438 MERGE TO GYRENE.

sented a portico, and the number of columns by which it was supposed to be supported varied according to the length of the tomb.

The spaces between the columns themselves also varied ; the porticoes being sometimes monotriglyph, and sometimes ditriglyph, according to the fancy of the architect. Between the columns were the cellm (if we may call them so) for the reception of the ashes or the bodies of the deceased, cut far into the rock, at right angles with the facade ; and the height of these was necessarily regulated by that of the columns from the level of the chamber*. As the spaces between the columns were wider, or otherwise, the width of the cellm varied accordingly, there never being more than one of these recesses between any two of the columns. The cellse had often separate facades on a smaller scale than the principal one, but always of the same order ; and they were occasionally made to represent doorways: the entrance to them appears to have been originally closed with a tablet of stone on which there was probably some inscription recording the. names of the persons within. In some instances part of such a tablet was left standing, but we never found one entire in any of the tombs, and very rarely saw fragments of them at all. As most of the chambers are, however, much encumbered with soil washed in by the rains through the doorway of the tomb, it is probable that some of these might be found entire on excavating either the chambers themselves, * It must be recollected that these facades were merely representations of porticoes, and that the columns did not project farther from the surface than half their own diameter.