ABSTRACT
THE cemetery of Thebes is situated upon the left bank of the Nile, in a detached chain of the Libyan mountains' which ends exactly opposite the great temple of Amen." The principal height is hewn perpendicularly, and is pierced by deep valleys in eyery direction; it is preceded by a range of sandy hills, separated from each other by ravines. When Thebes was still a small city the inhabitants buried their dead in the small mound nearest to the stream. As it became more populous the necropolis increased in size, and, growing towards the west, filled the valley of Dayr~el-Bahari. Since then it has been perpetually enlarged towards the south-west, and every height, every turn of the land, has been gradually invaded by the hypogea. Now it is really a city of the dead, that extends some distance from the Nile, as a pendant to that of the living, and that, like it, has its rich quarters, its districts for the
poor, its palaces and chapels. Some fifteen small pyramids still standing upon the ridge of Drah-abou'lN eggah mark the spot where the Pharaohs of the eleventh and twelfth dynasties repose, surrounded by the highest officials of their court. Amenophis I. and his mother, N efertari, are placed at the entrance of HI Assassif, and there receive a solemn worship which renders them the protecting divinities of the canton. Thothmes II, Thothmes III., and their sister, Hatshepset, sleep beneath the terraces of Dayr-el-Bahari. The less-known Pharaohs, princes who have not reigned,. princesses of the blood royal, the great officials of thecrown, statesmen, generals, and administrators of the past divide the interval, almost grouped by epochs. The traveller, carefully visiting the whole district, sees the history of Theban Egypt gradually unrolled before: him, illustrated by the tombs of those who made it.
