110 RUINS OF TELMESSUS. 
CHAP. This tomb consists of two entire stones, 
VIII. 
., y,.i „■' standing upon a lofty rock, difficult of access. 
One stone being hollowed, affords a receptacle 
for the body ; the other supplies its ponderous 
covering. 
Near to this there is another tomb, with a 
simple bas-relief, but not of less massive mate- 
rials, nor less elevated in its situation. The 
practice of ornamenting the Soros is not of a 
date so remote as the chaster style observed in 
Some of the old sepulchres oi Macedonia, and in 
others left by the Ptolemies of Egypt. In its 
original form, it preserves a simplicity and 
grandeur not to be aided by any ornament. 
The purest model ^ was afforded by the granite 
Soros, in the chamber of the Greater Pyramid, 
when it was covered by a simple slab. During 
the first ages, the Soroi were destitute even of 
inscriptions; the magnitude of the v»^ork spoke 
for itself, and it was believed that posterity 
needed no other information^. In later times, 
(1) The classical taste of Poussin did not suffer this model to escape 
his notice, when he painted the celebrated picture of The Fli^M 
into Egypt. The Holy Family are there delineated by the side of an 
antient<o?«6, consisting of the Soros^ with its simple covering, destitute 
of any ornament whatsoever. In that picture, all is repose, and gran- 
deur, and sublimity, in the highest degree. 
(2) The account given by Diodorus of the Sepulchre of Osymandi/as, 
{Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 57. ed. /Vessel. Amst. 1746.) aflFording one of the 
oldest Insaiptijans of this nature, proves how fully the Antients relied upon 
the 
