Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/137

 FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. 121 descried standing out from the almost perpendicular ledge of rocks. A man must needs have sureness of foot and a head not given to dizziness to scramble up these, catching at every pro- jecting stone until the base of the monument is reached. Here he may sit down on the cornice, about 50 c. broad, which forms a kind of parapet along the front, and examine it at his leisure ; conscious, however, that the slightest movement backwards will send him spinning some 40 m. below. The bay is 25 c. above the soil and cir. 50 c. above the floor of the first chamber ; so that it looks like a rent in the rock rather than a door properly so called. Its width is somewhat less towards the top than the bottom. This gentle, almost imper- ceptible salience of the lines one upon another, extends to the fascias surrounding the door, which form as so many frames around it. In the tympan, right and left of the rude obelisk just described, are two walking animals face to face. Stewart saw in them two horses ; Earth and Ramsay are both of opinion that the one on the right, which still preserves some sort of outline, has a faint resemblance to an ox, and is as far removed from a horse as can well be. The worn state of the other does not permit to give formal expression as to the species to which it belongs. 1 The three chambers are small, and the roof-shaped ceiling has a double slope. Over the inner door, which communicates with the second chamber (assuming the main entrance to have been on the west side), is carved a pillar with volute capital. It is the sole ornament of the interior; no couches, no troughs for receiving the bodies. In face of the bare aspect and exiguous dimensions of the chambers, it is not easy to conceive how they could have been subterraneous dependencies of a domestic dwelling, which formerly stood on the platform, the inner side of which leans against the cliff. But what even more tells in favour of its being a tomb is the characteristic symbol carved on the posterior fa9ade, a symbol we have observed about the doorway of an hypogee whose funereal purpose cannot be questioned. As far as we have gone, the monuments we have described betray no arrangement, no element which may be taken to denote acquaintance with and imitation of alien models. This does not apply to a large number of tombs in this very district, and more 1 M. Ramsay is rather inclined to think that it is a horse.