III, was in all likelihood a sham or secondary tomb, the king having most probably been buried at Thebes, in the Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga.  The Abydos tomb is of interesting construction.  The entrance is by a simple pit, from which a gallery runs round in a curving direction to a great hall supported by eighteen square pillars, beyond which is a further gallery which was never finished.  Nothing was found in the tomb.  On the slope of the mountain, due west of and in a line with the tomb, Mr. Currelly found a terrace-temple analogous to those of Der el-Bahari, approached not by means of a ramp but by stairways at the side.  It was evidently the funerary temple of the tomb.

[Illustration:  338.jpg Statue of Queen Teta-shera]

     Grandmother of Aahmes, the conqueror of the Hyksos and
     founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty.  About 1700 B. C. British
     Museum.  From the photograph by Messrs. Mansell & Co.

The secondary tomb of Usertsen (Senusret) III at Abydos, which has already been mentioned, was discovered in the preceding year by Mr. A. E. P. Weigall, and excavated by Mr. Currelly in 1903.  It lies north of the Aahmes temple, between it and the main cemetery of Abydos.  It is a great bab or gallery-tomb, like those of the later kings at Thebes, with the usual apparatus of granite plugs, barriers, pits, etc., to defy plunderers.  The tomb had been plundered, nevertheless, though it is probable that the robbers were vastly disappointed with what they found in it.  Mr. Currelly ascribes the absence of all remains to the plunderers, but the fact is that there probably never was anything in it but an empty sarcophagus.  Near the tomb Mr. Weigall discovered some dummy mastabas, a find of great interest.  Just as the king had a secondary tomb, so secondary mastabas, mere dummies of rubble like the XIth Dynasty pyramid at Der el-Bahari, were erected beside it to look like the tombs of his courtiers.  Some curious sinuous brick walls which appear to act as dividing lines form a remarkable feature of this sham cemetery.  In a line with the tomb, on the edge of the cultivation, is the funerary temple belonging to it, which was found by Mr. Randall-Maclver in 1900.  Nothing remains but the bases of the fluted limestone columns and some brick walls.  A headless statue of Usertsen was found.

We have an interesting example of the custom of building a secondary tomb for royalties in these two necropoles of Dra’ Abu-’l-Negga and Abydos.  Queen Teta-shera, the grandmother of Aahmes, a beautiful statuette of whom may be seen in the British Museum, had a small pyramid at Abydos, eastward of and in a line with the temple and secondary tomb of Aahmes.  In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could not.  In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and