pe of a pyramid. Others were true pyramids, sometimes having a pair
of obelisks in front of them, as well as a temple. None of them
attained to the dimensions of the Memphite tombs; for, with only its own
resources at command, the kingdom of the south could not build monuments
to compete with those whose construction had taxed the united efforts of
all Egypt, but it used a crude black brick, made without grit or straw,
where the Egyptians of the north had preferred more costly stone. These
inexpensive pyramids were built on a rectangular base not more than six
and a half feet high; and the whole erection, which was simply faced
with whitewashed stucco, never exceeded thirty-three feet in height. The
sepulchral chamber was generally in the centre; in shape it resembled an
oven, its roof being "vaulted" by the overlapping of the courses.
Often also it was constructed partly in the base, and partly in the
foundations below the base, the empty space above it being intended
merely to lighten the weight of the masonry. There was not always an
external chapel attached to these tombs, but a stele placed on the
substructure, or fixed in one of the outer faces, marked the spot to
which offerings were to be brought for the dead; sometimes, however,
there was the addition of a square vestibule in front of the tomb,
and here, on prescribed days, the memorial ceremonies took place.
The statues of the double were rude and clumsy, the coffins heavy and
massive, and the figures with which they were decorated inelegant and
out of proportion, while the stelae are very rudely cut. From the time
of the VIth dynasty the lords of the Said had been reduced to employing
workmen from Memphis to adorn their monuments; but the rivalry between
the Thebans and the Heracleopolitans, which set the two divisions of
Egypt against each other in constant hostility, obliged the Antufs to
entrust the execution of their orders to the local schools of sculptors
and painters. It is difficult to realize the degree of rudeness to
which the unskilled workmen who made certain of the Akhmitn and Gebelen
sarcophagi must have sunk; and even at Thebes itself, or at Abydos, the
execution of both bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs shows minute carefulness
rather than any real skill or artistic feeling. Failing to attain to
the beautiful, the Egyptians endeavoured to produce the sumptuous.
Expeditions to the Wady Ham marnat to fetch blocks of granite for
sarcophagi become more an