DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0366
and lower, egypt. 33?
The same circumspection which kept me so
secluded at Cairo, prevented me from visiting at
my ease the monuments of antiquity remaining
in its environs. I could only take a hasty view
of the pyramids, and the subterranean galleries
in the plain of Sakkara.
Who has not heard of the pyramids of Egypt ?
whose mind has not swelled at reading the descrip-
tions or hearing the recital of these prodigies of hu-
man power ? Their indestructible mass, the admira-
tion of ages, and despair of time, still presses the
ground where the proud Memphis anciently stood,
though this city is now entirely swept from the
face of the earth. The largest of these pyramids,
which is about five hundred feet in perpendicular
height, and seven hundred on its inclined plane,
was open. Profane and avaricious hands had vio-
lated the sacred and gloomy asylum of death. Its
inside, completely bare, had been exposed to pillage,
and the precious things it included had become the
booty of some barbarian usurper. 1 shall not at-
tempt to give a description of the pyramids, or enter
into the particulars of those subterranean galleries
and funereal apartments, which are the abodes of
an incredible number of bats. A hasty and feartul
inspection was not sufficient for me ; and I will not
follow the example ofSavary, and copy the work of
another Frenchman, by whom they have been de-
vol. ii. z scribed
The same circumspection which kept me so
secluded at Cairo, prevented me from visiting at
my ease the monuments of antiquity remaining
in its environs. I could only take a hasty view
of the pyramids, and the subterranean galleries
in the plain of Sakkara.
Who has not heard of the pyramids of Egypt ?
whose mind has not swelled at reading the descrip-
tions or hearing the recital of these prodigies of hu-
man power ? Their indestructible mass, the admira-
tion of ages, and despair of time, still presses the
ground where the proud Memphis anciently stood,
though this city is now entirely swept from the
face of the earth. The largest of these pyramids,
which is about five hundred feet in perpendicular
height, and seven hundred on its inclined plane,
was open. Profane and avaricious hands had vio-
lated the sacred and gloomy asylum of death. Its
inside, completely bare, had been exposed to pillage,
and the precious things it included had become the
booty of some barbarian usurper. 1 shall not at-
tempt to give a description of the pyramids, or enter
into the particulars of those subterranean galleries
and funereal apartments, which are the abodes of
an incredible number of bats. A hasty and feartul
inspection was not sufficient for me ; and I will not
follow the example ofSavary, and copy the work of
another Frenchman, by whom they have been de-
vol. ii. z scribed