The Construction of the Mustabas

In nine out of ten, the stone mustabas are but outwardly regular in construction. The core is of roughly quarried rubble mixed with rubbish and limestone fragments hastily bedded in layers of mud or piled up without any kind of mortar. A flat, unpaved platform, formed by the top course of the core, covers the top of the mass of the mustaba. This platform is scattered over with terracotta vases, nearly buried in loose rubbish. In practice, the entrance for the dead was a mere niche, high and narrow, cut in the eastward face near the northeast corner. At the back of this niche are marked vertical lines framing in a closed space. Even