Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/380

290 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. the Pharaoh whom the Greeks called Memnon, reached the latter height. Flayed, mutilated, dishonoured as they have been, these gigantic statues are still in place. They should be seen in autumn and from a little distance as they raise their solitary and imposing masses above the inundated plain, when their size and the simplicity of their lines will have an effect upon the traveller which he will never forget (Fig. 20, and Plate vi.). In the royal tombs at Thebes, as in those at Memphis, the approach to the mummy-chamber is not by a well, but by an inclined plane. The only wells which have been discovered in the tombs of the Bab-el- Molouk are, if we may use the term, false wells, ingeniously contrived to throw any would-be violator off the right scent. We have already mentioned one of these false wells as existing in the tomb of Seti. In the pyramids the corridor yhich leads to the mummy-chamber is sometimes an ascending plane, but in the Theban tomb it is always descending. At the end of the long descent the mummy- chamber is reached with its sarcophagus, generally a very simple one of red granite, which has hitherto, in every instance, been found empty. It is doubtful whether the sarcophagus-chamber was closed by a door or not. It is known that tombs were sometimes thus closed ; some of the doors have been found in place," and in a few of the texts mention is made of doors,- but not the slightest vestige of one has yet been discovered in the royal sepulchres at Thebes. " All the doorways have sills and grooved jambs, as if they had been closed, but no trace of hinges or of the leaves of a door itself have been found." ^ It is possible that they were never put in place. The exact and accurate spirit which marks all the work of Egyptian artists would lead them to prepare for the placing of a door at the entrance to each chamber ; but at the same time it is obvious that a few panels of sycamore would do little to stop the progress of any one who should attempt to violate the royal sepulchre. This latter consideration may ^ One was found in a Theban tomb opened by Rhind (Thebes, &:c., pp. 94 and 95). In the tomb of Ti easily recognized traces of a door were found (B.t:DEKER, Unter ^gyptefi, p. 405) ; nothing but a new door was required to put the opening in its ancient state. 2 See one of the great inscriptions at Beni-Hassan, interpreted by M. Maspero {Recueil, etc. vol. i. p. 168). 3 Description de VEgypte, {A?itiquitts, vol. iii. p. 35).