in antiquity, a sort of stone coffin or grave, wherein the ancients deposited the bodies of the dead which were not intended to be burnt.

The word, as derived from the Greek, literally signifies flesh-eater; because originally a kind of stone was used for tombs, which quickly consumed the bodies. See the following article.

One of the most celebrated specimens of antiquity is the great sarcophagus, which is commonly called the tomb of Alexander the Great. It fell into the hands of the British at the capitulation of Alexandria in Egypt in 1801, is now deposited in the British Museum, and is thus described by a writer in the Monthly Magazine*. Vol. xxvii.

"It was brought from the mosque of St Athanasius, p. 42, at Alexandria, where it had been transformed, by the Mahometans, into a kind of reservoir, consecrated to contain the water for their pious ablutions. It is of considerable magnitude, and would form an oblong rectangle, were not one of the ends or shorter sides of the parallelogram rounded somewhat like a bathing tub. It is probable that formerly it was covered with a lid, but no trace of it is now visible; but is entirely open like an immense layer, of one single piece of beautiful marble, spotted with green, yellow, reddish, &c. on a ground of a fine black, of the species called breccia, a sort of pudding stone, composed of agglutinated fragments of various sizes, which are denominated according to their component parts. This comes under the class of calcareous breccias. But what renders this magnificent fragment of antiquity peculiarly interesting, is the prodigious quantity of small hieroglyphic characters, with which it is sculptured both within and without, as you may perceive by the figure. It would employ me nearly a month to make faithful copies of them: their shape and general appearance is pretty fairly given in the figure; but it can only serve to convey to you an idea of the monument in one view. A correct and faithful copy of all the hieroglyphics, though an Herculean task, is a desideratum; for it can be only by copying with scrupulous accuracy, and of a large size, the figures of this symbolical language, that we can attain the knowledge of a mysterious composition, on which depends that of the history of a country, once so highly celebrated. When that language shall be understood, we may perhaps learn the original purpose of this sarcophagus, and the history of the illustrious man whose spoils it contained. Till then it is but the vain and flitting field of conjecture.

"Many men of science and learning, have examined this memento of Egyptian skill and industry; but no..."