MEDULLA SPINA'LIS. See NERVOUS SYS TEM AND BRAIN.
li9-(111'. A Village in Egypt. on the western side of the Nile, some 40 miles south of Cairo, in about latitude 29° 30' N. Near it, on the edge of the is the pyramid of King Snefru t q.v.), the first King of the Fourth Dy nasty and the immediate predecessor of King Cheops (q.v.). From a great mass of rubbish, which covers its base, it rises in three stages to the height of about 122 feet, the upper stage being almost entirely destroyed. The outer walls consist of finely polished blocks of Alokattam stone, beautifully joined together. The pyramid W115 opened in 1881 by Maspero, who discovered a long passage leading from the north face into the sepulchral chamber, which is built upon the surface of the underlying rock. The chamber had, however, been robbed as early as the time of the Twentieth Dynasty, and in it were found only some broken fragments of the wooden coffin and a wooden jar. Flinders Petrie, who later made a careful examination of the pyramid, found against its eastern face a funerary chapel consisting of an open court and two small cham bers. Ancient visitors to the chapel had left
upon its walls numerous graffiti, in five of which Snefru is mentioned as the King to whom the pyramid was attributed. Petrie's researches showed that the present peculiar form of the pyramid resulted from the removal of its outer layers in order to obtain stone for building pur poses.
Near the pyramid are the tombs (mastabas, q.Y.) of a number of high personages of Snefro's Court. The most important of them are the nmstabas. richly adorned with mural paintings, of Prince Ill-hotep and Nofret, his wife, and of Prince Noter-mal and his spouse, Vet et. The statues of Ili-hotel) and Nofret, found in their tomb, are now' in the :\Inseum of Cairo. In the eemetery of have been found a number of gun yes exhibiting a peculiar mode of burial. The bodies lie upon the left side, with the face to ward tile east and the knees drawn up: coffins and the usual accessories of Egyptian graves are absent. Consult Petrie, Mivflitn ( London, 1892).