Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

86 TOPOGRAPHY OF THEBES. [Chap. 1.

admission to the presence of Osiris. Above this,
forty-two assessors, seated in two lines, complete
the sculptures of the west wall.

Two opinions may be maintained respecting this
lateral chamber; that it was used for a sepulchral
purpose, or that the sculptures merely allude to the
peculiar capacity of the goddess there worshipped.
On one hand, the singularity of the subjects there
represented, the oblong hollow recess beneath its
pavement,* of the usual dimensions of sarcophagi,
and the presence of Osiris at the end wall, instead
of the goddess in question, appear to connect the
whole too closely with the deities of Amenti to
allow us to consider it merely intended for the
worship of that goddess. On the other hand, the
figure of the deceased is unaccompanied by any name,
which ought to point out the individual to whom
the sepulchre belonged, and the general tenor of
the other sculptures, the style of the dedications,
and the plan of the whole building, have nothing
in common with the mansions of the dead.

The circumstance of its being surrounded by
tombs and pits, which last lie in the area of its
crude brick enclosure, does not. in any way affect
the original purport of the building, since the same
is observable in the vicinity of the palace of the
first Remeses ; nor would a doubt exist on the sub-
ject, were it not for the space below the pavement,

* A similar one is met with at the temple of Dakkeh in Nubia.