e first close study of these tombs was made by
Frobenius in 1911. Frobenius tells us that these tombs are of three
main types: first, a small size; second, an intermediate size; and
third, a large size. This last type, he tells us, was an extraordinary
large construction, averaging about seventy feet in height and six
hundred and fifty to seven hundred feet in basal circumference. The
external structure is connected with an underground structure composed
of a number of subterranean chambers and compartments, extending in
every direction of the compass, sufficient to accommodate the remains
of a great number of notables and royal personages.

Frobenius states, regarding one of these subterranean chambers which
he explored, that it contained a dome which was paneled and
strengthened with wood from the borassus palm and the whole plastered
with a sort of prepared clay.[17] Frobenius also believes that the
external parts of the tombs, that is, the mound proper--was made layer
by layer. Each layer of clay was first thoroughly worked, moulded, and
baked. This process was repeated time and time again, until the mound
was completed.

The veteran Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, in the great mass of
evidence adduced by him to show the African origin of the spirit and
substratum of early dynastic Egyptian culture, points out that there
is a very close connection between the subterranean structures of
these tombs and many of those of the Egyptian pyramids, the inference
being that the idea of the pyramids very probably had its origin in
Central Africa.

As interesting and important as are these structures in this
connection, they, like those previously mentioned and those yet to be
described, are of interest in another direction; they bespeak the
sometime existence here of a mighty people with a glorious past, now
lying sleeping within the bosom of the earth, the silent witnesses of
a world that has perished.

Beginning about three hundred years ago, and going back to an unknown
period, it is evident from the above comments and extracts that the
cultural life of the Negro on the West Coast of Africa, especially
from the point of view of his architectural and tomb-building
proclivities, was of a much higher type than anything he has produced
since his contact with the European during the last four hundred
years. The quality and quantity of work accomplished by these ancient
black builders is especially notable when it is remembe