DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0274
APPENDIX.
235
two and a half inches. The chamber to which it conducted was
thirty-six feet long, eighteen broad, and as many high. The
"walls were composed of five ranges of stone, the roof of nine
large blocks of Thebaic marble, and the floor was of the same
material, as was also an empty sarcophagus, which he found
about four feet from the farthest wall; and which was seven feet
long, three feet six inches high, and six inches thick, and near it
was an excavation about three paces long, and twelve feet deep.
He observed two apertures, one on each side of the chamber,3 but
could not discover for what purpose they had been made. At the
entrance into this chamber he saw another opening, nearly closed
with sand, into which he fired a pistol. After stating Mr.
Greaves' opinion respecting the cause of the extraordinary echoes
which are heard in this building, he adverts to the well, which
he says was divided into four parts, two inclined and two perpen-
dicular ; and which, as he was told, formed a communication
with the other Pyramids, but he could not examine it on account
of the sand. He refers the reader to M. Thevenot for a more
particular account of it. He then entered the horizontal
fissure, which was three feet square, and one hundred and thir-
teen feet long, and arrived at an arched chamber which was
covered with marble, was eighteen feet long, sixteen broad, and
eleven feet three inches high, and had a sloping roof. He
observes, that nothing was to be seen in this chamber, and that
Jt was very offensive, from the smell of bats and other vermin;
and it -was necessary to fire pistols in it from time to time, in
order to purify the air. He took the dimensions of this Pyramid
on the authority of Pore Sicard, a missionary.
The Second Pyramid appeared to have been covered with
marble, as a quantity of that material was to be found near it;
the entrance had not been discovered. Excepting on the southern
Sl(le, the surface had been well preserved, and had neither
chasms nor fissures; and it was every where so smooth and even,
that it could not be ascended. Near these two buildings he
observed a third smaller Pyramid; and others farther off in the
desert. He then quotes Diodorus and Strabo, as to the kings by
whom the Pyramids were built; and narrates, from the Morat
■Alzeman various traditions that they were built by Joseph, by
Nimrod, by Queen Dalukah, or by the Israelites; and from Ebn
Abd Al Hokm, that they were considered to be antediluvian
3 The air-cliannels.
235
two and a half inches. The chamber to which it conducted was
thirty-six feet long, eighteen broad, and as many high. The
"walls were composed of five ranges of stone, the roof of nine
large blocks of Thebaic marble, and the floor was of the same
material, as was also an empty sarcophagus, which he found
about four feet from the farthest wall; and which was seven feet
long, three feet six inches high, and six inches thick, and near it
was an excavation about three paces long, and twelve feet deep.
He observed two apertures, one on each side of the chamber,3 but
could not discover for what purpose they had been made. At the
entrance into this chamber he saw another opening, nearly closed
with sand, into which he fired a pistol. After stating Mr.
Greaves' opinion respecting the cause of the extraordinary echoes
which are heard in this building, he adverts to the well, which
he says was divided into four parts, two inclined and two perpen-
dicular ; and which, as he was told, formed a communication
with the other Pyramids, but he could not examine it on account
of the sand. He refers the reader to M. Thevenot for a more
particular account of it. He then entered the horizontal
fissure, which was three feet square, and one hundred and thir-
teen feet long, and arrived at an arched chamber which was
covered with marble, was eighteen feet long, sixteen broad, and
eleven feet three inches high, and had a sloping roof. He
observes, that nothing was to be seen in this chamber, and that
Jt was very offensive, from the smell of bats and other vermin;
and it -was necessary to fire pistols in it from time to time, in
order to purify the air. He took the dimensions of this Pyramid
on the authority of Pore Sicard, a missionary.
The Second Pyramid appeared to have been covered with
marble, as a quantity of that material was to be found near it;
the entrance had not been discovered. Excepting on the southern
Sl(le, the surface had been well preserved, and had neither
chasms nor fissures; and it was every where so smooth and even,
that it could not be ascended. Near these two buildings he
observed a third smaller Pyramid; and others farther off in the
desert. He then quotes Diodorus and Strabo, as to the kings by
whom the Pyramids were built; and narrates, from the Morat
■Alzeman various traditions that they were built by Joseph, by
Nimrod, by Queen Dalukah, or by the Israelites; and from Ebn
Abd Al Hokm, that they were considered to be antediluvian
3 The air-cliannels.