FUNEREAL ARCHITECTURE. 109 it is seen to the best advantage belongs to the group under notice, where the rocks, without being hard, are firmer than about Ayazeen. Hence in the perpendicular faces of the cliffs, which hem in the plateau on all sides, have been pierced chambered graves with gaping mouths, so high up as to require ladders and other contri- vances to reach them. An immense rock, jutting from the plateau above, has been rudely fashioned into a parallelepiped block, wholly void of mouldings ; a plain small doorway appears in the usual position, 6 m. above the ground (Fig. 64, 21 in plan). Over the lintel of this door is carved a slightly conical obelisk, topped by a capital, the outline of which brings to mind that of the echinus in the Doric capital. It is flanked by rampant lions, one on each side, their fore paws resting on the door-posts in threatening attitude and mouth wide open, as though to warn off the sacrilegious from the tomb. Beneath each of the lions is a little cub, kept in deep shadow by the larger figures, in more senses than one ; the heads of the latter are almost level with the top of the slab, and monopolize the whole attention. 1 The chamber is small, archaic, and of no interest. Professor Ramsay states that there are eight other tombs at least in this necropolis, whose fagades are enriched by the lion device ; some of them, however, belong to a very late period. Had it been preserved, the finest and perhaps the oldest specimen of sepulchral decoration yielded by the lion device would be found in a hypogee, some 90 m. beyond that which we have just examined (22 in map). But, unfortunately, water and Plutonic agency have broken it to pieces. The site it once occupied is covered with immense blocks six and eight metres long, and of proportionate thickness. Huge fragments are scattered or piled up on the ground in picturesque confusion (Fig. 65). The fragments in question excited the curiosity of Professor Ramsay, who since then returned to the spot in 1884 and 1887, bent upon unravelling the history these stones had to tell. He went 1 M. Blunt's photograph, from which St. Elme Gautier drew Fig. 64, was taken late in the day, when the whole monument was in deep shadow ; hence he failed to bring out the cubs. They were given more prominence in Plate XVII., Journal of Hell. Studies. The shape of our pilaster does not agree in every respect with the verbal description of Professor Ramsay, written in consequence of a second visit to the monument (Athenaum, December 27, 1884, p. 864). The fact that the adult animals are without mane, coupled with the presence of two cubs, leads to the con- clusion that the sculptor intended to represent lionesses (Journal, ix. pp. 368, 369).
