occasionally face towards the north or south side, but never towards the
west. In theory, there should be two doors, one for the dead, the other for
the living. In practice, the entrance for the dead was a mere niche, high
and narrow, cut in the eastward face, near the north-east corner. At the
back of this niche are marked vertical lines, framing in a closed space.
Even this imitation of a door was sometimes omitted, and the soul was left
to manage as best it might. The door of the living was made more or less
important, according to the greater or less development of the chamber to
which it led. The chamber and door are in some cases represented by only a
shallow recess decorated with a stela and a table of offerings (fig. 114).
This is sometimes protected by a wall which projects from the façade, thus
forming a kind of forecourt open to the north. The forecourt is square in
the tomb of Kaâpir (fig. 114), and irregular in that of Neferhotep at
Sakkarah (fig. 116). When the plan includes one or more chambers, the door
sometimes opens in the middle of a small architectural façade (fig. 117),
or under a little portico supported by two square pillars without either
base or abacus (fig. 118). The doorway is very simple, the two jambs being
ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the deceased, and surmounted by a
cylindrical drum engraved with his name and titles. In the tomb of Pohûnika
at Sakkarah the jambs are two pilasters, each crowned with two lotus
flowers; but this example is, so far, unique.

[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Door in façade of mastaba.]

[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Portico and door, from Mariette's _Les
Mastabahs_.]

[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiûsokari, Fourth