the west bank of the Nile (which
was the common burial-place of the people), and the Tombs of the Kings.
The latter lie to the northwest of the city, at some distance in the
Desert. Having passed the Necropolis, the traveler enters a narrow and
rugged valley, flanked with perpendicular rocks, and ascending a narrow,
steep passage about ten feet high, which seems to have been broken down
through the rock, the ancient passage being from the Memnonium under the
hills, he comes to a kind of amphitheatre about 100 yards wide, which is
called Bab-il-Meluke--that is, the gate or court of the kings--being the
sepulchres of the kings of Thebes. In this court there are signs of
about eighteen excavations; but only nine can be entered. The hills on
each side are high, steep rocks, and the whole plain is covered with
rough stones that seem to have rolled down from them.

The grottos present externally no other ornaments than a door in a
simple square frame, with an oval in the centre of the upper part, on
which are inscribed the hieroglyphical figures of a beetle, a man with a
hawk's head, and beyond the circle two figures on their knees, in the
act of adoration. Having passed the first gate, long arched galleries
are discovered, about twelve feet wide and twenty feet high, cased with
stucco, sculptured and painted; the vaults, of an elegant elliptical
figure, are covered with innumerable hieroglyphics, disposed with so
much taste, that notwithstanding the singular grotesqueness of the
forms, and the total absence of demi-tint or aerial perspective, the
ceilings make an agreeable whole, a rich and harmonious association of
colors. Four of five of these galleries, one within the other, generally
lead to a spacious room, containing the sarcophagus of the king,
composed of a single block of granite, about twelve feet long by eight
in breadth, ornamented with hieroglyphics, both within and without; they
are square at one end, and rounded at the other, like the splendid
sarcophagus deposited in the British Museum, and supposed by Dr. Clarke
to have contained the body of Alexander. They are covered with a lid of
the same material, and of enormous thickness, shutting with a groove;
but neither this precaution, nor these vast blocks of stone, brought
from such a distance with immense labor, have been able to preserve the
relics of the sovereigns from the attempts of avarice; all these tombs
have been violated. The figure of the king appear