This is not the only way in which the aperture was closed, for, after passing this, we see the jambs which must have supported another stone door, moving on two pivots, the holes for which still remain above and below. When it was hung it must have yielded to the slightest push from without. Through this we enter a square antechamber, in which are three doors, one in the middle of the western wall, and the other two in the southern, one near each corner. Entering the western door, we come to a room with three smaller chambers opening out of the middle of each wall, each of which contains three sepulchral niches[832], consisting of a stone bier or slab under an arch; these three chambers are flanked on each side by casemate vaults, each having a channel cut in the rock in the middle of the floor; to each of which, with one exception, a small recess is attached to receive articles which had been valued by the deceased. Out of the central room a narrow sloping gallery in the north wall leads into a lower chamber, with a sepulchral niche in the west wall, and two steps against the north, the lower of which is larger than the upper. On one of these lay the sarcophagus[833], which M. de Saulcy has deposited in the Museum of the Louvre at Paris; a similar one, broken in pieces, was found near. He considers the former to be the sarcophagus of David; but with this opinion I am unable to agree. Here there are places for three corpses. Returning into the antechamber we enter the door on the south-east, and find ourselves in a room with the openings of three casemate vaults in the south wall, and three in the east; two of these are provided with channels, and one with the recess in its wall; the other four are narrower than the rest; which have been completely finished off by their excavators, as is proved by their correspondence one with another in length, breadth, and height, by the regularity of their angles, and by the jambs supporting the doors which closed them. M. de Saulcy thinks that the latter were never finished, perhaps because they are not so wide as the others, and have no channel in the floor; but, in my opinion, this was only made to catch the moisture that dripped from the corpse during putrefaction, and by draining it off to allow the body to become dry more rapidly. Therefore I consider that in the narrower vaults bodies which had been previously dried up were placed. Let us now return again into the antechamber and visit the room on the west of that just described. In the south wall of this are three finished casemate vaults, and the same number in the west, five of which have the channel, while the sixth belongs to the narrower class already mentioned. Two of the five have also the attached recess. In the north wall is a small door leading by a narrow descending passage into a small chamber containing three sepulchral niches. Thus there are altogether thirty-three biers, including among these the two steps on which the sarcophagi were found. Round each of the three rooms communicating with the vaults runs a small foot-path, raised above the general level of the floor, so that a kind of basin is formed at the bottom of the chamber. Into this I suppose the moisture escaping from the bodies during putrefaction flowed; perhaps there were holes in the sides to admit water, or allow of the escape of fluids; but this I could not ascertain, as the floor was covered with rubbish. Each chamber was closed by a stone door, which worked on pivots fixed in two holes. At the present time the doors lie on the ground broken to pieces, and though every one must admire their workmanship, no one has attempted to preserve them from total ruin by conveying them away to some European museum. Many authors have endeavoured to explain how they were made[834]; but I think they were brought from some other place, when completed, and then set up. I am led to this conclusion by observing that they are of a different kind of stone to that seen in the walls of the chambers; that is, of a more compact limestone without veins. All the workmanship in the excavation is admirable, and the angles are formed with the greatest accuracy. Chisels, hooks, and the revolving cutters, appear to have been the instruments used. There have been many controversies about the origin and use of these tombs: some consider them to have been the monument of Helena of Adiabene; but in that case it would be difficult to explain for what purpose the thirty-three receptacles were made, as Josephus says that she and her son alone were buried there. M. de Saulcy endeavours to prove them to be the Tombs of the Kings; but I have already shewn[835] that this is contrary to the Bible, Josephus, and tradition.