DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0180
TOMBS OF THE KINGS.
169
that he called it the Hall of Beauty. The sides of
all the chambers and corridors are covered with
sculpture and paintings; the Golours appearing
fresher as the visiter advances towards the interior
of the tomb; and the walls of this chamber are
covered with the figures of Egyptian gods and
goddesses, seeming to hover round and guard the
remains of the honoured dead.
Farther on is a large hall, twenty-eight feet long
and twenty-seven broad, supported by two rows of
square pillars, which Belzoni called the Hall of Pil-
lars ; and beyond this is the entry to a large saloon
with a vaulted roof, thirty-two feet in length and
twenty-seven in breadth. Opening from this
were several other chambers of different dimen-
sions, one of them unfinished, and one forty-three
feet long by seventeen feet six inches wide, in
which he found the mummy of a bull; but in the
centre of the grand saloon was a sarcophagus of
the finest oriental alabaster, only two inches
thick, minutely sculptured within and without
with several hundred figures, and perfectly trans-
parent when a light was placed within it.
All over the corridors and chambers the walls
are adorned with sculptures and paintings in in-
taglio and relief, representing gods, goddesses, and
the hero of the tomb in the most prominent events
of his life, priests, religious processions and sacri-
fices, boats and agricultural scenes, and the most
familiar pictures of every-day life, in colours as
fresh as if they were painted not more than a
month ago ; and the large saloon, lighted up with
VOL. I.—P
169
that he called it the Hall of Beauty. The sides of
all the chambers and corridors are covered with
sculpture and paintings; the Golours appearing
fresher as the visiter advances towards the interior
of the tomb; and the walls of this chamber are
covered with the figures of Egyptian gods and
goddesses, seeming to hover round and guard the
remains of the honoured dead.
Farther on is a large hall, twenty-eight feet long
and twenty-seven broad, supported by two rows of
square pillars, which Belzoni called the Hall of Pil-
lars ; and beyond this is the entry to a large saloon
with a vaulted roof, thirty-two feet in length and
twenty-seven in breadth. Opening from this
were several other chambers of different dimen-
sions, one of them unfinished, and one forty-three
feet long by seventeen feet six inches wide, in
which he found the mummy of a bull; but in the
centre of the grand saloon was a sarcophagus of
the finest oriental alabaster, only two inches
thick, minutely sculptured within and without
with several hundred figures, and perfectly trans-
parent when a light was placed within it.
All over the corridors and chambers the walls
are adorned with sculptures and paintings in in-
taglio and relief, representing gods, goddesses, and
the hero of the tomb in the most prominent events
of his life, priests, religious processions and sacri-
fices, boats and agricultural scenes, and the most
familiar pictures of every-day life, in colours as
fresh as if they were painted not more than a
month ago ; and the large saloon, lighted up with
VOL. I.—P