DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0270
222
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
therefore, could not have been the result of accident, but
of an examination expressly made in search of a subter-
raneous passage, of which there is not the slightest indi-
cation in the interior of the pyramid, but where, on the
contrary, an inclined passage from the regular entrance
three hundred and twenty feet in length leads directly to
a subterraneous chamber more than one hundred feet
below the base. It is evident, therefore, that in very
remote times some tradition existed of a subterraneous
passage peculiar to this pyramid; for, although the stones
at the base of the Second Pyramid had been forced, yet
the pavement at that place did not appear to have been
attempted notwithstanding that the existence of a lower
entrance must have been manifest to all, who examined
the interior of that building. These facts coincide with
the account of Herodotus, that the tomb of Cheops was
at so great a depth, that it was surrounded by the water
of the Nile, and differed from any thing to be seen in the
Second Pyramid,— a description the more remarkable, as
it relates to the only pyramid which contains chambers
in the masonry, and cannot apply to any apartment at
present discovered in it.3
5 The level of the river is not inconsistent with this account. The
base of the pyramid was, in the month of May 1837, one hundred and
forty-six feet five inches above the level of the Nile, and, allowing
twenty or thirty feet for the increased elevation of the bed of the river,
the whole would only amount to about one hundred and seventy-six.
feet; and a passage like that at the Second Pyramid, inclining at an
angle of twenty-six degrees, at the distance of forty feet from the base,
would arrive at the depth of two hundred and twenty feet below the
centre of the pyramid. The step at this pyramid is thirty-three feet six
inches from the base, and one foot nine inches high. The floor of the
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
therefore, could not have been the result of accident, but
of an examination expressly made in search of a subter-
raneous passage, of which there is not the slightest indi-
cation in the interior of the pyramid, but where, on the
contrary, an inclined passage from the regular entrance
three hundred and twenty feet in length leads directly to
a subterraneous chamber more than one hundred feet
below the base. It is evident, therefore, that in very
remote times some tradition existed of a subterraneous
passage peculiar to this pyramid; for, although the stones
at the base of the Second Pyramid had been forced, yet
the pavement at that place did not appear to have been
attempted notwithstanding that the existence of a lower
entrance must have been manifest to all, who examined
the interior of that building. These facts coincide with
the account of Herodotus, that the tomb of Cheops was
at so great a depth, that it was surrounded by the water
of the Nile, and differed from any thing to be seen in the
Second Pyramid,— a description the more remarkable, as
it relates to the only pyramid which contains chambers
in the masonry, and cannot apply to any apartment at
present discovered in it.3
5 The level of the river is not inconsistent with this account. The
base of the pyramid was, in the month of May 1837, one hundred and
forty-six feet five inches above the level of the Nile, and, allowing
twenty or thirty feet for the increased elevation of the bed of the river,
the whole would only amount to about one hundred and seventy-six.
feet; and a passage like that at the Second Pyramid, inclining at an
angle of twenty-six degrees, at the distance of forty feet from the base,
would arrive at the depth of two hundred and twenty feet below the
centre of the pyramid. The step at this pyramid is thirty-three feet six
inches from the base, and one foot nine inches high. The floor of the