Of the grave of Ramses II. but few chambers have as yet been opened.[249] The grave of his son Menephta presents nothing more than a picture referring to the under world. Beside Menephta, Amenmessu (p. 162) and Menephta's son, Sethos II., found their resting places in these rocks, which also conceal Menephta II. (p. 163). The grave of Sethos II. is distinguished by paintings and sculptures. The sarcophagus of red granite is intended to exhibit on the lid the image of the king, but this remained unfinished.[250] The grave of Ramses III. comes nearest to that of Sethos I. in size and splendour of adornment. Galleries following one upon the other, on the side of which are small chambers, lead to a large portico in which rests the sarcophagus. The sculptures in these chambers exhibit scenes of court life, of agriculture, of the banquet, musicians, boats, and weapons; those of the galleries and the portico represent scenes of the under world and existence beyond the grave. The grave of Ramses IV., far smaller and incomplete, still contains the shattered sarcophagus of granite.[251] On the other hand, the tomb of Ramses V., one of the most handsome, displays on the arching of the roof of the great portico, where the sarcophagus stood, the outstretched form of the goddess of the sky, in which are enclosed the stars. On the walls are depicted the fortunes of the soul in the next world, and the king in the boat of the sun-god. These representations of the judgment in the under-world, which recur perpetually in the tombs at Biban-el-Moluk, and of the life to come, are wholly unknown to the pyramids and the tombs surrounding them, the burying-places of the ancient kingdom. FOOTNOTES: [234] Diod. 1, 45; Strabo, p. 816. [235] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 256; Mariette, "Revue Arch." 1860, 2, 21; _cf. supra_, p. 23, 56. [236] Lepsius, _loc. cit._ s. 273, 274. [237] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 286; "Denkmale aus Ægypten und Nubien," 1, 2, 7, 82; Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 161. [238] Rosell. "Monum. Stor." 1, 123, 136. [239] Champollion, "Lettres," p. 263-283; Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," pp. 163-165. [240] Diod. 1, 47-49. [241] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 151. [242] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 112-115, 263, 403, 414. [243] As this statue bears on the right shoulder the shield Ra Apepi, or Apepa, it has been thought to be the statue of the shepherd king Apepi (p. 130). Lepsius regards it as a statue of Ramses II.--"Königsbuch," s. 44. [244] Brugsch, Hist. d'Egypte, pp. 197, 198. [245] Strabo, p. 816, puts the number of the royal sepulchres at forty. Diodorus, on the authority of the sacred records, speaks of forty-seven graves. At the time of Ptolemy I. only seventeen were in existence (Diod. 1, 46), and of these, at the time when Diodorus travelled in Egypt, the greater part were destroyed. Lepsius gives twenty-five graves of kings, and fifteen graves of the wives of the kings ("Briefe," s. 270). [246] Brugsch, "Reiseberichte," s. 324.