The Story of Egypt 33 end of the Red Sea to procure the same products early led to the excavation of a canal connecting the easternmost Nile branch in the Delta with the Red Sea. This predecessor of the Suez Canal was dug about 4000 years ago. A stroll among the tombs clustering so thickly around the The tomb- pyramids of Gizeh is almost like a walk among the busy com- the^^yramid munities which flourished in this populous valley in the days of r/^1*^^ the pyramid builders. We find the door of every tomb standing reveal open (Fig. 15), and there is nothing to prevent our entrance. We stand in an oblong room with walls of stone masonry. This is a Fig. 17. Plowing and Sowing in the Pyramid Age There are two plowmen, one driving the oxen and one holding the plow. The man with the curious hoe breaks up the clods left by the plow, and in front of him is the sower, scattering the seed from the sack he carries before him. At the left is a scribe of the estate. The hieroglyphs above in all such scenes explain what is going on. Scene from the chapel of a noble's tomb (Fig. 15) chapel-chamber to which the Egyptian believed the dead man buried beneath the tomb might return every day. Here he would find food and drink left for him daily by his relatives. He would also find the stone walls of this room covered from floor to ceiling with carved scenes, beautifully painted, picturing the daily life on the great estate of which he was lord (Figs. 16-20). The place is now silent and deserted, or if we hear the voices of the donkey boys talking outside, they are speaking Arabic ; for the ancient language of the men who built these tombs so many thousand years ago is no longer spoken. But every- where, in bright and charming colors, we see looking down
