110 
EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 
[upper 
At the top of the staircase is the 
EGYPTIAN ANTEROOM. 
On the walls ^re placed casts from sculptured and coloured 
bas-reliefs in Egypt, painted in imitation of the originals. 
The principal are as follows : — 
Bas-relief from the North wall of the great edifice at Karnak, 
representing the victories of King Seti Menephtah I. over the Tahennu, 
a people who dwelt to the North-west of Egypt. — Bas-reliefs taken 
from the tombs of Seti 1., Seti II., and other kings of the 
19th dynasty, in the Biban-el-Molook, or valley of the tombs of the 
kings, at Thebes.— Bas-reliefs from several portions of a fallen obelisk 
of red granite at Karnak, and some large Egyptian wooden coffins. 
To the right, or South side, is the 
FIRST EGYPTIAN ROOM. 
In this, and in part of the next room, are placed the 
smaller antiquities of Egypt. Most of these have been disco- 
vered in tombs, and owe their remarkable preservation to the 
peculiar dryness of the climate of the country. They have 
been acquired mainly by purchases from the collections of 
M. Anastasi, Mr. Salt, Mr. Sams, and Mr. Lane, and by dona- 
tions from H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Nor- 
thumberland, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and other travellers in 
Egypt. The objects may be divided into three principal 
sections : — 
1. Those rebating to the religion of the Egyptians, such 
as representations of divinities and sacred animals. 
2. Those relating to their civil and domestic life. 
3. Those relating to their death and burial. 
I. RELIGIOUS SECTION. 
The Egyptian Pantheon, Avhich was very complex, compre- 
hended a large number of divinities, of which the most im- 
portant were connected with the sun in. his annual or diurnal 
course, and the lesser were his attendant satellites. The relative 
importance of the divinities depended in some measure on the 
power and v/calth of ti e cities in which they were principally 
