the main chamber was 90.6 inches from the floor level.

Having examined the central chamber, the chambers at the sides should be
next considered. The cross walls were built after the main brick outside
was finished and plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north
side, were built in the construction; where the top is preserved entire,
as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing of
the recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch thick.
The shallow recesses along the south side were merely made in the
plastering, and even in the secondary plastering after the cross walls
were built. All of these recesses, except that at the south-west, were
coloured pink-red, due to mixing burnt ochre with the white.

The tomb of Merneit was not at first suspected to exist, as it had no
accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole ground had been pitted
all over by the Mission Amelineau making "_quelques sondages_," without
revealing the chambers or the plan. As soon, however, as Petrie began
systematically to clear the ground, the scheme of a large central
chamber, with eight long chambers for offerings around it, and a line of
private tombs enclosing it, stood apparent. The central chamber is very
accurately built, with vertical sides parallel to less than an inch. It
is about twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, or practically the
same as the chamber of Zet. Around the chamber are walls forty-eight
to fifty-two inches thick, and beyond them a girdle of long, narrow
chambers forty-eight inches wide and 160 to 215 inches long. Of these
chambers for offerings, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 7 still contain pottery in
place, and No. 3 contains many jar sealings.

At a few yards distant from the chambers full of offerings is a line
of private graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line has
an interruption at the south end of the west side similar to the
interruption of the retaining wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter.
It seems, therefore, that the funeral approached it from that direction.

The chamber of the tomb of Merneit shows signs of burning on both the
walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining indicates that
it also had a wooden floor like the other tombs. Against the walls stand
pilasters of brick; and, although these are not at present more than a
quarter of the whole height of the wall, they originally reached to the
top. These pilasters are entirely additions to t