The glory of the PharaohsWeigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
History
The glory of the Pharaohs
Weigall, Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome)
Egypt -- Antiquities
which presumably ran into the cliff from somewhere inside this area, was
situated at that end. The next few weeks were occupied in the tedious
task of probing the sand hereabouts, and at length in clearing it away
altogether down to the surface of the underlying rock. Nothing was
found, however; and sadly we turned to the exact middle of the court,
and began to work slowly to the foot of the cliff. Here, in the very
middle of the back wall, a pillared chamber was found, and it seemed
certain that the entrance to the tomb would now be discovered.
The best men were placed to dig out this chamber, and the excavator--it
was many years ago--went about his work with the weight of fame upon his
shoulders and an expression of intense mystery upon his sorely
sun-scorched face. How clearly memory recalls the letter home that
week, “We are on the eve of a great discovery”; and how vividly rises
the picture of the baking desert sand into which the sweating workmen
were slowly digging their way! But our hopes were short-lived, for it
very soon became apparent that there was no tomb entrance in this part
of the enclosure. There remained the north end of the area, and on to
this all the available men were turned. Deeper and deeper they dug their
way, until the mounds of sand thrown out formed, as it were, the lip of
a great crater. At last, some forty or fifty feet down, the underlying
rock was struck, and presently the mouth of a great shaft was exposed
leading down into the bowels of the earth. The royal tomb had at last
been discovered, and it only remained to effect an entrance. The days
were now filled with excitement, and, the thoughts being concentrated on
the question of the identity of the royal occupant of the tomb, it was
soon fixed in our minds that we were about to enter the burial-place of
no less a personage than the great Pharaoh Senusert III. (Sesostris),
the same king whose jewels were found at Dachour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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