Tomb

Egypt is a land of tombs. Yet with all the care bestowed on the tomb, but little remains of any houses of the Egyptians. This fact is easily accounted for if Diodorus is correct in saying, "The Egyptians call their houses hostelries, on account of the short time during which they inhabit them, but the tombs they call eternal dwelling-places." Hence the elaboration in every detail of the tomb. The tombs of Egypt fall naturally into two cla es—those excavated in the rock and those which were built. Of the former kind there are examples covering the entire historic period. The latter belong to the time of the early dynasties. They are of two kinds, pyramids and mastabas (q.v.). The great groups of rock-cut tombs are those of the VIth and other dynasties at Aswan, those of the XIIth Dynasty at Beni Hasan, those of the XVIIIth and succe ive dynasties of Pharaohs at Thebes; those of Khu-en-aten and his people at Tel-el-Amarna. But besides these main groups there are tombs in almost every available hillside throughout the country. The idea in the construction of all these tombs was e entially the same, though carried out in different ways. Each consisted of three parts—(a) a chamber or series of chambers forming a kind of chapel, (b) a pa age or shaft, leading to (c) the sepulchral chamber. The tomb was prepared during the lifetime of the man. The scenes with which the walls of the chambers were decorated represented in the majority of cases the occupations of its owner. If, for instance, he was an admiral, we find pictures of ships and the spoil brought from foreign lands. There are fishing and fowling scenes, representations of the chase, and other amusements. In a secret chamber (Serdab, q.v.) in the wall were placed the *Ka* statues, a small aperture sometimes being left by which the smoke of incense might penetrate to the statues. In the case of rock-cut tombs the sepulchral chamber was reached by a deep shaft (the deepest known is that in the tomb of Bakt III. at Beni Hasan; it is over 105 ft.) which, after the body was deposited, was filled up with rubble, the great object being to secure the mummy from disturbance. The scenes on the chamber walls are sometimes in low relief, at others only painted, the accompanying hieroglyphs being sometimes incised. The fine limestone of the Theban hills afforded a good surface for painting on. When a flint or fo il occurred it was extracted, and the hole filled up with cement. Inscriptions accompany the scenes, sometimes containing biographies, which have been of much importance in piecing together the history of Egypt.