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 244 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. rock is there covered with a sandstone in course of formation ; this is friable at some points, at others so soft that but few mummies have been entrusted to it," ^ This formation extends over nearly the whole of the ground upon which the tombs of the eleventh, twelfth, and especially of the thirteenth, dynasties, are Fig. i6o. — Tomb at Abydos ; drawn in perspective from the elevation of Mariette. packed closely together. This Mariette calls the northern cemetery. " The tombs of Abydos have no subterranean story, properly speaking. Well, mummy-chamber, and funerary chapel are all constructed, not dug. In the few instances in which the ground has been excavated down to the friable sandstone which over-lies the hard rock, the opening has been lined w^ith rubble. " Hence the peculiar aspect which the necropolis of Abydos must have pre- sented when intact. Imagine a multi- tude of small pyramids live or six metres high, carelessly oriented or not at all, and uniformly built of crude brick. These pyramids always stand upon a plinth, they are hollow, and within they are formed into a clumsy cupola by means of roughly built off-sets. The pyramid stands directly over a chamber in its foundations which shelters the mummy. As soon as the latter was in place, the door of its chamber was closed by masonry." ^ An exterior chamber was often built in front of the pyramid, and being always left ' Mariette, Voyage dans la Haute- Egypte, vol. i. 1879. 2 Ji^idem. Fig. 161.- -Section of the above tomb.