Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/339

 The Tomb under the Middle Emph<e. 249 be preserved are the numberless steles which Mariette rescued from its ddbj'is. They form about four-fifths of the total number of those monuments now preserved in the museum at Boulak.^ We figure two of them, one belonging to the Middle, the other to the New Empire (Figs. 164 and 165). Whenever religious motives did not affect their choice, the Egyptians preferred, during the period we are now considering, to cut their tombs horizontally out of some rocky eminence. Such a tomb was called a aiveos by the Greeks. The most interesting examples of these constructions are offered by the tombs of the twelfth dynasty at Beni- Hassan and at Siout, both situated between Memphis and Abydos. Champollion was the first to appreciate the importance of the grottos of Beni-Hassan. Ever since his time they have received, for various reasons, much of the attention of egyptologists. We have already referred to their inscriptions, which are as interesting to the historian of ideas as to the student of political and social organizations. We have alluded above to the varied scenes which cover the walls of their chambers, the most important of which have been reproduced by Champollion, Lepsius, and Prisse d' Avenues ; we have finally to speak of those famous protodoric columns, as they are called, in which some have thought they saw the original model of the oldest and most beautiful of the Grecian orders. We are at present concerned, however, with the arrangement of the tombs themselves. These are the same, with but slight variations, for the smallest and most simple tombs as for those which are largest and most elaborately decorated. These facades are cut into the cliff-like sides of the hills of the Arab Chain, about half-way up their total height. They are, therefore, hioh above the surface of the river. When the cuttinof was made, two or three columns were left to form a portico, the deep shadows of which stand out strongly against the white- ness of the rock. This portico leads to a chamber which is lighted only from the door. Its ceiling is often cut into the form of a vault. A deep square niche is cut, sometimes opposite to the door, sometimes In one of the angles. It once contained the statue of the deceased. Most of the tombs have but one ^ All these steles are figured in the last work published by Mariette, the Catalogue general des Motntmeuts d' Abydos, dcco^iverts pendant les Foiiilles dc ecttc Mile, i vol. 4to. Paris, 1880. VOL. I. K K