fairly comparable with
some of the gigantic blocks in which Egyptian architects delighted.
It is, for instance, about ten tons heavier than the quartzite block
which forms the sepulchral chamber in the pyramid of Amenemhat III.
at Hawara. The great chamber of the tomb consists of an impressive
circular vault 48 feet in diameter and in height. Its construction
is not that of true vaulting; but each of the thirty-three courses
projects a little beyond the one below it, until at last they approach
closely at the apex, which is closed by a single slab. The courses,
after being laid, were hewn to a perfectly smooth curve, and carefully
polished, and it appears that the whole of the dome was decorated
with rosettes of bronze, a scheme of adornment which recalls the
bronze walls of the Palace of Alcinous. From the great chamber a
side door, bearing traces of rich decoration, leads to a square
room, 27 feet square by 19 feet high, which may possibly have been
the actual place of interment. Curtius found 'this lofty and solemn
vault' the most imposing of all the monuments of ancient Greece.

In the same hillside as the Treasury of Atreus, but some 400 yards
north of it, stands the tomb known as the 'Tomb of Klytemnestra,' or
'Mrs. Schliemann's Treasury'--the latter title being due to the fact
that it was partially excavated in 1876 by Dr. Schliemann's wife. In
size it very closely corresponds to the better known tomb, while
its columns of dark green alabaster, its door-lintel of leek-green
marble, and the slabs of red marble which closed the relieving
triangle above the door show that it had been not less magnificent
than its neighbour.

[Illustration VII: THE LONG GALLERY, KNOSSOS (_p_. 68)]

Following up his excavations at Mycenae, Schliemann, in 1880-81,
excavated at Orchomenos in Boeotia the so-called 'Treasury of Minyas,'
discovering in its square side-chamber a beautiful ceiling formed
of slabs of slate sculptured with an exquisite pattern of rosettes
and spirals, which shows very distinct traces of Egyptian artistic
influence (unless, as Mr. H. R. Hall has now come to believe, we
are to trace the origin of the spiral as a decorative motive, not
to Egypt, but to the Minoans of Crete). At Tiryns, Schliemann began
in 1884 another series of excavations which laid bare the whole
ground-plan of the citadel palace of that ancient fortress town
with its halls and separate apartments for men and women, and the
colossal enclos