A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

THE ASSi^SSIEF. 291
which they broke open to seek for buried trea-
sures. Desecrators of all nations have succeeded
them; and now, so completely have the graves
been made to give up their dead, there is scarcely
an entire mummy to be obtained for love or
money at Thebes.
The tombs of the Assassief, the first into
which we entered, are wholly distinct from the
tombs of the kings, having been the private
sepulchres of the rich Thebans. The largest and
finest of them was excavated for the priest
and prophet, Petamenoph, and his family, whose
name and titles are sculptured upon a fine gate-
way of rose-coloured granite, erected by him at
Medinet Habou. The approach to the Assassief
is through a valley in the desert, where nothino-
but sands and rock are to be seen below, and
the intense blue of the sunny skies above ; and
the way lies across what must have been the an-
cient Necropolis of Thebes ; a dreary tract, honey-
combed with a series of pitfalls, through which
one risks to tumble head foremost into the rifled
catacombs beneath. The entrance into some of
the tombs is through a handsome doorway, orna-
mented with sculpture and painting, but in others
it is through an aperture in the rock, like the
mouth of an oven ; and I was obliged to crawl