Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/224

180 of one of that dynasty is said to have been discovered on this site. This tomb has been engraved and described by Ross in his " Archäologische Aufsätze."$79$

It has been cut out of a small hill of sandstone situated between two ravines, which form the channels of winter torrents. The form of the tomb is a basement rather more than 88 feet square, and resting on three steps, above which has probably been a pyramid cut oiit of the rock. On each side of the basement are twenty-one engaged columns of very slender proportions. Their capitals are broken away; but, as they are Avithout bases, they were probably Doric, though the shafts are not fluted. Ross calculates that their height, inclusive of the architrave, did not probably exceed 5 metres, with a diameter of 48 centimetres.

Large masses of the base lie at the foot of the monument, which have been broken away either by earthquakes or the undermining force of the torrent flowing below. Only the north side has been well preserved. On this side is the only entrance now to be found—a doorway between the fifth and sixth pillar from the N.W. angle, which leads into an antechamber, communicating with a second chamber, round which are long recesses for the reception of bodies. This chamber is rather more than 22 feet long, and about $14 1⁄2$ feet wide. It has long since been plundered of its contents, and contains no fragment of sarcophagi or other sepulchral remains. It is evident, from the position of these chambers, that they occupy only one-fourth of the whole area