DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0340
288
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
King's, in the same way as the apartments in the sepul-
chres at Thebes. It may also, like those in David's tomb,
mentioned by Josephus, have contained treasures; but,
whatever may have been the object, it has evidently been
concealed with great care. It is also to be observed that
the King's Chamber has been secured by four granite
portcullises,1 and by the solid masonry with which the
whole length of the passages have been closed; that the
well has been formed to supply with air the people em-
ployed in filling from the interior the reascending passage
at the bottom of the great gallery, with blocks laid up in
the gallery for that purpose; and that it also afforded to
them an escape by the lower passage when the work was
completed. The entrance passage was probably after-
wards filled up from the exterior. The great importance
of the King's Chamber is also proved by the air-channels
expressly made for its ventilation, and also by the precau-
tions taken to secure even the walls from any superin-
cumbent pressure by the five chambers above it, which
are less carefully built, and of worse materials, in propor-
tion to their distance from it; whilst, at the same time,
the exquisite finish of the ceilings in the four lower apart-
1 The portcullis consisted of slabs of granite fixed in grooves, which
were not, in the first instance, brought down below the top of the
passage, till it was necessary to lower the portcullis, when the grooves
were cut out to the bottom. One of the portcullises has never been
lowered, but remains suspended over the entrance,—a circumstance
which might be supposed in some degree to corroborate the assertions of
Diodorus Siculus, that the body of the king was not laid in this tomb, had
not the other three been lowered, the passages filled up with masonry,
and an excavation been carried under the sarcophagus, which could
scarcely have been attempted if the tomb had been found empty.
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
King's, in the same way as the apartments in the sepul-
chres at Thebes. It may also, like those in David's tomb,
mentioned by Josephus, have contained treasures; but,
whatever may have been the object, it has evidently been
concealed with great care. It is also to be observed that
the King's Chamber has been secured by four granite
portcullises,1 and by the solid masonry with which the
whole length of the passages have been closed; that the
well has been formed to supply with air the people em-
ployed in filling from the interior the reascending passage
at the bottom of the great gallery, with blocks laid up in
the gallery for that purpose; and that it also afforded to
them an escape by the lower passage when the work was
completed. The entrance passage was probably after-
wards filled up from the exterior. The great importance
of the King's Chamber is also proved by the air-channels
expressly made for its ventilation, and also by the precau-
tions taken to secure even the walls from any superin-
cumbent pressure by the five chambers above it, which
are less carefully built, and of worse materials, in propor-
tion to their distance from it; whilst, at the same time,
the exquisite finish of the ceilings in the four lower apart-
1 The portcullis consisted of slabs of granite fixed in grooves, which
were not, in the first instance, brought down below the top of the
passage, till it was necessary to lower the portcullis, when the grooves
were cut out to the bottom. One of the portcullises has never been
lowered, but remains suspended over the entrance,—a circumstance
which might be supposed in some degree to corroborate the assertions of
Diodorus Siculus, that the body of the king was not laid in this tomb, had
not the other three been lowered, the passages filled up with masonry,
and an excavation been carried under the sarcophagus, which could
scarcely have been attempted if the tomb had been found empty.