Chambers of the character here described contain in almost every
instance stone sarcophagi. These are ranged along the walls, at a little
distance from them. The chambers commonly contain two or three; but
sometimes one sarcophagus is superimposed upon another, and in this way
the number occasionally reaches to six.[660] Mostly, the sarcophagi are
plain, or nearly so, but are covered over with a sloping lid. Sometimes,
however, they are elaborately carved, and constitute works of art,
which are of the highest value. An account will be given of the most
remarkable of these objects in the chapter on Phoenician Æsthetic Art.
Another distinct type of Phoenician tomb is that which is peculiar
to Nea-Paphos, and which is thought by some to have been employed
exclusively by the High Priests of the great temple there.[661] The
peculiarity of these burial-places is, that the sepulchral chambers are
adjuncts of a quadrangular court open to the sky, and surrounded by
a colonnade supported on pillars.[662] The court, the colonnade, the
pillars, the entablature, and the chambers, with their niches for the
dead, are all equally cut out of the rock, as well as the passage by
which the court is entered, at one corner of the quadrangle. The
columns are either square or rounded, the rounded ones having capitals
resembling those of the Doric order; and the entablature is also a
rough imitation of the Doric triglyphs, and guttæ. The entrances to the
sepulchral chambers are under the colonnade, behind the pillars;[663]
and the chambers contain, beside niches, a certain number of bases for
sarcophagi, but no sarcophagi have been found in them. The quadrangle is
of a small size, not more than about eighteen feet each way.
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