Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/29

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
EGYPT AND THE BIBLE
21

discovery is due to the acute research of Miss Amelia B. Edwards, one of the Honorary Secretaries of the Egypt Exploration Fund), the other, the hinder half, being in the possession of the Museum of the Louvre at Paris. The Prince of Wales' papyrus was written for a queen, Notem Maut, related to the great priest-king of the twenty-first dynasty, Her-Hor—possibly his wife, but more probably his mother. Another, and a remarkably fine papyrus, was bought by Colonel Campbell in 1876, for the large sum of £400. The latter had evidently been obtained from the mummy of the High Priest Pinotem, descendant of Her-Hor. The coincidence was striking, and led Professor Maspero to the conclusion that a tomb of the priest-kings was in the possession of the Arabs of the district of Thebes, a class of persons who live in the tombs, and gain a living out of the produce of their search. Suspicion quickly pointed to the parties implicated. The chief, Ahmed Ab-der-Rassoul, one of five brothers engaged in the traffic of antikas (antiques), was arrested, and shortly afterwards another of the brothers made a confession and conducted the authorities to the hiding-place in which all these treasures were concealed.

"Near the site of an old temple, known as Deir el-Bahari, at the foot of a rugged mass of precipitous rock, so hidden from view that it might be passed by a hundred times without being seen, was a perpendicular shaft, 35 feet deep, and 6 feet in diameter. At the bottom of the shaft, in its western corner, was an opening a little more than 2 feet high and 5 feet wide, the entrance of a narrow passage tunnelled in the rock. This passage or tunnel led due west for 25 feet, and then turned abruptly to the north for 200 feet, ending in an oblong chamber 260 feet long, the entire length of the tunnel being nearly 500 feet. Throughout the whole of this extensive area the floor was encumbered with coffins and funereal gear, packed together so closely that for some distance it was necessary to crawl