Howard-Vyse, Richard William Howard: Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837: with an account of a voyage into upper Egypt, and Appendix (Band 1) (London, 1840)

286 OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.

for Mr. Perring, who was employed in the King's
Chamber, and having contrived to force his head and
shoulders at that very moment into the lower part of the
channel, would probably have been killed had the stone
in question fallen through it. Upon the removal of
this block the channel was completely open ; an immediate
rush of air took place, and we had the satisfaction of find-
ing that the ventilation of the King's Chamber was per-
fectly restored, and that the air within it was cool and
fresh. The channel above the stone was clean, but below
it was much blackened with fires made from time to time
in the lower part to discover its direction. It was nearly
or quite horizontal through the wall of the King's Cham-
ber, and afterwards ascended in one continued line to the
opening on the outer side of the Pyramid; but as the
King's Chamber is to the southward of the centre of the
Pyramid, and as the openings of both the Air-channels are
at the same height, the line of the southern is considerably
shorter, and more inclined than that of the northern —
the length of the southern Air-channel being 174 ft. 3 in.,
that of the northern, 233 feet. Had not the upper part
of the latter channel been forced, and that of the southern
filled up with the above-mentioned stone, both of them
would in all probability have remained open, and the
ventilation of this wonderful structure would have con-
tinued as perfect as when it was first built. It is to be re-
marked, that, as the apartment is to the eastward, the
ventilation by the Air-channels, which are in the centre, is
oblique.

These channels had probably always excited parti-
cular attention ; indeed, we are informed by Greaves, that
the lower part of the southern had been forced, and was