stele

The stele is shown by Lepsius in his Auswahl, Plate 9, and is the earliest example of a hieroglyphic inscription known.

Such an inscription is so far biographical, and a similar spirit may extend to the decorations of the stele and walls of the tomb.

At its further end, and always facing eastwards, stands the inscribed tablet or stele.

We see, then, that the stele is the one indispensable part of this complicated whole.

Sometimes this chamber is nothing more than a recess in the façade, a mere frame for the stele.