DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0140
94 REMARKS ON M\ GREAVES'S
length converted into sepulchral grottos. This could not have happened, till
long after the building of the pyramids; and not till hieroglyphics were invented.;
sor we sind, very frequently, in the grottos, inseriptions of that sort.
Page 148. So that I Jhrewdly fufpe&i that Diodorus hath borrowed mojl of
his relation from Herodotus; and Strabo and'Pliny from Diodorus,
or from thei'a both; and the ?nore learned moderns from them all.
There are certainly errors in what these different authors have written. All
speak as if it was the third pyramid, of which the half was built of basaltis:
whereas it is the fourth pyramid. If our learned author had taken the trouble
to go near it, he would have been easily able to reconcile all those authors. He
would have seen, that the fourth pyramid has been made, towards the middle,
of a stone more black than the common granite, and at least as hard. I dare not,
however, ascertain, that it is the basaltis; for it differs from the material, of
which the beautiful vase is made, that I have seen at Rome, in the palace of
cardinal Alexander Albani, and which they give out for the basaltof.
The stones, that are wanting to this pyramid, lye upon the ground, at the
north east corner. They there make a very great heap. Mr. Greaves, how-
ever, is in some measure excusable, for not having observed this pyramid. It is
Situated in such a manner, that, if you do not see it at a certain distance, you
do not easily perceive it, even though you are near, because the others conceal
it. Its summit is of a yellowish stone, and of the quality of that of Portland ;
and it is likewise the same kind of stone, that the other pyramids are built with.
I shall speak elsewhere of its top, which terminates in a cube.
The existence of this fourth pyramid is, moreover, indubitable. It makes a
feries with the three others; this is a matter I can aver. My lord Sandwich
has very justly observed it, and my designs attest the same truth.
Page 150. 'Though it cannot be denied, but that clofe by, on the eafl fde of it,
there are the ruins of a pile of building, with a fad and dufky colour.
These remains of buildings, that Mr. Greaves here speaks of, are the
same as those, which I mentioned before. He says, that the stones are of a dark
colour ; but it is the same yellowish stone, of which the degrees of the pyramids
have been formed. It is nothing but time that has, here and there, a little
blackened them, as it has blackened all the rest. These stones are moreover of
an enormous size ; and the temples, or edifices, on which they have been em-
ployed, must have had something very respectable, as I have already remarked
above. This pyramid has not inseriptions, nor hieroglyphics, any more than the
others. Time could not have effaced them; for if they had put any there, they
would not have committed them to a stone of sand, but to a hard one, which
would have certainly preserved them to the present age. It is very difficult to
give credit to what Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus assert, namely, that
they were content with putting upon these pyramids a mere name, or a slight in-
s Pliny says, that the basaltis is, ferrei cohris atqueduritix.
scription.
length converted into sepulchral grottos. This could not have happened, till
long after the building of the pyramids; and not till hieroglyphics were invented.;
sor we sind, very frequently, in the grottos, inseriptions of that sort.
Page 148. So that I Jhrewdly fufpe&i that Diodorus hath borrowed mojl of
his relation from Herodotus; and Strabo and'Pliny from Diodorus,
or from thei'a both; and the ?nore learned moderns from them all.
There are certainly errors in what these different authors have written. All
speak as if it was the third pyramid, of which the half was built of basaltis:
whereas it is the fourth pyramid. If our learned author had taken the trouble
to go near it, he would have been easily able to reconcile all those authors. He
would have seen, that the fourth pyramid has been made, towards the middle,
of a stone more black than the common granite, and at least as hard. I dare not,
however, ascertain, that it is the basaltis; for it differs from the material, of
which the beautiful vase is made, that I have seen at Rome, in the palace of
cardinal Alexander Albani, and which they give out for the basaltof.
The stones, that are wanting to this pyramid, lye upon the ground, at the
north east corner. They there make a very great heap. Mr. Greaves, how-
ever, is in some measure excusable, for not having observed this pyramid. It is
Situated in such a manner, that, if you do not see it at a certain distance, you
do not easily perceive it, even though you are near, because the others conceal
it. Its summit is of a yellowish stone, and of the quality of that of Portland ;
and it is likewise the same kind of stone, that the other pyramids are built with.
I shall speak elsewhere of its top, which terminates in a cube.
The existence of this fourth pyramid is, moreover, indubitable. It makes a
feries with the three others; this is a matter I can aver. My lord Sandwich
has very justly observed it, and my designs attest the same truth.
Page 150. 'Though it cannot be denied, but that clofe by, on the eafl fde of it,
there are the ruins of a pile of building, with a fad and dufky colour.
These remains of buildings, that Mr. Greaves here speaks of, are the
same as those, which I mentioned before. He says, that the stones are of a dark
colour ; but it is the same yellowish stone, of which the degrees of the pyramids
have been formed. It is nothing but time that has, here and there, a little
blackened them, as it has blackened all the rest. These stones are moreover of
an enormous size ; and the temples, or edifices, on which they have been em-
ployed, must have had something very respectable, as I have already remarked
above. This pyramid has not inseriptions, nor hieroglyphics, any more than the
others. Time could not have effaced them; for if they had put any there, they
would not have committed them to a stone of sand, but to a hard one, which
would have certainly preserved them to the present age. It is very difficult to
give credit to what Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus assert, namely, that
they were content with putting upon these pyramids a mere name, or a slight in-
s Pliny says, that the basaltis is, ferrei cohris atqueduritix.
scription.