DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0238
194
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
examined, as some of them may have been impressed
with a cartouche.
On a sandy plain to the northward of the promontory,
a small village, called Abou El Wali (Father of Bricks),
is surrounded with mounds of broken pottery and rubbish,
which mark the situation of a more considerable place.
After crossing this plain, we ascended by a winding path
amongst rocky hills, where antient tombs had been exca-
vated, and proceeded to the objects of our research, along
a broad causeway, which extended in a south-westerly
direction.
The principal ruin consists of a few courses of ma-
sonry, forming a square of three hundred and forty-four
feet. An entrance on tbe northern side, has the appear-
ance of a road into a quarry, and descends to a large
quadrangular space, extending east and west, which, as
well as the passage, is at present entirely uncovered.
This excavation appears to have been made on a larger
scale than was afterwards found requisite, and to have
been built up with very large blocks. They appear to be
very antient, and to have been quarried upon the spot:
many of them are scattered about; and others remain
suspended as it were against the sides, particularly towards
the eastern and western ends at a considerable height,
which shews that the apartment must have been lofty.
Two or three smaller square foundations of granite, and
those of a larger building upon an eminence are also to
be observed; and the ground is every where covered with
rubbish, broken pottery, and with the chippings of granite
blocks, that have been cut up for the purposes of removal.
From the decomposition of the latter material it has been
supposed that these buildings are of greater antiquity
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
examined, as some of them may have been impressed
with a cartouche.
On a sandy plain to the northward of the promontory,
a small village, called Abou El Wali (Father of Bricks),
is surrounded with mounds of broken pottery and rubbish,
which mark the situation of a more considerable place.
After crossing this plain, we ascended by a winding path
amongst rocky hills, where antient tombs had been exca-
vated, and proceeded to the objects of our research, along
a broad causeway, which extended in a south-westerly
direction.
The principal ruin consists of a few courses of ma-
sonry, forming a square of three hundred and forty-four
feet. An entrance on tbe northern side, has the appear-
ance of a road into a quarry, and descends to a large
quadrangular space, extending east and west, which, as
well as the passage, is at present entirely uncovered.
This excavation appears to have been made on a larger
scale than was afterwards found requisite, and to have
been built up with very large blocks. They appear to be
very antient, and to have been quarried upon the spot:
many of them are scattered about; and others remain
suspended as it were against the sides, particularly towards
the eastern and western ends at a considerable height,
which shews that the apartment must have been lofty.
Two or three smaller square foundations of granite, and
those of a larger building upon an eminence are also to
be observed; and the ground is every where covered with
rubbish, broken pottery, and with the chippings of granite
blocks, that have been cut up for the purposes of removal.
From the decomposition of the latter material it has been
supposed that these buildings are of greater antiquity