DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0240
APPENDIX.
201
ascended, as before, about a hundred and twenty feet higher.
This entry was of an exceeding height, yet no broader from side
to side than a man may fathom—benched on each side, and
closed above with admirable architecture—the marble so great
and cunningly joined, as if it had been hewn through the living
rock. At the top, we entered into a goodly chamber twenty feet
wide and forty in length, the roof of a marvellous height, and the
stones so great, that eight floors it, eight roofs it, eight flags
the ends, and sixteen the sides, all of well-wrought Theban
marble. Athwart the room, at the upper end, there standcth a
torn]), uncovered, empty, and all of one stone; breast-high, seven
feet in length, not four in breadth, and sounding like a bell. In
this, no doubt, lay the body of the builder. They erecting such
costly monuments, not only out of a vain ostentation, but being
of opinion that, after the dissolution of the flesh, the soul should
survive, and when thirty-six thousand years were expired, again be
joined into the selfsame body, restored unto his former condition;
gathered in their conceits from astronomical demonstrations.
Against one end of the tomb, and close to thq wall, there
openeth a pit with a long and narrow mouth, which leadeth into
an under chamber. In the walls, on each side of the upper room,
there are two holes, one opposite to another, their ends not dis-
cernible, nor big enough to be crept into — sooty within, and
made, as they say, by a flame of fire which darted through it.
This is all that this huge mass containeth within its darksome
entrails, at least, to be discovered."9
Sandys then goes on to state, from Herodotus, that the
daughter of Cheops erected the Second Pyramid, which was less
than the former, " smooth without, and not to be entered." The
third, he observes, stands upon higher ground, and is much
smaller than the others ; and, according to Herodotus, was
" greater in beauty, and of no less cost, being all built of touch-
stone, difficult to be wrought, and brought from the furthest
Ethiopian mountains; but surely not so, yet intended they to
have covered it with Theban marble, whereof a great cpiantity
lieth by it." He adds, that it was said by some to have been
8 From this description, and from the rude prints which accompany the narra-
tive, the entrance into the Great Pyramid appears to have been in the same state as
11 is at present, excepting a large stone in the upper part of the entrance, and some
small masonry above the angular blocks over the passage. The Second Pyramid
seems to have been in the condition in which Belzoui found it.
201
ascended, as before, about a hundred and twenty feet higher.
This entry was of an exceeding height, yet no broader from side
to side than a man may fathom—benched on each side, and
closed above with admirable architecture—the marble so great
and cunningly joined, as if it had been hewn through the living
rock. At the top, we entered into a goodly chamber twenty feet
wide and forty in length, the roof of a marvellous height, and the
stones so great, that eight floors it, eight roofs it, eight flags
the ends, and sixteen the sides, all of well-wrought Theban
marble. Athwart the room, at the upper end, there standcth a
torn]), uncovered, empty, and all of one stone; breast-high, seven
feet in length, not four in breadth, and sounding like a bell. In
this, no doubt, lay the body of the builder. They erecting such
costly monuments, not only out of a vain ostentation, but being
of opinion that, after the dissolution of the flesh, the soul should
survive, and when thirty-six thousand years were expired, again be
joined into the selfsame body, restored unto his former condition;
gathered in their conceits from astronomical demonstrations.
Against one end of the tomb, and close to thq wall, there
openeth a pit with a long and narrow mouth, which leadeth into
an under chamber. In the walls, on each side of the upper room,
there are two holes, one opposite to another, their ends not dis-
cernible, nor big enough to be crept into — sooty within, and
made, as they say, by a flame of fire which darted through it.
This is all that this huge mass containeth within its darksome
entrails, at least, to be discovered."9
Sandys then goes on to state, from Herodotus, that the
daughter of Cheops erected the Second Pyramid, which was less
than the former, " smooth without, and not to be entered." The
third, he observes, stands upon higher ground, and is much
smaller than the others ; and, according to Herodotus, was
" greater in beauty, and of no less cost, being all built of touch-
stone, difficult to be wrought, and brought from the furthest
Ethiopian mountains; but surely not so, yet intended they to
have covered it with Theban marble, whereof a great cpiantity
lieth by it." He adds, that it was said by some to have been
8 From this description, and from the rude prints which accompany the narra-
tive, the entrance into the Great Pyramid appears to have been in the same state as
11 is at present, excepting a large stone in the upper part of the entrance, and some
small masonry above the angular blocks over the passage. The Second Pyramid
seems to have been in the condition in which Belzoui found it.