DISCOVERY OF ROYAL MUMMIES. 381 



into any lengthened statements respecting Egyptian 

 antiquities, or the subject of mummies in general. 

 We need only refer to recent great discoveries of 

 Royal mummies, at Deir-El-Bahari, near Thebes, which 

 occurred in July 1881, a short account of which will 

 embody every point of interest. 



The contents of the vault when discovered, were 

 found to consist of thirty-six Royal mummies enclosed 

 in splendidly gilt and decorated caskets, and an immense 

 number of funeral offerings and other articles, such as 

 Osiris statuettes, boxes, chests, vases, papyri, etc., be- 

 longing to the XVII, XVIII and XIX Dynasties,* 

 which covers one of the most brilliant epochs in Egyp- 

 tian history. Prominent among these may be mentioned 

 the mummy of Thothmes III of the XVIII Dynasty, 

 one of the greatest conquerors Egypt ever produced ; 

 and of Ramses II of the XIX Dynasty, better known 

 as " The Pharaoh of the Israelitish oppression " and also 

 as the great " Sesostris " of the Greek historians, who 

 is supposed to have lived about 1330 years before the 

 Christian era. The mummy of this celebrated man, 

 without doubt the greatest figure in the long line of the 

 Pharaohs,! who died at the immense age of nearly 100 

 years, and who is said to have reigned over Egypt for a 

 period of sixty-seven years, was unrolled by order of the 

 Khedive in June, 1886. It is described as being "ex- 

 tremely well preserved, and one of the best examples of 

 the Egyptian embalmers' art." It is now in the Museum 

 of Antiquities at Gizeh, near Cairo, and the face, as 

 those who, like ourselves, have had the privilege of 



* See Baedeker's Handbook for Upper Egypt, 1892, p. 229. 



f Encycl. Brit.) gth Edit., vol. vii., p. 739. 



Murray's^ Handbook for Egypt, 8th Edit., 1891, p. ig8d. 



