THINIS-GIEGEH. 



889 



also, according to the legend, the body of Osiris, since transported to Philœ, had 

 been buried hundreds of thousands of years before that event. In other words to 

 this hallowed spot tradition pointed as the cradle of the autochthonous people, from 

 whose independently developed civilisation is mainly derived our modern culture 

 through the intermediate channel of the Hellenes. 



All traces have vanished of the temple whither pilgrims were attracted from all 

 parts, just as those of the Christian world still direct their footsteps towards the 



Fig. 117. — Abydos: Bas-Eelief in the Temple op Seti I., hepresenting a Scene of 



Adqkation. 



Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. But the nitrous sands of the district have revealed 

 a large number of tombs here built by Egyptian devotees anxious to repose by the 

 side of their national deity. According to Maspero far more than half of all the 

 sepulchral stones preserved in the European museums come from Abydos. A 

 group of tombs large enough to have assumed the appearance of a volcanic mound 

 is known by the name of Kôm-es-Sultan, or " King's Mount." The explorations 

 here being made continually reveal tombs of older and older date, the farther the 



