DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0133
PYRAMIDOGRAPHIA. 87
mine much into the solid, which was not composed of a material very (iron? for
Supporting itself; but which had rather need of being supported by the great
pieces of free-done, with which the outsides of the pyramids are furnislied.
To be convinced, that this reasoning is just, and that it may even be demon-
strated, you need only cast an eye upon the little pyramids, that surround the
great ones. As they are the greatest part open, you see that they are entirely built
°f free-stone; and that they have, by their smallness, this advantage, that their
chambers and their passages were capable of having more extent in proportion,
than in the greater pyramids, which, with regard to their reciprocal heights^
ai"e perpendicularly in the proportion of 500, to 30, or 40.
Page 80. The Egyptians were careful to provide conditories, which might he as
lafti?tv as the body, and in which it might continue fafe from the injury of
time and men. 'That occafioned the ancient kings of Thebes in Egypt to build
thofe which Diodorus thus defcribes: u There are, they fay', the wonderful
fepulchres of the a?icie7tt kings, which, in magnificence, exceed the imitation of
poflerity. Of thefe in the sacred commentaries forty-feven are mentioned',
but in the time of Ftolemjevs Lagi there rejna'med but feventeen. Many of
them, at cur being in Egypt in the one hundred and eightieth Olympiad, were
decayed."
ONEmust, I think, reckon amongst those superb monuments, thatofOsi-
liandyas. I have seen another of them, opposite Medinet-Habu, and I dare
*ayj that the little temple of granite of Thebes was of the number. Father Si-
card pretends to have seen those that are in the grottos. For my part, I have
taught for them with care : I have entered into a great number of grottos; but
could never discover them.
Page 8 r. And this might occafion alfo thofe others recorded by St r a bo, which he
calls 'Eftpoutx, or mercuriales tumulos, feen by him near Syene, in the upper parts
of Egypt, very fir a?ige and memorable. " Pafincr in a chariot from Syerie to
Philce, over a very even plain, about one hundred ftadia, allthewayalmoft, of both
" sides, we faw in many places mercurial tombs: a great ftone, finooth, and
ahnofi spherical, of that black and hard marble, out of which mortars are
made, placed upon a greater ftone ; a?id on the top of this another, fiome of
them lying by thenfelves : the greateft of them was no left than twelve feet
diameter, all of them greater than the half of this."
It would be very difficult to agree on this article with Strabo. I have gone
tJle same road as he; I have travelled it five or six times; and have observed
^lth attention those stones, which he calls mercuriales tumulos. It is not by
art) that they are heaped one upon another. They are the mere work of nature,
WWh has placed them, as I imagine, in this manner from the beginning. It
milst be observed, that the rocks of granite differ from others in this, that they
are not a Tingle mass; and that they are as it were great heaps of large flint
{tones,,
mine much into the solid, which was not composed of a material very (iron? for
Supporting itself; but which had rather need of being supported by the great
pieces of free-done, with which the outsides of the pyramids are furnislied.
To be convinced, that this reasoning is just, and that it may even be demon-
strated, you need only cast an eye upon the little pyramids, that surround the
great ones. As they are the greatest part open, you see that they are entirely built
°f free-stone; and that they have, by their smallness, this advantage, that their
chambers and their passages were capable of having more extent in proportion,
than in the greater pyramids, which, with regard to their reciprocal heights^
ai"e perpendicularly in the proportion of 500, to 30, or 40.
Page 80. The Egyptians were careful to provide conditories, which might he as
lafti?tv as the body, and in which it might continue fafe from the injury of
time and men. 'That occafioned the ancient kings of Thebes in Egypt to build
thofe which Diodorus thus defcribes: u There are, they fay', the wonderful
fepulchres of the a?icie7tt kings, which, in magnificence, exceed the imitation of
poflerity. Of thefe in the sacred commentaries forty-feven are mentioned',
but in the time of Ftolemjevs Lagi there rejna'med but feventeen. Many of
them, at cur being in Egypt in the one hundred and eightieth Olympiad, were
decayed."
ONEmust, I think, reckon amongst those superb monuments, thatofOsi-
liandyas. I have seen another of them, opposite Medinet-Habu, and I dare
*ayj that the little temple of granite of Thebes was of the number. Father Si-
card pretends to have seen those that are in the grottos. For my part, I have
taught for them with care : I have entered into a great number of grottos; but
could never discover them.
Page 8 r. And this might occafion alfo thofe others recorded by St r a bo, which he
calls 'Eftpoutx, or mercuriales tumulos, feen by him near Syene, in the upper parts
of Egypt, very fir a?ige and memorable. " Pafincr in a chariot from Syerie to
Philce, over a very even plain, about one hundred ftadia, allthewayalmoft, of both
" sides, we faw in many places mercurial tombs: a great ftone, finooth, and
ahnofi spherical, of that black and hard marble, out of which mortars are
made, placed upon a greater ftone ; a?id on the top of this another, fiome of
them lying by thenfelves : the greateft of them was no left than twelve feet
diameter, all of them greater than the half of this."
It would be very difficult to agree on this article with Strabo. I have gone
tJle same road as he; I have travelled it five or six times; and have observed
^lth attention those stones, which he calls mercuriales tumulos. It is not by
art) that they are heaped one upon another. They are the mere work of nature,
WWh has placed them, as I imagine, in this manner from the beginning. It
milst be observed, that the rocks of granite differ from others in this, that they
are not a Tingle mass; and that they are as it were great heaps of large flint
{tones,,