“It is a sarcophagus,” says the lucky discoverer, “of the finest Oriental alabaster, 9 feet 5 inches long, and 3 feet 7 inches wide. Its thickness is only 2 inches; and it is transparent, when a light is placed in the inside of it. It is minutely sculptured within and without with several hundred figures, which do not exceed 2 inches in height.... I cannot give an idea of this beautiful and invaluable piece of antiquity, and can only say that nothing has been brought into Europe from Egypt that can be compared with it.” He was not far wrong in his enthusiastic estimate of the artistic value of his find, as anyone who has seen the exquisite piece of carving in the Soane Museum will admit. The fame of Belzoni’s discovery was not long in reaching the ears of the Turkish officials, and ere long the chief local authority, Hamed Aga of Keneh, appeared upon the scene with a troop of cavalry, having been so eager over the find that he had made the journey in thirty-six hours instead of forty-eight. It was no love for antiquity, however, which had brought him. All the artistic wonders of the tomb were lost on him and his following; but they ransacked every corner of the tomb with great eagerness. After a long search the Aga dismissed his soldiers, and turning to Belzoni, he revealed the true object of his anxiety. “Pray, where have you put the treasure?” he said. Belzoni’s denial of the existence of any such thing was met with an incredulous smile. “I have been told,” said this characteristic specimen of Turkish officialdom, “by a person to whom I can give credit, that you have found in this place a large golden cock filled with diamonds and pearls. I must see it. Where is it?” The explorer at length succeeded in convincing the Aga that there was nothing to lay hands on, and with supreme disgust he rose to leave the tomb. Belzoni asked him what he thought of the beautiful figures which surrounded him. “He just gave a glance at them, quite unconcerned, and said, ‘This would be a good place for a harem, as the women would have something to look at.’” Thirty years later, Layard’s experience of the Turkish official was almost identical with that of Belzoni. Forty-two years elapsed before anything of importance was added to our knowledge of the buried royalties of Egypt. It was in 1859 the beautiful jewellery of Queen Aah-hotep was rescued by Mariette from the hands of the worthy successor of Hamed Aga, as has already been told. But it was not till 1881 that there occurred the first of those amazing resurrections of the Theban Pharaohs which since then have been repeated on several occasions, culminating with the discovery of the most splendid of all royal burials in the tomb of Tutankhamen.