feet it runs level; at 40 feet farther it stops, and turns perpendicularly towards the surface, opening in the floor of a vault twenty-one feet higher (fig. 143).  A set of beams and ropes still in place above the opening show that the spoilers drew the sarcophagus out of the chamber in ancient times.  Its small chapel, built against the eastern slope of the pyramid, with courtyard containing a low flat altar between two standing stelae nearly 14 feet high, was found intact.  The walls of the chapel were uninscribed, and bare; but the graffiti found there prove that the place was much visited during the times of the Eighteenth Dynasty by scribes, who recorded their admiration of the beauty of the monument, and believed that King Sneferu had raised it for himself and for his queen Meresankhu.

[Illustration:  Fig. 143.—­Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medum.]

The custom of building pyramids did not end with the Twelfth Dynasty; there are later pyramids at Manfalut, at Hekalli to the south of Abydos, and at Mohammeriyeh to the south of Esneh.  Until the Roman period, the semi-barbarous sovereigns of Ethiopia held it as a point of honour to give the pyramidal form to their tombs.  The oldest, those of Nurri, where the Pharaohs of Napata sleep, recall by their style the pyramids of Sakkarah; the latest, those of Meroe, present fresh characteristics.  They are higher than they are wide, are built of small blocks, and are sometimes decorated at the angles with rounded borderings.  The east face has a false window, surmounted by a cornice, and is flanked by a chapel, which is preceded by a pylon.  These pyramids are not all dumb.  As in ordinary tombs, the walls contain scenes borrowed from the “Ritual of Burial,” or showing the vicissitudes of the life beyond the grave.

[30] This section is reproduced, by permission of Mr. W.M.F.  Petrie, from
    Plate VII. of his “Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh.”  The vertical
    shaft sunk by Perring is shown going down from the floor of the
    subterranean unfinished chamber.  The lettering along the base of the
    pyramid, though not bearing upon the work of Professor Maspero, has
    been preserved for the convenience of readers who may wish to consult
    Mr. Petrie’s work for more minute details and measurements.  This
    lettering refers to that part of Mr. Petrie’s argument which disproves
    the “accretion theory” of previous writers (see “Pyramids and
    Temples of Gizeh” chap, xviii., p. 165).—­A.B.E.

3.—­THE TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE.

Excavated Tombs.

Two subsequent systems replaced the mastaba throughout Egypt.  The first preserved the chapel constructed above ground, and combined the pyramid with the mastaba; the second excavated the whole tomb in the rock, including the chapel.

[Illustration:  Fig. 144.—­Section of “vaulted” brick pyramid, Abydos.]