DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0179
168
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
nificence, called the tombs of the kings. The
world can show nothing like them ; and he who
has not seen them can hardly believe in their exist'
ence. They lie in the valley of Biban-el-Melook,
a dark and gloomy opening in the sand-stone
mountains, about three quarters of an hour from
Gornou. The road to them is over a dreary waste
of sands, and their doors open from the most deso-
late spot that the imagination can conceive. Dio-
dorus Siculus says, that forty-seven of these tombs
were entered on the sacred registers of the Egyp-
tian priests, only seventeen of which remained at
the time of his visit to Egypt, about sixty years
B. C. In our own days, the industry and enter-
prise of a single individual, the indefatigable Bel-
zoni, have brought to light one that was probably
entirely unknown in the time of the Grecian trav-
eller. The entrance is by a narrow door ; a sim-
ple excavation in the side of the mountain, without
device or ornament. That discovered by Belzoni
is three hundred and nine feet long, and contains
fourteen chambers of different sizes. The entrance-
hall, which is extremely beautiful, is twenty-seven
feet long and twenty-five broad, having at the end
a large door opening into another chamber, twenty-
eight feet by twenty-five, the walls covered with
figures drawn in outline, but perfect as if recently
done. Descending a large staircase and passing
through a beautiful corridor, Belzoni came to an-
other staircase, at the foot of which he entered
another apartment, twenty-four feet by thirteen,
and so ornamented with sculpture and paintings,
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
nificence, called the tombs of the kings. The
world can show nothing like them ; and he who
has not seen them can hardly believe in their exist'
ence. They lie in the valley of Biban-el-Melook,
a dark and gloomy opening in the sand-stone
mountains, about three quarters of an hour from
Gornou. The road to them is over a dreary waste
of sands, and their doors open from the most deso-
late spot that the imagination can conceive. Dio-
dorus Siculus says, that forty-seven of these tombs
were entered on the sacred registers of the Egyp-
tian priests, only seventeen of which remained at
the time of his visit to Egypt, about sixty years
B. C. In our own days, the industry and enter-
prise of a single individual, the indefatigable Bel-
zoni, have brought to light one that was probably
entirely unknown in the time of the Grecian trav-
eller. The entrance is by a narrow door ; a sim-
ple excavation in the side of the mountain, without
device or ornament. That discovered by Belzoni
is three hundred and nine feet long, and contains
fourteen chambers of different sizes. The entrance-
hall, which is extremely beautiful, is twenty-seven
feet long and twenty-five broad, having at the end
a large door opening into another chamber, twenty-
eight feet by twenty-five, the walls covered with
figures drawn in outline, but perfect as if recently
done. Descending a large staircase and passing
through a beautiful corridor, Belzoni came to an-
other staircase, at the foot of which he entered
another apartment, twenty-four feet by thirteen,
and so ornamented with sculpture and paintings,