DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0060
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
45
Pyramid, and had found upon the pavement a quantity of
unburnt bricks and of earth. Considerable progress had
been made in taking out the sand from the interior of the
Fifth ; but, when a sufficient number of people were em-
ployed in it, the air became so exceedingly foul owing
to the smallness of the forced entrance, that the candles
would not burn, and the heat became insupportable. For
these reasons, together with the improbability of making
any further discoveries, the chamber was not completely
cleared out. For some days, indeed, after the work had
been given up, the state of the air from the want of cir-
culation was such, that it immediately extinguished a
lighted candle, — a circumstance which the Arabs super-
stitiously ascribed to the bones, which remained in it.
In the course of the day the entrance into the Fourth
Pyramid was discovered in the rocky ground, about
thirteen feet without the base, and twelve feet westward
of the centre. It descended at an angle of twenty-seven,
had been originally fdled up with masonry, which had been
removed, and, as well as the chambers, had been cut in
the rock. Nothing was found in the passage excepting
rubbish and sand ; but some coarse paterae, a piece of
stick, and a broken idol, were dug up near it. Besides
the excavations which we had lately made in the interior,
a chasm on a level with the base had been previously car-
ried to the depth of twenty-three feet into the masonry
at the centre of the northern front. This pyramid and
the Sixth (to the westward of it) are built of large squared
blocks put together in the manner of Cyclopian walling,
and are at present in steps or degrees : whether or not
their exteriors have ever been completed into pyramidal
forms, it is difficult to determine.
45
Pyramid, and had found upon the pavement a quantity of
unburnt bricks and of earth. Considerable progress had
been made in taking out the sand from the interior of the
Fifth ; but, when a sufficient number of people were em-
ployed in it, the air became so exceedingly foul owing
to the smallness of the forced entrance, that the candles
would not burn, and the heat became insupportable. For
these reasons, together with the improbability of making
any further discoveries, the chamber was not completely
cleared out. For some days, indeed, after the work had
been given up, the state of the air from the want of cir-
culation was such, that it immediately extinguished a
lighted candle, — a circumstance which the Arabs super-
stitiously ascribed to the bones, which remained in it.
In the course of the day the entrance into the Fourth
Pyramid was discovered in the rocky ground, about
thirteen feet without the base, and twelve feet westward
of the centre. It descended at an angle of twenty-seven,
had been originally fdled up with masonry, which had been
removed, and, as well as the chambers, had been cut in
the rock. Nothing was found in the passage excepting
rubbish and sand ; but some coarse paterae, a piece of
stick, and a broken idol, were dug up near it. Besides
the excavations which we had lately made in the interior,
a chasm on a level with the base had been previously car-
ried to the depth of twenty-three feet into the masonry
at the centre of the northern front. This pyramid and
the Sixth (to the westward of it) are built of large squared
blocks put together in the manner of Cyclopian walling,
and are at present in steps or degrees : whether or not
their exteriors have ever been completed into pyramidal
forms, it is difficult to determine.