We found our way in dhahabiyehs to Aswan; whence, having got some Arabs from the Sheik and having given our usual backsheesh, we set out on our journey through the desert.
"Well, after much wandering and trying every winding in the interminable jumble of hills, we came at last at nightfall on just such a valley as Van Huyn had described.

A valley with high, steep cliffs; narrowing in the centre, and widening out to the eastern and western ends.

At daylight we were opposite the cliff and could easily note the opening high up in the rock, and the hieroglyphic figures which were evidently intended originally to conceal it.
"But the signs which had baffled Van Huyn and those of his time--and later, were no secrets to us.

The host of scholars who have given their brains and their lives to this work, had wrested open the mysterious prison-house of Egyptian language.

On the hewn face of the rocky cliff we, who had learned the secrets, could read what the Theban priesthood had had there inscribed nearly fifty centuries before.
"For that the external inscription was the work of the priesthood--and a hostile priesthood at that--there could be no living doubt.