MfcOM It HOB ElS TO THE &ITLFH OF &L&XJCXJ&. 1M : 
fillers l^ft by the Ptolemies of Egypt. In its original form ii 
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 wag 
covered by a simple slab. During the first ages of their intro¬ 
duction, they were destitute even of inscriptions. The magni¬ 
tude of the work spoke for itself; and it was believed posterity 
needed no other information.f In later times, when the re- 
liques of the dead became sources of superstition, and sloth or 
avarice had rendered them subservient to mercenary purposes, 
it was necessary that inscriptions should often not only record 
the origin of the tomb, but also testify the miracles it wrought,' 
or the mysteries it concealed. Hence those numberless writings 
at the monument of Memnon, and the long catalogue of hiero¬ 
glyphic characters with which the priests of Alexandria had 
inscribed the soros containing the consecrated remains of the 
founder of their city. It is quite inconceivable by what art 
the people ofTelmessus were enabled to raise such everlasting; 
monuments of their piety for the dead. The soros of which I 
am now w riting stands upon the top of a rock, towering among 
the ruins and other sepulchres of the city : it consists, like the 
former, of two pieces of stone. It has, for its foundation, a 
mass so solid, that even the earthquakes, to which the country 
has been liable, have not, in the smallest degree, altered its 
position. 
Again passing the tomb of Helen, and proceeding a little 
farther toward the cast, we came to the remains of a monu¬ 
ment, which I should have believed to have been the famous 
cenotaph erected by Artemisia in honour of her husband, from 
its conformity to the accounts given of that work, if Strabo had 
not assigned for it a different situation/J; Hard by, upon a block 
of marble, we noticed the following inscription, perhaps re¬ 
ferring to this building. The stone seemed as if it had been 
* The classical taste of Poussin did not suffer this model to escape his notice, when 
fcepainted the celebrated picture of the flight into Egypt. The Holy Family are i here- 
delineated by the side of an ancient tomb, consisting of the soros, "with its simple 
covering, destitute of any ornament whatsoever. In that picture, all is repose, 
grandeur, and sublimity, in the highest degree. 
f The account given by Diodorus of the sepulchre of Osymandyas, [Diod, Sic. lib. h 
p. 57. ed. Wessel. Amst. 1746.] affording one of the oldest inscriptions of this nature, 
proves how fully the ancients relied upon the perpetuity of their memory by the 
greatness of their sepulchres. BA£IAEX2BAEiAEONO£YM ANAYAEEIMi 
EIAETISErAENAIBOTAETAIIIHAlKOSEIMIKAinOTKEIMAlNIKA 
■TQTITnNEM^NEPrnN. “I am Osymandyas, King of Kings! If any 
■would know how great I am, and where 1 lie, let him surpass any of my worka.” 
t Strabea. G.eog. Hb. xiv. p. 938, Ed. Qjcffc 
