all is silent here; no man buys or sells or joins in festive mirth. It is the City of the Dead. Here lie in countless numbers the embalmed bodies of those who have passed away generation after generation: kings and priests—men, women, children—the freeman and the slave. The hills encircling the plain are pierced and honeycombed in all directions with passages and tombs. Here are the 'eternal dwellings' of those who on the other side inhabit 'hostelries' as strangers of a day. And far more thought and care are bestowed upon those than upon these.[1] There are large common tombs, in which the bodies of the poor lie ranged side by side. And there are the funeral chambers of the rich, with their sculptured façades, whence winding galleries lead into the heart of the rock. Shafts are sunk, false passages that lead nowhere are constructed. Everything is done that human ingenuity can suggest, if only the body hidden there might never be seen or handled again.[2] Nor is the silent city of the
- ↑ The Greek writer Diodorus Siculus says: 'The Egyptians call their houses hostelries, since they can enjoy them for a brief space only; whereas their tombs are the eternal dwelling-places of the future.'
- ↑ For some parts of the description of the cities of Thebes, see Karl Oppel's Land der Pyramiden.
