Chapter XIV: Part 14

“Marcellus at length renounced his hopes of being able to make a
breach in the place, gave over his attacks, and turned the siege into
a blockade. The Romans conceived they had no other resource than to
reduce the great number of people in the city by famine, in cutting
off all provisions that might be brought to them either by sea or
land. During the eight months in which they besieged the city, there
were no kind of stratagems which they did not invent, nor any actions
of valour left untried, almost to the assault, which they never dared
to attempt more. So much force, on some occasions, have a single man,
and a single science, when rightly applied.

“A burning glass is spoken of, by means of which Archimedes is said
to have burned part of the Roman fleet.

“In the beginning of the third campaign, Marcellus almost absolutely
despairing of being able to take Syracuse, either by force, because
Archimedes continually opposed him with invincible obstacles, or
famine, as the Carthaginian fleet, which was returned more numerous
than before, easily threw in convoys, deliberated whether he should
continue before Syracuse to push the siege, or turn his endeavours
against Agrigentum. But before he came to a final determination, he
thought proper to try whether he could make himself master of
Syracuse by some secret intelligence.

“This, too, having miscarried, Marcellus found himself in new
difficulties. Nothing employed his thoughts but the shame of raising
a siege, after having consumed so much time, and sustained the loss
of so many men and ships in it. An accident supplied him with a
resource, and gave new life to his hopes. Some Roman vessels had
taken one Damippus, whom Epicydes had sent to negociate with Philip
king of Macedon. The Syracusans expressed a great desire to ransom
this man, and Marcellus was not averse to it. A place near the port
Trogilus was agreed on for the conferences concerning the ransom of
the prisoner. As the deputies went thither several times, it came
into a Roman soldier’s thoughts to consider the wall with attention.
After having counted the stones, and examined with his eye the
measure of each of them, upon a calculation of the height of the
wall, he found it to be much lower than it was believed, and
concluded, that with ladders of a moderate size it might be easily
scaled. Without loss of time he related the whole to Marcellus.
Marcellus did not neglect this advice, and assured himself of its
reality with his own eyes. Having caused ladders to be prepared, he
took the opportunity of a festival that the Syracusans celebrated for
three days in honour of Diana, during which the inhabitants gave
themselves up entirely to rejoicing and good cheer. At the time of
night when he conceived that the Syracusans, after their debauch,
began to fall asleep, he made a thousand chosen troops, in profound
silence, advance with their ladders to the wall. When the first got
to the top without noise or tumult, the others followed, encouraged
by the boldness and success of their leaders. These thousand
soldiers, taking the advantage of the enemy’s stillness, who were
either drunk or asleep, soon scaled the wall.

“It was then no longer time to deceive, but terrify the enemy. The
Syracusans, awakened by the noise, began to rouse, and to prepare for
action. Marcellus made all his trumpets sound together, which so
alarmed them, that all the inhabitants fled, believing every quarter
of the city in the possession of the enemy. The strongest and best
part, however, called Achradina, was not yet taken, because separated
by its walls from the rest of the city.

“All the captains and officers with Marcellus congratulated him upon
this extraordinary success. For himself, when he had considered from
an eminence the loftiness, beauty, and extent of that city, he is
said to have shed tears, and to have deplored the unhappy condition
it was upon the point of experiencing.

“As it was then autumn, there happened a plague, which killed great
numbers in the city, and still more in the Roman and Carthaginian
camps. The distemper was not excessive at first, and proceeded only
from the bad air and season; but afterwards the communication with
the infected, and even the care taken of them, dispersed the
contagion; from whence it happened that some, neglected and
absolutely abandoned, died of the violence of the malady, and others
received help, which became fatal to those who brought it. Nothing
was heard night and day but groans and lamentations. At length, the
being accustomed to the evil had hardened their hearts to such a
degree, and so far extinguished all sense of compassion in them, that
they not only ceased to grieve for the dead, but left them without
interment. Nothing was to be seen every where but dead bodies,
exposed to the view of those who expected the same fate. The
Carthaginians suffered much more from it than the others. As they had
no place to retire to, they almost all perished, with their generals
Hippocrates and Himilcon. Marcellus, from the breaking out of the
disease, had brought his soldiers into the city, where the roofs and
shade was of great relief to them; he lost, however, no
inconsiderable number of men.

“Amongst those, who commanded in Syracuse, there was a Spaniard named
Mericus: him a means was found to corrupt. He gave up the gate near
the fountain Arethusa to soldiers sent by Marcellus in the night to
take possession of it. At day-break the next morning, Marcellus made
a false attack at Achradina, to draw all the forces of the citadel
and the isle adjoining to it, to that side, and to facilitate the
throwing some troops into the isle, which would be unguarded, by some
vessels he had prepared. Every thing succeeded according to his plan.
The soldiers, whom those vessels had landed in the isle, finding
almost all the posts abandoned, and the gates by which the garrison
of the citadel had marched out against Marcellus still open, they
took possession of them after a slight encounter.

“The Syracusans opened all their gates to Marcellus, and sent
deputies to him with instructions to demand nothing further from him
than the preservation of the lives of themselves and their children.
Marcellus having assembled his council, and some Syracusans who were
in his camp, gave his answer to the deputies in their presence:—‘That
Hiero, for fifty years, had not done the Roman people more good than
those who have been masters of Syracuse some years past had intended
to do them harm; but that their ill-will had fallen upon their own
heads, and they had punished themselves for their violation of
treaties in a more severe manner than the Romans could have desired.
That he had besieged Syracuse during three years; not that the Roman
people might reduce it into slavery, but to prevent the chiefs of the
revolters from continuing it under oppression. That he had undergone
many fatigues and dangers in so long a siege, but that he thought he
had made himself ample amends by the glory of having taken that city,
and the satisfaction of having saved it from the entire ruin it
seemed to deserve.’ After having placed a guard upon the treasury,
and safe-guards in the houses of the Syracusans, who had withdrawn
into his camp, he abandoned the city to be plundered by the troops.
It is reported that the riches which were pillaged in Syracuse at
this time exceeded all that could have been expected at the taking of
Carthage itself.”

The chronicles of Syracuse[260] commemorate endless and bitter dissentions among the several ranks of citizens, the destruction of liberty by tyrants, their expulsion and re-establishment, victories over the Carthaginians, and many noble struggles to vindicate the rights of mankind; till the fatal hour arrived, when the Roman leviathan swallowed all up. Inglorious peace and insignificance were afterwards, for many ages, the lot of Syracuse; and, probably, the situation was an eligible one, except in times of such governors as Verres. At length, Rome herself fell in her turn, a prey to conquest, and barbarians divided her ample spoils. The Vandals seized upon Sicily; but it was soon wrested from them by Theodoric the Goth; and at his death, fell into the hands of the Eastern emperor. Totila afflicted Syracuse with a long but fruitless siege: yet it was not so well defended against the Saracens. These cruel enemies took it twice, and exercised the most savage barbarities on the wretched inhabitants. They kept possession of it two hundred years, and made an obstinate resistance against Earl Roger, in this fortress, which was one of the last of their possessions, that yielded to his victorious arms.

“It is truly melancholy,” says Mr. Brydone, “to think of the dismal contrast, that its former magnificence makes with its present meanness. The mighty Syracuse, the most opulent and powerful of all the Grecian cities, which, by its own strength alone, was able at different times to contend against all the power of Carthage and of Rome, in which it is recorded to have repulsed fleets of 2000 sail, and armies of 200,000 men; and contained within its walls, what no other city ever did before or since, fleets and armies that were the terror of the world:—this haughty and magnificent city is reduced even below the consequence of the most insignificant borough.”

In its most flourishing state Syracuse, according to Strabo, extended twenty-two and a half English miles in circumference[261], and was divided into four districts; each of which was, as it were, a separate city, fortified with three citadels, and three-fold walls.

Of the four cities[262] that composed this celebrated city, there remains only Ortygia, by much the smallest, situated in the island of that name. It is about two miles round. The ruins of the other three are computed at twenty-two miles in circumference. The walls of these are every where built with broken marbles, covered over with engravings and inscriptions; but most of them defaced and spoiled. The principal remains of antiquity are a theatre and amphitheatre, many sepulchres, the Latomie, the catacombs, and the famous Ear of Dionysius, which it was impossible to destroy. The Latomie now forms a noble subterraneous garden, and is, indeed, a very beautiful and romantic spot. The whole is hewn out of a rock as hard as marble, composed entirely of a concretion of gravel, shells, and other marine bodies; and many orange, bergamot, and fig trees, grow out of the hard rock, where there is no mark of any soil.

There are many remains of temples. The Duke of Montalbano, who has written on the antiquities of Syracuse, reckons nearly twenty; but few of these now are distinguishable. A few fine columns of that of Jupiter Olympius still remain; and the temple of Minerva (now converted into the cathedral of the city, and dedicated to the Virgin) is almost entire.

There are some remains, also, of Diana’s temple, near to the church of St. Paul; but they are not remarkable.

The palace of Dionysius, his tomb, the baths of Daphnis, and other ancient buildings, and all their statues and paintings[263], have disappeared; but the Ear, of which history speaks so loud, still remains. It is no less a monument of the ingenuity and magnificence, than of the cruelty of the tyrant. It is a huge cavern, cut out of the hard rock, exactly in the form of the human ear. The perpendicular height of it is about eighty feet, and the length is no less than two hundred and fifty. The cavern was said to be so contrived, that every sound, made in it, was collected and united into one point as into a focus. This was called the tympanum; and exactly opposite to it the tyrant had made a hole, communicating with a little apartment, in which he used to conceal himself. He applied his own ear to this hole, and is said to have heard distinctly every word that was spoken in the cavern below. This apartment was no sooner finished, than he put to death all the workmen that had been employed in it. He then confined all those that he suspected of being his enemies; and by hearing their conversation judged of their guilt, and condemned or acquitted accordingly.

The holes in the rock, to which the prisoners were chained, still remain, and even the lead and iron in several of the holes.

The cathedral[264], now dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar, was the temple of Minerva, on the summit of which her statue was fixed; holding a broad, refulgent shield. Every Syracusan, that sailed out of the port, was bound by his religion to carry honey, flowers, and ashes, which he threw into the sea, the instant he lost sight of the buckler. This was to ensure a safe return. The temple is built in the Doric proportions, used in the rest of Sicily. Its exterior dimensions are one hundred and eighty-five feet in length, and seventy-five in breadth.

The amphitheatre[265] is in the form of a very eccentric ellipse; but the theatre is so entire, that most of the seats still remain.

The great harbour ran into the heart of the city, and was called “Marmoreo,” because it was entirely encompassed with buildings of marble. Though the buildings are gone, the harbour exists in all its beauty. It is capable of receiving vessels of the greatest burden, and of containing a numerous fleet. Although at present this harbour is entirely neglected, it might easily be rendered a great naval and commercial station.

The catacombs are a great work; not inferior either to those of Rome or Naples, and in the same style.

There was also a prison, called Latomiæ, a word signifying a quarry. Cicero has particularly described this dreadful prison, which was a cave dug out of the solid rock, one hundred and twenty-five paces long, and twenty feet broad, and almost one hundred feet below the surface of the earth. Cicero, also, reproaches Verres with imprisoning Roman citizens in this place; which was the work of Dionysius, who caused those to be shut up in it, who had the misfortune to have incurred his displeasure. It is now a noble subterranean garden.

The fountain of Arethusa[266] also still exists. It was dedicated to Diana, who had a magnificent temple near its banks, where great festivals were annually celebrated in honour of that goddess. It is indeed an astonishing fountain, and rises at once out of the earth to the size of a river: and many of the people believe, even to this day, that it is the identical river, Arethusa, that was said to have sunk under ground near Olympia in Greece, and, continuing its course five hundred or six hundred miles below the ocean, rose again in this spot.[267]

NO. XXXVIII.—THEBES.

The glory of Thebes belongs to a period, prior to the commencement of authentic history. It is recorded only by the divine light of poetry and tradition, which might be suspected as fable, did not such mighty witnesses remain to attest the truth. A curious calculation, made from the rate of increase of deposition by the Nile, corroborated by other evidence, shows however that this city must have been founded four thousand seven hundred and sixty years ago, or two thousand nine hundred and thirty before Christ. There are the ruins of a temple, bearing an inscription, stating that it was founded by Osymandyas, who reigned, according to M. Champollion, two thousand two hundred and seventy years before Christ.

Thebes was called, also, Diospolis, as having been sacred to Jupiter; and Hecatompylos, on account, it is supposed, of its having had a hundred gates.

“Not all proud Thebes’ unrivall’d walls contains,
The world’s great empress, on the Egyptian plain;
That spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states,
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates—
Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars,
From each wide portal issuing to the wars.”

HOMER’S ILIAD; POPE.

“This epithet Hecatompylos, however,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “applied to it by Homer, has generally been supposed to refer to the hundred gates of its wall of circuit; but this difficulty is happily solved by an observation of Diodorus, that many suppose them ‘to have been the propylæa of the temples,’ and that this expression rather implies a plurality, than a definite number.”

Historians are unanimously agreed, that Menes was the first king of Egypt. It is pretended, and not without foundation, that he is the same with Misraim, the son of Cham. Cham was the second son of Noah. When the family of the latter, after the attempt of building the Tower of Babel, dispersed themselves into different countries; Cham retired to Africa, and it was, doubtless, he who afterwards was worshipped as a god, under the name of Jupiter Ammon. He had four children, Chus, Misraim, Phut, and Canaan. Chus settled in Ethiopia, Misraim in Egypt, which generally is called in Scripture after his name, and by that of Cham, his father. Phut took possession of that part of Africa which lies westward of Egypt; and Canaan, of the country which has since borne his name.

Misraim is agreed to be the same as Menes, whom all historians declare to be the first king of Egypt; the institutor of the worship of the gods, and of the ceremonies of the sacrifices.

Some ages after him, Busiris built the city of Thebes, and made it the seat of his empire. This prince is not to be confounded with the Busiris who, in so remarkable a manner, distinguished himself by his inordinate cruelties. In respect to Osymandyas, Diodorus gives a very particular account of many magnificent edifices raised by him; one of which was adorned with sculpture and paintings of great beauty, representing an expedition against the Bactrians, a people of Asia, whom he had invaded with four hundred thousand foot, and twenty thousand horse. In another part of the edifice was exhibited an assembly of the judges, whose president wore on his breast a picture of Truth, with her eyes shut, and himself surrounded with books; an emphatic emblem, denoting that judges ought to be perfectly versed in the laws, and impartial in the administration of them. The king, also, was painted there, offering to the gods silver and gold, which he drew from the mines of Egypt, amounting to the sum of sixteen millions.

So old as this king’s reign, the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months, each consisting of thirty days; to which they added, every year, five days and six hours. To quote the words of a well-known writer, (Professor Heeren,) “its monuments testify to us a time when it was the centre of the civilisation of the human race; a civilisation, it is true, which has not endured, but which, nevertheless, forms one of the steps by which mankind has attained to higher perfection.”

Although Thebes had greatly fallen from its former splendour, in the time of Cambyses the Persian it was the fury of this lawless and merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur, about 520 years before the Christian era. He pillaged its temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory. Before this period, no city in the world could be compared with it in size, beauty, and wealth; and according to the expression of Diodorus—“The sun had never seen so magnificent a city.”

The next step towards the decline and fall of this city was, as we learn from Diodorus, the preference given to Memphis; and the removal of the seat of government thither, and subsequently to Sais and Alexandria, proved as disastrous to the welfare, as the Persian invasion had been to the splendour, of the capital of Upper Egypt. “Commercial wealth,” says Mr. Wilkinson, “on the accession of the Ptolemies, began to flow through other channels. Coptos and Apollinopolis succeeded to the lucrative trade of Arabia; and Ethiopia no longer contributed to the revenues of Thebes; and its subsequent destruction, after a three years’ siege, by Ptolemy Lathyrus, struck a death-blow to the welfare and existence of this capital, which was, thenceforth, scarcely deemed an Egyptian city. Some few repairs, however, were made to its dilapidated temples by Evergetes II., and some by the later Ptolemies. But it remained depopulated; and at the time of Strabo’s visit, was already divided into small and detached villages.”

Thebes was, perhaps, the most astonishing work ever performed by the hand of man. In the time of its splendour, it extended above twenty-three miles; and upon any emergency could send into the field seven hundred thousand men, according to Tacitus; but Homer allows only that it could pour through each of its hundred gates two hundred armed men, with their chariots and horses, which makes about forty thousand men, allowing two men to each chariot.

Though its walls were twenty-four feet in thickness, and its buildings the most solid and magnificent; yet, in the time of Strabo and of Juvenal, only mutilated columns, broken obelisks, and temples levelled with the dust, remained to mark its situation, and inform the traveller of the desolation which time, or the more cruel hand of tyranny, can assert over the proudest monuments of human art.

“Thebes,” says Strabo, “presents only remains of its former grandeur,
dispersed over a space eighty stadia in length. Here are found great
number of temples, in part destroyed by Cambyses; its inhabitants
have retired to small towns, east of the Nile, where the present city
is built, and to the western shore, near Memnonium; at which place we
admired two colossal stone figures, standing on each side, the one
entire, the other in part thrown down, it has been said by an
earthquake. There is a popular opinion, that the remaining part of
this statue, towards the base, utters a sound once a day. Curiosity
leading me to examine this fact, I went thither with Ælius Gallus,
who was accompanied with his numerous friends, and an escort of
soldiers. I heard a sound about six o’clock in the morning, but dare
not affirm whether it proceeded from the base, from the colossus, or
had been produced by some person present; for one is rather inclined
to suppose a thousand different causes, than that it should be the
effect of a certain assemblage of stones.

“Beyond Memnonium are the tombs of the kings, hewn out of the rock.
There are about forty, made after a marvellous manner, and worthy the
attention of travellers. Near them are obelisks, bearing various
inscriptions, descriptive of the wealth, power, and extensive empire
of those sovereigns who reigned over Scythia, Bactriana, Judæa, and
what is now called Ionia. They also recount the various tributes
those kings had exacted, and the number of their troops, which
amounted to a million of men.”

We now proceed to draw from Diodorus Siculus:—

“The great Diospolis,” says he, “which the Greeks have named Thebes,
was six miles in circumference. Busiris, who founded it, adorned it
with magnificent edifices and presents. The fame of its power and
wealth, celebrated by Homer, has filled the world. Never was there a
city which received so many offerings in silver, gold and ivory,
colossal statues and obelisks, each cut from a single stone. Four
principal temples are especially admired there: the most ancient of
which was surpassingly grand and sumptuous. It was thirteen stadia in
circumference, and surrounded by walls twenty-four feet in thickness
and forty-five cubits high. The richness and workmanship of its
ornaments were correspondent to the majesty of the building, which
many kings contributed to embellish. The temple still is standing;
but it was stripped of its silver and gold, ivory, and precious
stones, when Cambyses set fire to all the temples of Egypt.”

The following account of the tomb of Osymandyas is also from Diodorus:—

“Ten stadia from the tombs of the kings of Thebes, is the admirable
one of Osymandyas. The entrance to it is by a vestibule of various
coloured stones, two hundred feet long, and sixty-eight high. Leaving
this we enter a square peristyle, each side of which is four hundred
feet in length. Animals twenty-four feet high, cut from blocks of
granite, serve as columns to support the ceiling, which is composed
of marble slabs, twenty-seven feet square, and embellished throughout
by golden stars glittering on a ground of azure. Beyond this
peristyle is another entrance; and after that a vestibule, built like
the first, but containing more sculptures of all kinds. At the
entrance are three statues, formed from a single stone by Memnon
Syncite, the principal of which, representing the king, is seated,
and is the largest in Egypt. One of its feet, exactly measured, is
about seven cubits. The other had figures supported on its knees; the
one on the right, the other on the left, are those of his mother and
daughter. The whole work is less valuable for its enormous grandeur,
than for the beauty of the sculpture, and the choice of the granite,
which, though so extensive, has neither flaw nor blemish on its
surface. The colossus bears this inscription: ‘I am Osymandyas, king
of kings; he who would comprehend my greatness, and where I rest, let
him destroy some one of these works.’ Beside this, is another statue
of his mother, cut from a single block of granite, thirty feet high.
Three queens are sculptured on her head, intimating that she was a
daughter, wife, and mother of a king. After this portico is a
peristyle, still more beautiful than the first; on the stones of
which is engraved, the history of the wars of Osymandyas, against the
rebels of Bactriana. The façade of the front wall exhibits this
prince attacking ramparts, at the foot of which the river flows. He
is combating advanced troops; and by his side is a terrible lion,
ardent in his defence. On the right wall are captives in chains,
with their hands and genitals cut off, as marks of reproach for their
cowardice. The wall on the left contains symbolical figures of
exceedingly good sculpture, descriptive of triumphs and sacrifice of
Osymandyas returning from this war. In the centre of the peristyle,
where the roof is open, an altar was erected of a single stone of
marvellous bulk and exquisite workmanship; and at the farther wall
are two colossal figures, each hewn from a single block of marble,
forty feet high, seated on their pedestals. This admirable peristyle
has three gates, one between the two statues, and the others on each
side. These lead to an edifice two hundred feet square, the roof of
which is supported by high columns; it resembles a magnificent
theatre; several figures carved in wood, represent a tribunal
administering justice. Thirty judges are seen on one of the walls;
and in the midst of them the chief justice, with a pile of books at
his feet, and a figure of Truth, with her eyes shut, suspended from
his neck; beyond is a walk, surrounded by edifices of various forms,
in which were tables stored with all kinds of delicious viands. In
one of these, Osymandyas, clothed in magnificent robes, offers up the
gold and silver which he annually drew from the mines of Egypt to the
gods. Beneath, the amount of this revenue, which was thirty-two
million minas of silver, was inscribed. Another building contained
the sacred library, at the entrance of which these words were read:
‘Physic for the soul.’ A fourth contained all the deities of Egypt,
with the king offering suitable presents to each; and calling Osiris
and the surrounding divinities to witness, he had exercised piety
towards the gods, and justice towards men. Beside the library stood
one of the finest of these edifices, and in it twenty couches to
recline on, while feasting; also the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and
Osymandyas, whose body, it is supposed, was deposited here. Various
adjoining apartments contained representations of all the consecrated
animals of Egypt. Hence was the ascent to the sepulchre of the king;
on the summit of which was placed a circle of gold, in thickness one
cubit, and three hundred and sixty-five in circumference, each cubit
corresponding to a day in the year; and on it was engraved the rising
and setting of the stars for that day, with such astrological
indications as the superstition of the Egyptians had affixed to them.
Cambyses is said to have carried off this circle, when he ravaged
Egypt. Such, according to historians, was the tomb of Osymandyas,
which surpassed all others as well by its wealth, as by the
workmanship of the skilful artists employed.”

In the whole of Upper Egypt, adjacent to each city, numerous tombs are always found excavated in the neighbouring mountains. The most extensive and highly ornamented are nearest to the base; those of smaller dimensions, and less decorated, occupy the middle; and the most rude and simple are situated in the upper parts.

Those adjacent to Thebes are composed of extensive galleries, twelve feet broad and twenty high, with many lateral chambers.

They are ornamented with pilasters, sculptures, stucco, and paintings; both ceilings and walls are covered with emblems of war, agriculture, and music; and, in some instances, with shapes of very elegant utensils, and always representing offerings of bread, fruit, and liquors. The colours upon the ceilings are blue, and the figures yellow. We must, however, refer to a fuller account:—that of Belzoni.

“GOURNOU is a tract of rocks about two miles in length, at the foot
of the Lybian mountains, on the west of Thebes, and was the
burial-place of the great ‘city of the hundred gates.’ Every part of
these rocks is cut out by art, in the form of large and small
chambers, each of which has its separate entrance; and, though they
are very close to each other, it is seldom that there is any
communication from one to another. I can truly say, it is impossible
to give any description sufficient to convey the smallest idea of
these subterranean abodes and their inhabitants; there are no
sepulchres in any part of the world like them; and no exact
description can be given of their interior, owing to the difficulty
of visiting these recesses. Of some of these tombs many persons
cannot withstand the suffocating air, which often causes fainting. A
vast quantity of dust rises, so fine, that it enters into the throat
and nostrils, and chokes to such a degree, that it requires great
power of lungs to resist it, and the strong effluvia of the mummies.
This is not all; the entry, or passage where the bodies are, is
roughly cut in the rocks, and the falling of the sand from the
ceiling causes it to be nearly filled up:—so that in some places,
there is not a vacancy of much more than a foot left, which must be
passed in a creeping posture on the hands and knees. Alter getting
through these passages, some of them two or three hundred yards long,
you generally find a more commodious place, perhaps high enough to
sit: but what a place of rest! Surrounded by bodies, by heaps of
mummies in all directions, which, till I got accustomed to the
sight, impressed me with horror. After the exertion of entering into
such a place through a passage of sometimes six hundred yards in
length, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and
contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian,
it crushed it like a band-box. I naturally had recourse to my hands
to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I
sank altogether among the broken mummies with a crash of bones, rags,
and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for
a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. Once I was
conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a
passage about twenty feet in length, and no larger than that a body
could be forced through; it was choked with mummies, and I could not
pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed
Egyptian; but, as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight
helped me on, and I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs,
arms, and heads; rolling from above. The purpose of my researches was
to rob the Egyptians of their papyri, of which I found a few hidden
in their breasts, under their arms, in the space above their knees,
or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth that
envelop the body.

“Nothing can more plainly distinguish the various classes of people,
than the manner of their preservation. In the many pits that I have
opened, I never saw a single mummy standing, and found them lying
regularly in horizontal rows, and some were sunk into a cement which
must have been nearly fluid when the cases were placed on it. The
lower classes were not buried in cases: they were dried up, as it
appears, after the usual preparation. Mummies of this sort were in
the proportion of about ten to one of the better class, as nearly as
I could calculate from the quantity of both I have seen; the linen in
which they are folded is of a coarser sort and less in quantity; they
have no ornaments about them of any consequence, and are piled up in
layers, so as to fill, in a rude manner, the caves excavated for the
purpose. In general these tombs are to be found in the lower grounds,
at the foot of the mountains; they are entered by a small aperture
arched over, or by a shaft four or five feet square, at the bottom of
which are entrances into various chambers, all choked up with
mummies, many of which have been rummaged and left in the most
confused state. Among these tombs we saw some which contained the
mummies of animals intermixed with human bodies; these were bulls,
cows, sheep, monkeys, foxes, bats, crocodiles, fishes, and birds.
Idols often occur, and one tomb was filled with nothing but cats,
carefully folded in red and white linen, the head covered by a mask
made of the same, and representing the cat. I have opened all these
sorts of animals. Of the bull, the calf, and the sheep, there is no
part but the head, which is covered with linen with the horns
projecting out of the cloth; the rest of the body being represented
by two pieces of wood eighteen inches wide and three feet long, with
another at the end, two feet high, to form the breast. It is somewhat
singular, that such animals are not to be met with in the tombs of
the higher sort of people, while few or no papyri are to be found
among the lower order; and if any occur, they are only small pieces
stuck on the breast with a little gum or asphaltum, being probably
all that the poor individual could afford to himself. In those of the
better classes other objects are found. I think they ought to be
divided into several classes, and not confined to three, as is done
by Herodotus in his account of the mode of embalming. In the same pit
where I found mummies in cases, I have found others without, and in
these, papyri are most likely to be met with. I remarked that those
in cases have none. It appears to me that those that could afford it
had a case to be buried in, on which the history of their lives was
painted; and those who could not afford a case, were contented to
have their lives written on papyri, and placed above their knees. The
cases are made of sycamore, some very plain, some richly painted with
well-executed figures; all have a human face on the lid: some of the
larger contain others within them, either of wood or plaster, and
painted; some of the mummies have garlands of flowers and leaves of
the acacia, or Sunt-tree, over their heads and breasts. In the inside
of these mummies are often found lumps of asphaltum, sometimes
weighing as much as two pounds. Another kind of mummy I believe I may
conclude to have belonged exclusively to the priests: they are folded
in a manner totally differing from the others, and with much more
care; the bandages consist of stripes of red and white linen
intermixed, and covering the whole body, but so carefully applied,
that the form of the trunk and limbs are preserved separate, even to
the fingers and toes; they have sandals of painted leather on the
feet, and bracelets on their arms and wrists. The cases in which
these mummies are preserved, are somewhat better executed than the
rest.

“The tombs containing the better classes are of course superior to
the others; some are also more extensive than others, having various
apartments adorned with figures. It would be impossible to describe
the numerous little articles found in them, which are well adapted to
show the domestic habits of the ancient Egyptians. It is here the
smaller idols are occasionally found, either lying on the ground, or
on the cases. Vases made of baked clay, painted over, from eight to
eighteen inches in size, are sometimes seen, containing embalmed
entrails; the covers represent the head of some divinity, bearing
either the human form, or that of a monkey, fox, cat, or other
animal. I met with a few of these made of alabaster, in the tombs of
the kings, but they were unfortunately broken: a great quantity of
pottery and wooden vessels are found in some of the tombs; the
ornaments, the small works in clay in particular, are very curious. I
have been fortunate enough to find many specimens of their
manufactures, among which is leaf-gold, nearly as thin as ours; but
what is singular, the only weapon I met with was an arrow, two feet
long.

“One day while causing the walls of a large tomb to be struck with a
sledge-hammer, in order to discover some hidden chambers, an
aperture, a foot and a half wide, into another tomb, was suddenly
made: having enlarged it sufficiently to pass, we entered, and found
several mummies and a great quantity of broken cases; in an inner
apartment was a square opening, into which we descended, and at the
bottom we found a small chamber at each side of the shaft, in one of
which was a granite sarcophagus with its cover, quite perfect, but so
situated, that it would be an arduous undertaking to draw it out.”

Among the many discoveries of the enterprising Belzoni, was that of the Tombs of the Kings:—

“After a long survey of the western valley, I could observe only one
spot that presented the appearance of a tomb: accordingly I set the
men to work, and when they had got a little below the surface, they
came to some large stones; having removed these, I perceived the rock
had been cut on both sides, and found a passage leading downwards,
and in a few hours came to a well-built wall of stones of various
sizes, through which we contrived to make a breach; at last on
entering, we found ourselves on a staircase, eight feet wide and ten
high, at the bottom of which were four mummies in their cases, lying
flat on the ground, and further on four more: the cases were all
painted, and one had a large covering thrown over it like a pall.
These I examined carefully, but no further discoveries were made at
this place, which appears to have been intended for some of the royal
blood.

“Not fifteen yards from the last tomb I described, I caused the earth
to be opened at the foot of a steep hill, and under a torrent which,
when it rains, pours a great quantity of water over the spot: on the
evening of the second day, we perceived the part of the rock which
was cut and formed the entrance, which was at length entirely
cleared, and was found to be eighteen feet below the surface of the
ground. In about an hour there was room for me to enter through a
passage that the earth had left under the ceiling of the first
corridor, which is thirty-six feet long and eight or nine wide, and
when cleared, six feet nine inches high. I perceived immediately, by
the painting on the ceiling, and by the hieroglyphics in bas-relief,
that this was the entrance into a large and magnificent tomb. At the
end of the corridor, I came to a staircase twenty-three feet long,
and of the same breadth as the corridor, with a door at the bottom,
twelve feet high; this led to another corridor thirty-seven feet
long, and of the same width and height as the former one, each side,
and the ceiling sculptured with hieroglyphics and painted; but I was
stopped from further progress by a large pit at the other end, thirty
feet deep and twelve wide. The upper part of this was adorned with
figures, from the wall of the passage up to the ceiling; the passages
from the entrance, all the way to this pit, were inclined at an angle
of about eighteen degrees. On the opposite side of the pit, facing
the passage, a small opening was perceived, two feet wide, and two
feet six inches high, and a quantity of rubbish at the bottom of the
wall; a rope, fastened to a piece of wood that was laid across the
passage, against the projections which form a kind of door, appears
to have been used for descending into the pit, and from the small
aperture on the other side hung another, for the purpose, doubtless,
of ascending again; but these and the wood crumbled to dust on
touching them, from the damp arising from the water which drained
into the pit down the passages. On the following day we contrived a
bridge of two beams to cross the pit by, and found the little
aperture to be an opening forced through a wall, which had entirely
closed the entrance, and which had been plastered over and painted,
so as to give the appearance of the tomb having ended at the pit, and
of there having been nothing beyond it. The rope in the inside of the
wall, having been preserved from the damp, did not fall to pieces,
and the wood to which it was attached was in good preservation. When
we had passed through the little aperture, we found ourselves in a
beautiful hall, twenty-seven feet six inches by twenty-five feet ten
inches, in which were four pillars, three feet square. At the end of
this room, which I shall call the entrance hall, and opposite the
aperture, is a large door, from which three steps lead down into a
chamber with two pillars, four feet square, the chamber being
twenty-eight by twenty-five feet; the walls were covered with
figures, which, though in outline only, were as fine and perfect as
if drawn only the day before. On the left of the aperture a large
staircase of eighteen steps, descended from the entrance-hall into a
corridor, thirty-six feet by seven wide; and we perceived that the
paintings became more perfect as we advanced further; the figures are
painted on a white ground, and highly varnished. At the end of this
ten steps led us into another, seventeen feet by eleven, through
which we entered a chamber, twenty feet by fourteen, adorned in the
most splendid manner by _basso-relievos_, painted like the rest.
Standing in this chamber, the spectator sees himself surrounded by
representations of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Proceeding
further, we entered another large hall, twenty-eight feet square,
with two rows of pillars, three on each side, in a line with the
walls of the corridors; at each side is a small chamber, each about
ten or eleven feet square. At the end of this hall we found a large
saloon, with an arched roof or ceiling, thirty-two feet by
twenty-seven; on the right was a small chamber, roughly cut, and
obviously left unfinished; and on the left there is another, twenty
six by twenty-three feet, with two pillars in it. It had a projection
of three feet all round it, possibly intended to contain the articles
necessary for the funeral ceremonies; the whole was beautifully
painted like the rest. At the same end of the room we entered by a
large door into another chamber, forty-three feet by seventeen, with
four pillars in it, one of which had fallen down; it was covered with
white plaster where the rock did not cut smoothly, but there were no
paintings in it. We found the carcass of a bull embalmed with
asphaltum, and also, scattered in various places, an immense quantity
of small wooden figures of mummies, six or eight inches long, and
covered with asphaltum to preserve them; there were some others of
fine baked earth, coloured blue, and highly varnished. On each side
of the two little rooms were some wooden statues, standing erect,
four feet high, with a circular hollow inside, as if to contain a
roll of papyrus, which I have no doubt they once did. In the centre
of the saloon was a SARCOPHAGUS of the finest oriental alabaster,
nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven wide; it is only two
inches thick, and consequently transparent when a light is held
within it; it is minutely sculptured, both inside and out, with
several hundred figures, not exceeding two inches in length,
representing, as I suppose, the whole of the funeral procession and
ceremonies relating to the deceased. The cover had been taken out,
and we found it broken in several pieces in digging before the first
entrance: this sarcophagus was over a staircase in the centre of the
saloon, which communicated with a subterraneous passage, leading
downwards, three hundred feet in length. At the end of this we found
a great quantity of bats’ dung, which choked it up, so that we could
go no further without digging; it was also nearly filled up by the
falling in of the upper part. One hundred feet from the entrance is a
staircase, in good preservation, but the rock below changes its
substance. This passage proceeds in a south-west direction through
the mountain. I measured the distance from the entrance, and also the
rocks above, and found that the passage reaches nearly half-way
through the mountain to the upper part of the valley. I have reason
to suppose that this passage was used as another entrance; but this
could not be after the person was buried there; for, at the bottom of
the stairs, under the sarcophagus, a wall had been built, which
entirely closed this communication; hence it should appear, that this
tomb had been opened again with violence, after all the precautions
mentioned had been taken to conceal the existence of the greater part
of it; and as these had been carefully and skilfully done, it is
probable that the intruder must have had a guide who was acquainted
with the place.”

The rich alabaster sarcophagus, mentioned above, is now in the Soane Museum, Lincoln’s-inn-fields, London, and remains altogether unrivalled in beauty and curiosity. How it came there is thus described by Sir John Soane:—

“This marvellous effort of human industry and perseverance is
supposed to be at least three thousand years old. It is of one piece
of alabaster, between nine and ten feet in length, and is considered
of pre-eminent interest, not only as a work of human skill and
labour, but as illustrative of the customs, arts, religion, and
government of a very ancient and learned people. The surface of this
monument is covered externally and internally with hieroglyphics,
comprehending a written, language, which it is to be hoped the labour
of modern literati will one day render intelligible. With no
inconsiderable expense and difficulty this unique monument was
transferred from Egypt to England, and placed in the British Museum,
to the trustees of which it was offered for two thousand pounds.
After which negotiation, the idea of purchasing it for our national
collection was relinquished; when it was offered to me at the same
price, which offer I readily accepted, and shortly after I had the
pleasure of seeing this splendid relic of Egyptian magnificence
safely deposited in a conspicuous part of my museum.”

“On entering the sepulchral chamber,” says a writer, giving an
account of the Soane collection, “notwithstanding intense anxiety to
behold a work so unique and so celebrated as the Belzoni
sarcophagus, I confess that the place in which this monument of
antiquity is situated became the overpowering attraction. Far above,
and on every side, were concentrated the most precious relics of
architecture and sculpture, disposed so happily as to offer the charm
of novelty, the beauty of picturesque design, and that sublimity
resulting from a sense of veneration, due to the genius and the
labours of the ‘mighty dead.’ The light admitted from the dome
appeared to descend with a discriminating effect, pouring its
brightest beams on those objects most calculated to benefit by its
presence.

“The more,” says the same writer, speaking of the sarcophagus itself,
“we contemplate this interesting memorial of antiquity and regal
magnificence, the more our sense of its value rises in the mind. We
consider the beauty and scarcity of the material, its transparency,
the rich and mellow hue, the largeness of the original block, the
adaptation of its form to the purpose, which was unquestionably to
receive a body inclosed in numerous wrappings, and doubly cased,
according to the custom of the Egyptians. We then examine the carving
of innumerable figures, doubting not that the history of a life
fraught with the most striking events is here recorded; gaze on the
beautiful features of the female form sculptured at the bottom of the
sarcophagus, and conclude it to be that of the goddess Isis, the
elongated eye and the delicate foot closely resembling those drawings
of her, given by the learned Montfaucon; and repeat the exclamation
of Belzoni, when he declared that the day on which he found this
treasure was the happiest of his life.

“Viewed by lamp-light, the effect of this chamber is still more
impressive; for, seen by this medium, every surrounding object,
however admirable in itself, becomes subservient to the sarcophagus.
The ancient, the splendid, the wonderful sarcophagus is before us,
and all else are but accessories to its dignity and grandeur. A
mingled sense of awe, admiration, and delight pervades our faculties,
and is even oppressive in its intensity, yet endearing in its
associations.”

In respect to the tomb, in which this splendid monument was discovered, Belzoni, on his arrival in England, constructed and exhibited a perfect facsimile of it, which many of our readers will, doubtless, remember having seen.

“The ‘Tombs of the Kings,’ as their name implies[268], are the
sepulchres in which are deposited the earthly remains of the ancient
Egyptian monarchs who reigned at Thebes; they are called by some
_Babor_, or _Biban el Molook_—a traditional appellation, signifying
the Gate or Gates of the Kings, which is by others applied to the
narrow gorge at the entrance of the valley in which they are
situated. This valley, as Champollion remarks, ‘is the veritable
abode of death; not a blade of grass, or a living being is to be
found there, with the exception of jackals and hyænas, who, at a
hundred paces from our residence, devoured last night the ass which
had served to carry my servant Barabba Mohammed, whilst his keeper
was agreeably passing the night of Ramazan in our kitchen, which is
established in a royal tomb entirely ruined.’

“It would be unnecessary, were it possible, to give a detailed
account of these tombs, or of the sculptures which they contain, and
of which our interpretation is very limited, because they often refer
to Egyptian mysteries of which we have but a scanty knowledge. The
tomb, which of all others stands pre-eminently conspicuous, as well
for the beauty of its sculptures as the state of its preservation, is
undoubtedly that discovered and opened by Belzoni. It has been
deprived within a few years of one of its chief ornaments. ‘I have
not forgotten,’ says Champollion, in his twenty-second letter, ‘the
Egyptian Museum of the Louvre in my explorations; I have gathered
monuments of all sizes, and the smallest will not be found the least
interesting. Of the larger class I have selected, out of thousands,
three or four mummies remarkable for peculiar decorations, or having
Greek inscriptions; and next, the most beautiful coloured bas-relief
in the royal tomb of Menephtha the First (Ousirei), at
Biban-el-Molouk; it is a capital specimen, of itself worth a whole
collection: it has caused me much anxiety, and will certainly
occasion me a dispute with the English at Alexandria, who claim to be
the lawful proprietors of the tomb of Ousirei, discovered by Belzoni
at the expense of Mr. Salt. In spite, however, of this fine
pretension, one of two things shall happen; either my bas-relief
shall reach Toulon, or it shall go to the bottom of the sea, or the
bottom of the Nile, rather than fall into the hands of others; my
mind is made up on that point!’”