DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0024
LECTURE ON EGYPT.
13
and have both French and English nurses or gover-
nesses for their children.
One of our first excursions was to the Great Pyra- Pyramids,
mids of Ghizeh, which are now readied from Cairo
in an hour by driving across the Nile over the new
bridge at Kasr-el-Nil, and thence along a good carriage
road, raised above the highest inundations.
There are two large Pyramids, aud one relatively
small one, in the Ghizeh group, built it is supposed
about 5,000 or 6,000 years ago by three Pharaohs of
the same dynasty besides several pyramidal heaps of
stone or cairns of earlier and later dates.
The following are the sizes of the three Pyramids, in
feet:—
The Great Pyramid built by
Khufu or Cheops .
Second, ditto, by Khafra
or Chephren .
Third, ditto, by Menkara
or Mycerinua.
Length
of base
Height
Area
74G
451
556,516
091
447
480,249
353
203
124,609
Cubic con-
tents
83,644,355
71,557,101
8,423,568
For the sake of comparison I may mention that
Tewkesbury Abbey has about a twentieth of the area,
and a fortieth of the contents, of the Great Pyramid,
and is about 4,000 years younger in age.
As an engineer who has designed and constructed
large works, I was naturally much interested in ex-
amining the Pyramids, statues, and temples of Egypt,
with special reference to their construction, of which
13
and have both French and English nurses or gover-
nesses for their children.
One of our first excursions was to the Great Pyra- Pyramids,
mids of Ghizeh, which are now readied from Cairo
in an hour by driving across the Nile over the new
bridge at Kasr-el-Nil, and thence along a good carriage
road, raised above the highest inundations.
There are two large Pyramids, aud one relatively
small one, in the Ghizeh group, built it is supposed
about 5,000 or 6,000 years ago by three Pharaohs of
the same dynasty besides several pyramidal heaps of
stone or cairns of earlier and later dates.
The following are the sizes of the three Pyramids, in
feet:—
The Great Pyramid built by
Khufu or Cheops .
Second, ditto, by Khafra
or Chephren .
Third, ditto, by Menkara
or Mycerinua.
Length
of base
Height
Area
74G
451
556,516
091
447
480,249
353
203
124,609
Cubic con-
tents
83,644,355
71,557,101
8,423,568
For the sake of comparison I may mention that
Tewkesbury Abbey has about a twentieth of the area,
and a fortieth of the contents, of the Great Pyramid,
and is about 4,000 years younger in age.
As an engineer who has designed and constructed
large works, I was naturally much interested in ex-
amining the Pyramids, statues, and temples of Egypt,
with special reference to their construction, of which