t to the cult of his father and of himself. Its pylon has altogether
disappeared, but the facade with lotus-bud columns is nearly perfect,
together with several of the chambers in front of the sanctuary. The
decoration is as carefully carried out and the execution as delicate as
that in the work at Abydos; we are tempted to believe from one or two
examples of it that the same hands have worked at both buildings.

[Illustration: 181.jpg THE TEMPLE OF QURNAH]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The rock-cut tomb is some distance away up in the mountain, but not
in the same ravine as that in which Amenothes III., Ai, and probably
Tutankhamon and Harmhabi, are buried.*

* There are, in fact, close to those of Ai and Amenothes
III., three other tombs, two at least of which have been
decorated with paintings, now completely obliterated, and
which may have served as the burying-places of Tutankhamon
and Harmhabi: the earlier Egyptologists believed them to
have been dug by the first kings of the XVIIIth dynasty.

There then existed, behind the rock amphitheatre of Deir el-Bahari, a
kind of enclosed basin, which could be reached from the plain only by
dangerous paths above the temple of Hatshopsitu. This basin is divided
into two parts, one of which runs in a south-easterly direction,
while the other trends to the south-west, and is subdivided into minor
branches. To the east rises a barren peak, the outline of which is not
unlike that of the step-pyramid of Saqqara, reproduced on a colossal
scale. No spot could be more appropriate to serve as a cemetery for a
family of kings. The difficulty of reaching it and of conveying thither
the heavy accessories and of providing for the endless processions of
the Pharaonic funerals, prevented any attempt being made to cut tombs
in it during the Ancient and Middle Empires. About the beginning of the
XIXth dynasty, however, some engineers, in search of suitable burial
sites, at length noticed that this basin was only separated from the
wady issuing to the north of Qurnah by a rocky barrier barely five
hundred cubits in width. This presented no formidable obstacle to such
skilful engineers as the Egyptians. They cut a trench into the living
rock some fifty or sixty cubits in depth, at the bottom of which they
tunnelled a narrow passage giving access to the valley.*

* French scholars recognised from the beginning of this
ce