384 



NOETH-EAST AFRICA. 



discovered in 1859 the mummy of a certain Queen Aahhotep, probably the mother 

 of King Ahmes or Amosis. The ornaments of this queen, now preserved in the 

 Bulaq museum, near Cairo, are of such marvellous workmanship that modern 

 jewellers confess their inability even to imitate them. It seems probable that 

 from another tomb in the Assassif hill also comes the Ebers papyrus, the 

 " hermetic " book containing the pharmacopoeia of the Egyptians at the time of the 

 Thotmes dynasty. 



West of the chief eminence, and not far from the Sheikh Abd-el-Kurnah, 

 another hill pierced with galleries like a rabbit-burrow, a series of terraces is 



Fig. 115. — Entrance to the Valley of the Eoyal Tombs. 



occupied by the Deir-el-Bahari, an obituary chapel, which in later times was 

 probably used as a Christian church. On its ruined walls Mariette brought to 

 light some most interesting sculptures, representing diverse historical objects, 

 amongst others the naval expedition sent by the Queen-Regent Hatshopsitu to the 

 land of Punt, that is, either to South Arabia or the present Somaliland. In 

 another tomb, known as the Rekhmara, are also depicted ethnographic scenes 

 relating to the same land of Punt. A neighbouring grotto, for which Maspero 

 and Brugsch had long been searching, has yielded a whole series of roj^al mummies, 

 amongst which are those of Ahmes I., of Thotmes II., conqueror of Asia Minor, of 

 Ramses II., the legendary Sesostris of the Greeks, of Seti I., builder of the 

 marvellous hypostyle chamber. 



