The door (fig.
138, A) opens close below the first course, about the middle of the north face, and the passage (B) descends by a gentle slope between two walls of limestone.

It is plugged up all along by large blocks (Note 33), which needed to be broken up before the first chamber could be entered (C).
Beyond this chamber, it is carried for some way through the limestone rock; then it passes between walls, ceiling and floor of polished syenite; after which the limestone re-appears, and the passage opens into the vestibule (E).

The part built of granite is interrupted thrice, at intervals of two to two and a half feet, by three enormous portcullises of granite (D).
Above each of these a hollow is left, in which the portcullis stone could be held up by props, and thus leave a free passage (fig.

139).

The mummy once placed inside, the workmen, as they left, removed the supports, and the portcullises fell into place, cutting off all communication with the outside.