the south-west edge of the terrace of Karnak, Ramses III. began to build a temple to the moon-god Chunsu, which was completed by Ramses IV.; and at Karnak itself, in the court before the great hall of Sethos I., he erected a smaller temple, cutting the southern portico of this temple at right angles, which he dedicated to "Ammon Ra, his father," to whom the whole sanctuary belonged.[244] As at Memphis, so also at Thebes, great care was taken for the dead. Not far from the city, in the first Libyan range of hills, which here rise 300 feet out of the plain, lie the tombs of the inhabitants of Thebes, running on into these hills for two hours' distance in an unbroken series of catacombs. The graves, and the passages which lead to them, are all hewn in the rock, sometimes to a considerable depth. Several rows of chambers lie one over the other. In the lower rows, where the richer class are buried, the chambers are larger and more handsome; those in the upper rows are simpler, smaller, and meaner. Staircases, straight or winding, connect these stories and chambers with each other. Galleries, gangways, and perpendicular shafts break the rows of excavations, and give to this city of the dead the features of an inextricable labyrinth. These catacombs, with their thousands of mummies, innumerable chambers full of papyrus rolls and amulets buried with the corpses, with their sculptures and frescoes on the walls and roofs, which are for the most part preserved in marvellous brilliancy and represent in the truest and most varied manner the occupation of every person buried there of the higher orders, are an almost inexhaustible source for the knowledge of the life and the habits of that distant time.