DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0344
32S
overhang the river to the West, to a considerable distance above
Syene. I did not observe any remains of this layer of granite,
which might, however, very easily have been carried away*.
The third pyramid, which is 300 feet square at the base and
156 feet high, still retains several fragments of the iEthiopian
stone, with which, according to Diodorus and Herodotus, it was
riveted halfway to the summit. As he omits in this passage to
designate the particular kind of iEthiopian stone that was used,
by the term ttoikiXh, as he had done in the preceding instance,
and as Diodorus says the third pyramid, or that of Mycerinus,
was finished with a black stone, something similar to that of
Thebes, some writers have conceived that the ^Egyptian or
more properly the iEthiopian basalt was here intended ; but the
many blocks of granite on and about the pyramid fully attest
* Notwithstanding the numerous visits which successive travellers have paid to these
extraordinary monuments, it does not appear that any one of them has remained
in their neighbourhood long enough to bring back any satisfactory information on a
point of inquiry on which many conjectures have been offered—Whether the pyra-
mids in general were entirely built upon the rock, or round one or more detached hills.
Bruce says, that on the South side of the great pyramid, where the sand is removed,
the solid rock is there found hewn into steps. If this be true, it only goes a very little
way to solve the difficulty : and as for " the large fragments of rock seen in the top
of the roof of the gallery, as you go into the chamber where is the sarcophagus," the
whole of that roof appeared to me constructed of regular layers of granite. It cer-
tainly to my eyes had no appearance whatever of being hewn out of the solid rock.
Pococke mentions the conjecture : but though he was twice within the great pyramid,
he does not cite any peculiar circumstance that fell under his observation, either to prove
it to have been well or ill founded.
There are indeed at the bottom of the first descent into the same pyramid some very
large blocks of stone, which appear to have been hewn away at the time when the en-
trance was first explored, and they therefore have some appearance of the natural rock;
but these likewise are either of granite or of a very hard breccia, of neither of which
are quarries to be found within several hundred miles of the spot in question.
the
overhang the river to the West, to a considerable distance above
Syene. I did not observe any remains of this layer of granite,
which might, however, very easily have been carried away*.
The third pyramid, which is 300 feet square at the base and
156 feet high, still retains several fragments of the iEthiopian
stone, with which, according to Diodorus and Herodotus, it was
riveted halfway to the summit. As he omits in this passage to
designate the particular kind of iEthiopian stone that was used,
by the term ttoikiXh, as he had done in the preceding instance,
and as Diodorus says the third pyramid, or that of Mycerinus,
was finished with a black stone, something similar to that of
Thebes, some writers have conceived that the ^Egyptian or
more properly the iEthiopian basalt was here intended ; but the
many blocks of granite on and about the pyramid fully attest
* Notwithstanding the numerous visits which successive travellers have paid to these
extraordinary monuments, it does not appear that any one of them has remained
in their neighbourhood long enough to bring back any satisfactory information on a
point of inquiry on which many conjectures have been offered—Whether the pyra-
mids in general were entirely built upon the rock, or round one or more detached hills.
Bruce says, that on the South side of the great pyramid, where the sand is removed,
the solid rock is there found hewn into steps. If this be true, it only goes a very little
way to solve the difficulty : and as for " the large fragments of rock seen in the top
of the roof of the gallery, as you go into the chamber where is the sarcophagus," the
whole of that roof appeared to me constructed of regular layers of granite. It cer-
tainly to my eyes had no appearance whatever of being hewn out of the solid rock.
Pococke mentions the conjecture : but though he was twice within the great pyramid,
he does not cite any peculiar circumstance that fell under his observation, either to prove
it to have been well or ill founded.
There are indeed at the bottom of the first descent into the same pyramid some very
large blocks of stone, which appear to have been hewn away at the time when the en-
trance was first explored, and they therefore have some appearance of the natural rock;
but these likewise are either of granite or of a very hard breccia, of neither of which
are quarries to be found within several hundred miles of the spot in question.
the