountains has been left entirely in a natural state. These
lonely glens are however highly picturesque, and form
a strong contrast to the elaborate decoration of the
interior of those sepulchres. The mountains are of
an imposing grandeur, but in many places of a loose
friable texture. Shortly after you enter the valley it
becomes narrower, and winds round towards the south-
east, where it is connected by a steep path with the
plain of Thebes.
The tombs that are accessible have been numbered,
so that reference can easily be made to Mr. Wilkinson's
book.4 The first I visited was No. 17, discovered by
With the idea of a superintending Providence ; as scarcely a heroic
achievement is recorded by the antient poets without an invocation for
supernatural assistance, or a hero represented in Egyptian sculpture
without a tutelary deity.
4 This book, to which I have so often referred, is equally useful
on the eastern side of the mountain ; but it is to be lamented, that