326
The stones of which the pyramid is constructed seemed to vary
from five to thirty-five feet in length, and from three to four feet
in height.
Pococke, Denon, and others, have very amply described the
entrance and interior of the great pyramid. These two are much
more accurate in their dimensions than Monsieur Maillet, who
seems to have slept over the elaborate description he has at-
tempted to give of the construction and re-opening of this ex-
traordinary building. To them, therefore, 1 refer the reader for
all the details of the passages, the chambers, and the well, about
which many hypotheses have been formed without any precise
information as to its use, extent, or direction, having been ac-
quired by any of the modern travellers.
I am rather inclined to agree with those, who consider these
pyramids as sepulchral buildings : and the large granite chest in
the upper apartment as the sarcophagus, in which were, or were
intended to be, deposited the remains of the sovereign who com-
pleted the building: but it is difficult to believe that any one of
them, and above all the largest, was begun and finished during the
same reign. One circumstance, I think, can admit of no doubt—
That the whole pyramid was constructed for the purpose of a
sanctuary for this chest or sarcophagus, whose contents, what-
ever they were, must have been held sacred and inviolable.
This conclusion I infer from its peculiar situation, and from the
very exact correspondence of the width of the passages with that
of the sarcophagus which was to be introduced through them.
That which is called the second pyramid of Cizeh is some-
what smaller, both in the base and elevation, than the first. Ac-
cording to Herodotus there is a difference of forty feet in the
height, and according to Diodorus Siculus the difference of se-
venty-five feet in the bases of the two. This I take to be very
near
The stones of which the pyramid is constructed seemed to vary
from five to thirty-five feet in length, and from three to four feet
in height.
Pococke, Denon, and others, have very amply described the
entrance and interior of the great pyramid. These two are much
more accurate in their dimensions than Monsieur Maillet, who
seems to have slept over the elaborate description he has at-
tempted to give of the construction and re-opening of this ex-
traordinary building. To them, therefore, 1 refer the reader for
all the details of the passages, the chambers, and the well, about
which many hypotheses have been formed without any precise
information as to its use, extent, or direction, having been ac-
quired by any of the modern travellers.
I am rather inclined to agree with those, who consider these
pyramids as sepulchral buildings : and the large granite chest in
the upper apartment as the sarcophagus, in which were, or were
intended to be, deposited the remains of the sovereign who com-
pleted the building: but it is difficult to believe that any one of
them, and above all the largest, was begun and finished during the
same reign. One circumstance, I think, can admit of no doubt—
That the whole pyramid was constructed for the purpose of a
sanctuary for this chest or sarcophagus, whose contents, what-
ever they were, must have been held sacred and inviolable.
This conclusion I infer from its peculiar situation, and from the
very exact correspondence of the width of the passages with that
of the sarcophagus which was to be introduced through them.
That which is called the second pyramid of Cizeh is some-
what smaller, both in the base and elevation, than the first. Ac-
cording to Herodotus there is a difference of forty feet in the
height, and according to Diodorus Siculus the difference of se-
venty-five feet in the bases of the two. This I take to be very
near