The largest of the tombs now accessible is that of Petamenap, a Royal Scribe. It is entered by a sunken court, 103 feet in length by 76. This was once surrounded by a wall, in which was a lofty gateway, the two sides of which are still standing. This court leads to a large hall, which is the commencement of a long series of galleries, apartments, and side chambers—all excavated in the solid rock. Omitting the side chambers, and measuring only the galleries and apartments they passed through, the excavations of this single tomb extend to a length of 862 feet. The area excavated amounts to nearly 24,000 square feet, or an acre and a quarter. These are Sir Gardiner Wilkinson’s measurements, which have been accepted by Lepsius, who also himself carefully inspected the tomb. The whole of the wall-space gained by these excavations, which are actually more than one-third of a mile in length, is covered throughout with most carefully-executed sculptures, in the most elaborate style of Egyptian art. It is worth noticing that this tomb of a private individual exceeds in dimensions, costliness, and magnificence all the royal tombs—of course, excepting the Great Pyramids—with which we are acquainted. We may infer, from the costliness of these tombs, and from the length of time it must have taken to excavate and adorn them, that the Egypt of the time to which they belong, was a wisely-ordered kingdom, in which, to a very considerable extent, not the arbitrary caprice of kings and governors, but law was supreme. At that time the scene of such a history as that of Naboth could not have been in Egypt. It must for long ages have been, in the very important matter of a man’s doing what he pleased with his own, in a very unoriental condition. This tomb of Petamenap, and thousands of others, more or less like it, could only have been constructed where, and when, subjects may acquire great wealth, and display it with safety. We may also infer, from the size of the city under the new monarchy, and the wealth of its inhabitants, from their mode of living, their tastes and pursuits, and from the state of the arts which ministered to the convenience and adornment of their lives—upon all of which points this Necropolis gives inexhaustible, and absolutely truthful evidence; that a great part of the wealth of Thebes was drawn from precisely the same source as that of Belgravia—that is, from the rent of the land.