DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0174
138
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
at night to the boat, which was moored under the
western bank.3
24th.— Being extremely anxious to see what progress
had been made, I set out early in the morning, and went
immediately to the Great, and to the Second Pyramids,
where I expected to find M. Caviglia, and his men, but I
did not meet with a single person, and I afterwards dis-
covered the people at work on three mummy-pits between
the Sphinx, and the Second Pyramid. M. Caviglia, how-
ever, informed me that parties had been employed by
night, and by day at the southern side of Davison's chamber,
in search of the southern air-channel; and in continuing
the excavation, near the entrance to the king's chamber,
along the course of the northern air-channel in the Great
Pyramid; and also at the excavation in the Third. He
then shewed me his discovery in the Second Pyramid. It
appeared that, in clearing the horizontal passage, he
found that a part of the floor was composed of masonry,
near the chasm formed in that communication by the
descending passage, which returns beneath it to the north-
ward ; and that, when this masonry was removed, he dis-
covered another descending passage, above, and parallel
to the lower one, which terminated at a short distance in
3 On arriving near Tourah, one of the boatmen was dressed in a
white robe, a high fur cap, and a white beard, and came round the boat
for a backshish, on account of our having returned from Upper Egypt.
This custom is something like that observed in crossing the Line.
The boat belonged to the company established on the Nile, and was
of about fifty or sixty tons; it was therefore very roomy, and, as it was
newly painted, perfectly clean. The figures in the annexed sketch are
given to shew the costume, and appearance of the people.
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
at night to the boat, which was moored under the
western bank.3
24th.— Being extremely anxious to see what progress
had been made, I set out early in the morning, and went
immediately to the Great, and to the Second Pyramids,
where I expected to find M. Caviglia, and his men, but I
did not meet with a single person, and I afterwards dis-
covered the people at work on three mummy-pits between
the Sphinx, and the Second Pyramid. M. Caviglia, how-
ever, informed me that parties had been employed by
night, and by day at the southern side of Davison's chamber,
in search of the southern air-channel; and in continuing
the excavation, near the entrance to the king's chamber,
along the course of the northern air-channel in the Great
Pyramid; and also at the excavation in the Third. He
then shewed me his discovery in the Second Pyramid. It
appeared that, in clearing the horizontal passage, he
found that a part of the floor was composed of masonry,
near the chasm formed in that communication by the
descending passage, which returns beneath it to the north-
ward ; and that, when this masonry was removed, he dis-
covered another descending passage, above, and parallel
to the lower one, which terminated at a short distance in
3 On arriving near Tourah, one of the boatmen was dressed in a
white robe, a high fur cap, and a white beard, and came round the boat
for a backshish, on account of our having returned from Upper Egypt.
This custom is something like that observed in crossing the Line.
The boat belonged to the company established on the Nile, and was
of about fifty or sixty tons; it was therefore very roomy, and, as it was
newly painted, perfectly clean. The figures in the annexed sketch are
given to shew the costume, and appearance of the people.