DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0384
APPENDIX.
345
required to remove one of the blocks, I asked an overseer, who
was superintending the operations, whether, if a thousand pieces
of gold were offered to him, he would undertake to replace it
in its original position ; he answered, that if he were to be given
many times that sum, he could not do so."
Booh IV. Chap. 3 and 4.
In the " Prolegomcnes Historiques" of Ebn Khaldoun, in M.
De Sacy's "Abd Allatif," it is mentioned that Mamoon could only
destroy a small portion of one of the Pyramids; that the work-
men penetrated into an open space between the exterior' and
the internal masonry ; that the chasm might be seen in the
author's time ; and that, according to some people, a treasure
had been found, but that that was uncertain.
Book V. Chap. 4.
It is also stated, that when the Persians conquered Egypt,
they forced open the tombs in search of treasure, and took away
great riches from the Pyramids,, which were the sepulchres of the
kings : and that the Greeks afterwards did the same.
The patriarch (Denys Telmahre) also says, "We have seen in
Egypt those buildings, (of which they pretend St. Gregoire de
Nazianze spoke in his discourse.) They are not, as has been
supposed, the granaries of Joseph, but wonderful mausolea
erected over the tombs of their antient kings. They are oblique
(that is to say, inclined planes) and solid, and are not hollow or
empty.2 I have looked through an opening, fifty cubits deep, made
in one of those buildings, and I found that it was constructed
of wrought stones, disposed in regular layers. The bases of the
buildings are squares of five hundred cubits measured in cubits
• It might almost be inferred that the author intended to express that they were
solid masses, without chambers or apartments, particularly, as in common with
many other writers, he describes them as monuments erected over the tombs of
kings. This certainly appears to be the case, in every instance, excepting in the
Great Pyramid—the one to which he alludes; he therefore could only have judged
of the interior of it from the excavations, and must have received his information
from tradition, or from other sources.
345
required to remove one of the blocks, I asked an overseer, who
was superintending the operations, whether, if a thousand pieces
of gold were offered to him, he would undertake to replace it
in its original position ; he answered, that if he were to be given
many times that sum, he could not do so."
Booh IV. Chap. 3 and 4.
In the " Prolegomcnes Historiques" of Ebn Khaldoun, in M.
De Sacy's "Abd Allatif," it is mentioned that Mamoon could only
destroy a small portion of one of the Pyramids; that the work-
men penetrated into an open space between the exterior' and
the internal masonry ; that the chasm might be seen in the
author's time ; and that, according to some people, a treasure
had been found, but that that was uncertain.
Book V. Chap. 4.
It is also stated, that when the Persians conquered Egypt,
they forced open the tombs in search of treasure, and took away
great riches from the Pyramids,, which were the sepulchres of the
kings : and that the Greeks afterwards did the same.
The patriarch (Denys Telmahre) also says, "We have seen in
Egypt those buildings, (of which they pretend St. Gregoire de
Nazianze spoke in his discourse.) They are not, as has been
supposed, the granaries of Joseph, but wonderful mausolea
erected over the tombs of their antient kings. They are oblique
(that is to say, inclined planes) and solid, and are not hollow or
empty.2 I have looked through an opening, fifty cubits deep, made
in one of those buildings, and I found that it was constructed
of wrought stones, disposed in regular layers. The bases of the
buildings are squares of five hundred cubits measured in cubits
• It might almost be inferred that the author intended to express that they were
solid masses, without chambers or apartments, particularly, as in common with
many other writers, he describes them as monuments erected over the tombs of
kings. This certainly appears to be the case, in every instance, excepting in the
Great Pyramid—the one to which he alludes; he therefore could only have judged
of the interior of it from the excavations, and must have received his information
from tradition, or from other sources.