602 EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



walls, and under a block of stone I came across a chest containing 

 canopes. This chest, which had not been touched by the robbers, was, 

 like the coffin, covered with gold leaves with the titles and names of the 

 king. A string which fastened it still contained his seal in clay. The 

 seal showed the name of Amenemhat III. It was, however, the sover- 

 eign who presided over the funeral rites of the king, his predecessor or 

 his coregent, unknown hitherto. 



This verification is of the greatest historical importance, because it 

 proves either that there was a king between Ousertesen III and 

 Amenemhat III, or that Amenemhat IV did not reign alone. Not only 

 does it definitely fix the epoch or age of King Hor, but it also assigns 

 him a rank in Egyptian chronology. 



The tomb of King Hor is situated, as I have said, outside of the 

 pyramid, in the northern part of its surrounding wall, and for this 

 reason it is not the tomb of the king who built the colossal brick 

 structure. This fact is interesting, but it is still more curious to find 

 a king interred in a modest tomb ; his vault is very restricted indeed, 

 and would seem rather to be the last habitation of some private indi- 

 vidual than that of a master of Upper and Lower Egypt. A problem 

 still remains whose solution will probably be furnished by a continuation 

 of this work. 



The diggings which followed led to the discovery of eleven other pits 

 running from east to west. Some had fallen in and seem never to have 

 been finished; but one, the nearest to the royal pit, has furnished very 

 important results. 



On the 19th of April, when this pit was emptied, I came to a door 

 giving access to a passage 14.00 meters in length and covered with 

 a cylindrical arch, properly joined. This gallery, in every way resem- 

 bling that leading to the royal tomb, was broken in the middle by a 

 very dangerous cavity, which required much care. It ended southward 

 in a wall, constructed of the stone of Tourah, closing the door of the 

 vault. This tomb had not been violated. 



I think it useful to insist here upon the existence of arches of crude 

 brick in the tombs of the twelfth dynasty at Dahchour. I have thus 

 far met several of which the oblique cut relative to the axis denotes a 

 very extended practical knowledge on the part of the architects of this 

 epoch. Another remark must also be made on the subject of the 

 employment of plaster, which is general in the monuments of Dahchour. 

 I myself have found in the various constructions vases in which the 

 mortar had been tempered; one still sees the thumb mark of the masons 

 traced in the wet mass. 



The door was opened with all the precautions necessitated by the 

 bad state of the gallery, and as soon as the first stones were taken off 

 we saw before us all the objects placed in a small room, in the spot 

 where they had been deposited by the priests of the twelfth dynasty 

 or by the family of the deceased. There stood the clay vessels still 

 inclosing the mud of the Nile water; here pieces of embalmed viands; a 



