" A small chambe• and two niche.: are perforated in the north-we-t wall ; at the upper end it step leads to an unfi nished chamber, 17 feet by •13, supported by a of and on the south-west are other niches and a room about :25 feet square, ornamented with two pillars and a broad bench (hewn, like the rest of the tomb, in the rock) around three of its sides, tour feet high. with four• shallow revesses on each face, and surmounted by an elegant Egyptian cornice. It is difficult to account for the purpoit of it, unless its level summit served as a repository for• the mummies of the inferior persims of the king's household ; but it is probable that thee were also deposited in pits.
The total horizontal length of this catacomb is 320 feet, without the inclined descent below the sareoph•gus, and its perpendicular depth 90, or, including that part. about 160 feet, to the spot where it is closed by the ffillen rock." The se•iind description of tombs of more recent date, executed during the twenty-sixth do nasty, in the seventh century befi ire our era ; they are of great extent, and unusual unit " The smallest. which are those behind the palace of Remeses, commence with an outer court decorated by a peristyle of pillars, and to this succeeds an arched entrance to the tomb itself, which consists of a lung hall, supported by a double row of four pillars, and another of smaller dimensions beyond it, with four• pillars in the centre. The largest of them, and indeed of all the sepulchres Thebes, are those in the Assaseel, one of which for exceeds in extent any one of the tombs of the kings. 1t- outer court, or area, is 10:3 feet by 76, with a of steps descending to its centre from the entrance, which lies between two massive crude brick wails, once supporting an arched gateway. The inner door, cut like the rest of the tomb in the limestone rock, leads to a second court. 53 feet by 67, with a peristyle of pillars on either side, behind which are two closed corridors ; that on the west containing a pit and one small square room. the Opposite one having a similar chamber, which leads to a narrow passage, once closed in two ',laces by masonry, and evidently used for a sepulchral purpose.
" Continuing through the second area you arrive at a porch, suminit, hollowed out of the rock. has the light form of a small segment of a circle, and from the surface of the inner wall are relieved the cornice and mouldings ut' an elegant doorway.
This opens on the first hall, 53 feet by 37, once supported by a double line of tour pillars, dividing the nave (it' I may so call it) from the aisles, with half-pillars, as usual, attached to the end-walls. Another ()mann:wed doorway leads to
the second hall, 32 feet square, with two pillars in each row, disposed as in the thriller. Passing through another door, pm arrive at a small chamber, 21 feet by 12, at whose end-wall is a niche, formed of a series of jambs, receding successively to its centre. Here terminates the first line of direction. A square room lies on the left (entering), and on the right another succession of passages, or narrow apartments, leads to two flights of steps, imme diately before which is another door on the right. Beyond these is another passaLre. and a room containing a pit 45 feet deep, which opens at about one-third of its depth on a lateral chamber.
"A third line of direction, at right angles with the former, turns to the right, and terminates in a room, at whose upper end is a squared pedestal.
" Returning through this range of passages, and re-ascending the two staircases, the door above alluded to presents itself on the left hand. You shortly arrive at a pit (opening on another set of rooms, beneath the level of the upper ground plan), and after passing it, a large square. surrinnided by lung passages, arrests the attention of the curious visitor. At each angle is the figure of one (if the following goddesses :—Neith, Sate, Isis, Neplitlivs, Netpe, Justice, Sell:, and Athol., who, standing with outspread arms, Preside over and protect the :sacred inclosure, to w Rich they front, and are attached.
" A gentleman, an author, whose reading is fin- more respectable than his judgment, has not tailed to discover something extraordinary in the position of these figures, referring, as he supposes, to the crucifix, adopted by the Christ jails.
" Eleven niches, in six of which are small figures of different deities, occur at intervals on the side walls, and the summit is crowned by a frieze of hierogly pliies. Three chambers lie behind this square, and the passage which goes round it descends on that side, and rejoins, by an ascendiny talus on the next, the l'i'ef of the A short distance further terminates this part of the tomb, but the aboye-mentioned pit communicates with a subterranean passage opening on a vaulted chamber, front whose upper extremity another pit leads, downwards, to a second, and ultimately through the ceiling of the last, upwards, to a third apartment, coming immediately below the centre of the square above noticed. This has one central niche. and seven on either side, the o loaded with hierogly phical sculptures, which cover the walls in every part of this extensive tomb.