DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0351
chap, xvi.] NECROPOLIS OF NORCHIA—FIRST VIEW. 247
necropolis. The few tombs we did see here and there in
the cliffs, served but to whet our appetite. At length we
turned a corner in the glen, and lo! a grand range of
monuments burst upon us. There they were—a line of
sepulchres, high in the face of the cliff which forms the
right-hand barrier of the glen, two or three hundred feet
above the stream—an amphitheatre of tombs! for the
glen here swells into that form. Were the chasms
of the Colosseum closed, the slopes of its seats banked over
with earth, carpeted with sward, and fringed with trees
instead of bushes, and its encircling wall of masonry
adorned with cornices inside as well as out, it would pre-
sent a lively resemblance to this singular glen, which is
the most imposing spot in the whole compass of Etruscan
cemeteries.4
The eye, as it ranges along the line of corniced sepul-
chres, singles out one of the most remote—one, whose
prominent and decorated pediment gives it, even at a
distance, an unique character. We knew this must be
the much-talked-of tomb, and hastened towards it. In
our way we passed huge masses of rock-cornice, split from
the cliffs above, and lying low in the valley. We found
that what looked like one tomb at a distance, was in fact a
double tomb, or rather a tomb and a half, seeing that the
half of one of the pediments has fallen. The peculiarity
consists in this—that while all the sepulchres around are of
the severely simple style of Castel d'Asso, approximating
to the Egyptian, these two are highly ornate, and of
Greek character. Instead of the bold horizontal cornices
4 It is said by Lenoir, (Annali dell' ceive any traces of them; but if they
Instit. 1832, p. 291,) that the slope from existed they must have greatly increased
the base of the tombs down to the banks the resemblance of the glen to an amphi-
of the stream was cut into steps, about theatre,
two feet and a half high. I did not per-
necropolis. The few tombs we did see here and there in
the cliffs, served but to whet our appetite. At length we
turned a corner in the glen, and lo! a grand range of
monuments burst upon us. There they were—a line of
sepulchres, high in the face of the cliff which forms the
right-hand barrier of the glen, two or three hundred feet
above the stream—an amphitheatre of tombs! for the
glen here swells into that form. Were the chasms
of the Colosseum closed, the slopes of its seats banked over
with earth, carpeted with sward, and fringed with trees
instead of bushes, and its encircling wall of masonry
adorned with cornices inside as well as out, it would pre-
sent a lively resemblance to this singular glen, which is
the most imposing spot in the whole compass of Etruscan
cemeteries.4
The eye, as it ranges along the line of corniced sepul-
chres, singles out one of the most remote—one, whose
prominent and decorated pediment gives it, even at a
distance, an unique character. We knew this must be
the much-talked-of tomb, and hastened towards it. In
our way we passed huge masses of rock-cornice, split from
the cliffs above, and lying low in the valley. We found
that what looked like one tomb at a distance, was in fact a
double tomb, or rather a tomb and a half, seeing that the
half of one of the pediments has fallen. The peculiarity
consists in this—that while all the sepulchres around are of
the severely simple style of Castel d'Asso, approximating
to the Egyptian, these two are highly ornate, and of
Greek character. Instead of the bold horizontal cornices
4 It is said by Lenoir, (Annali dell' ceive any traces of them; but if they
Instit. 1832, p. 291,) that the slope from existed they must have greatly increased
the base of the tombs down to the banks the resemblance of the glen to an amphi-
of the stream was cut into steps, about theatre,
two feet and a half high. I did not per-