J3& TRAVELS IN UPPER 



pression of the air. But the rock of Malta is bare, 

 whereas that of Egypt is, for the most part, cover- 

 ed with the sands. It is undoubtedly on account 

 of the want of hardness in the rock, that the ancient 

 Egyptians had plastered over the interior of the 

 galleries with a kind of mortar, which has acquired 

 a wonderful solidity, and which it is very difficult 

 to break. Most of those subterraneous alleys are 

 in a ruinous state. In the smaller number of those 

 into which it was still possible to penetrate, you 

 might see on both sides three rows of coffins, 

 piled on each other : they are not, as at Malta, cut 

 lengthwise, but transversely : their greater sides 

 are on an inclined plan inwardly, so that the bot- 

 tom of the coffin is much narrower than the up- 

 per part. At the extremity of some of those gal- 

 leries there are separate apartments with their cof- 

 fins, and reserved, no doubt, for the sepulture of 

 particular families, or of a peculiar orderof citizens. 



If the Arabs are to be believed, the catacombs 

 have a subterranean communication with the py- 

 ramids of Memphis. Such an opinion of their 

 immense extent has an appearance of exaggera- 

 tion : it is not, at the same time, beyond the other 

 gigantic labours of the Egyptians, and the fact well 

 deserves to be ascertained. It is more certain that 

 they extend as far as the sea, at. the bottom of the 

 old harbour ; at least the three grottos or cavities 



cut 



