Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/197

 THK PiKKMciAN TOMII. 177 were air-holes, but when the surface of the rock all round Gebal was explored, it was found that the shafts often occurred where no hypogeum was known to exist. The most obvious idea to strike the explorers was that the rock was hollowed beneath into vast catacombs, whose entrances had been so well concealed that it had escaped all their researches, and the best way to vertify their con- jecture seemed to be to descend into the supposed hypogea by the air-holes themselves. This was tried at various points. The shafts were enlarged and workmen lowered down them, but not a single new tomb was discovered. At fifteen, twenty, or five-and- twenty feet, as the case might be, the shafts suddenly grew narrower and ended in a cul-de-sac, as if at about that distance the instrument used lost its force and had to stop. The only possible FIG. 116. Interior of a Giblite tomb. From Kenan. explanation seemed to be that before sepulchral excavations were begun, trials were made of the quality and homogeneity of the rock so as to have some fore-knowledge of the difficulties to be overcome. And this hypothesis is decisively confirmed by an examination of those chambers in which the ceiling is thus pierced. The holes do not all end in the ceiling. Some of them run down the walls in a way that makes them quite useless ; some cut into the jambs of the door, others are sunk close to the chamber without actually touching it. Now and then we find a shaft so long that the end of it appears in the floor. It is evident, therefore, that these shafts are preparatory soundings, made before the actual cutting of the chamber was begun. If any more evidence were required to prove that they had nothing to do w r ith supplying light or air, it would be given by the fact that those shafts which VOL. T. A A