163 



feet to the west of the lateral chamber, which now forms the principal 

 approach. This chamber may be portion of a covered avenue, or it 

 may be portion of a separate apartment. It is entered from a de- 

 pression on the surface opening to the south, which bears the appear- 

 ance rather of a breach made into the end of a chamber than of a pas- 

 sage. About seven feet in length of the covered part remains. The 

 width is three feet eight inches ; the height, from the clay which has 

 fallen in, and forms the floor, not more than three feet three inches. At 

 the junction of this crypt with the eastern opening, a species of tran- 

 sept is formed, about eight feet by four, and four feet high, extending 

 eastward into the remains of what has now the appearance of a passage, 

 and opening on the western side into the narrow gallery formed in the 

 rock, which descends by a series of inclines and rude steps into the prin- 

 cipal apartment below. In this lower interior the natural walls of 

 rock rise to a height of about eighteen feet, converging at top, and hav- 

 ing much the appearance of the inclined passages in the Mexican pyra- 

 mids. The spaces between the 

 rock ledges at top are, as are the 

 upper passages and chambers, co- 

 vered in with transverse blocks of 

 stone. These stones, where they 

 form the lintels at the junction of 

 the upper chambers, have been 

 selected with care ; and it is on the 

 lintel stone of the southern crypt, 

 marked A on the plan, where 

 it abuts on what has been described 

 as the transept, that the principal 

 inscription exists. 



This stone, which is of the lime- 

 stone of the neighbourhood, mea- 

 sures four feet eight inches in length, 

 of which one foot is engaged in the 

 adjoining masonry. It has an ave- 

 rage breadth of one foot four inches, 

 being somewhat broader towards 

 the western end, and varies in thick- 

 ness from four to nine inches. Its 

 under surface is corrugated in the 

 direction of its length with nume- 

 rous natural striae ; and it does not 

 appear to have undergone any pre- 

 paration with the tool, except at one 

 point, on the inner edge, at the 

 eastern end, where it presents the 

 appearance of having been rubbed 

 down, so as to form two ribbed 

 projections, separated by shallow grooved indentations, resembling the 



Fig. 2. 



