DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
169 
gible characters inscribed on the walls of these ca- 
verns, are supposed to conceal the history of a very 
obscure period of the reign of the ancient The- 
ban monarchs, whose authority extended from Ethi- 
opia to India. In one of these caves are found the 
representations of the two harps and harpers de- 
scribed by Bruce, which are supposed by Browne to 
have been delineated from memory, rather than 
from the figures themselves, but which the French 
philosophers who visited these excavations in a more 
secure manner than former travellers had done, do 
not accuse of inaccuracy. In many of these sub- 
terraneous recesses, the sculptures represent hu- 
man sacrifices. Strabo relates that the sepulchres 
of the kings were forty in number, while Diodorus 
Siculus, from the ancient Egyptian records, enu- 
merates forty- seven, though he adds, that, during 
the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, only seventeen were 
open, * the Egyptians having probably concealed 
them to prevent violation. At present only nine 
are accessible. The mummies are now procured 
from the excavations in the more elevated part of 
the mountain, f The pensile gardens of Thebes 
* Diodor. Sicul. a Heyne, Vol.1, p. 142. 
f According to Norden, grottos or excavations of this 
kind in the vicinit}' of Assiut are denominated Sababinatii. 
Norden's Travels. Vol, II, p. ■>". 
