DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1033#0016
i6
THE PYRAMID OF HAWARA.
closing slab is now partly broken away, and the
recess is empty.
25. The sepulchre is an elaborate and massive
construction. The chamber itself is a monolith
26y$ inches long, 94-2 wide, and yyg high to the top
of the enormous block, with a course i8'5 high upon
that, giving a total height inside of 924, the floor
being at + 11*3, and the roof at + 1037 level. The
thickness of the upper course is 36 inches from its
face; but the chamber itself is about 25 inches,
according to the outside seen in the forced passage
from the western well. It would accordingly weigh
about 110 tons. The workmanship is most excellent;
the sides are flat and regular, the inner corners so
sharply wrought that—though I looked at them—I
never suspected that there was not a joint there
until I failed to find any joint in the sides, and the
surface so polished that the hard flinty sandstone
reflects the light of the candle one carries. The
funeral furniture we will describe further on. The
total distance from the well chamber to the inside of
the sepulchre is ic>9-5.
The sepulchre is roofed by three enormous slabs of
the same hard sandstone, over four feet in thickness,
and extending far beyond the chamber walls on each
side. The original access to the chamber was closed,
after the interment, by lowering one of these slabs—
which weighs about forty-five tons—into its place.
While the pyramid was being built, and until its final
closing, this great mass was supported in a chamber,
or space, left for it in the superincumbent masonry,
called here the super-chamber (roof + 249^ level).
Thus the passage from the well chamber led straight
to the top of the wall of the sepulchre, into which
anyone could thus descend. When the block was
lowered into place it left but a narrow space over its
edge, by which the workmen could pass from above
it out into the well chamber. The plunderers had not
attempted to raise it, but had—probably by fire and
water—scaled and broken away the lower edge
enough to enable them to squeeze through into the
sepulchre.
Above the sepulchre roof there is then, partly a
very shallow space left between that and an upper
roof of horizontal beams of limestone, and partly the
super-chamber. But no pressure whatever bears upon
the middle of the sandstone roof of the sepulchre, the
beams above it being supported on blocks along the
edges of the sandstone roof, and being so deep as to
sustain their own weight and any pressure that may
come on them. The super-chamber is roofed by
longitudinal beams to support the great sloping roof.
Above these double roofs then comes the third roof
of the slanting beams of limestone, the one which I
cut through weighing about fifty-five tons. These
beams are well dressed on the joints, and mortared
together; along the outer edge the dressing ends in
an even cut bevel edge, forming a beautifully straight
side to the joint face, and beyond that the outer face
of the stone projects roughly about a couple of inches.
This pent roof rests on the masonry filling built up
around the sepulchre, and the beams would therefore
have tended to press against one another, unlike the
earlier pyramids, in which the beams always act as
cantilevers lying on the walls beneath them. But
here such pressure was avoided by resting the beams
on the haunches of the horizontal beams below them,
thus tending to save those beams from the effect of
their own weight; and in truth there need be here no
thrust whatever, as the centre of gravity of the sloping
beams is within—well within—the line of vertical sup-
port of the haunches of the horizontal beams on
which they lie, which are again sustained by blocks
from the sepulchre roof which rests on solid masonry.
So here the pressure of the weight of the great canti-
levers was ingeniously placed so as to tend to sustain
the horizontal beams and chamber roof by putting
weight on their haunches. The butting of the sloping
beams was however well provided for, if it should be
required, by a wall of fine stones between them and
the side of the rock pit. And, as if to try and save
even such a roof from pressure, an arch of brick,
three feet in thickness, was thrown over the whole-
structure. The position of this arch, and the nature
of the roof, was seen in my tunnelling into the
chamber: and the dwarf wall of bricks laid in mud,
which retained the sand and dust from falling into
the rock pit during the building formed one side of
my tunnel.
The second branch from the tunnel showed some-
what of the construction of the roof of the well
chamber, as I there reached the ends of some
enormous beams of horizontal roofing; the outline
of these will be seen on the plan PL II in broken
line outside the N.E. corner of the well chamber, the
course of the tunnel being marked by dotted lines.
26. We will now turn to the contents of the sepul-
chre. The sarcophagus of Amenemhat will be seen
in plan and side views in PI. IV. It and all the other
articles in this chamber are of the same quartzite
sandstone as the chamber. There is no trace of in-
scription visible, and no ornament beside the old
THE PYRAMID OF HAWARA.
closing slab is now partly broken away, and the
recess is empty.
25. The sepulchre is an elaborate and massive
construction. The chamber itself is a monolith
26y$ inches long, 94-2 wide, and yyg high to the top
of the enormous block, with a course i8'5 high upon
that, giving a total height inside of 924, the floor
being at + 11*3, and the roof at + 1037 level. The
thickness of the upper course is 36 inches from its
face; but the chamber itself is about 25 inches,
according to the outside seen in the forced passage
from the western well. It would accordingly weigh
about 110 tons. The workmanship is most excellent;
the sides are flat and regular, the inner corners so
sharply wrought that—though I looked at them—I
never suspected that there was not a joint there
until I failed to find any joint in the sides, and the
surface so polished that the hard flinty sandstone
reflects the light of the candle one carries. The
funeral furniture we will describe further on. The
total distance from the well chamber to the inside of
the sepulchre is ic>9-5.
The sepulchre is roofed by three enormous slabs of
the same hard sandstone, over four feet in thickness,
and extending far beyond the chamber walls on each
side. The original access to the chamber was closed,
after the interment, by lowering one of these slabs—
which weighs about forty-five tons—into its place.
While the pyramid was being built, and until its final
closing, this great mass was supported in a chamber,
or space, left for it in the superincumbent masonry,
called here the super-chamber (roof + 249^ level).
Thus the passage from the well chamber led straight
to the top of the wall of the sepulchre, into which
anyone could thus descend. When the block was
lowered into place it left but a narrow space over its
edge, by which the workmen could pass from above
it out into the well chamber. The plunderers had not
attempted to raise it, but had—probably by fire and
water—scaled and broken away the lower edge
enough to enable them to squeeze through into the
sepulchre.
Above the sepulchre roof there is then, partly a
very shallow space left between that and an upper
roof of horizontal beams of limestone, and partly the
super-chamber. But no pressure whatever bears upon
the middle of the sandstone roof of the sepulchre, the
beams above it being supported on blocks along the
edges of the sandstone roof, and being so deep as to
sustain their own weight and any pressure that may
come on them. The super-chamber is roofed by
longitudinal beams to support the great sloping roof.
Above these double roofs then comes the third roof
of the slanting beams of limestone, the one which I
cut through weighing about fifty-five tons. These
beams are well dressed on the joints, and mortared
together; along the outer edge the dressing ends in
an even cut bevel edge, forming a beautifully straight
side to the joint face, and beyond that the outer face
of the stone projects roughly about a couple of inches.
This pent roof rests on the masonry filling built up
around the sepulchre, and the beams would therefore
have tended to press against one another, unlike the
earlier pyramids, in which the beams always act as
cantilevers lying on the walls beneath them. But
here such pressure was avoided by resting the beams
on the haunches of the horizontal beams below them,
thus tending to save those beams from the effect of
their own weight; and in truth there need be here no
thrust whatever, as the centre of gravity of the sloping
beams is within—well within—the line of vertical sup-
port of the haunches of the horizontal beams on
which they lie, which are again sustained by blocks
from the sepulchre roof which rests on solid masonry.
So here the pressure of the weight of the great canti-
levers was ingeniously placed so as to tend to sustain
the horizontal beams and chamber roof by putting
weight on their haunches. The butting of the sloping
beams was however well provided for, if it should be
required, by a wall of fine stones between them and
the side of the rock pit. And, as if to try and save
even such a roof from pressure, an arch of brick,
three feet in thickness, was thrown over the whole-
structure. The position of this arch, and the nature
of the roof, was seen in my tunnelling into the
chamber: and the dwarf wall of bricks laid in mud,
which retained the sand and dust from falling into
the rock pit during the building formed one side of
my tunnel.
The second branch from the tunnel showed some-
what of the construction of the roof of the well
chamber, as I there reached the ends of some
enormous beams of horizontal roofing; the outline
of these will be seen on the plan PL II in broken
line outside the N.E. corner of the well chamber, the
course of the tunnel being marked by dotted lines.
26. We will now turn to the contents of the sepul-
chre. The sarcophagus of Amenemhat will be seen
in plan and side views in PI. IV. It and all the other
articles in this chamber are of the same quartzite
sandstone as the chamber. There is no trace of in-
scription visible, and no ornament beside the old