Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/190

1 70 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. In the neighbourhood of Tyre, still greater disappointment awaits the explorer. There are traces everywhere of sepulchral excava- tions in the rocks that rise above the narrow band of sea-washed plain ; but in nearly every case the slight consistency of the rock has caused the roofs to fall in. In the few cases in which a tomb has been found in fair condition there are neither inscriptions nor mouldings nor anything else to indicate its date. Sarcophagi, graves, niches, all have been gutted many centuries ago. Nothing more naked and bare than these tombs could be imagined. 1 The only monument in the whole of this district that greatly excites our curiosity is that known as the Kabr-Hiram, or " tomb of Hiram " (Fig. i 13). This denomination, which is quite recent, has no value ; no importance whatever must be attached to it, while a study of the building itself yields no evidence as to its date. There is no inscription either on the building itself, or in the chamber attached to it ; there is nothing in fact to give a hint of a plausible solution. In the chamber there is neither niche nor grave, there is nothing in fact to suggest a sepulchre ; besides which the chamber does not seem to have been excavated at the time the monument was built ; they agree ill together and do not seem to be parts of the same ensemble? However this may be, the appearance of the building recalls that of the great tombs at Amrit. The lower part consists of a square base, ending in a cornice which separates it from an upper story slightly pyramidal in shape. But the latter is not a pyramid ; it is a huge sarcophagus in two pieces, the body and the lid. The total elevation of the building, measured from the bottom of the first course, is a little more than twenty feet. The want of regularity, which is taken to be one of the signs by which one may recognize works dating from the earliest Phoenician antiquity is here conspicuous. 3 At a distance the monument is not without effect ; it imposes by its mass. But on a close examination we find that the pyramidal shape is not well obtained, and that one side is nearly perpendicular. The faces do not correspond. On those turned towards the road, the stone is carefully worked and dressed, on the others it is almost in its natural state. Taking it all in all we are inclined to o 1 RENAN, Mission, p. 589. 2 Ibid. pp. 599-602, and plates xlvii., xlviii. 8 Ibid. p. 829.