Belzoni's Researches and Operations in Egypt, Nuhia, C^c. 2i 1 



to contain a roll of papyrus, which I have no doubt they did. 

 We found Hkewise fragments of other statues of wood and of 

 composition. 



"But the description of what we found in the centre of the sa- 

 loon, and which 1 have reserved till this place, merits the most 

 particular attention, not having its equal in the world, and being 

 such as we had no idea could exist. It is a sarcophagus of the 

 finest oriental alabaster, nine feet five -inches long, and three 

 feet seven inches wide. Its thickness is only two inches ; and 

 it is transparent when a light is placed in the Inside of it. It is 

 minutely sculptured within and without with several hundred 

 figures, which do not exceed two inches in height, and represent, 

 as I suppose, the whole of the funeral procession and ceremonies 

 relating to the deceased, united with several emblems, &c. I 

 cannot give an adequate idea of this beautiful and invaluable 

 piece of antiquity, and can only say, that nothing has been 

 brought into Europe from Egypt that can be compared with it. 

 The cover was not there : it had been taken out, and broken into 

 several pieces, which we found in digging before the first en- 

 trance. The sarcophagus was over a staircase in tlie centre of 

 the saloon, which communicated with a subtf)rraiWous passage, 

 leading downwards, three hundred feet in length. At the end 

 of this passage we found a great quantity of Ijats' dung, v.'h:ch 

 choked it up, so that we could go no further v.^ithout digging. 

 It was nearly filled up too by the falling in of the upper part. 

 One hundred feet from the entrance is a staircase in good pre- 

 servation ; but the rock below changes its substance, from n 

 beautiful solid calcareous stone, becoming a kind of black rotten 

 slate, which crumbles into dust only by touching. This sub- 

 terraneous passage i)rncet'ds in a south-west direction through 

 the mountain. I measured the distance from the entrance, and 

 also the rocks above, and found, that the passage reaches nearly 

 halfway through the mountain to the upper part of the valley. 

 I have reason to suppose, that this passage was used to come 

 into the tomb by another entrance ; but this could not be after 

 tlie death of the person who was buried there, for at the bottom 

 of the stairs just under the sarcophagus a wall was built, which 

 entirely closed the comnnuiication between the tomb and the 

 subterraneous passage. Some large blocks of stone were placed 

 under the sarcophagus horizontally, level with the j)aveinent of 

 the $aloon, that no one might perceive any stairs or subterranean 

 passage was there. The door-way of the sideboard room had 

 been walled up, and forced open, as we found the stones with 

 which it was shut, and the mortar in the jambs. The stairca.'so 

 of the entrance-hall had been walled up also at the bottom, 

 tljfc space filled with rubbish, and the floor covered with large 

 D d 2 blocks 



