234 Captains Irby and Mangles's Account of the Necropolis 



does it appear obstructed. The exact spot was not pointed 

 out to us, but it is somewhere amidst these natural horrors 

 that upwards of sixty pilgrims from Barbary were murdered 

 last year by the men of Wady Mousa on their return from 

 Mecca. The wrapping cloak of one of them was afterwards 

 offered to us for sale at Ipseyra, and one of their watches at 

 Zaphoely. Salvator Rosa never conceived so savage and suit^ 

 able a quarter for banditti. The brook has at this season dis- 

 appeared beneath the soil, but the manner in which its occa- 

 sional overflowings have broken up the antique pavement, and 

 the slippery passes which the running of the waters have made 

 by polishing the live rock where it had been cut away to form 

 the road, sufficiently prove the necessity of providing another 

 course for its waters. A trough, carried along near the foot 

 of the precipice upon the left hand side, was destined to con- 

 fine the water, and to convey it upon a higher than the natural 

 level to the city. At a considerable distance down the ravine 

 the water-course crosses over to the opposite side, and towards 

 its extremity may be traced passing along at a great height in 

 earthen pipes, bedded and secured with mortar, in horizontal 

 groves cut in the face of the rock, and even across the archi- 

 tectural points of some of the tombs, which makes it probable 

 that it is posterior to them. 



We followed this sort of half subterraneous passage for .the 

 space of nearly two miles, the sides increasing in height as the 

 path continually descended, while the tops of the precipices 

 retained their former level. 



When they are at the highest a beam of stronger light 

 breaks in at the close of the dark perspective, and opens to 

 vkw, half seen at first through the tall narrow opening, co- 

 lumns, statues, and cornices of a light and finished taste, as 

 if fresh from the chisel, without the tints or weather stains of 

 age, and executed in a stone of a pale rose colour, which was 

 warmed at the moment we came in sight of them with the full 

 light of the morning sun. The dark green of the shrubs that 

 grow in this perpetual shade, and the sombre appearance of 

 the passage from whence we were about to issue, formed a fine 

 contrast with the glowing colour of the edifice. We know not 

 with what to compare this scene. Perhaps there is nothing in 



