The Minor Cemetery at Giza, Unpublished Manuscript, Chapter II: Mastaba Types and Construction, p.017

Diary Transcription:

Unpublished manuscript transcription: begin page 17

stone, roughly faced and dressed to fit on the edges. The vertical joints fitted only on the exposed face and roughly bevelled off inside. Facings of offering rooms were of the finer white limestone from the quarries at Turah across the Nile from Giza. These were dressed more nearly smooth and usually finished with stucco. Stele and libation basins and the niche blocks were of this better quality stone.

d. Decoration

All brickwork was plastered with a thick layer of mud mixed with straw and varying quantities of sand. Over this was a thin layer of white stucco. The interior of offering rooms were always so finished and as some traces were found on exterior walls the whole exterior may have been so finished. The idea porbably was to give them the appearance of stone like their finer and more costly neighbors.

End page 17