passages to the right, running in the same direction for 122 feet, in which, to the left, is a large square space sixty feet each way, with other rooms adjoining, the interior of which, on the four sides, is ornamented like a monstrous sarcophagus. In the middle, under this great square, rests the sarcophagus of the dead, which one, however, can only reach by means of a sunken pit of eighteen feet deep, which reaches to the fourth suite, by a horizontal passage of fifty-eight feet, to a third pit; through this to new rooms, and at last through the roof of the last to another room, containing the sarcophagus, which really lies exactly under the centre of the above described square. The whole surface of this private tomb is reckoned at 21,600 feet, and with the pit-room 23,148 square feet.[98] This immense work appears much more colossal when one recollects that all the walls, pillars, and doors from top to bottom are covered with innumerable inscriptions and representations, which, from the carefulness, exactitude, and elegance of the execution, throw one into ever-increasing astonishment. Much less important are the few remains to be found of the later foreign dominion. Of these there are only two small temples in the neighbourhood of Medînet Habu, erected under the Ptolemies, and a third may be mentioned, which lies to the south, at the end of the great lake of Medînet Habu. The oldest sculptures in this last temple are of the time of Cæsar Augustus; but the well-preserved cell of Antoninus Pius was already built at that time. The outer door of this temple contains the only representation yet found of the Emperor Otho, the discovery of which afforded an immense pleasure to Champollion and Rosellini. They, however, overlooked the circumstance that on the opposite side the name of the Emperor Galba was to be found, till then unknown in Egypt. So soon as the time of Strabo, ancient Thebes was already divided into several villages, and Germanicus visited it as we do, out of a desire for knowledge, and respect for the great antiquity of its monuments, “cognoscendæ antiquitatis,” as Tacitus informs us. Decius, A.D. 250, is the Emperor’s name, which I have found mentioned in hieroglyphics in all Egypt; it appears in a representation in the temple of Esneh. A century later the holy Athanasius retired into the Theban desert, among the Christian Hermits. The edict of Theodosius against heathendom, A.D. 391, deprived the Egyptian temples of their last authority, and favoured that of the monks and hermits, before whom, from that time, Egyptian Christendom bowed down.