the other patriarchs of his race. The site of the cave is at the present day covered by a mosque, and in the crypt of this mosque the bodies of the patriarchs are supposed to lie. Now, the wall of the crypt, a superb piece of masonry of imposing appearance, is incontestably contemporary with Herod; there is the same marginal draft that we have studied in the enclosure of the temple built by that prince. The tomb called Absalom’s is also a small building not earlier than the time of the Seleucids, and if it preserves, like the Palestinian structures of the same epoch, a few architectural reminiscences of Phœnician art, it has columns, capitals, and mouldings which are entirely Greek. We need not, therefore, occupy ourselves with these monuments, or with the tomb of the Maccabees at Modin, or with the not less celebrated _hypogæa_ known under the name of _Kebûr-el-Melûk_, or “Tombs of the Kings,” _Tomb of Jehoshaphat_, of _Saint James_, with its Doric portico, or _Tomb of Zacharias_: sepulchral chambers which are visited by pilgrims in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and the date of which Saulcy has in vain tried to place even farther back than the Babylonian captivity. The tomb of Joshua, among the ruins known under the name of Khirbet-Tibneh, north-west of Jifneh (Gophna), does not seem to be more ancient. In Arabia, at Medaïn Salih, several tombs have been observed hewn in the rock, the façade and inner arrangement of which are identical with those of the Palestinian caves. There are Greek columns, pediments and mouldings mixed with a few traditional motives, the original birthplace of which is in Assyria or on the banks of the Nile; cavities for sarcophagi are arranged around the chambers as in the Jewish tombs. The inscriptions obtained at Medaïn Salih prove that these burying-places were formed during the first eighty years of our era. [Illustration: Fig. 185.--Sepulchral chamber at Medaïn Salih. (Doughty, _Doc. Epigr. du nord de l’Arabie._)]