Howard-Vyse, Richard William Howard: Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837: with an account of a voyage into upper Egypt, and Appendix (Band 1) (London, 1840)

RETURN FROM UPPER EGYPT.

95

been adverted to by Mr. Wilkinson, and by otber tra-
vellers. The interior of this building is on a noble
scale, and has a most splendid appearance, notwith-
standing the remains of the church, with which it is
encumbered; and its walls contain representations of
processions, and other remarkable ceremonies, which give
it in some degree the appearance of a palace, although
its situation in the midst of tombs seems to constitute
it a temple. It is impossible however to distinguish
with much accuracy the respective destinations of
Egyptian buildings; as the appearance of the several
ruins fully warrants the observation made on Petras,
that the early inhabitants connected almost all then-
works of art with the idea of mortality, and of a state
after death.

Not far distant is a small temple of no great antiquity,
but of considerable interest from the sculptures it con-
tains, which are said to elucidate the succession of the
Ptolemies. It has been surrounded by a peribolus of
unburnt brick, and is remarkable on account of the
manner, in which the stones have been fastened by pieces
of wood inserted between the different courses. The
ground between these buildings, and the mountains has, as
I have before mentioned, been entirely occupied by sub-
terraneous tombs constructed with brickwork, and the
whole range of mountains is covered with the fragments
of embalmed bodies and the spoils of innumerable sepul-
chres, which attest by their numbers the immense popu-
lation, and by the excellence of their sculptures, the
wealth and prosperity of the antient city. In one of
the interior valleys the violated tombs of the queens,
and likewise of the Pallades, probably the first mon-