Anfushi Tombs
About
Five rock-cut tombs opened off sunlit courtyards in Alexandria's western necropolis, their walls painted to imitate colorful marble veneer in a style unique to Ptolemaic Egypt. Construction spanned the transition from Ptolemaic to Roman rule, with one chamber's decoration updated for later Roman-period burials while another kept its original third-century-BCE plan intact.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
Sources
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