The Emma B. Andrews Diary Project

Paintings of the tomb of ‪#‎Siptah‬ by E. Harold Jones, discovered by Theodore Davis on 18th December 1905.

@ebadiary "We dropped down early this morning to Gebel - Silsileh, where are the famous sandstone quarries of the ancient days...There was a special worship of the Nile at Silsileh, and the rocks are covered with inscriptions - consisting of hymns addressed to the river - some of them Mariette says in "lefty strains". The custom too of the ancient Egyptians of having a stela, or speos, or inscription commemorating of a visit to any consecrated spot, is shown here as on the road from Assouan to Philae. Many of the numerous grottoes here were tombs. Among the commemorative grottoes, the richest and most highly decorated were those of Rameses 2d, Seti Ist and Memptah Ist - the façades supported by lotus columns - and must have been very beautiful in their prime - but the rich sculptures are mutilated and the paintings faded. Most of them consist of little corridors in the rock, with 3 or 4 openings - all have seats at the ends and the now mutilated figures sitting on them, as Miss Edwards says "like owners in their opera boxes" give a very strange effect. What a strange scene it must have been here at that time, the rocks on the western shore gay with paintings, and the silent stone figures sitting in their boxes watching it all."

@ebadiary Map of #Egypt 1893 by Alexander Keith Johnston.