business, usually side by side with the seller. In the
necropolis of Saqqara, there is a temple of gigantic
proportions in the shape of a 'mastaba.'The inhabitants of
the neighbourhood call it 'Mastabat-el-Faraoun,' the seat of
Pharaoh, in the belief that anciently one of the Pharaohs
sat there to dispense justice. The Memphite tombs of the
Ancient Empire, which thickly cover the Saqqara plateau, are
more or less miniature copies of the 'Mastabat-el-
Faraoun.'Hence the name of mastabas, which has always been
given to this kind of tomb, in the necropolis of Saqqara."

From a distance these chapels have the appearance of truncated pyramids,
varying in size according to the fortune or taste of the owner; there
are some which measure 30 to 40 ft. in height, with a facade 160 ft.
long, and a depth from back to front of some 80 ft., while others attain
only a height of some 10 ft. upon a base of 16 ft. square.*

* The mastaba of Sabu is 175 ft. 9 in. long, by about 87 ft.
9 in. deep, but two of its sides have lost their facing;
that of Ranimait measures 171 ft. 3 in. by 84 ft. 6 in. on
the south front, and 100 ft. on the north front. On the
other hand, the mastaba of Papu is only 19 ft. 4 in. by 29
ft. long, and that of KMbiuphtah 42 ft. 4 in. by 21 ft. 8
in.

The walls slope uniformly towards one another, and usually have a smooth
surface; sometimes, however, their courses are set back one above the
other almost like steps.

[Illustration: 006.jpg THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZEH PARTIALLY UNCOVERED,
AND THE PYRAMID OF KHEPHREN]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey,
taken in the course of the excavations begun in 1886, with
the funds furnished by a public subscription opened by the
_Journal des Debats._

The brick mastabas were carefully cemented externally, and the layers
bound together internally by fine sand poured into the interstices.
Stone mastabas, on the contrary, present a regularity in the decoration
of their facings alone; in nine cases out of ten the core is built of
rough stone blocks, rudely cut into squares, cemented with gravel and
dried mud, or thrown together pell-mell without mortar of any kind. The
whole building should have been orientated according to rule, the four
sides to the four cardinal points, the greatest axis directed north and
south; but the masons seldom troubled thems