DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0146
134 THE MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT.
Be this as it may, the Pyramid of Meydoum
is certainly the most carefully constructed and
the best-built pyramid in Egypt. What we see
of it now is doubtless oidy its nucleus, and when
complete (if ever it was complete), it was, per-
haps, built in steps like the greater number of
the monuments of this kind. The name of the
king who caused it to be constructed for his
own tomb is unknown; there is, however, some
reason to suppose that it was Sneferou, the pre-
decessor of Cheops. Around the pyramid ex-
tends the necropolis, which mostly belongs to
the time of the first of these two Pharaohs. It
was in the chamber of the most northern mastabah
of this necropolis that we discovered, in January
1872, the two admirable statues which are now
in the jewel-room of the Boolak Museum.
From Beni-Souef the scenery becomes rather
more animated, and one begins to perceive,
standing out from the horizon, the innumerable
chimneys of the sugar-factories of the Khedive,
which promise so much prosperity and riches
for Egypt at no distant time. A little beyond
Kolosaneh, we pass at the foot of the mountain
of Gebel-Teir (the mountain of birds). There,
on a rocky eminence, stands the convent of
Be this as it may, the Pyramid of Meydoum
is certainly the most carefully constructed and
the best-built pyramid in Egypt. What we see
of it now is doubtless oidy its nucleus, and when
complete (if ever it was complete), it was, per-
haps, built in steps like the greater number of
the monuments of this kind. The name of the
king who caused it to be constructed for his
own tomb is unknown; there is, however, some
reason to suppose that it was Sneferou, the pre-
decessor of Cheops. Around the pyramid ex-
tends the necropolis, which mostly belongs to
the time of the first of these two Pharaohs. It
was in the chamber of the most northern mastabah
of this necropolis that we discovered, in January
1872, the two admirable statues which are now
in the jewel-room of the Boolak Museum.
From Beni-Souef the scenery becomes rather
more animated, and one begins to perceive,
standing out from the horizon, the innumerable
chimneys of the sugar-factories of the Khedive,
which promise so much prosperity and riches
for Egypt at no distant time. A little beyond
Kolosaneh, we pass at the foot of the mountain
of Gebel-Teir (the mountain of birds). There,
on a rocky eminence, stands the convent of