The mud in the _First Sepulchre_, whose site had been marked by the three _stêlæ_ with low reliefs, having dried up in the fine weather, I continued the excavation there, and struck at last the bottom of the tomb, which is cut out in the rock, 17½ ft. deep on the north side, and 17 ft. deep on the south-east side. But from these points the slope is so abrupt that, although the upper breadth of the sepulchre does not exceed 10 ft. 10 in., yet the greater part of its west side needed only to be cut 11 ft. deep into the rock to make a level bottom. This west side is close to the Cyclopean wall, with the parallel double row of large calcareous slabs, which forms the enclosure and benches of the Agora, and rises vertically over the sepulchre. (See Plans B and C.) For all these reasons it appeared to me, on first excavating this tomb, that the wall passed through its north-west angle. But, by propping up with planks and beams the earth and stones which cling to the wall and overhang the north-west corner of the tomb, I have now cleared the latter in its entire length, and visitors will perceive that the wall does not pass through the tomb but merely touches its brink in the north-west corner. The length of the tomb is 21 ft. 6 in., its breadth at the bottom is 11 ft. 6 in., and thus 8 in. more than at the top. The four inner sides were lined with a Cyclopean wall, 3 ft. high and 2 ft. broad; and this had superposed on it a slanting wall of schist plates joined with clay, which reached to a height of 6½ ft., and projected on all sides a foot more than the Cyclopean wall, and thus in all 3 feet on the bottom of the tomb. The latter was covered with the usual layer of pebbles, which were, however, more irregularly strewn than in the other tombs, there being places without any pebbles; which circumstance made me at first believe that there was no layer of pebbles at all in this tomb. But on careful examination, I found such a layer, and below the bodies I found it just as regular as in any other tomb, which circumstance appears to give an additional proof that those layers of pebbles were merely intended to procure ventilation for the pyres.