DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0264
APPENDIX.
225
the entrances into these were similarly situated. The Arahs in-
formed M. Maillet, that a statue of gold, forty cuhits in height,
and representing the king, who was entombed in it, had been
placed upon the top of the Second Pyramid, the features of which
were distinctly visible from the Mokattam mountains, nine miles
off; and he thinks it probable that a large statue of granite may
have been placed there, and have been afterwards destroyed by
the Mahometans.
With respect to the Great Pyramid, notwithstanding the
assertions of many writers that it had never been cased nor yet
closed up, and that it was intended for the tomb of the Pharaoh
who was drowned in the Red Sea, he conceives that it certainly
had been closed, and also cased, like the rest, with white marble;
and he considers the assertion of Pliny, that there were men
sufficiently active to ascend it, a proof of the original smoothness
of the surface. The entrance, which had evidently been forced,
he says, was one hundred feet above the base, and was approached
over a mound of rubbish; the passage, three feet three inches
square, descended at a sharp angle for one hundred feet, and
had been, in the first instance, closed up with large stones, of the
same marble with which it was built, put together with cement.
He conceives that these blocks had been loosened by means of
hot water, and says that they had, at all events, been taken out
without injury to the walls of the passage, where notches had
been cut in the floor to assist the descent. It was evident that, at
the end of this passage, attempts had been also made to remove
the stones with which another, ascending at nearly the same
angle and in a direct line with the former, had been closed up;0
and he describes the difficulty attending the supposed search for
this communication, and the labours and risks incurred in exca-
vating the stones that concealed it. He conceives, that when the
granite blocks, that filled up the ascending passage, were dis-
covered, an excavation had been made to the right to get round
them, and to re-enter it at a higher point, and that, as the granite
blocks, at present to be seen at the bottom of this passage, do not
exactly fit, that those originally placed there had been broken up
and removed, and that the rest had slid down from the upper
part; and he concludes that, with the exception of these three, all
6 Unless from previous information, it does not appear wliy any ascending
passage should have been expected. It has, therefore, been supposed that the
calcareous stone which concealed the granite blocks in it, must have accidentally
fallen out of the ceiling of the descending passage, and have led to the discovery.
VOL. II. 0
225
the entrances into these were similarly situated. The Arahs in-
formed M. Maillet, that a statue of gold, forty cuhits in height,
and representing the king, who was entombed in it, had been
placed upon the top of the Second Pyramid, the features of which
were distinctly visible from the Mokattam mountains, nine miles
off; and he thinks it probable that a large statue of granite may
have been placed there, and have been afterwards destroyed by
the Mahometans.
With respect to the Great Pyramid, notwithstanding the
assertions of many writers that it had never been cased nor yet
closed up, and that it was intended for the tomb of the Pharaoh
who was drowned in the Red Sea, he conceives that it certainly
had been closed, and also cased, like the rest, with white marble;
and he considers the assertion of Pliny, that there were men
sufficiently active to ascend it, a proof of the original smoothness
of the surface. The entrance, which had evidently been forced,
he says, was one hundred feet above the base, and was approached
over a mound of rubbish; the passage, three feet three inches
square, descended at a sharp angle for one hundred feet, and
had been, in the first instance, closed up with large stones, of the
same marble with which it was built, put together with cement.
He conceives that these blocks had been loosened by means of
hot water, and says that they had, at all events, been taken out
without injury to the walls of the passage, where notches had
been cut in the floor to assist the descent. It was evident that, at
the end of this passage, attempts had been also made to remove
the stones with which another, ascending at nearly the same
angle and in a direct line with the former, had been closed up;0
and he describes the difficulty attending the supposed search for
this communication, and the labours and risks incurred in exca-
vating the stones that concealed it. He conceives, that when the
granite blocks, that filled up the ascending passage, were dis-
covered, an excavation had been made to the right to get round
them, and to re-enter it at a higher point, and that, as the granite
blocks, at present to be seen at the bottom of this passage, do not
exactly fit, that those originally placed there had been broken up
and removed, and that the rest had slid down from the upper
part; and he concludes that, with the exception of these three, all
6 Unless from previous information, it does not appear wliy any ascending
passage should have been expected. It has, therefore, been supposed that the
calcareous stone which concealed the granite blocks in it, must have accidentally
fallen out of the ceiling of the descending passage, and have led to the discovery.
VOL. II. 0