With the French siege and the flight of the native population closes the last chapter of the local history of Philæ. The holy island has done henceforth with wars of creeds or kings. It disappears from the domain of history and enters the domain of science. To have contributed to the discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet is a high distinction; and in no sketch of Philæ, however slight, should the obelisk[64] that furnished Champollion with the name of Cleopatra be allowed to pass unnoticed. This monument, second only to the Rosetta stone in point of philological interest, was carried off by Mr. W. Bankes, the discoverer of the first tablet of Abydos, and is now in Dorsetshire. Its empty socket and its fellow obelisk, mutilated and solitary, remain _in situ_ at the southern extremity of the island. And now--for we have lingered over long in the portico--it is time we glanced at the interior of the temple. So we go in at the central door, beyond which opens some nine or ten halls and side-chambers leading, as usual, to the sanctuary. Here all is dark, earthly, oppressive. In rooms unlighted by the faintest gleam from without, we find smoke-blackened walls covered with elaborate bas-reliefs. Mysterious passages, pitch-dark, thread the thickness of the walls and communicate by means of trap-like openings with vaults below. In the sanctuary lies an overthrown altar; while in the corner behind it stands the very niche in which Strabo must have seen that poor, sacred hawk of Ethiopia which he describes as “sick and nearly dead.” But in this temple dedicated not only to Isis, but to the memory of Osiris and the worship of Horus their son, there is one chamber which we may be quite sure was shown neither to Strabo nor Diodorus, nor to any stranger of alien faith, be his repute or station what it might; a chamber holy above all others; holier even than the sanctuary--the chamber sacred to Osiris. We, however, unrestricted, unforbidden, are free to go where we list; and our books tell us that this mysterious chamber is somewhere overhead. So, emerging once again into the daylight, we go up a well-worn staircase leading out upon the roof. This roof is an intricate, up-and-down place, and the room is not easy to find. It lies at the bottom of a little flight of steps--a small stone cell some twelve feet square, lighted only from the doorway. The walls are covered with sculptures representing the shrines, the mummification and the resurrection of Osiris.[65] These shrines, containing [Illustration] some part of his body, are variously fashioned. His head, for instance, rests on a nilometer; his arm, surmounted by a head, is sculptured on a stela, in shape resembling a [Illustration]