to reproduce its form so as to convey to those who have not
seen it an idea of its grandeur. The mass of its central piers,
illumined by a flood of light from the clerestory, and the smaller
pillars of the wings gradually fading into obscurity, are so arranged
and lighted as to convey an idea of infinite space; at the same time the
beauty and massiveness of the forms, and the brilliancy of their
coloured decorations, all combine to stamp this as _the greatest of
man's architectural works_, but such a one as it would be impossible to
reproduce, except in such a climate, and in that individual style, in
which and for which it was created."[24]

As Seti constructed the most wonderful of all the palatial buildings
which Egypt produced, so he also constructed what is, on the whole, the
most wonderful of the tombs. The pyramids impose upon us by their
enormity, and astonish by the engineering skill shown in their
execution; but they embody a single simple idea; they have no
complication of parts, no elaboration of ornament; they are taken in at
a glance; they do not gradually unfold themselves, or furnish a
succession of surprises. But it is otherwise with the rock-tombs,
whereof Seti's is the most magnificent The rock-tombs are "gorgeous
palaces, hewn out of the rock, and painted with all the decorations that
could have been seen in palaces." They contain a succession of passages,
chambers, corridors, staircases, and pillared halls, each further
removed from the entrance than the last, and all covered with an
infinite variety of the most finished and brilliant paintings. The tomb
of Seti contains three pillared halls, respectively twenty-seven feet
by twenty-five, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, and forty-three feet
by seventeen and a half; a large saloon with an arched roof, thirty feet
by twenty-seven; six smaller chambers of different sizes; three
staircases, and two long corridors. The whole series of apartments, from
end to end of the tomb, is continuously ornamented with painted
bas-reliefs. "The idea is that of conducting the king to the world of
death. The further you advance into the tomb, the deeper you become
involved in endless processions of jackal-headed gods, and monstrous
forms of genii, good and evil; and the goddess of Justice, with her
single ostrich feather; and barges carrying mummies, raised aloft over
the sacred lake; and mummies themselves; and, more than all, everlasting
convolutions of serpents i