ntury that the passage in question had been made by human
agency. I attribute the execution of this work to Ramses I.,
as I believe Harmhabi to have been buried in the eastern
valley, near Amenothes III.

It is not known whether this herculean work was accomplished during the
reign of Harnhabi or in that of Ramses I. The latter was the first of
the Pharaohs to honour the spot by his presence. His tomb is simple,
almost coarse in its workmanship, and comprises a gentle inclined
passage, a vault and a sarcophagus of rough stone. That of Seti, on the
contrary, is a veritable palace, extending to a distance of 325 feet
into the mountain-side. It is entered by a wide and lofty door, which
opens on to a staircase of twenty-seven steps, leading to an inclined
corridor; other staircases of shallow steps follow with their landings;
then come successively a hypostyle hall, and, at the extreme end, a
vaulted chamber, all of which are decorated with mysterious scenes
and covered with inscriptions. This is, however, but the first storey,
containing the antechambers of the dead, but not their living-rooms. A
passage and steps, concealed under a slab to the left of the hall, lead
to the real vault, which held the mummy and its funerary furniture.
As we penetrate further and further by the light of torches into this
subterranean abode, we see that the walls are covered with pictures and
formulae, setting forth the voyages of the soul through the twelve hours
of the night, its trials, its judgment, its reception by the departed,
and its apotheosis--all depicted on the rock with the same perfection
as that which characterises the bas-reliefs on the finest slabs of Turah
stone at Qurnah and Abydos. A gallery leading out of the last of
these chambers extends a few feet further and then stops abruptly; the
engineers had contemplated the excavation of a third storey to the tomb,
when the death of their master obliged them to suspend their task.
The king's sarcophagus consists of a block of alabaster, hollowed
out, polished, and carved with figures and hieroglyphs, with all the
minuteness which we associate with the cutting of a gem.

[Illustration: 184.jpg ONE OF THE PILLARS OF THE TOMB OF SETI I.]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in
1884.

It contained a wooden coffin, shaped to the human figure and painted
white, the features picked out in black, and enamel eyes inserted in
a mounting of