EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 607 



chambers have been restored, recovered, and provided with grates. 

 The grand court still lies under the debris. 



Saqqarah (July-August, 1892). — The grand court of the tomb of Ti 

 has been cleared anew, as well as the pit and the galleries leading to 

 the chamber of the sarcophagus. The court is at present screened by 

 a ceiling and lighted from the center in such manner that the visitor 

 may traverse all the chambers of this celebrated tomb. 



(August-October, 1593.) — The tomb of Meru-Ka, called Mera, has been 

 entirely repaired, and, immediately after being brought to light, so well 

 covered up that its thirty-one chambers have been open to the public 

 since the beginning of the season of 1893-94. 



( September-October, 1893.) — The mastaba of Kab-in, near that of Mera, 

 having been only partly cleared, the live chambers discovered have 

 been repaired and covered with a ceiling, an improvement being effected 

 at the same time in the tombs of Ptah-Chepses and Mera. 



Luxor. — The clearing of the temple was actively pushed under the 

 direction of M. G. Daressy, assistant conservator of the Service of 

 Antiquities. Commencing on the 1st of January and finishing at the 

 end of April, they continued work on the large colonnade on the court 

 yard of Eameses, the northeast angle of which could not be touched 

 because of a mosque which occupied it, and on the exterior of the tem- 

 ple in the southeastern part, the only place where it was possible to 

 work, the other environs of the monuments being encumbered with 

 houses. By a Khedivial decree of 1894 all property comprised in the 

 surrounding wall of the temple is to-day considered public property, 

 but the condemnations are not yet operative. The mosque which for 

 more than ten years had been the principal obstacle to excavation is 

 also destined to be transferred. A large structure of masonry was 

 erected to repair the columns and the different parts of the temple, as 

 well as to create a wall around the monument. Two vaulted drains 

 have been constructed to permit the waters of the Nile to enter and 

 freely discharge. This measure has been taken to carry off the salt 

 with which the soil and the constructions are impregnated, and which 

 by their crystallization and their dissolution every year disintegrate 

 the particles of the materials of which the edifice is composed. AM the 

 earth taken from the temple has been transported, at the expense of the 

 inhabitants of Luxor, to the ponds situated northeast of the village. 

 It is a very useful measure for the health of the locality. 



Ombos. — The temple of Ombos rises on the summit of a small moun- 

 tain, situated on the right bank of the Nile, 40 kilometers below 

 Assouan. In earlier times this temple was entirely surrounded by 

 water. To day the right arm of the river is entirely filled up. 



At Kum-Ombos, as at Philaj, the outer works of the temple reached 

 as far as the banks of the Nile, but the current has washed them nearly 

 all away and would have inevitably destroyed the other monuments if 

 I had not taken the necessary measures to protect them in the future. 



A wall of crude bricks, three sides of which are still well preserved, 



