The other constructions erected by the Phoenicians to mark the
resting-places of their dead are simple monuments erected near, and
generally over, the tombs in which the bodies are interred. The best
known is probably that in the vicinity of Tyre, which the natives call
the Kabr-Hiram, or “Tomb of Hiram.”[669] No great importance can be
attached to this name, which appears to be a purely modern one;[670] but
the monument is undoubtedly ancient, perhaps as ancient as any other
in Phoenicia.[671] It is composed of eight courses of huge stones
superimposed one upon another,[672] the blocks having in some cases a
length of eleven or twelve feet, with a breadth of seven or eight, and a
depth of three feet. The courses retreat slightly, with the exception of
the fifth, which projects considerably beyond the line of the fourth and
still more beyond that of the sixth. The whole effect is less that of a
pyramid than of a stelé or pillar, the width at top being not very much
smaller than that at the base. The monument is a solid mass, and is not
a square but a rectangular oblong, the broader sides measuring fourteen
feet and the narrower about eight feet six inches. Two out of the eight
courses are of the nature of substructions, being supplemental to the
rock, which supplies their place in part; and it is only recently
that they have been brought to light by means of excavation. Hence the
earlier travellers speak of the monument as having no more than
six courses. The present height above the soil is a little short of
twenty-five feet. A flight of steps cut in the rock leads down from
the monument to a sepulchral chamber, which, however, contains neither
sepulchral niche nor sarcophagus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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