the outside, and consequently at a
period when this passage, being the only means of
penetrating into the interior of the monument, had not yet
received its present dimensions.

Mykerinos did not find his last resting-place in this upper level of the
interior of the pyramid: a narrow passage, hidden behind the slabbing
of the second chamber, descended into a secret crypt, lined with granite
and covered with a barrel-vaulted roof. The sarcophagus was a single
block of blue-black basalt, polished, and carved into the form of a
house, with a facade having three doors and three openings in the form
of windows, the whole framed in a rounded moulding and surmounted by a
projecting cornice such as we are accustomed to see on the temples.*

* It was lost off the coast of Spain in the vessel which was
bringing it to England. We have only the drawing remaining
which was made at the time of its discovery, and published
by Vyse. M. Borchardt has attempted to show that it was
reworked under the XXVIth Saite dynasty as well as the
wooden coffin of the king.

The mummy-case of cedar-wood had a man's head, and was shaped to
the form of the human body; it was neither painted nor gilt, but an
inscription in two columns, cut on its front, contained the name of the
Pharaoh, and a prayer on his behalf: "Osiris, King of the two Egypts,
Menkauri, living eternally, given birth to by heaven, conceived by Nuit,
flesh of Sibii, thy mother Nuit has spread herself out over thee in
her name of 'Mystery of the Heavens,' and she has granted that thou
shouldest be a god, and that thou shouldest repulse thine enemies, O
King of the two Egypts, Menkauri, living eternally." The Arabs opened
the mummy to see if it contained any precious jewels, but found within
it only some leaves of gold, probably a mask or a pectoral covered
with hieroglyphs. When Vyse reopened the vault in 1837, the bones lay
scattered about in confusion on the dusty floor, mingled with bundles of
dirty rags and wrappings of yellowish woollen cloth.

The worship of the three great pyramid-building kings continued in
Memphis down to the time of the Greeks and Romans. Their statues, in
granite, limestone, and alabaster, were preserved also in the buildings
annexed to the temple of Phtah, where visitors could contemplate these
Pharaohs as they were when alive.

[Illustration: 196.jpg THE GRANITE SARCOPHAGUS OF MYKERINOS]

Drawn by F