DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0236
202 TOMBS ROUND THE PYRAMID.
rebound repeatedly from obstructing walls, to divide, to be multi-
plied, and at length to die away in distant vaults. If this was fancy,
it produced at the time all the effect of reality ; and I am not sorry
to find that this idea has occurred to others, and that subsequently
researches have proved its correctness." There are some small holes
in the walls of the chamber, the purpose of which was for venti-
lation, as at length discovered by Colonel Howard Vyse.
Above the King's Chamber, and only to be reached by a narrow
passage, ascending at the south-east corner of the great gallery,
having notches in which pieces of wood were formerly inserted, and
from the top of that along another passage, is the small chamber
discovered by Mr. Davison; its height is only three feet six inches ;
above it are four other similar niches, discovered by Colonel Howard
Vyse, the topmost of which is angular. Wilkinson supposes that
the sole purpose of these chambers is to relieve the pres-
(11q\ sure on the King's Chamber, and here was discovered the
c^£ cartouche, containing the name of the founder, Suphis,
$ \ identical with that upon the tablets in Wady Maghara
already described.
Such is the sum of what has been already discovered in the Great
Pyramid, with the exception of what, before alluded to, is called the
Well—an angular passage, like a chimney, sometimes perpendicular,
and elsewhere sloping, which descends deep into the heart of the
rock, which formed the nucleus round which the pyramid was
reared. Few travellers explore its recesses. Mr. Davison, who
was the first to describe it, had great difficulty to get any of his
Arabs to assist, from their superstitious terrors:—there were spirits
below, they averred, from which he would never escape, and that a
Frank who had ventured half down, had the cord snatched from
his hand by some demon ; and when at length he prevailed on one
of them to come down after him, he was in such a state of agitation
he did not know what he was doing ; when he reached the bottom,
he was more like a spectre than a man : pale and trembling, he cast
furtive glances on every side. His hair, if he had had any, would
have stood upright on his head. He, Mr. Davison, descended lower
rebound repeatedly from obstructing walls, to divide, to be multi-
plied, and at length to die away in distant vaults. If this was fancy,
it produced at the time all the effect of reality ; and I am not sorry
to find that this idea has occurred to others, and that subsequently
researches have proved its correctness." There are some small holes
in the walls of the chamber, the purpose of which was for venti-
lation, as at length discovered by Colonel Howard Vyse.
Above the King's Chamber, and only to be reached by a narrow
passage, ascending at the south-east corner of the great gallery,
having notches in which pieces of wood were formerly inserted, and
from the top of that along another passage, is the small chamber
discovered by Mr. Davison; its height is only three feet six inches ;
above it are four other similar niches, discovered by Colonel Howard
Vyse, the topmost of which is angular. Wilkinson supposes that
the sole purpose of these chambers is to relieve the pres-
(11q\ sure on the King's Chamber, and here was discovered the
c^£ cartouche, containing the name of the founder, Suphis,
$ \ identical with that upon the tablets in Wady Maghara
already described.
Such is the sum of what has been already discovered in the Great
Pyramid, with the exception of what, before alluded to, is called the
Well—an angular passage, like a chimney, sometimes perpendicular,
and elsewhere sloping, which descends deep into the heart of the
rock, which formed the nucleus round which the pyramid was
reared. Few travellers explore its recesses. Mr. Davison, who
was the first to describe it, had great difficulty to get any of his
Arabs to assist, from their superstitious terrors:—there were spirits
below, they averred, from which he would never escape, and that a
Frank who had ventured half down, had the cord snatched from
his hand by some demon ; and when at length he prevailed on one
of them to come down after him, he was in such a state of agitation
he did not know what he was doing ; when he reached the bottom,
he was more like a spectre than a man : pale and trembling, he cast
furtive glances on every side. His hair, if he had had any, would
have stood upright on his head. He, Mr. Davison, descended lower