DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17#0179
THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.
159
S'
broken in fragments. It was of purest Egyptian alabaster, nine feet by five,
completely covered with hieroglyphics within and without, beautifully engraved
and filled in with blue enamel paint. In the bottom the angel of death spreads
out her arms and wings to receive the body of the dead king. It is the most
impressive and most beautiful sarcophagus in the world ! Sir John Soane, the
architect of the Bank of England, bought it from Belzoni, and it is now deposited
in the Soane Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Anyone who has not visited this
beautiful record of the past should do so without delay.
But a more wonderful thing still was the discovery of the actual body of this
great and good monarch.
In 1850, or thereabouts,
some Arabs on the other
side of these mountains
discovered a deep shaft
leading to a tunnel in
the rock. This was
found to contain fifty or
more mummies of the
lost kings of Egypt,
which had Iain in their
place of concealment
since a thousand years
before the Christian era.
In time of war or inva-
sion the guardian priests
had removed hastily
every king's mummy
from their tombs, and
hidden them here for
safety. Every mummy was labelled and separately rolled up, so that they
could be easily restored. But this had never been done, and they are all now
on view in the museum at Cairo. Seti's body has been well preserved, and
his fine handsome head exposed.* He looks the great and enlightened man
his works prove him to have been. He must have died about 1320 b.c. It is.
the only royal mummy that is not repulsive. His beautiful clear brow, his
handsome symmetrical countenance, are really as if in a calm sleep ; his arms
folded across his chest. The whole is really impressively dignified. His son's
body (Ramses the Great) is also to be seen in the museum, and his tomb is in
* An engraving of Seti's head will be found at page 116.
QUEEN HATASU'S TEMPLE,
1 from ¡lie overhanging rocks, when returning from visiting ihe
Tombs of the Kings.
159
S'
broken in fragments. It was of purest Egyptian alabaster, nine feet by five,
completely covered with hieroglyphics within and without, beautifully engraved
and filled in with blue enamel paint. In the bottom the angel of death spreads
out her arms and wings to receive the body of the dead king. It is the most
impressive and most beautiful sarcophagus in the world ! Sir John Soane, the
architect of the Bank of England, bought it from Belzoni, and it is now deposited
in the Soane Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Anyone who has not visited this
beautiful record of the past should do so without delay.
But a more wonderful thing still was the discovery of the actual body of this
great and good monarch.
In 1850, or thereabouts,
some Arabs on the other
side of these mountains
discovered a deep shaft
leading to a tunnel in
the rock. This was
found to contain fifty or
more mummies of the
lost kings of Egypt,
which had Iain in their
place of concealment
since a thousand years
before the Christian era.
In time of war or inva-
sion the guardian priests
had removed hastily
every king's mummy
from their tombs, and
hidden them here for
safety. Every mummy was labelled and separately rolled up, so that they
could be easily restored. But this had never been done, and they are all now
on view in the museum at Cairo. Seti's body has been well preserved, and
his fine handsome head exposed.* He looks the great and enlightened man
his works prove him to have been. He must have died about 1320 b.c. It is.
the only royal mummy that is not repulsive. His beautiful clear brow, his
handsome symmetrical countenance, are really as if in a calm sleep ; his arms
folded across his chest. The whole is really impressively dignified. His son's
body (Ramses the Great) is also to be seen in the museum, and his tomb is in
* An engraving of Seti's head will be found at page 116.
QUEEN HATASU'S TEMPLE,
1 from ¡lie overhanging rocks, when returning from visiting ihe
Tombs of the Kings.