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 century 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.