DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0058
THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS.
ground, a depth of one hundred and fifty-five feet. The workmanship shows that this
well was sunk through the masonry after the completion of the pyramid, in all proba-
bility as an outlet for the masons, after barring the sloping ascent with a mass of granite
on the inside, which long concealed its existence. The lower opening of the well was
closed with a similar stone ; the builders then withdrawing by the northern entrance,
which was both barricaded and concealed under the casing, left the interior, as they sup-
posed, inaccessible to man.
These extraordinary pre-
cautions go to confirm the
tradition related by Herodo-
tus, that Cheops was not
buried in the vault he had
prepared, but secretly in some
safer retreat, on account of
violence apprehended from
the people. As no other
pyramid is known to contain
an upper room, it seems not
improbable that the queen's
chamber was trie refuge where
his mummy lay concealed
while the vault was broken
open and searched in vain.
SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID PROM NORTH TO SOUTH. Lepsius has shown that the
1. Subterranean Vault. 2. Queen's Chambeb. 3. Kings Chamber. 1
Pyramids were constructed
by degrees. The vault was excavated, and a course of masonry laid over it, in the first
year of the king's reign. If he died before a second was completed, the corpse was
interred, and the pyramid built up solid above. With every year of the king's life an
addition was made to the base as well as to the superstructure, so that the years of the
reign might have been numbered by the accretions, as the age of a tree by its annual
rings. When the last year came, the steps were filled out to a plane surface,
the casing put on, and the royal corpse conveyed through the slanting passage
to its resting-place.
The Second Pyramid stands about five hundred feet to the south-west of the
First, and is so placed that the diagonals of both are in a right line. It is some-
cheops. what smaller, but stands on higher ground. The construction is similar to the
other, save that no chamber has been discovered above ground. It was sur-
rounded by a pavement, through which a second entrance, in front of the northern
face, descends deep into the rock, and then rises again to meet the usual passage from
the regular opening in the face of the pyramid. From the point of junction a horizontal
passage leads to a vault, now called by the name of Belzoni ; it measures forty-six feet
by sixteen, and is twenty-two feet in height. It is entirely hewn in the rock, with the
exception of the roof, which is formed of vast limestone blocks, leaning against each
other and painted inside. When discovered, this vault contained a plain granite
sarcophagus, without inscription, sunk into the floor. The lid was half destroyed,
and it was full of rubbish. Some bones found in the interior turned out to be the
54
ground, a depth of one hundred and fifty-five feet. The workmanship shows that this
well was sunk through the masonry after the completion of the pyramid, in all proba-
bility as an outlet for the masons, after barring the sloping ascent with a mass of granite
on the inside, which long concealed its existence. The lower opening of the well was
closed with a similar stone ; the builders then withdrawing by the northern entrance,
which was both barricaded and concealed under the casing, left the interior, as they sup-
posed, inaccessible to man.
These extraordinary pre-
cautions go to confirm the
tradition related by Herodo-
tus, that Cheops was not
buried in the vault he had
prepared, but secretly in some
safer retreat, on account of
violence apprehended from
the people. As no other
pyramid is known to contain
an upper room, it seems not
improbable that the queen's
chamber was trie refuge where
his mummy lay concealed
while the vault was broken
open and searched in vain.
SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID PROM NORTH TO SOUTH. Lepsius has shown that the
1. Subterranean Vault. 2. Queen's Chambeb. 3. Kings Chamber. 1
Pyramids were constructed
by degrees. The vault was excavated, and a course of masonry laid over it, in the first
year of the king's reign. If he died before a second was completed, the corpse was
interred, and the pyramid built up solid above. With every year of the king's life an
addition was made to the base as well as to the superstructure, so that the years of the
reign might have been numbered by the accretions, as the age of a tree by its annual
rings. When the last year came, the steps were filled out to a plane surface,
the casing put on, and the royal corpse conveyed through the slanting passage
to its resting-place.
The Second Pyramid stands about five hundred feet to the south-west of the
First, and is so placed that the diagonals of both are in a right line. It is some-
cheops. what smaller, but stands on higher ground. The construction is similar to the
other, save that no chamber has been discovered above ground. It was sur-
rounded by a pavement, through which a second entrance, in front of the northern
face, descends deep into the rock, and then rises again to meet the usual passage from
the regular opening in the face of the pyramid. From the point of junction a horizontal
passage leads to a vault, now called by the name of Belzoni ; it measures forty-six feet
by sixteen, and is twenty-two feet in height. It is entirely hewn in the rock, with the
exception of the roof, which is formed of vast limestone blocks, leaning against each
other and painted inside. When discovered, this vault contained a plain granite
sarcophagus, without inscription, sunk into the floor. The lid was half destroyed,
and it was full of rubbish. Some bones found in the interior turned out to be the
54