DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0035
PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.
that it is impossible to detect how they were lifted and
placed in contact with each other, as no marks of force
or of any purchase having been applied can be per-
ceived ; so that some persons imagine, that it was not
until after they had been fixed in their respective places
that the outward surfaces of the stones were smoothed
down and finished. The blocks placed perpendicularly
to the incline in the several passages have also the
finest joints, and scarcely any settlings or imperfections
appear. The masonry in the King's Chamber, the casing-
stones, and those in the foundation and at the base, are,
perhaps, unrivalled. This will be again more particularly
alluded to.5
It appears that the Pyramids were tombs; that
the inclined passages were for the purpose of assist-
ing the conveyance of the sarcophagi, and for the
better arrangement of the solid blocks with which part
at least, if not the whole, of the long entrances were
closed up; and also to increase the difficulty of disin-
terment and of violation. Having been closed with
solid masonry, they could not have been used for astro-
nomical observation, nor yet for initiation or mysterious
purposes, as some have fancifully supposed.
It would indeed seem, from the great care and pre-
cautions taken to ensure the preservation of the body
at an expense so vast, and by means so indestructible,
that in these early ages there was a settled conviction,
5 Mr. Perring is of opinion that the flat surfaces were obtained by
working the stones level, and by afterwards rubbing a surface-plate,
covered with a wet composition, over it, to ascertain the projecting
irregularities, which were then cut away ; applying the plate and the
cutting alternately till a regular surface was obtained.
that it is impossible to detect how they were lifted and
placed in contact with each other, as no marks of force
or of any purchase having been applied can be per-
ceived ; so that some persons imagine, that it was not
until after they had been fixed in their respective places
that the outward surfaces of the stones were smoothed
down and finished. The blocks placed perpendicularly
to the incline in the several passages have also the
finest joints, and scarcely any settlings or imperfections
appear. The masonry in the King's Chamber, the casing-
stones, and those in the foundation and at the base, are,
perhaps, unrivalled. This will be again more particularly
alluded to.5
It appears that the Pyramids were tombs; that
the inclined passages were for the purpose of assist-
ing the conveyance of the sarcophagi, and for the
better arrangement of the solid blocks with which part
at least, if not the whole, of the long entrances were
closed up; and also to increase the difficulty of disin-
terment and of violation. Having been closed with
solid masonry, they could not have been used for astro-
nomical observation, nor yet for initiation or mysterious
purposes, as some have fancifully supposed.
It would indeed seem, from the great care and pre-
cautions taken to ensure the preservation of the body
at an expense so vast, and by means so indestructible,
that in these early ages there was a settled conviction,
5 Mr. Perring is of opinion that the flat surfaces were obtained by
working the stones level, and by afterwards rubbing a surface-plate,
covered with a wet composition, over it, to ascertain the projecting
irregularities, which were then cut away ; applying the plate and the
cutting alternately till a regular surface was obtained.