Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by Thobois,
     reproduced in Renan.

It is a square tower some thirty-six feet high; the six lower courses consist of blocks, each some sixteen and a half feet long, joined to each other without mortar.  The two lowest courses project so as to form a kind of pedestal for the building.  The cornice at the top consists of a deep moulding, surmounted by a broad flat band, above which rises the pyramid, which attains a height of nearly thirty feet.  It is impossible to deny that it is constructed on a foreign model; it is not a slavish imitation, however, but rather an adaptation upon a rational plan to the conditions of its new home.  Its foundations rest on nothing but a mixture of soil and sand impregnated with water, and if vaults had been constructed beneath this, as in Egypt, the body placed there would soon have corrupted away, owing to the infiltration of moisture.  The dead bodies were, therefore, placed within the structure above ground, in chambers corresponding to the Egyptian chapel, which were superimposed the one upon the other.  The first storey would furnish space for three bodies, and the second would contain twelve, for which as many niches were provided.  In the same cemetery we find examples of tombs which the architect has constructed, not after an Egyptian, but a Chaldaean model.  A round tower is here substituted for the square structure and a cupola for the pyramid, while the cornice is represented by crenellated markings.  The only Egyptian feature about it is the four lions, which seem to support the whole edifice upon their backs.*

     * The fellahin in the neighbourhood call these two monuments
     the Meghazil or “distaffs.”

Arvad was, among Phoenician cities, the nearest neighbour to the kingdoms on the Euphrates, and was thus the first to experience either the brunt of an attack or the propagation of fashions and ideas from these countries.  In the more southerly region, in the country about Tyre, there are fewer indications of Babylonian influence, and such examples of burying-places for the ruling classes as the Kabr-Hiram and other similar tombs correspond with the mixed mastaba of the Theban period.  We have the same rectangular base, but the chapel and its crowning pyramid are represented by the sarcophagus itself with its rigid cover.  The work is of an unfinished character, and carelessly wrought, but there is a charming simplicity about its lines and a harmony in its proportions which betray an Egyptian influence.

[Illustration:  115.jpg THE KABR-HIRAM NEAR TYRE]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Thobois, reproduced by
     Renan.

The spirit of imitation which we find in the religion and architecture of Phoenicia is no less displayed in the minor arts, such as goldsmiths’work, sculpture in ivory, engraving on gems, and glass-making.  The forms, designs, and colours are all rather those of Egypt than of Chaldaea.  The many-hued glass objects, turned out by the manufacturers of the Said in millions, furnished at one time valuable cargoes for the Phoenicians; they learned at length to cast and colour copies of these at home, and imitated their Egyptian models so successfully that classical antiquity was often deceived by them.*