FUNERARY MONUMENTS

They are very numerous on the Site Rolf website. When someone died, sacred texts were repeated five times a day in five different pieces. A funeral complex is specifically dedicated to these readings. The pieces are becoming larger and bigger as they move forward. The walls of the third are dug of niches intended to host statues. The fourth room was reserved for the corps of the body, which was then filled with white. It was in the fifth piece that the family came to say goodbye to the deceased.

Next to this room is a site that, according to archaeologists, should have housed the bodies of the royal family. But the room was empty, and it was finally in the artisans'neighbourhood that excavations revealed royal graves: There was a staircase, which led to an altar and a series of small rooms. Walls were covered with mosaics, and niches contained valuable objects. Nearly 300 objects of which two bronze wheels were found in these tombs, as well as the skeletons of camels and slaves killed with their master.

The area of tombs probably did not reveal all its secrets: almost 80% of the graves had been looted prior to the arrival of archaeologists, but of the 3 000 site graves, only 300 had been excavated to date.

Below are two réservoirs water tanks. It is likely that a round temple dedicated to the water goddess was right in front of these reservoirs.