etery "gives an idea of a work executed with design
and leisure, and with means very different from those at command in
producing the catacombs of Rome."

[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Plan of Circular Hall, Catacombs of St John,
Syracuse. (From Agincourt.)]

Malta.

Taormina.

Denon also describes catacombs at Malta near the ancient capital of the
island. The passages were all cut in a close-grained stone, and are very
narrow, with arched ceilings, running very irregularly, and ramifying in
all directions. The greater part of the tombs stand on either side of
the galleries in square recesses (like the table-tombs of the Roman
catacombs), and are rudely fashioned to imitate sarcophagi. The
interments are not nearly so numerous as in other catacombs, nor are
there any vestiges of painting, sculpture or inscriptions. At Taormina
in Sicily is a Saracenic catacomb, also figured by Agincourt. The main
corridor is 12 ft. wide, having three or more ranges of _loculi_ on
either side, running longitudinally into the rock, each originally
closed by a stone bearing an inscription.

Egypt.

Passing to Egypt, a small Christian catacomb at Alexandria is described
and figured by de Rossi.[7] The _loculi_ here also are set endways to
the passage. The walls are abundantly decorated with paintings, one of a
liturgical character. But the most extensive catacombs at Alexandria are
those of Egypto-Greek origin, from the largest of which, according to
Strabo (lib. xvii. p. 795), the quarter where it is placed had the name
of the Necropolis. The plan, it will be seen, is remarkable for its
regularity (figs. 21, 22). Here, too, the graves run endways into the
rock. Other catacombs in the vicinity of the same city are described by
Pocock and other travellers, and are figured by Agincourt.

[Illustration: Fig. 21--Plan of Catacomb at Alexandria. (From
Agincourt.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Section of a Gallery in Catacomb at Alexandria.
(From Agincourt.)]

Sidon.

Subterranean cemeteries of the general character of those described are
very frequent in all southern and eastern countries. A vast necropolis
in the environs of Saida, the ancient Sidon, is described in Renan's
_Mission en Phenicie_, and figured in Thobois's plates. It consists of a
series of apartments approached by staircases, the sides pierced with
sepulchral recesses running lengthwise into the rock.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Plan of a Tomb at Cervetri. (Fr