ault. Texts, tableaux, all thereon depicted, treat of the
life of the Soul, and of its salvation in the world to come.

At Thebes, as at Memphis, the royal tombs are those which it is most
necessary to study, in order to estimate the high degree of perfection to
which the decoration of passages and sepulchral chambers was now carried.
The most ancient were situated either in the plain or on the southern
slopes of the western mountain; and of these, no remains are extant. The
mummies of Amenhotep I., and Thothmes III., of Sekenenra, and Aahhotep have
survived the dwellings of solid stone designed for their protection.
Towards the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, however, all the best places
were taken up, and some unoccupied site in which to establish a new royal
cemetery had to be sought. At first they went to a considerable distance,
namely, to the end of the valley (known as the Western Valley), which
opens from near Drah Abu'l Neggeh. Amenhotep III., Ai, and perhaps others,
were there buried. Somewhat later, they preferred to draw nearer to the
city of the living. Behind the cliff which forms the northern boundary of
the plain of Thebes, there lay a kind of rocky hollow closed in on every
side, and accessible from the outer world by only a few perilous paths. It
divides into two branches, which cross almost at right angles. One branch
turns to the south-east, while the other, which again divides into
secondary branches, turns to the south-west. Westward rises a mountain
which recalls upon a gigantic scale the outline of the great step-pyramid
of Sakkarah (fig. 137). The Egyptian engineers of the time observed that
this hollow was separated from the ravine of Amenhotep III. by a mere
barrier some 500 cubits in thickness. In this there was nothing to dismay
such practised miners. They therefore cut a trench some fifty or sixty
cubits deep through the solid rock, at the end of which a narrow passage
opens like a gateway into the hidden valley beyond. Was it in the time of
Horemheb, or during the reign of Rameses I., that this gigantic work was
accomplished? Rameses I. is, at all events, the earliest king whose tomb
has as yet been found in this spot. His son, Seti I., then his grandson,
Rameses II., came hither to rest beside him. The Ramesside Pharaohs
followed one after the other. Herhor may perhaps have been the last of the
series. These crowded catacombs caused the place to be called "The Valley
of the Tombs of the K