he burial. The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole
outside of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can
be seen in the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before
them. The chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand,
without any supporting beams as in other tombs.

The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five
feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick. The surrounding
small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the
central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away
at the top. When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers
contained anything. Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which
are marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found
here, scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs.
The most interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type
clearly; with one were found bones of a dwarf. In a chamber on the
east was a jar and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and
is roughly finished, with the edge turned over to leave it smooth. The
small compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended
to hold the offerings placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only
about half the depth of the grave.

[Illustration: 384.jpg TOMB OF MERSEKHA, SHOWING WOODEN FLOOR]

The structure of the interior of the tomb of Mersekha is at present
uncertain. Only in the corner by the entrance was the wooden flooring
preserved; several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood
was found loose in the rubbish. The entrance is nine feet wide, and
was blocked by loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in the
photograph. Another looser walling farther out, also seen in the
photograph, is probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand.

The tomb of King Qa, which is the last of the first dynasty, shows a
more developed stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built
on each side of the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the
north, as in the mastabas of the third dynasty and in the pyramids. The
whole of the building is hasty and defective.

[Illustration: 385.jpg PLAN OF TOMB OF QA, CIRCA 4500 B.C.]

The bricks were mostly used too new, probably less than a week after
being made. Hence the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the
lesser chambers; only the one