438 
MERGE TO GYRENE. 
sented a portico, and the number of columns by which it was sup- 
posed to be supported varied according to the length of the tomb. 
The spaces between the columns themselves also varied ; the porticoes 
being sometimes monotriglyph, and sometimes ditriglyph, according 
to the fancy of the architect. Between the columns were the cellm (if 
we may call them so) for the reception of the ashes or the bodies of 
the deceased, cut far into the rock, at right angles with the facade ; and 
the height of these was necessarily regulated by that of the columns 
from the level of the chamber*. As the spaces between the columns 
were wider, or otherwise, the width of the cellm varied accordingly, 
there never being more than one of these recesses between any two of 
the columns. The cellse had often separate facades on a smaller scale 
than the principal one, but always of the same order ; and they were 
occasionally made to represent doorways: the entrance to them 
appears to have been originally closed with a tablet of stone on which 
there was probably some inscription recording the. names of the 
persons within. In some instances part of such a tablet was left 
standing, but we never found one entire in any of the tombs, and 
very rarely saw fragments of them at all. As most of the chambers 
are, however, much encumbered with soil washed in by the rains 
through the doorway of the tomb, it is probable that some of these 
might be found entire on excavating either the chambers themselves, 
* It must be recollected that these facades were merely representations of porticoes, 
and that the columns did not project farther from the surface than half their own 
diameter. 
