DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0025
14 LEOTUBE ON EGYPT.
we have heard so much during the last twenty years.
The first impression on the mind, when you come into,
their immediate presence is that of magnitude. You
are positively oppressed with this feeling, especially with
the Pyramids of Ghizeh, the Temple of Karnak at
Thebes, the statue of Barneses at Memnonium, and the
rock temples at Aboo Simbel. Further examination leads
you to appreciate and admire the evidences of elaborate
and mature desigu, which are at least as remarkable as
the magnitude. Lastly, you find granite, porphyry,
alabaster, and other stone of sizes almost unmanaee-
able, which must have been brought great distances
by land and water under difficulties nearly insuperable.
Let us first consider the Pyramids of Ghizeh.
The main body of the work is built of blocks of num-
mulitic limestone quarried on the spot. The two large
Pyramids (Cheops and Chephren) were originally faced
with fine-grained limestone from the Toorah quarries,
of which covering nothing now remains except near
the top of the Chephren Pyramid. The third Pyramid
of Mycerinus was faced with granite, brought from
Syene. In the interior of the Great Pyramid are pas-
sages, chambers, and sarcophagi formed of polished
granite and porphyry, of design and workmanship well
worthy of the present time, and in the tombs near the
Pyramids are also varieties of granite, porphyry, and
alabaster exquisitely worked and polished.
Toorah The ancient Toorah quarries, which furnished the
quarries. .
stone for the covering of the Pyramids of Cheops
we have heard so much during the last twenty years.
The first impression on the mind, when you come into,
their immediate presence is that of magnitude. You
are positively oppressed with this feeling, especially with
the Pyramids of Ghizeh, the Temple of Karnak at
Thebes, the statue of Barneses at Memnonium, and the
rock temples at Aboo Simbel. Further examination leads
you to appreciate and admire the evidences of elaborate
and mature desigu, which are at least as remarkable as
the magnitude. Lastly, you find granite, porphyry,
alabaster, and other stone of sizes almost unmanaee-
able, which must have been brought great distances
by land and water under difficulties nearly insuperable.
Let us first consider the Pyramids of Ghizeh.
The main body of the work is built of blocks of num-
mulitic limestone quarried on the spot. The two large
Pyramids (Cheops and Chephren) were originally faced
with fine-grained limestone from the Toorah quarries,
of which covering nothing now remains except near
the top of the Chephren Pyramid. The third Pyramid
of Mycerinus was faced with granite, brought from
Syene. In the interior of the Great Pyramid are pas-
sages, chambers, and sarcophagi formed of polished
granite and porphyry, of design and workmanship well
worthy of the present time, and in the tombs near the
Pyramids are also varieties of granite, porphyry, and
alabaster exquisitely worked and polished.
Toorah The ancient Toorah quarries, which furnished the
quarries. .
stone for the covering of the Pyramids of Cheops