DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0342
APPENDIX.
303
could not therefore have been used for that purpose ; and because
W all of them the passages are from the north, although there
are objects equally worthy of observation in other parts of the
heavens. He says, that the well was one hundred and fifty feet
deep, and about three feet wide ; and that it was furnished with
holes on the sides to enable people to pass through it.
After having examined the interior, he ascended the outside
of the Pyramid (at the north-eastern angle), and in doing so,
observed on the eastern side a perpendicular part about four feet
wide and six feet high, which appeared to conceal a door. The
summit was a square of twenty-five or thirty feet. He is of
opinion that the Great Pyramid had been cased, although he did
not discover any remains of the casing stones ; and remarks, that
Herodotus said that none of the stones were less than thirty feet,
and that it was finished from the top, &c, — an account which
does not at all accord with the present state of the Great Pyra-
mid, nor with that of any other at Gizeh. He conceives it
would be worth while to compare this description with the Pyra-
mids of Abooseer, as they are coated, and as one of them may
certainly be called central, which, at Gizeh, can only be said of
the Second Pyramid.
He quotes from Abdallatif, that Melicalaziz Othman Ben
Yousouf, in the year 119G, attempted to pull down the Third
Pyramid ; but that, after eight months of ineffectual labour, he
failed in the undertaking and he remarks, that the Arab historians
record several other similar attempts; and that they relate, that
the Great Pyramid was opened by Caliph Abdallah Mamoon, son
°f Haroun el Raschid, who employed for that purpose fire and
vinegar ; but he thinks it more probable that the Caliph Mohdi
(-Mohammed), whose name was found in the Second, opened both.
He supposes tliat the excavations, near the eastern front of the Great
Pyramid, were in some way connected witli the tomb of Cheops, as
described by Herodotus ; and he is surprised that they had not
Deen examined.2 The account given by Abdallatif of the hiero-
glyphics inscribed upon the Pyramids, applied, in his opinion,
to the inscriptions in the neighbouring tombs: and he doubts
Whether any were inscribed on the casing stones, because none
had been found in the interior, nor upon any of the fragments
or blocks connected with them, nor upon the coating that yet
remains on the Second and on the Third Pyramids. Neither are
'They have been examined by Mr. Salt.
303
could not therefore have been used for that purpose ; and because
W all of them the passages are from the north, although there
are objects equally worthy of observation in other parts of the
heavens. He says, that the well was one hundred and fifty feet
deep, and about three feet wide ; and that it was furnished with
holes on the sides to enable people to pass through it.
After having examined the interior, he ascended the outside
of the Pyramid (at the north-eastern angle), and in doing so,
observed on the eastern side a perpendicular part about four feet
wide and six feet high, which appeared to conceal a door. The
summit was a square of twenty-five or thirty feet. He is of
opinion that the Great Pyramid had been cased, although he did
not discover any remains of the casing stones ; and remarks, that
Herodotus said that none of the stones were less than thirty feet,
and that it was finished from the top, &c, — an account which
does not at all accord with the present state of the Great Pyra-
mid, nor with that of any other at Gizeh. He conceives it
would be worth while to compare this description with the Pyra-
mids of Abooseer, as they are coated, and as one of them may
certainly be called central, which, at Gizeh, can only be said of
the Second Pyramid.
He quotes from Abdallatif, that Melicalaziz Othman Ben
Yousouf, in the year 119G, attempted to pull down the Third
Pyramid ; but that, after eight months of ineffectual labour, he
failed in the undertaking and he remarks, that the Arab historians
record several other similar attempts; and that they relate, that
the Great Pyramid was opened by Caliph Abdallah Mamoon, son
°f Haroun el Raschid, who employed for that purpose fire and
vinegar ; but he thinks it more probable that the Caliph Mohdi
(-Mohammed), whose name was found in the Second, opened both.
He supposes tliat the excavations, near the eastern front of the Great
Pyramid, were in some way connected witli the tomb of Cheops, as
described by Herodotus ; and he is surprised that they had not
Deen examined.2 The account given by Abdallatif of the hiero-
glyphics inscribed upon the Pyramids, applied, in his opinion,
to the inscriptions in the neighbouring tombs: and he doubts
Whether any were inscribed on the casing stones, because none
had been found in the interior, nor upon any of the fragments
or blocks connected with them, nor upon the coating that yet
remains on the Second and on the Third Pyramids. Neither are
'They have been examined by Mr. Salt.