k CHAPTER X.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS OF MERGE.

NORTHERN GROUP FORTY-THREE PYRAMIDS.

Pyramid No. i. A step-pyramid. (Cailliaud A, Hoskins W, Lepsius No. 20). This is the most southerly of the pyramids of the Northern Group. The length of each side at the base is about 21 feet; the first "step" is about 10 feet high, and the second about 8| feet. The pyramid is well built and well preserved, and is made of blocks of sound stone ; it stands on the basalt bluff at the south end of the semi-circular hill whereon stands this group of pyramids. The layers of stone are sixteen in number, nine in the lower " step," seven in the upper. The chapel is also well built, but most of its roof is wanting, as well as the pylon. In front of the chapel the hill drops abruptly, and twelve feet below the floor the place where the passage leading to the sepulchral chamber ends is distinctly visible. We cleared the front and all the sides of this pyramid, and then made a road all round it.

This pyramid was built for Queen Kenthahebit, who was also called Amen-Arit, or Amen-Ar,* but nothing is known of her reign, and at present her name cannot be placed in chronological order. She was a worshipper of Amen, or Amen-Ra, the Sun-god, whose name she compounded with her own. The name " Kenthahebit " was believed by Lepsius to be the Meroitic equivalent of the name, or title, " Candace," and it is boldly stated to be so by some writers, but surely if this were so we should find it in V y < ... ' V_ ' AAAAAA < II -<2>-I i I V AAAAAA (J 1 11 O ' ' lady of the two lands, Amenarit, the lady maker of things, Kenthahebit."

- Ausfilhrliches Verzeichnis, Berlin, 1899, p. 404, "der Pyramide einer Konigin Amen-ari Kandake."

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