But these were hidden in the dark
shadows which the great structures threw. The moon blotted out the
profane things of the holy city and discovered only its splendors to
the sky.
At the northwest limits of the suburb, the hills approached the Nile,
leaving only a narrow strip a few hundred yards wide between their
fronts and the water. Here the steep ramparts were divided by a
tortuous cleft, which wound back with many cross-fissures deep into the
desert. The ravine was simply a chasm, with perpendicular sides of
naked rock.
At its upper end, it was blocked by a wall of unscalable heights.
Nowhere in its length was it wider than a hundred yards, and across the
mouth a gateway wide enough for three chariots abreast had been built
of red granite.
This was the valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
In chambers hewn in solid rock, the monarchs of the eighteenth and
nineteenth dynasties were entombed. All along the walls of the gorge,
nature had secured the sacred resting-place of the sovereigns against
trespass from the end and sides of the chasm, and Egypt had dutifully
strengthened the one weak point in the fortification--the entrance--by
the gateway of granite. But there was no vigilance of guards.
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