Lybian Suburb.—To see the tomb of the kings, one night should be passed in the valley of Biban el Melook; but the entrance of one of the excavations affords sufficient accommodation. That of Belzoni is usually preferred.
Belzoni's tomb (that of Osirien, whose conquests are de picted on the north side of the great temple of Karnak) is the most magnificent; next to that, the tomb of Rameses III. is the most interesting. It is near an angle of the rock, and will be readily distinguished by the recesses on either side of the principal shaft. These little cabinets contain some exceedingly curious sculptures or paintings, and it is from one of them that Bruce drew his harp scene.
The tombs of the queens are in a separate valley, to the west of Mehdenet Habor.
At Goorneh (old Goorneh) is the palace of Osirien. In the Aposiet are some remains of a very ancient temple, of which a portion is cut in the rock,—an arch (not masonic) very similar to those of Abydus. Between the Aposiet and the Memnonium are many tombs deserving attention.
The Memnonium (now perhaps more properly called the Rameseion, i.e., "Rameseseion," the "house of Rameses") is the most uniform and elegant of Egyptian structures. Pay particular attention to all the battle scenes, to the immense statue of Rameses II., supposed to have weighed nearly a thousand tons, to the circumstance of the bases of the columns of the hepastyle being made seats—to a very remarkable sculpture at the western extremity of the hall—to the private apartments which follow—the Pharaoh seated in the sacred Persia—the next apartment, supposed to be the library—traces of gilding on the doorways, &c.
The Colossi in the Plain.—Of these the northern one is the vocal statue of the ancients. It is of Amunoph III., the founder of Luxor, who reigned in the 15th century, B.C. Wilkinson discovered the means of deception; a stone, which, when struck, produces a sound similar to that described by Strabo or Pausanias, is still to be found in the lap. The other statue bears the same cartouches, and both are supposed by Wilkinson to have stood at the commencement of a dromio or avenue of the sphinxes running nearly twelve hundred feet towards an indistinct mass of buildings now called Kom el Hattan. Champollion and some architects suppose that they stood before a propylon.
Mehdenet Habor.—A temple-palace, a private palace or harem, and a temple. The harem is very interesting, but partly destroyed. It consists principally of a pavilion in advance of the palace, and in it are some curious sculptures, among which the king is represented playing chess with his ladies. A ladder is necessary.
The great temple-palace is remarkable not only for its architecture, but for the sculptures representing the conquests of Rameses III. (about the 13th century, B.C.) These are particularly remarkable in the hypœtheral court, where there is exhibited, in the northern side, a magnificent pageant, the coronation of the Pharaoh. The whole exterior of the northern side of the building is covered with battle scenes. Among the heaps of hands poured out before the conqueror are lions' paws. There are also heaps of phalia.
The great lake, for the ceremonies of the dead (the hippodrome of the French savans), will be best distinguished from the top of the pavilion. There are several other remains, and tombs without number.
There is no trace, whatever, of a wall of circumvallation, though the crude brick enclosures of the temples still remain.