"The governor telegraphed immediately to Cairo; and Herr Emil Brugsch, Keeper of the Boulak Museum (whom Professor Maspero had deputed to act for him in any case of emergency), was forthwith despatched to Thebes. Here he was conducted to a lonely spot in the most desolate and unfrequented part of the great necropolis which extends for between three and four miles along the western bank of the Nile. Hidden behind an angle of limestone cliff, and masked by a huge fragment of fallen rock, he beheld the entrance to a perpendicular shaft descending to a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the bottom of this shaft opened a gallery two hundred and forty feet in length, leading to a sepulchral vault measuring twenty-three feet by thirteen. In this gallery and vault were found some thirty-six mummies, including more than twenty kings and queens, besides princes, princesses, and high-priests, to say nothing of an immense store of sacred vessels, funereal statuettes, alabaster vases, and precious objects in glass, bronze, acacia-wood, etc. The treasure thus brought to light consisted of some six thousand items, not the least valuable of which were four royal papyri. Professor Maspero, in his official report, warmly eulogizes the energy with which Herr Emil Brugsch, by the aid of five hundred native laborers, exhumed, packed, shipped, and brought to Cairo the whole contents of this now famous hiding-place.
[Illustration: COFFIN AND MUMMY OF A ROYAL PRINCESS.]
"The following are the principal royal mummies found in this recently opened tomb:
"King Rasekenen-Taaken and Queen Ansera, of the seventeenth dynasty.
"King Ahmes Ra-neb-Pehti, Queen Ahmes Nofretari, Queen Aah-Hotep, Queen Merit-Amen, Queen Hontimoo-hoo, Prince Se Amen, Princess Set-Amen, King Amen-Hotep I., King Thothmes I.,* King Thothmes II., King Thothmes III., Queen Sitka, all of the eighteenth dynasty.
[Illustration: COFFIN OF QUEEN NOFRETARI.]
"King Rameses I.,* King Sethi I., King Rameses II., of the nineteenth dynasty.
[The asterisk indicates that the mummy is missing.]
"Queen Notem-Maut, King and High-priest Pinotem I., King Pinotem II., Prince and High-priest Masahirti, Queen Hathor Hout-Taui, Queen Makara, Queen Isi-em-Kheb, Princess Nasi-Khonsu, Prince Tat-f-Ankh, Nebseni, a priest, Noi-Shounap, a priest, of the twenty-first dynasty.