THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN temples which existed at Gebel Barkal were built between the southern end of the mountain and the river. All of them were oriented to some point between the south and the east, but it is at present only possible to give the orientation of two of these with accuracy. We may now pass on to describe the pyramids of Gebel Barkal, that is to say, the tombs of the kings who built the temples enumerated above,' and of other royal personages.

The PYRAMIDS OF Gebel Barkal, like nearly all the others in the Sudan, are truncated, and each stands upon a platform formed of two or three layers of stone, which project everywhere on each side, except the south-east, where the chapel is built. The sides of all Sudan ordinary pyramids form a series of steps, from twenty to seventy in number, each of which stands from four to eight inches behind the one below it ; these stones were never filled up with stones so as to form smooth, inclined surfaces, as was the case usually in Egypt. The angle stones are generally carefully cut and smoothed, and give grace and symmetry to the appearance of the pyramid. High up the pyramid, on the side facing the south-east, is sometimes found a rectangular opening, which, I cannot help thinking, was intended to be used by the soul of the person buried beneath the pyramid as a door by which it might enter the building and descend to the place where its body lay. At the present day such openings serve as shelters wherein birds build their nests, and it is no uncommon thing to see a hawk standing in one as if keeping guard over the building. The Egyptians believed that the souls of the dead entered hawks, and that they visited the tombs under this form, and, if that belief was not common to all primitive peoples in the Nile Valley, it was probably introduced into Nubia from Egypt. The flat top of each pyramid is covered with a layer of well-cut, close-fitting stones, which in some cases appear to have been laid in a bed of lime and sand. There is no evidence to justify the view of Hoskins that the flat top was designed to hold a statue, and it is far more likely that the pyramids were finished off in this way because the builders were unable to make and raise a stone pyramidion to the required height, than that their builders intended to place ornaments on the flat top.

The greater number of pyramids in the Sildan consist of: i. A 152