208 Notices respecting New Booh. 



evening, we perceived the part of the rock that was cut, and 

 formed the entrance. On the Ibth, early in the morning, the 

 task was resumed, and about noon the workmen reached the en- 

 trance, which was eighteen feet below the surface of the ground. 

 The appearance indicated that the tomb was of the first rate : 

 but still I did not expect to find such a one as it really proved to 

 be. The Fellahs advanced till they saw that it was probably a 

 large tomb, when they protested they could go no further, the 

 tomb was so much choked up with large stones, which they could 

 not get out of the passage. I descended, examined the place, 

 pointed out to them where they might dig, and in an ho\n' there 

 was room enough for me to enter through a passage that the 

 earth had left under the ceiling of the first corridor, which is 

 thirty-six feet two inches long, and eight feet eight inches wide, 

 and, when cleared of the ruins, six feet nine inches high. I per- 

 ceived immediately by the painting on the ceiling, and by the 

 hieroglyphics in basso relievo, which were to be seen where the 

 earth did not reach, that this was the entrance into a large and 

 magnificent tomb. At the end of this corridor I came to a stair- 

 case tvvcntv-three feet long, and of the same breadth as the cor- 

 ridor. The door at the bottom is twelve feet high. From the 

 foot of the staircase I entered another corridor, thirty-seven feet 

 three inches long, and of the same width and height as the 

 other, each side sculptured with hieroglypliics in lasso relievo, 

 and painted. The ceiling is also finely painted, and in pretty good 

 preservation. The more I saw, the more I was eager to see, 

 such being tlie nature of man ; but I was checked in my anxiety 

 at this time, for at the end of this passage I reached a large pit, 

 which intercepted my progress. This pit is thirty feet deep, and 

 fourteen feet by twelve feet three inches wide. The upper part 

 of the pit is adorned with figures, from the wall of the passage 

 up to the ceiling. The passages from the entrance all the way 

 to this pit have an inclination downward of an angle of eigh- 

 teen degrees. On the opposite side of the pit facing the en- 

 trance, I perceived a small aperture two feet wide and two feet 

 six inches liigh, and at the bottom of the wall a quantity of 

 rubbish. A rope fastened to a piece of wood, that was laid across 

 the passage against the projections which form a kind of door, 

 appears to have been used by the ancients for descending into 

 tiie pit; and from the small aperture on the opposite side hung 

 another, which reached the bottom, no doubt for the purpose of 

 ascending. We could clearly perceive, that the water which 

 enters the passages from the torrents of rain ran into tliis pit, 

 and the wood and rope fastened to it crumbled to dust on touch- 

 ing them. At the bottom of the pit were several pieces of wood, 

 placed against the side of it, so as to assist the j)erson who was 



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