Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-12

| ~ ing about through the tombs OF
| IA the kings who ruled Egypt three
or four thousand years ago.
| have gone down into the subter-
ranean chambers which the Pharaohs
who oppressed the Israelites dug out of
| the solid rocks for their burial vaults and
| have visited the tombs of other kings
even older than they. The last resting
place of more than fifty of these mon
| archs of early Egypt have already been
discovered, and the WORK is still going on,
with new finds of historical value every
| year,
Some of the best excavation Is be-
ing done by Americans This Is the case
all along the Nile valley. While at
Cairo 1 found the money of Harvard
College and the Boston Museum uncov-
erng the cemeteries of the nabobs and
paupers who were buried under the
shadow of the Great Pyramid Of Gizeh
at the time Of King Cheops. The Egyp-
ton exploration fund, which Is sup
ported by Great Britain, Canada and
the United States, has a small army
operating near Luxor, and a large part
of the valley in which these royal
tombs lie is now in the hands of Theodore
his laborers busy all winter long, year
after year, digging up the debris and
looking for these wonderful evidences OF
Egypts past During my trip today l
met q young archeologist, who Is In
charge of the Davis excavations. and 1t
was he who showed me through the
tombs of the kings and explained the
symbols and pictures on the walls.
went to that part Of the valley where
the excavation is now going on and took
pictures of a gang of $50 Egyptian men
and boys now working there.
Valley Of the Kings.
But first let me tell you something about
the place which these ancient Egyptian
monarchs selected for their burials They
wanted to hide their remains in such a
way that posterity could never find them.
and to cover them so that future genera
tons would not imagine that they and
their treasures lay beneath. Our ceme-
teries are chosen for the beauty of their
surroundings. We like to turn up our
toes to the daisies and to have the green
trees whisper a requiem over our heads.
The old Egyptian kings wanted the dry,
thirsty desert. and they chose this region,
about as far up the Nile valley as Cleve-
land is inland from the Atlantic and fully
six miles back from the green strip on
which their people lived. l can imagine
no place more dreary. At this point the
Nile is walled on the west by thirsty
limestone mountains. AS far as the
waters reach the valley Is the greenest of
green; but beyond them lies a desert as
drear as any part of the Sahara. There
is not a blade of grass; not a sprig of
vegetation of any kind. There is nothing
but sand and dry mountains, the latter
almost ragged as the widest parts of
the Rockies. Some of the stones are built
up In great precipices; in other places
there are fortlike bluffs and other con-
vulsions Of nature.
Near Old Thebes.
To visit this valley one first comes to
Luxor, which Is Just about on the site
Of old Thebes. the capital Of Egypt in the
days Of its most brilliant past. The city
lay on both sides Of the Nile, but Luxor
is on the east bank, and l had to cross
the river in ferry boat and ride for an
hour or SO through the desert before l
came into the valley of the kings. How
ever. my donkey boy was a good one
and his donkeys were young. His name
was Joseph, and the brute bestrode was
called Gingerbread"
Gingerbread had a slice of skin about
as big as dollar removed from his
rump, and Joseph pricked this spot from
time to time to hurry him onward. We
crossed the green fields, winding our way
in and out along the canals. until we
came to the desert and entered a wild
gorge walled with rocks Of yellow lime
stone and with conglomerate mixture
of flint and limestone of curious forma-
ton. The gorge shows evidences Of hav-
ing been cut out by some mighty stream
of the past. There are masses of debris
along the sides. and the way is rough
except on the road which has been made
by the explorers.
Looking at the valley from the Nile one
would not suppose that it was anything
other than desert gorge. and 1t was not
until l was right in it that l realized 1t
was cemetery. There are no grave
stones or monuments, and the kings obht-
Grated every sign that might indicate
their burial places. They dug out great
chambers under the bed of this dried-up
river and arranged cisterns for their
proper drainage, but when they had fin
ished they left everything as it was in
nature and for this reason their tombs