in one or other of the branches of the Bab
el-Moluk valley, the plan of construction which they chose was an exact
copy of that employed by the Memphites and earlier Thebans, and they
hollowed out for themselves in the mountain-side a burying-place on the
same lines as those formerly employed within the pyramidal structure.
The relative positions of the tunnelled tombs along the valley were not
determined by any order of rank or of succession to the throne; each
Pharaoh after Ramses I. set to work on that part of the rock where the
character of the stone favoured his purpose, and displayed so little
respect for his predecessors, that the workmen, after having tunnelled
a gallery, were often obliged to abandon it altogether, or to change the
direction of their excavations so as to avoid piercing a neighbouring
tomb. The architect's design was usually a mere project which could be
modified at will, and, which he did not feel bound to carry out with
fidelity; the actual measurements of the tomb of Ramses IV. are almost
everywhere at variance with the numbers and arrangement of the working
drawing of it which has been preserved to us in a papyrus. The general
disposition of the royal tombs, however, is far from being complicated;
we have at the entrance the rectangular door, usually surmounted by the
sun, represented by a yellow disk, before which the sovereign kneels
with his hands raised in the posture of adoration; this gave access to
a passage sloping gently downwards, and broken here and there by a level
landing and steps, leading to a first chamber of varying amplitude, at
the further end of which a second passage opened which descended to one
or more apartments, the last of which, contained the coffin. The oldest
rock-tombs present some noteworthy exceptions to this plan, particularly
those of Seti I. and Ramses III.; but from the time of Ramses IV., there
is no difference to be remarked in them except in the degree of finish
of the wall-paintings or in the length of the passages. The shortest of
the latter extends some fifty-two feet into the rock, while the longest
never exceeds three hundred and ninety feet. The same artifices
which had been used by the pyramid-builders to defeat the designs of
robbers--false mummy-pits, painted and sculptured walls built across
passages, stairs concealed under a movable stone in the corner of a
chamber--were also employed by the Theban engineers. The decoration of
the walls was su