EGYPTIAN GALLERIES. 
157 
other, to a period probably not less than 2000 years before the Chris¬ 
tian era. The two great Galleries, with the connecting or Central 
Saloon, in which these monuments are contained, form, together, the 
third, or most Eastern, of the parallel suites running North and South, 
respectively appropriated to the Greek, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian 
collections. The larger sculptures have been arranged, as far as pos¬ 
sible, in chronological order, the dynastic divisions of Manetho forming 
the historical basis of the system during the period of the Pharaohs, 
or native kings: but the tablets, and other smaller sculptures, are as 
yet only partially reduced to a corresponding order, as the chrono¬ 
logical classification of these objects presents greater difficulties. 
Entering the Southern Gallery, the visitor first finds the monuments 
of the Roman dominion in Egypt, commencing with* the capture of 
Alexandria by Augustus, b.c. 30, and extending till the Mohammedan 
invasion, a.d. 640. Next follow the remains of the Greek period, 
introduced by the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the succes¬ 
sion of Ptolemy Soter to the kingdom, b.c. 323. Afterwards commence 
the series of sculptures belonging to the thirty dynasties of Manetho; 
the Southern Gallery comprehending the latest portion, as far back as 
the Nineteenth Dynasty. 
The Central Egyptian Saloon is appropriated to the monuments of 
the greatest monarch of that dynasty, Rame>es II., who appears to 
have been the original represented by the Greeks in their legends of 
Sesostris. 
In the Northern Gallery are the large sculptures of the Eighteenth 
Dynasty, which comprehends the most splendid epoch of Egyptian 
history, and has left the grandest memorials of the arts of the Egyptian 
people: with these are also included some sepulchral tablets of the 
antecedent period, and a few likewise of later date, intended to be 
hereafter removed. 
The Vestibule, at the Northern extremity of these galleries, contains 
chiefly the archaic remains of Egypt, prior to the Eighteenth Dynasty; 
the oldest of which may reasonably be regarded as the most ancient 
productions of the art of sculpture now existing in Europe. 
In the ensuing description the objects are mentioned in the order 
of the numbers attached to them belbre the recent arrangement was 
made, and, in most instances, still remaining upon them*. 
No. 1. A lion couchant, whose mane in front is inscribed with the 
prenomen and name of Amen-asro, supposed to be an Ethiopian 
monarch. The base is also inscribed with a dedication from Ame- 
nophis III. (Memnon), in whose reign it must have been sculptured. 
His name has been anciently erased by the disk worshippers and sub¬ 
sequently re-inserted. This lion, with its companion. No. 34, stood 
before one of the gates of a temple at Mount Barkal. Red granite. 
Presented hy Lord Prudhoe, (now Puke of Northumberland,) 1835. 
No. 2. A sarcophagus of Petenesi, a bard, in form of a mummy 
* The articles contained in these Rooms, to which the mark (f) is prefixed in this 
catalogue, were collected by the French in different parts of Egypt, and came into 
the possession of the English army in consequence of the capitulation of Alexan¬ 
dria, in the month of September, 1801. They were brought to England in February^ 
1802, under the care of General Sir Hilgrove Turner, and were sent, by order of 
His Majesty King George the Third, to the British Museum. 
