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

THE HALL OF BEAUTY. 297
the walls and ceiling of which are covered with
paintings and legends in the sacred character,
beautifully executed. At the end of the gallery
is another descent of steps leading to various
chambers, large and small, all equally rich and
interesting in their decoration, and preserving a
vividness of colouring truly miraculous, when one
remembers that they were executed thirty-three
centuries ago, and that they must then have been
painted by torch light. At last we reached a
larger and loftier chamber than any we had yet
seen, having an arched roof,—the first arch we
have found among the ancient architecture of
this country,—and here our guide, wisely judging
that the wax-lights and torches we had brought
with us would be insufficient to give us a general
coup d'ceil of the locality, set fire to a pile of dried
brushwood, of which he keeps a provision there
for that purpose, and the merry blaze it threw
around lighted up every corner of the chamber,
and revealed at once its proportions, the brilliant
embellishments of its walls, and the splendid
Zodiac with which its ceiling is enriched. This
is the chamber named by Belzoni the Hall of
Beauty—and well named—and here it was that
he discovered the alabaster sarcophagus of Osirei;
but the mortal remains of the great Pharaoh had