will not be out of place here; the following observations on them are based upon the excellent articles of M. Mariette in the Revue Archéologique, S. 2ième, t. xix. p. 8 ff. The tombs of the Ancient Empire found at Sakkâra belong to two classes, in the commoner of which the naked body was buried about three feet deep in the sand. When the yellowish-white skeletons of such bodies are found to-day, neither fragments of linen nor pieces of coffins are visible; occasionally one is found laid within four walls roughly built of yellow bricks made of sand, lime, and small stones. A vaulted brick roof covers the space between the walls; it is hardly necessary to say that such tombs represent the last resting places of the poor, and that nothing of any value is ever found inside them. The tombs of the better sort are carefully built, and were made for the wealthy and the great; such a tomb is usually called by the Arabs maṣṭăba* (the Arabic word for 'bench '), because its length in proportion to its height is great, and reminded them of the long, low seat common in Oriental houses, and familiar to them. The mastaba is a heavy, massive building, of rectangular shape, the four sides of which are four walls symmetrically inclined towards their common centre. Each course of stones, formed by blocks laid upon each other, is carried a little behind the other. The largest maṣṭaba measures about 170 feet long × 86 feet wide, and the smallest about 26 feet × 20 feet: they vary in height from 13 to 30 feet. The ground on which the mastabas at Sakkâra are built is composed of rock covered with sand to the depth of a few feet; their foundations are always on the rock. Near the pyramids of Gizah they are arranged in a symmetrical manner; they are oriented astronomically to the true north, and their larger axes are always towards the north. Though they have, at first sight, the appearance of unfinished * Pronounced maștăba, Arabic, compare Gr. σrißác. pyramids, still they have nothing in common with pyramids except their orientation towards the true north. Maṣṭăbas are built of two kinds of stone and of bricks, and they are usually entered on the eastern side; their tops are quite flat. The interior of a maṣṭaba may be divided into three parts; the chamber, the sirdâb,* or place of retreat, and the pit. The entrance is made through a door in the middle of the eastern or northern side, and though the interior may be divided into many chambers, it is usual only to find one. The walls of the interior are sometimes sculptured, and in the lower part of the chamber, usually facing the east, is a stele; the stele alone may be inscribed and the walls unsculptured, but no case is known where the walls are sculptured and the stele blank. A table of offerings is often found on the ground at the foot of the stele. A little distance from the chamber, built into the thickness of the walls, more often to the south than the north, is a high, narrow place of retreat or habitation, called by the Arabs a sirdâb. This place was walled up, and the only communication between it and the chamber was by means of a narrow hole sufficiently large to admit of the entrance of the hand. One or more statues of the dead man buried in the maṣṭaba were shut in here, and the small passage is said to have been made for the escape of the fumes of incense which was burnt in the chamber. The pit was a square shaft varying in depth from 40 to 80 feet, sunk usually in the middle of the larger axis of the maṣṭaba, rather nearer the north than the south. There was neither ladder nor staircase, either outside or inside, leading to the funereal chamber at the bottom of the pit, hence the coffin and the mummy when once there were inaccessible. This pit was sunk through the maṣṭaba into the rock beneath. A is, strictly speaking, a lofty, vaulted, subterranean chamber, with a large opening in the north side to admit air in the hot season. At the bottom of the pit, on the south side, is an opening into a passage, about four feet high, which leads obliquely to the south-east; soon after the passage increases in size in all directions, and becomes the sarcophagus chamber, which is thus exactly under the upper chamber. The sarcophagus, rectangular in shape, is usually made of limestone, and rests in a corner of the chamber; at Sakkâra they are found uninscribed. When the mummy had been laid in the sarcophagus, and the other arrangements completed, the end of the passage near the shaft leading to the sarcophagus chamber was walled up, the shaft was filled with stones, earth, and sand, and the friends of the deceased might reasonably hope that he would rest there for ever. When M. Mariette found a maṣṭaba without inscriptions he rarely excavated it entirely. He found three belonging to one of the first three dynasties; fortythree of the IVth dynasty; sixty-one of the Vth dynasty; twenty-three of the VIth dynasty; and nine of doubtful date. The Egyptians called the tomb 'the house of eternity,', per tchetta. Mariette's House.-This house was the headquarters of M. Mariette and his staff when employed in making excavations in the Necropolis of Sakkâra in 1850 and 1851. It is not easy to estimate properly the value to science of the work of this distinguished man. It is true that fortune gave him the opportunity of excavating some of the most magnificent of the buildings of the Pharaohs of all periods, and of scores of ancient towns; nevertheless it is equally true that his energy and marvellous power of work enabled him to use to the fullest extent the means for advancing the science of Egyptology which had been put in his hands. It is to be hoped that his house will be preserved on its present site as a remembrance of a great man who did a great work. The Tomb of Ptaḥ-hetep, a priest who lived during the Vth dynasty, is a short distance from Mariette's house, and well worthy of more than one visit. Other important tombs in the immediate neighbourhood are those of Kaqemna and Mereruka, and the streets of tombs which were cleared out by M. Loret in 1899. The Pyramids of Dahshûr. These pyramids, four of stone and two of brick, are 34 miles from the Maṣṭabat al-Fir'âûn, once thought to be the Pyramid of Unås. The largest stone pyramid is about 326 feet high, and the length of each side at the base is about 700 feet; beneath it are three subterranean chambers. The second stone pyramid is about 321 feet high, and the The Necropolis at Dahshûr. A The Northern Pyramid, built of bricks. length of its sides at the base is 620 feet; it is usually called the 'Blunted Pyramid,' because the lowest parts of its sides are built at one angle, and the completing parts at another. The larger of the two brick pyramids is about 90 feet high, and the length of each side at the base is about 350 feet; the smaller is about 156 feet high, and the length of each side at the base is about 343 feet. The brick pyramids have recently been excavated by M. de Morgan. The northern pyramid is built of bricks laid without mortar, in place of which sand is used, and an examination of it shows that it belongs to the period of the XIIth dynasty. Soon after the work of clearing had been begun, a stone bearing the cartouche of Usertsen III. 08 was found, and thus a tolerably exact date was ascertained; on the 26th of February, 1894, the entrance to a pit was found, and in the east corner there appeared an opening which led through a gallery and sepulchral chamber to several tombs. In one chamber were the fragments of a sarcophagus and statue of Menthu-nesu, and in another was the sarcophagus of Nefert-hent; it was quite clear that these tombs had been wrecked in ancient days, and therefore to the pit by which they were reached M. de Morgan gave the name, 'Pit of the spoilers.' Along the principal gallery were four tombs, and in the second of these a queen had been buried; on the lower stage eight sarcophagi were found, but only two were inscribed. Subsequently it was discovered that the burial place of a series of princesses had been found, and in consequence M. de Morgan called the place Gallery of Princesses.' In one of the tombs (No. 3) a granite chest containing four uninscribed alabaster Canopic jars was found, and in another similar chest a worm-eaten wooden box, containing four Canopic jars, was also discovered. The four sides of the box were inscribed, but the jars were plain. While the ground of the galleries was being carefully examined, a hollow in the rock was found, and a few blows of the pick revealed a magnificent find of |