The holes in the rock, to which the prisoners were chained, still remain, and even the lead and iron in several of the holes.
The cathedral264, now dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar, was the temple of Minerva, on the summit of which her statue was fixed; holding a broad, refulgent shield. Every Syracusan, that sailed out of the port, was bound by his religion to carry honey, flowers, and ashes, which he threw into the sea, the instant he lost sight of the buckler. This was to ensure a safe return. The temple is built in the Doric proportions, used in the rest of Sicily. Its exterior dimensions are one hundred and eighty-five feet in length, and seventy-five in breadth.
The amphitheatre265 is in the form of a very eccentric ellipse; but the theatre is so entire, that most of the seats still remain.
The great harbour ran into the heart of the city, and was called “Marmoreo,” because it was entirely encompassed with buildings of marble. Though the buildings are gone, the harbour exists in all its beauty. It is capable of receiving vessels of the greatest burden, and of containing a numerous fleet. Although at present this harbour is entirely neglected, it might easily be rendered a great naval and commercial station.
The catacombs are a great work; not inferior either to those of Rome or Naples, and in the same style.
There was also a prison, called Latomiæ, a word signifying a quarry. Cicero has particularly described this dreadful prison, which was a cave dug out of the solid rock, one hundred and twenty-five paces long, and twenty feet broad, and almost one hundred feet below the surface of the earth. Cicero, also, reproaches Verres with imprisoning Roman citizens in this place; which was the work of Dionysius, who caused those to be shut up in it, who had the misfortune to have incurred his displeasure. It is now a noble subterranean garden.
The fountain of Arethusa266 also still exists. It was dedicated to Diana, who had a magnificent temple near its banks, where great festivals were annually celebrated in honour of that goddess. It is indeed an astonishing fountain, and rises at once out of the earth to the size of a river: and many of the people believe, even to this day, that it is the identical river, Arethusa, that was said to have sunk under ground near Olympia in Greece, and, continuing its course five hundred or six hundred miles below the ocean, rose again in this spot.267
NO. XXXVIII. – THEBES
The glory of Thebes belongs to a period, prior to the commencement of authentic history. It is recorded only by the divine light of poetry and tradition, which might be suspected as fable, did not such mighty witnesses remain to attest the truth. A curious calculation, made from the rate of increase of deposition by the Nile, corroborated by other evidence, shows however that this city must have been founded four thousand seven hundred and sixty years ago, or two thousand nine hundred and thirty before Christ. There are the ruins of a temple, bearing an inscription, stating that it was founded by Osymandyas, who reigned, according to M. Champollion, two thousand two hundred and seventy years before Christ.
Thebes was called, also, Diospolis, as having been sacred to Jupiter; and Hecatompylos, on account, it is supposed, of its having had a hundred gates.
“Not all proud Thebes’ unrivall’d walls contains,
The world’s great empress, on the Egyptian plain;
That spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states,
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates —
Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars,
From each wide portal issuing to the wars.”
Homer’s Iliad; Pope.
“This epithet Hecatompylos, however,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “applied to it by Homer, has generally been supposed to refer to the hundred gates of its wall of circuit; but this difficulty is happily solved by an observation of Diodorus, that many suppose them ‘to have been the propylæa of the temples,’ and that this expression rather implies a plurality, than a definite number.”
Historians are unanimously agreed, that Menes was the first king of Egypt. It is pretended, and not without foundation, that he is the same with Misraim, the son of Cham. Cham was the second son of Noah. When the family of the latter, after the attempt of building the Tower of Babel, dispersed themselves into different countries; Cham retired to Africa, and it was, doubtless, he who afterwards was worshipped as a god, under the name of Jupiter Ammon. He had four children, Chus, Misraim, Phut, and Canaan. Chus settled in Ethiopia, Misraim in Egypt, which generally is called in Scripture after his name, and by that of Cham, his father. Phut took possession of that part of Africa which lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan, of the country which has since borne his name.
Misraim is agreed to be the same as Menes, whom all historians declare to be the first king of Egypt; the institutor of the worship of the gods, and of the ceremonies of the sacrifices.
Some ages after him, Busiris built the city of Thebes, and made it the seat of his empire. This prince is not to be confounded with the Busiris who, in so remarkable a manner, distinguished himself by his inordinate cruelties. In respect to Osymandyas, Diodorus gives a very particular account of many magnificent edifices raised by him; one of which was adorned with sculpture and paintings of great beauty, representing an expedition against the Bactrians, a people of Asia, whom he had invaded with four hundred thousand foot, and twenty thousand horse. In another part of the edifice was exhibited an assembly of the judges, whose president wore on his breast a picture of Truth, with her eyes shut, and himself surrounded with books; an emphatic emblem, denoting that judges ought to be perfectly versed in the laws, and impartial in the administration of them. The king, also, was painted there, offering to the gods silver and gold, which he drew from the mines of Egypt, amounting to the sum of sixteen millions.
So old as this king’s reign, the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, each consisting of thirty days; to which they added, every year, five days and six hours. To quote the words of a well-known writer, (Professor Heeren,) “its monuments testify to us a time when it was the centre of the civilisation of the human race; a civilisation, it is true, which has not endured, but which, nevertheless, forms one of the steps by which mankind has attained to higher perfection.”
Although Thebes had greatly fallen from its former splendour, in the time of Cambyses the Persian it was the fury of this lawless and merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur, about 520 years before the Christian era. He pillaged its temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory. Before this period, no city in the world could be compared with it in size, beauty, and wealth; and according to the expression of Diodorus – “The sun had never seen so magnificent a city.”
The next step towards the decline and fall of this city was, as we learn from Diodorus, the preference given to Memphis; and the removal of the seat of government thither, and subsequently to Sais and Alexandria, proved as disastrous to the welfare, as the Persian invasion had been to the splendour, of the capital of Upper Egypt. “Commercial wealth,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “on the accession of the Ptolemies, began to flow through other channels. Coptos and Apollinopolis succeeded to the lucrative trade of Arabia; and Ethiopia no longer contributed to the revenues of Thebes; and its subsequent destruction, after a three years’ siege, by Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death-blow to the welfare and existence of this capital, which was, thenceforth, scarcely deemed an Egyptian city. Some few repairs, however, were made to its dilapidated temples by Evergetes II., and some by the later Ptolemies. But it remained depopulated; and at the time of Strabo’s visit, was already divided into small and detached villages.”
Thebes was, perhaps, the most astonishing work ever performed by the hand of man. In the time of its splendour, it extended above twenty-three miles; and upon any emergency could send into the field seven hundred thousand men, according to Tacitus; but Homer allows only that it could pour through each of its hundred gates two hundred armed men, with their chariots and horses, which makes about forty thousand men, allowing two men to each chariot.
Though its walls were twenty-four feet in thickness, and its buildings the most solid and magnificent; yet, in the time of Strabo and of Juvenal, only mutilated columns, broken obelisks, and temples levelled with the dust, remained to mark its situation, and inform the traveller of the desolation which time, or the more cruel hand of tyranny, can assert over the proudest monuments of human art.
“Thebes,” says Strabo, “presents only remains of its former grandeur, dispersed over a space eighty stadia in length. Here are found great number of temples, in part destroyed by Cambyses; its inhabitants have retired to small towns, east of the Nile, where the present city is built, and to the western shore, near Memnonium; at which place we admired two colossal stone figures, standing on each side, the one entire, the other in part thrown down, it has been said by an earthquake. There is a popular opinion, that the remaining part of this statue, towards the base, utters a sound once a day. Curiosity leading me to examine this fact, I went thither with Ælius Gallus, who was accompanied with his numerous friends, and an escort of soldiers. I heard a sound about six o’clock in the morning, but dare not affirm whether it proceeded from the base, from the colossus, or had been produced by some person present; for one is rather inclined to suppose a thousand different causes, than that it should be the effect of a certain assemblage of stones.
“Beyond Memnonium are the tombs of the kings, hewn out of the rock. There are about forty, made after a marvellous manner, and worthy the attention of travellers. Near them are obelisks, bearing various inscriptions, descriptive of the wealth, power, and extensive empire of those sovereigns who reigned over Scythia, Bactriana, Judæa, and what is now called Ionia. They also recount the various tributes those kings had exacted, and the number of their troops, which amounted to a million of men.”
We now proceed to draw from Diodorus Siculus: —
“The great Diospolis,” says he, “which the Greeks have named Thebes, was six miles in circumference. Busiris, who founded it, adorned it with magnificent edifices and presents. The fame of its power and wealth, celebrated by Homer, has filled the world. Never was there a city which received so many offerings in silver, gold and ivory, colossal statues and obelisks, each cut from a single stone. Four principal temples are especially admired there: the most ancient of which was surpassingly grand and sumptuous. It was thirteen stadia in circumference, and surrounded by walls twenty-four feet in thickness and forty-five cubits high. The richness and workmanship of its ornaments were correspondent to the majesty of the building, which many kings contributed to embellish. The temple still is standing; but it was stripped of its silver and gold, ivory, and precious stones, when Cambyses set fire to all the temples of Egypt.”
The following account of the tomb of Osymandyas is also from Diodorus: —
“Ten stadia from the tombs of the kings of Thebes, is the admirable one of Osymandyas. The entrance to it is by a vestibule of various coloured stones, two hundred feet long, and sixty-eight high. Leaving this we enter a square peristyle, each side of which is four hundred feet in length. Animals twenty-four feet high, cut from blocks of granite, serve as columns to support the ceiling, which is composed of marble slabs, twenty-seven feet square, and embellished throughout by golden stars glittering on a ground of azure. Beyond this peristyle is another entrance; and after that a vestibule, built like the first, but containing more sculptures of all kinds. At the entrance are three statues, formed from a single stone by Memnon Syncite, the principal of which, representing the king, is seated, and is the largest in Egypt. One of its feet, exactly measured, is about seven cubits. The other had figures supported on its knees; the one on the right, the other on the left, are those of his mother and daughter. The whole work is less valuable for its enormous grandeur, than for the beauty of the sculpture, and the choice of the granite, which, though so extensive, has neither flaw nor blemish on its surface. The colossus bears this inscription: ‘I am Osymandyas, king of kings; he who would comprehend my greatness, and where I rest, let him destroy some one of these works.’ Beside this, is another statue of his mother, cut from a single block of granite, thirty feet high. Three queens are sculptured on her head, intimating that she was a daughter, wife, and mother of a king. After this portico is a peristyle, still more beautiful than the first; on the stones of which is engraved, the history of the wars of Osymandyas, against the rebels of Bactriana. The façade of the front wall exhibits this prince attacking ramparts, at the foot of which the river flows. He is combating advanced troops; and by his side is a terrible lion, ardent in his defence. On the right wall are captives in chains, with their hands and genitals cut off, as marks of reproach for their cowardice. The wall on the left contains symbolical figures of exceedingly good sculpture, descriptive of triumphs and sacrifice of Osymandyas returning from this war. In the centre of the peristyle, where the roof is open, an altar was erected of a single stone of marvellous bulk and exquisite workmanship; and at the farther wall are two colossal figures, each hewn from a single block of marble, forty feet high, seated on their pedestals. This admirable peristyle has three gates, one between the two statues, and the others on each side. These lead to an edifice two hundred feet square, the roof of which is supported by high columns; it resembles a magnificent theatre; several figures carved in wood, represent a tribunal administering justice. Thirty judges are seen on one of the walls; and in the midst of them the chief justice, with a pile of books at his feet, and a figure of Truth, with her eyes shut, suspended from his neck; beyond is a walk, surrounded by edifices of various forms, in which were tables stored with all kinds of delicious viands. In one of these, Osymandyas, clothed in magnificent robes, offers up the gold and silver which he annually drew from the mines of Egypt to the gods. Beneath, the amount of this revenue, which was thirty-two million minas of silver, was inscribed. Another building contained the sacred library, at the entrance of which these words were read: ‘Physic for the soul.’ A fourth contained all the deities of Egypt, with the king offering suitable presents to each; and calling Osiris and the surrounding divinities to witness, he had exercised piety towards the gods, and justice towards men. Beside the library stood one of the finest of these edifices, and in it twenty couches to recline on, while feasting; also the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Osymandyas, whose body, it is supposed, was deposited here. Various adjoining apartments contained representations of all the consecrated animals of Egypt. Hence was the ascent to the sepulchre of the king; on the summit of which was placed a circle of gold, in thickness one cubit, and three hundred and sixty-five in circumference, each cubit corresponding to a day in the year; and on it was engraved the rising and setting of the stars for that day, with such astrological indications as the superstition of the Egyptians had affixed to them. Cambyses is said to have carried off this circle, when he ravaged Egypt. Such, according to historians, was the tomb of Osymandyas, which surpassed all others as well by its wealth, as by the workmanship of the skilful artists employed.”
In the whole of Upper Egypt, adjacent to each city, numerous tombs are always found excavated in the neighbouring mountains. The most extensive and highly ornamented are nearest to the base; those of smaller dimensions, and less decorated, occupy the middle; and the most rude and simple are situated in the upper parts.
Those adjacent to Thebes are composed of extensive galleries, twelve feet broad and twenty high, with many lateral chambers.
They are ornamented with pilasters, sculptures, stucco, and paintings; both ceilings and walls are covered with emblems of war, agriculture, and music; and, in some instances, with shapes of very elegant utensils, and always representing offerings of bread, fruit, and liquors. The colours upon the ceilings are blue, and the figures yellow. We must, however, refer to a fuller account: – that of Belzoni.
“Gournou is a tract of rocks about two miles in length, at the foot of the Lybian mountains, on the west of Thebes, and was the burial-place of the great ‘city of the hundred gates.’ Every part of these rocks is cut out by art, in the form of large and small chambers, each of which has its separate entrance; and, though they are very close to each other, it is seldom that there is any communication from one to another. I can truly say, it is impossible to give any description sufficient to convey the smallest idea of these subterranean abodes and their inhabitants; there are no sepulchres in any part of the world like them; and no exact description can be given of their interior, owing to the difficulty of visiting these recesses. Of some of these tombs many persons cannot withstand the suffocating air, which often causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, so fine, that it enters into the throat and nostrils, and chokes to such a degree, that it requires great power of lungs to resist it, and the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry, or passage where the bodies are, is roughly cut in the rocks, and the falling of the sand from the ceiling causes it to be nearly filled up: – so that in some places, there is not a vacancy of much more than a foot left, which must be passed in a creeping posture on the hands and knees. Alter getting through these passages, some of them two or three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, perhaps high enough to sit: but what a place of rest! Surrounded by bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions, which, till I got accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. After the exertion of entering into such a place through a passage of sometimes six hundred yards in length, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sank altogether among the broken mummies with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage about twenty feet in length, and no larger than that a body could be forced through; it was choked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian; but, as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight helped me on, and I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads; rolling from above. The purpose of my researches was to rob the Egyptians of their papyri, of which I found a few hidden in their breasts, under their arms, in the space above their knees, or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth that envelop the body.
“Nothing can more plainly distinguish the various classes of people, than the manner of their preservation. In the many pits that I have opened, I never saw a single mummy standing, and found them lying regularly in horizontal rows, and some were sunk into a cement which must have been nearly fluid when the cases were placed on it. The lower classes were not buried in cases: they were dried up, as it appears, after the usual preparation. Mummies of this sort were in the proportion of about ten to one of the better class, as nearly as I could calculate from the quantity of both I have seen; the linen in which they are folded is of a coarser sort and less in quantity; they have no ornaments about them of any consequence, and are piled up in layers, so as to fill, in a rude manner, the caves excavated for the purpose. In general these tombs are to be found in the lower grounds, at the foot of the mountains; they are entered by a small aperture arched over, or by a shaft four or five feet square, at the bottom of which are entrances into various chambers, all choked up with mummies, many of which have been rummaged and left in the most confused state. Among these tombs we saw some which contained the mummies of animals intermixed with human bodies; these were bulls, cows, sheep, monkeys, foxes, bats, crocodiles, fishes, and birds. Idols often occur, and one tomb was filled with nothing but cats, carefully folded in red and white linen, the head covered by a mask made of the same, and representing the cat. I have opened all these sorts of animals. Of the bull, the calf, and the sheep, there is no part but the head, which is covered with linen with the horns projecting out of the cloth; the rest of the body being represented by two pieces of wood eighteen inches wide and three feet long, with another at the end, two feet high, to form the breast. It is somewhat singular, that such animals are not to be met with in the tombs of the higher sort of people, while few or no papyri are to be found among the lower order; and if any occur, they are only small pieces stuck on the breast with a little gum or asphaltum, being probably all that the poor individual could afford to himself. In those of the better classes other objects are found. I think they ought to be divided into several classes, and not confined to three, as is done by Herodotus in his account of the mode of embalming. In the same pit where I found mummies in cases, I have found others without, and in these, papyri are most likely to be met with. I remarked that those in cases have none. It appears to me that those that could afford it had a case to be buried in, on which the history of their lives was painted; and those who could not afford a case, were contented to have their lives written on papyri, and placed above their knees. The cases are made of sycamore, some very plain, some richly painted with well-executed figures; all have a human face on the lid: some of the larger contain others within them, either of wood or plaster, and painted; some of the mummies have garlands of flowers and leaves of the acacia, or Sunt-tree, over their heads and breasts. In the inside of these mummies are often found lumps of asphaltum, sometimes weighing as much as two pounds. Another kind of mummy I believe I may conclude to have belonged exclusively to the priests: they are folded in a manner totally differing from the others, and with much more care; the bandages consist of stripes of red and white linen intermixed, and covering the whole body, but so carefully applied, that the form of the trunk and limbs are preserved separate, even to the fingers and toes; they have sandals of painted leather on the feet, and bracelets on their arms and wrists. The cases in which these mummies are preserved, are somewhat better executed than the rest.
“The tombs containing the better classes are of course superior to the others; some are also more extensive than others, having various apartments adorned with figures. It would be impossible to describe the numerous little articles found in them, which are well adapted to show the domestic habits of the ancient Egyptians. It is here the smaller idols are occasionally found, either lying on the ground, or on the cases. Vases made of baked clay, painted over, from eight to eighteen inches in size, are sometimes seen, containing embalmed entrails; the covers represent the head of some divinity, bearing either the human form, or that of a monkey, fox, cat, or other animal. I met with a few of these made of alabaster, in the tombs of the kings, but they were unfortunately broken: a great quantity of pottery and wooden vessels are found in some of the tombs; the ornaments, the small works in clay in particular, are very curious. I have been fortunate enough to find many specimens of their manufactures, among which is leaf-gold, nearly as thin as ours; but what is singular, the only weapon I met with was an arrow, two feet long.
“One day while causing the walls of a large tomb to be struck with a sledge-hammer, in order to discover some hidden chambers, an aperture, a foot and a half wide, into another tomb, was suddenly made: having enlarged it sufficiently to pass, we entered, and found several mummies and a great quantity of broken cases; in an inner apartment was a square opening, into which we descended, and at the bottom we found a small chamber at each side of the shaft, in one of which was a granite sarcophagus with its cover, quite perfect, but so situated, that it would be an arduous undertaking to draw it out.”
Among the many discoveries of the enterprising Belzoni, was that of the Tombs of the Kings: —
“After a long survey of the western valley, I could observe only one spot that presented the appearance of a tomb: accordingly I set the men to work, and when they had got a little below the surface, they came to some large stones; having removed these, I perceived the rock had been cut on both sides, and found a passage leading downwards, and in a few hours came to a well-built wall of stones of various sizes, through which we contrived to make a breach; at last on entering, we found ourselves on a staircase, eight feet wide and ten high, at the bottom of which were four mummies in their cases, lying flat on the ground, and further on four more: the cases were all painted, and one had a large covering thrown over it like a pall. These I examined carefully, but no further discoveries were made at this place, which appears to have been intended for some of the royal blood.
“Not fifteen yards from the last tomb I described, I caused the earth to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and under a torrent which, when it rains, pours a great quantity of water over the spot: on the evening of the second day, we perceived the part of the rock which was cut and formed the entrance, which was at length entirely cleared, and was found to be eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. In about an hour there was room for me to enter through a passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of the first corridor, which is thirty-six feet long and eight or nine wide, and when cleared, six feet nine inches high. I perceived immediately, by the painting on the ceiling, and by the hieroglyphics in bas-relief, that this was the entrance into a large and magnificent tomb. At the end of the corridor, I came to a staircase twenty-three feet long, and of the same breadth as the corridor, with a door at the bottom, twelve feet high; this led to another corridor thirty-seven feet long, and of the same width and height as the former one, each side, and the ceiling sculptured with hieroglyphics and painted; but I was stopped from further progress by a large pit at the other end, thirty feet deep and twelve wide. The upper part of this was adorned with figures, from the wall of the passage up to the ceiling; the passages from the entrance, all the way to this pit, were inclined at an angle of about eighteen degrees. On the opposite side of the pit, facing the passage, a small opening was perceived, two feet wide, and two feet six inches high, and a quantity of rubbish at the bottom of the wall; a rope, fastened to a piece of wood that was laid across the passage, against the projections which form a kind of door, appears to have been used for descending into the pit, and from the small aperture on the other side hung another, for the purpose, doubtless, of ascending again; but these and the wood crumbled to dust on touching them, from the damp arising from the water which drained into the pit down the passages. On the following day we contrived a bridge of two beams to cross the pit by, and found the little aperture to be an opening forced through a wall, which had entirely closed the entrance, and which had been plastered over and painted, so as to give the appearance of the tomb having ended at the pit, and of there having been nothing beyond it. The rope in the inside of the wall, having been preserved from the damp, did not fall to pieces, and the wood to which it was attached was in good preservation. When we had passed through the little aperture, we found ourselves in a beautiful hall, twenty-seven feet six inches by twenty-five feet ten inches, in which were four pillars, three feet square. At the end of this room, which I shall call the entrance hall, and opposite the aperture, is a large door, from which three steps lead down into a chamber with two pillars, four feet square, the chamber being twenty-eight by twenty-five feet; the walls were covered with figures, which, though in outline only, were as fine and perfect as if drawn only the day before. On the left of the aperture a large staircase of eighteen steps, descended from the entrance-hall into a corridor, thirty-six feet by seven wide; and we perceived that the paintings became more perfect as we advanced further; the figures are painted on a white ground, and highly varnished. At the end of this ten steps led us into another, seventeen feet by eleven, through which we entered a chamber, twenty feet by fourteen, adorned in the most splendid manner by basso-relievos, painted like the rest. Standing in this chamber, the spectator sees himself surrounded by representations of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Proceeding further, we entered another large hall, twenty-eight feet square, with two rows of pillars, three on each side, in a line with the walls of the corridors; at each side is a small chamber, each about ten or eleven feet square. At the end of this hall we found a large saloon, with an arched roof or ceiling, thirty-two feet by twenty-seven; on the right was a small chamber, roughly cut, and obviously left unfinished; and on the left there is another, twenty six by twenty-three feet, with two pillars in it. It had a projection of three feet all round it, possibly intended to contain the articles necessary for the funeral ceremonies; the whole was beautifully painted like the rest. At the same end of the room we entered by a large door into another chamber, forty-three feet by seventeen, with four pillars in it, one of which had fallen down; it was covered with white plaster where the rock did not cut smoothly, but there were no paintings in it. We found the carcass of a bull embalmed with asphaltum, and also, scattered in various places, an immense quantity of small wooden figures of mummies, six or eight inches long, and covered with asphaltum to preserve them; there were some others of fine baked earth, coloured blue, and highly varnished. On each side of the two little rooms were some wooden statues, standing erect, four feet high, with a circular hollow inside, as if to contain a roll of papyrus, which I have no doubt they once did. In the centre of the saloon was a SARCOPHAGUS of the finest oriental alabaster, nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven wide; it is only two inches thick, and consequently transparent when a light is held within it; it is minutely sculptured, both inside and out, with several hundred figures, not exceeding two inches in length, representing, as I suppose, the whole of the funeral procession and ceremonies relating to the deceased. The cover had been taken out, and we found it broken in several pieces in digging before the first entrance: this sarcophagus was over a staircase in the centre of the saloon, which communicated with a subterraneous passage, leading downwards, three hundred feet in length. At the end of this we found a great quantity of bats’ dung, which choked it up, so that we could go no further without digging; it was also nearly filled up by the falling in of the upper part. One hundred feet from the entrance is a staircase, in good preservation, but the rock below changes its substance. This passage proceeds in a south-west direction through the mountain. I measured the distance from the entrance, and also the rocks above, and found that the passage reaches nearly half-way through the mountain to the upper part of the valley. I have reason to suppose that this passage was used as another entrance; but this could not be after the person was buried there; for, at the bottom of the stairs, under the sarcophagus, a wall had been built, which entirely closed this communication; hence it should appear, that this tomb had been opened again with violence, after all the precautions mentioned had been taken to conceal the existence of the greater part of it; and as these had been carefully and skilfully done, it is probable that the intruder must have had a guide who was acquainted with the place.”
The rich alabaster sarcophagus, mentioned above, is now in the Soane Museum, Lincoln’s-inn-fields, London, and remains altogether unrivalled in beauty and curiosity. How it came there is thus described by Sir John Soane: —