Rhind, Alexander Henry: Thebes, its tombs and their tenants, ancient and present (London, 1862)

170

TOMBS OF VARIOUS GRADES.

dotibt that the Sphinx is solitary as ever, and had no
twin brother. This, I fear, may disappoint Dr. Lepsius,
who set his heart upon a pair leading np to a temple
with the pyramid behind, warmly adding, " I cannot
deny that this connexion would be most satisfactory
to me."*

While at work in this neighbourhood, I caused a
few of the men to excavate in a small level space
about twenty yards to the north of the mound in
question, and there the two tombs referred to were met
with, forming together as it were one structure. In
dimensions, shape, and details, they were quite similar,
and an account of the first opened, which may be dis-
tinguished as No. I., will equally apply to both, except
as regards the deposit. At the bottom of a shaft of
rude rubble work, built in the desert drift, two feet ten
inclies square, and six feet four inches deep, a small
chamber, three feet eight long, two feet ten broad, and
two feet six high, with similar walls and spanned by
large stones, projected on one side. "Within this cell
the burial, which altogether wanted the preservative
specialties of Egyptian sepulture, had been effected;
and in it there lay a mouldering skull near the centre,
surrounded by, or rather in the midst of, other bones
of the frame, and having on either side an article of
unusual shape, of common baked clay. Of one of
these objects little more than one half remained; the
other was nearly perfect, and may be described as a

* Letters from Egypt, p. 66.