On the other side of the portico, opposite to this sculpture, is another subject, representing about 100 figures, rather curiously grouped; also some large figures exactly similar to those above described.
In the other porticoes no sculpture is perceptible, except some fragments similar to the large figures in this plate.
At the end of some of the porticoes appear traces of the funeral boats, similar to the one I described at Meroe. Notwithstanding some differences, they appear to have the same signification as those over the tombs of the kings. This circumstance, and the representation of the goddess of truth, Osiris, the president of Amenti, and the assistant divinities, Anubis, Thoth, and Horus, are proofs that these were indubitably tombs.
These pyramids seem to have been the object of some learned curiosity or avarice. Deceived by the false doors beneath the boats of the sun at the end of the porticoes, persons have endeavoured, by blasting the stones, to discover some inner chambers, and set at rest for ever the question how, and for what purpose, they were constructed. The rude force of barbarians, perhaps of Arabs, animated, probably, by the hope of discovering treasure beneath, seems to have been exercised in utterly destroying others.
Judging from the pyramids which are almost entirely ruined, and from those that have been partly broken down, I do not conceive that there is any chamber in the interior, but think it more probable that the body was deposited in a small well, above which the pyramid was afterwards erected. Yet Diodorus says that the Ethiopians differed from other nations in the honours which they rendered to their dead. “Some,” says he, “throw the bodies into the river, believing that to be the most honourable sepulture which they can give. Others keep them in their houses, shut up in niches of alabaster, thinking it advantageous for a child to have ever before his eyes the image of his father; and those who wished to preserve the memory of their predecessors enclosed their bodies in a coffin of baked earth, and interred them in the neighbourhood of the temples.” The reader will have perceived, from these passages of Diodorus, that it is not impossible that these porticoes may have been used to contain the coffins; thus enabling the friends or children to visit them, at the same time protecting them, to a certain degree, from the hand of violence and the inclemency of the seasons. The mummies in the Roman tombs in the Necropolis, in the Oasis Magna, were in wells; and the Egyptians usually, but not invariably, interred their dead in those receptacles. Many of the pyramids have no porticoes; therefore, in those instances, the body must be underneath, probably in a well; but the construction of these porticoes may have had its origin in the piety and affection of individuals wishing to have the bodies of their relations preserved in an accessible place, where, at certain seasons, they could visit their remains, recall past scenes, indulge their grief in bewailing their loss, and have ever before their eyes a memorial of the brief sojourn of man in this valley of tears.
The pyramid marked O in the [plan] is thirty feet distant to the west of N. This is 53 feet square, and the height 58 feet. This pyramid is the second in [Plate XXVI.,] and the B of [Plate XXVIII.] It will be observed, in the view, that the upper part is very dilapidated; the portico is very much injured; and, in consequence of the broken state of the ground, it does not appear in my view. The sculpture which it contains is of little importance. A figure offering incense to the king, with the head-dress of a globe, long feathers, and short horns. There is also a representation of the funeral boat.
Pl. 27.
| On stone by W. P. Sherlock, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr. | Printed by C. Hullmandel. |
PYRAMIDS AT GIBEL EL BIRKEL.