DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0116
ioê THÈ GREAT PYRAMID.
but ' why Cheops wanted his pyramid to be about '
its actual size he does not profess to know. Yet, if
the latitude of the centre of the base were really
determined very carefully, it is clear that the
nearest, and in this case the northern, verge of the
rock plateau would limit the size of the base ; and
we may say that the size selected was the largest
which was available, subject to the conditions
respecting latitude. True, the latitude is not cor-
rectly determined ; but we may fairly assume it
was meant to be, and that the actual centre of the
base was supposed by the builders to lie exactly in
latitude 30 degrees north.
However, we may admit that the dimensions
adopted were such as the builders considered con-
venient also. I fear Sir E. Beckett's explanation
on this point, simple and commonplace though it is,
is preferable to Professor Smyth's. If, by the way,
the latter were right, not only in his views, but in
the importance he attaches to them, it would be no
mere façon de parler to say ' I fear ; ' for a rather
unpleasant fate awaits all who ' shorten the cubit ' as
Sir E. Beckett does. ' I will not attempt,' says
Professor Smyth, ' to say what the ancient Egyp-
tians would have thought ' of certain ' whose car-
riages,' it seems, 'try to stop the way of great
pyramid research,' ' for I am horrified to remember
but ' why Cheops wanted his pyramid to be about '
its actual size he does not profess to know. Yet, if
the latitude of the centre of the base were really
determined very carefully, it is clear that the
nearest, and in this case the northern, verge of the
rock plateau would limit the size of the base ; and
we may say that the size selected was the largest
which was available, subject to the conditions
respecting latitude. True, the latitude is not cor-
rectly determined ; but we may fairly assume it
was meant to be, and that the actual centre of the
base was supposed by the builders to lie exactly in
latitude 30 degrees north.
However, we may admit that the dimensions
adopted were such as the builders considered con-
venient also. I fear Sir E. Beckett's explanation
on this point, simple and commonplace though it is,
is preferable to Professor Smyth's. If, by the way,
the latter were right, not only in his views, but in
the importance he attaches to them, it would be no
mere façon de parler to say ' I fear ; ' for a rather
unpleasant fate awaits all who ' shorten the cubit ' as
Sir E. Beckett does. ' I will not attempt,' says
Professor Smyth, ' to say what the ancient Egyp-
tians would have thought ' of certain ' whose car-
riages,' it seems, 'try to stop the way of great
pyramid research,' ' for I am horrified to remember