MERGE TO GYRENE. 
463 
wall, at the extremity of one of the cellaj in an excavated tomb, for 
the reception, apparently, of cinereal urns, as will be seen in the eleva- 
tion we have given of it; but this is the only example of the kind 
we have met with, and we are left to determine, in other cases, 
from the dimensions of the cellae, whether they contained bodies or 
ashes. The reason of this is that (from whatever cause) all the tombs, 
whether excavated or constructed, have been opened and rifled of 
their contents ; and we never saw a single instance in which this had 
not been the case. In the constructed tombs, when the cover was 
too heavy to remove without a great deal of labour, a hole was 
always found knocked in the side of the sarcophagus ; and the tablets 
or slabs of stone or marble which closed the cellm and the places for 
the bodies, in those which were excavated, were in no instance found 
in their places entire by any individual of our party. The tombs of 
persons of distinction, at Cyrene, appear to have been erected in 
conspicuous positions without any regard to order or arrangement ; 
at the will, perhaps, of the deceased themselves, or of those at whose 
expense they were interred : but the sarcophagi of those of inferior 
consideration were ranged in line, whenever the ground would allow 
of it, so as to take up as little space as possible, and to present an 
appearance of regularity ; the sizes of the latter very seldom varied 
materially, and their forms were usually ahke. The arrangement of 
the sarcophagi was not always the same ; but they were almost 
invariably placed at right angles, in the manner represented (page 
464) in the ground-plan and elevation which we have given of them. 
The sarcophagus itself was generally composed of a single block of 
