often to a considerable distance, the superincumbent mass being
supported by huge pillars of rock; or the galleries running parallel,
with masses of solid rock intervening for supports. Many of these
chambers and grottos contained multitudes of mummies, probably the
bodies of the less wealthy; many were evidently private family tombs of
wealthy individuals, some of which are of great magnificence, adorned
with sculptures, paintings, and hieroglyphics. The Arabs for centuries
have been plundering these abodes of the dead, and great numbers of the
mummies have been destroyed for fuel, and for the linen, rosin, and
asphaltum they contain, which is sold to advantage at Cairo. An immense
number of them have been found in the plain of Sakkara, near Memphis,
consisting not only of human bodies, but of various sacred animals, as
bulls, crocodiles, apes, ibises, fish, &c.; hence it is called _The
Plain of the Mummies_. Numerous caves or grottos, with contents of the
same kind, are found in the two mountainous ridges which run nearly
parallel with the Nile, from Cairo to Syene. Many of these tombs and
mummies are two or three thousand years old, and some of them perhaps
older.

Among all the wonderful subterranean monuments of Egypt, the Catacombs
of Thebes are the most extraordinary and magnificent. These consist of
the Necropolis, or city of the dead, on the west bank of the Nile (which
was the common burial-place of the people), and the Tombs of the Kings.
The latter lie to the northwest of the city, at some distance in the
Desert. Having passed the Necropolis, the traveler enters a narrow and
rugged valley, flanked with perpendicular rocks, and ascending a narrow,
steep passage about ten feet high, which seems to have been broken down
through the rock, the ancient passage being from the Memnonium under the
hills, he comes to a kind of amphitheatre about 100 yards wide, which is
called Bab-il-Meluke--that is, the gate or court of the kings--being the