2. Remains of a large temple, with caverns excavated in the rock. 3. The magnificent edifice styled the _palace of Memnon_. Some of the columns are about forty feet high, and about nine and a half in diameter. The columns and walls are covered with hieroglyphics. This stands at _Kourna_. 4. Behind the palace is the passage styled Bibân-el-Molûk, leading up the mountain. At the extremity of this passage, in the sides of the rock, are the celebrated caverns known as the sepulchres of the antient kings. Several of these sepulchres have been described by Pococke with sufficient minuteness; he has even given plans of them. But in conversation with persons at Assiût and in other parts of Egypt, I was always informed that they had not been discovered till within the last thirty years, when a son of Shech _Hamâm_, a very powerful chief of the Arabs, who governed all the South of Egypt from Achmîm to Nubia, caused four of them to be opened, in expectation of finding treasure. They had probably been rifled in very antient times; but how the memory of them should have been lost remains to be explained. One of those which I visited exactly answers Dr. Pococke’s description; but the other three appear materially different from any of his plans. It is therefore possible that some of those which he saw have been gradually closed up by the sand, and that the son of _Hamâm_ had discovered others. They are cut into the free-stone rock, in appearance upon one general plan, though differing in parts. First, a passage of some length; then a chamber; a continuation of the first passage turns abruptly to the right, where is the large sepulchral chamber, with a sarcophagus of red granite in the midst. In the second part of the passage of the largest are several cells or recesses on both sides. In these appear the chief paintings, representing the mysteries, which, as well as the hieroglyphics covering all the walls, are very fresh. I particularly observed the two harpers described by Bruce; but his engraved figures seem to be from memory. The French merchants at Kahira informed me that he brought with him two Italian artists; one was Luigi Balugani, a Bolognese, the other Zucci, a Florentine. On landing with my Greek servant at _Kourna_, no male inhabitants appeared, but two or three women were standing at the entrance of one of their dens. As we passed in quest of the Shech-el-belad, to request a guide, one of the women said in Arabic, “Are not you afraid of crocodiles?” I replied in the negative. She said emphatically, “We are crocodiles;” and proceeded to depict her own people as thieves and murderers. They are indeed a ferocious clan, differing in person from other Egyptians. Spears twelve or fourteen feet in length are sudden and deadly weapons in their hands. At Kahira, Mohammed Bey Elfi had told me I should here need a guard of twenty men, but I found two guides assigned me by the Shech-el-belad sufficient.