MASTABA (Arab. for "

See also:

• BENCH (an O.E. and Eng. form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Bank, Dan. baenk and the Eng. doublet " bank ")

bench ")  , in Egyptian architecture, the term given to the rectangular tombs in stone with raking sides and a flat roof . There were three chambers inside . In one the walls were sometimes richly decorated with paintings and had a low bench of stone in them on which incense was burnt: The second chamber was either closed, with holes pierced in the wall separating it from the first chamber, or entered through a narrow passage through which the fumes of the incense passed; this chamber contained the serdab or figure of the deceased . A vertical well-hole cut in the rock descended to a third chamber in which the mummy was laid .