[29] This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah.  For a
    coloured facsimile on a large scale, see Professor Maspero’s article
    entitled “Trois Annees de Fouilles,” in Memoires de la Mission
    Archeologique Francaise du Caire, Pl. 2. 1884.—­A.B.E.

2.—­THE PYRAMIDS.

[For the following translation of this section of Professor Maspero’s book I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M.  Flinders Petrie, whose work on The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, published with the assistance of a grant from the Royal Society in 1883, constitutes our standard authority on the construction of these Pyramids.—­A.B.E.]

The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times (Note 14).  The same ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba, —­the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault.

The chapel is always separate.  At Sakkarah no trace of it has been found; it was probably, as later on at Thebes, in a quarter nearer to the town.  At Medum, Gizeh, Abusir, and Dahshur, these temples stood at the east or north fronts of the pyramids.  They were true temples, with chambers, courts, and passages.  The fragments of bas-reliefs hitherto found show scenes of sacrifice, and prove that the decoration was the same as in the public halls of the mastabas.  The pyramid, properly speaking, contained only the passages and sepulchral vault.  The oldest of which the texts show the existence, north of Abydos, is that of Sneferu; the latest belong to the princes of the Twelfth Dynasty.  The construction of these monuments was, therefore, a continuous work, lasting for thirteen or fourteen centuries, under government direction.  Granite, alabaster, and basalt for the sarcophagus and some details were the only materials of which the use and the quantity was not regulated in advance, and which had to be brought from a distance.  To obtain them, each king sent one of the great men of his court on a mission to the quarries of Upper Egypt; and the quickness with which the blocks were brought back was a strong claim upon the sovereign’s favour.  The other material was not so costly.  If mainly brick, the bricks were moulded on the spot with earth taken from the foot of the hill.  If of stone, the nearest parts of the plateau provided the common marly limestone in abundance (Note 15).  The fine limestone of Turah was usually reserved for the chambers and the casing, and this might be had without even sending specially for it to the opposite side of the Nile; for at Memphis there were stores always full, upon which they continually drew for public buildings, and, therefore, also for the royal tombs.  The blocks being taken from these stores, and borne by