Wilkinson, John Gardner: The Architecture Of Ancient Egypt: In Which The Columns Are Arranged In Orders, And The Temples Classified; With Remarks On The Early Progress Of Architecture, Etc.; With A Large Volume Of Plates Ilustrative Of The Subject, And Containing The Various Columns And details, From Actual Measurement (Text) (London, 1850)

PART IT. FORM OF THE TOMBS. Ill

were of small extent, and soon fully occupied;
while at Thebes, where the mountains afforded
space for any number of tombs, of any size, few
were of masonry ; and the crude brick sepulchres
seem only to have been made, when the rock, in
that part, had been occupied; or for persons of
inferior rank. It must, however, be remembered,
that though so many tombs are seen, hewn in the
rocks, their number is trifling, compared to the
number of inhabitants, of one single generation;
and even allowing for their having had many
inmates, and having been resold, and reoccupied,
in after times, they are few for the population of
Egypt; and though many persons were buried in
pits, in the plain, it is probable that numerous
crude brick tombs once existed, of which no traces
are now to be found.

It is a remarkable fact, that in the representa^
tions of funeral processions, the tomb is often
figured as a built monument; and this too on
the walls of excavated tombs at Thebes;* and
its position, on the side of the mountain, seems to
imply that the site of the rock tomb was sometimes
marked by a sort of stela, or emblematic monu-
ment, raised above the entrance; or at least that
the custom of introducing it there had originally
existed in Egypt.f This monument consisted of a
square base, surmounted by a cornice, supporting
a pyramidal apex; and it may have been taken

* Vide Ancient Egyptians, Plato lxxxiv.

t Vide Plate i, fig. 19, and Ancient Egyptians, Plates Ixsxv, lxxxvi.