MERGE TO GYRENE. 463 wall, at the extremity of one of the cellaj in an excavated tomb, for the reception, apparently, of cinereal urns, as will be seen in the elevation we have given of it; but this is the only example of the kind we have met with, and we are left to determine, in other cases, from the dimensions of the cellae, whether they contained bodies or ashes. The reason of this is that (from whatever cause) all the tombs, whether excavated or constructed, have been opened and rifled of their contents ; and we never saw a single instance in which this had not been the case. In the constructed tombs, when the cover was too heavy to remove without a great deal of labour, a hole was always found knocked in the side of the sarcophagus ; and the tablets or slabs of stone or marble which closed the cellm and the places for the bodies, in those which were excavated, were in no instance found in their places entire by any individual of our party. The tombs of persons of distinction, at Cyrene, appear to have been erected in conspicuous positions without any regard to order or arrangement ; at the will, perhaps, of the deceased themselves, or of those at whose expense they were interred : but the sarcophagi of those of inferior consideration were ranged in line, whenever the ground would allow of it, so as to take up as little space as possible, and to present an appearance of regularity ; the sizes of the latter very seldom varied materially, and their forms were usually ahke. The arrangement of the sarcophagi was not always the same ; but they were almost invariably placed at right angles, in the manner represented (page 464) in the ground-plan and elevation which we have given of them.

The sarcophagus itself was generally composed of a single block of