DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0107
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEII.
83
was discovered, excepting some rude and unconnected
Arabic words and characters2 scrawled with something like
chalk on various parts of the walls, and on the inside of
the sarcophagus.3 The only words that could be made
out were Mahomet Rasoul over the entrance. The sarco-
phagus is supposed to have been originally placed in the
centre of the chamber, to which its proportions were
very similar, but it had been moved, and was found
2 As soon as these writings were discovered, I sent to the Sherecf of
Mecca to request permission for the Cadi to examine them, who, on the
2d of July, had explained those found in the Fiftli Pyramid. The Cadi was
at Alexandria, but the Sliereef was so good as to send two other persons
on the 3d inst., as will subsequently be seen, but they could only make out
the above words ; and, I was afterwards informed, thought proper to say,
that I had myself written them. I then endeavoured, but without success,
to procure persons from Cairo w ho understood antient Arabic characters.
From the desultory manner in which these writings are scrawled over
the walls and ceilings, I do not however believe that they have any con-
nected meaning. They are probably the names of visitors or of workmen,
or, perhaps, a few phrases from the Koran. I tried in vain to copy them;
they were extremely faint, and could not be made out.
3 As the sarcophagus would have been destroyed, had it remained in
the pyramid, I resolved to send it to the British Museum. The diffi-
culties with which Mr. Raven had to contend in this operation, were not
trifling. One of the ramps in the inclined passage was to be removed in
order to get it into the large apartment, where it was placed upon
trucks, and the blocks in the anteroom having been got rid of, it arrived
at the bottom of the entrance passage. By means of a number of men,
and of a crab at the mouth of the pyramid, it had been conveyed halfway
UP> when, owing to the roughness of the bottom, the trucks on one side
83
was discovered, excepting some rude and unconnected
Arabic words and characters2 scrawled with something like
chalk on various parts of the walls, and on the inside of
the sarcophagus.3 The only words that could be made
out were Mahomet Rasoul over the entrance. The sarco-
phagus is supposed to have been originally placed in the
centre of the chamber, to which its proportions were
very similar, but it had been moved, and was found
2 As soon as these writings were discovered, I sent to the Sherecf of
Mecca to request permission for the Cadi to examine them, who, on the
2d of July, had explained those found in the Fiftli Pyramid. The Cadi was
at Alexandria, but the Sliereef was so good as to send two other persons
on the 3d inst., as will subsequently be seen, but they could only make out
the above words ; and, I was afterwards informed, thought proper to say,
that I had myself written them. I then endeavoured, but without success,
to procure persons from Cairo w ho understood antient Arabic characters.
From the desultory manner in which these writings are scrawled over
the walls and ceilings, I do not however believe that they have any con-
nected meaning. They are probably the names of visitors or of workmen,
or, perhaps, a few phrases from the Koran. I tried in vain to copy them;
they were extremely faint, and could not be made out.
3 As the sarcophagus would have been destroyed, had it remained in
the pyramid, I resolved to send it to the British Museum. The diffi-
culties with which Mr. Raven had to contend in this operation, were not
trifling. One of the ramps in the inclined passage was to be removed in
order to get it into the large apartment, where it was placed upon
trucks, and the blocks in the anteroom having been got rid of, it arrived
at the bottom of the entrance passage. By means of a number of men,
and of a crab at the mouth of the pyramid, it had been conveyed halfway
UP> when, owing to the roughness of the bottom, the trucks on one side