212 Noliccs icsptxli/ig New Books. 



blocks of stone, so as to deceive any one wlio slioiiKl force the 

 alien wall near the pit, and make him suppose that the tomb 

 ended with the entrance-hall and the drawing-room. I am in- 

 clined to believe, that whoever forced all these passages must 

 have had some spies with them, who were v.ell acquainted with 

 the tomb throughout. The tomb faces the uorth«east, and the 

 direction of the whole runs straight south-west. 



'* To give an accurate description of the various representa- 

 tions within this tomb, would be a work above my capacity. I 

 bhall therefore oniv endeavour to describe the most remarkable 

 that are to be seen in the various parts of it. From these the 

 reader may form some idea of this magnificent excavation. 



" The entrance into the tomb is at the foot of a high hill, with 

 a prettv steep ascent. The first thing the traveller comes to is 

 a staircase cut out of the rock, v.?hich descends to the tomb. The 

 entrance is bv a door of the same height as the first passage. I 

 beg mv kind reader to observe, that all the figures and hierogly- 

 ])hics of every description are sculptured in basso relievo, and 

 painted over, except in the outlined chamber, which was only 

 prepared for the sculptor. This room gives the best ideas that 

 liave yet been discovered of the original process of Egyptian 

 sculpture. The wall was previously made as smooth as possible; 

 and where there were flaws in the rocks, the vacuum was filled 

 up with cement, which, when hard, was cut along with the rest 

 of the rock. Where a figure or any thing else was required to 

 be formed, after the wall was prepared, the sculptor appears to 

 have made his first sketches of what was intended to be cut out. 

 Vvhen the sketches were finished in red lines l)y the first artist, 

 another more skilfid corrected the errors, if any, and his lines 

 were made in black, to be dislinguished from those vvhich were 

 imperfect. When the figihes were thus prepared, the sculptor 

 proceeded to cut out the stone all round the figure, which re- 

 mained in basso relievo, some to the height of half an inch, and 

 some much less, according to the size of the figure. For in- 

 stance : if a figure were as large as life, its elevation was generally 

 half an inch ; if the figure were not more than six inches in 

 lengtl), its projection would not exceed the thickness of a dollar, 

 or perhaps Ic^s. The angles of the figures were all smoothly 

 rounded, which makes them appear less prominent than they 

 really are. The parts of the stone that were to be taken off all 

 round the figure did not extend much further, as the wall ijr 

 thickly covered with figures and hieroglyphics, and I believe 

 there is not a space on those walls more than a foot square with- 

 out some figure or hieroglyphic. The garments, and various 

 parts of the limbs, were marked by a narrow line, not deeper 

 than the thickness of a haIf-crow|i, but so exact that it produced 

 the intended effect. 



