d it to their architects as a model. One of the cemeteries
at Arvad contains a splendid specimen of this imported design.*

* Pietschmann thinks that the monument is not older than the
Greek epoch, and it must be admitted that the cornice is not
such as we usually meet with in Egypt in Theban times;
nevertheless, the very marked resemblance to the Theban
mastaba shows that it must have been directly connected with
the Egyptian type which prevailed from the XVIIIth to the
XXth dynasties.

[Illustration: 113.jpg TWO OF THE TOMBS AT ARVAD]

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