ings,"--a name which it retains to this day.

These tombs are not complete. Each had its chapel; but those chapels stood
far away in the plain, at Gurneh, at the Ramesseum, at Medinet Habu; and
they have already been described. The Theban rock, like the Memphite
pyramid, contained only the passages and the sepulchral chamber. During the
daytime, the pure Soul was in no serious danger; but in the evening, when
the eternal waters which flow along the vaulted heavens fall in vast
cascades adown the west and are engulfed in the bowels of the earth, the
Soul follows the bark of the Sun and its escort of luminary gods into a
lower world bristling with ambuscades and perils. For twelve hours, the
divine squadron defiles through long and gloomy corridors, where numerous
genii, some hostile, some friendly, now struggle to bar the way, and now
aid it in surmounting the difficulties of the journey. Great doors, each
guarded by a gigantic serpent, were stationed at intervals, and led to an
immense hall full of flame and fire, peopled by hideous monsters and
executioners whose office it was to torture the damned. Then came more dark
and narrow passages, more blind gropings in the gloom, more strife with
malevolent genii, and again the joyful welcoming of the propitious gods. At
midnight began the upward journey towards the eastern regions of the world;
and in the morning, having reached the confines of the Land of Darkness,
the sun emerged from the east to light another day. The tombs of the kings
were constructed upon the model of the world of night. They had their
passages, their doors, their vaulted halls, which plunged down into the
depths of the mountain. Their positions in the valley were determined by no
consideration of dynasty or succession.

[Illustration: Fig. 156.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.]

[Illustration: Fig. 157.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 158.--Plan of tomb of Seti I.]

Each king attacked the rock at any point where he might hope to find a
suitable bed of stone; and this was done with so little regard for his
predecessors, that the workmen were sometimes obliged to change the
direction of the excavation in order not to invade a neighbouring catacomb.
The designer's plan was a mere sketch, to be modified when necessary, and
which was by no means intended to be strictly carried out. Hence the plan
and measurement of the actual tomb of Rameses IV. (fig. 156) differ in th