sepulchres of the kings of Thebes. In this court there are signs of
about eighteen excavations; but only nine can be entered. The hills on
each side are high, steep rocks, and the whole plain is covered with
rough stones that seem to have rolled down from them.

The grottos present externally no other ornaments than a door in a
simple square frame, with an oval in the centre of the upper part, on
which are inscribed the hieroglyphical figures of a beetle, a man with a
hawk's head, and beyond the circle two figures on their knees, in the
act of adoration. Having passed the first gate, long arched galleries
are discovered, about twelve feet wide and twenty feet high, cased with
stucco, sculptured and painted; the vaults, of an elegant elliptical
figure, are covered with innumerable hieroglyphics, disposed with so
much taste, that notwithstanding the singular grotesqueness of the
forms, and the total absence of demi-tint or aërial perspective, the
ceilings make an agreeable whole, a rich and harmonious association of
colors. Four of five of these galleries, one within the other, generally
lead to a spacious room, containing the sarcophagus of the king,
composed of a single block of granite, about twelve feet long by eight
in breadth, ornamented with hieroglyphics, both within and without; they
are square at one end, and rounded at the other, like the splendid
sarcophagus deposited in the British Museum, and supposed by Dr. Clarke
to have contained the body of Alexander. They are covered with a lid of
the same material, and of enormous thickness, shutting with a groove;
but neither this precaution, nor these vast blocks of stone, brought
from such a distance with immense labor, have been able to preserve the
relics of the sovereigns from the attempts of avarice; all these tombs
have been violated. The figure of the king appears to have been
sculptured and painted at full length on the lid of each sarcophagus.