Note 95 — Chapter XV · RAMESES THE GREAT.

“The remains were apparently those of a large hall paved with white alabaster slabs. The walls were covered with a variety of bricks and encaustic tiles; many of the bricks were of most beautiful workmanship, the hieroglyphs in some being inlaid in glass. The capitals of the columns were inlaid with brilliant colored mosaics, and a pattern in mosaics ran round the cornice. Some of the bricks are inlaid with the oval of Rameses III.” See “Murray’s Hand-book for Egypt,” route 7, p. 217.

Case D, in the second Egyptian room at the British Museum, contains several of these tiles and terra-cottas, some of which are painted with figures of Asiatic and negro captives, birds serpents, etc.; and are extremely beautiful both as regards design and execution. Murray is wrong, however, in attibuting the building to Rameses II. The cartouches are those of Rameses III. The discovery was made by some laborers in 1870.

Note to Second Edition.—This mound was excavated last year (1887) by M. Naville, acting as before for the Egypt Exploration Fund. See supplementary sheet to The Illustrated London News, 17th September, 1887, containing a complete account of the excavations at Tel-el-Yahoodeh, etc., with illustrations.