DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0061
54
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL,
had gone too far to return, and my guide proved to
be right. Standing alone on an elevated mountain-
ous range on the edge of the desert, without any
object with which to compare them, the immense
size of the pyramids did not strike me with full
force. Arrived at the banks of a stream, twenty
Arabs, more than half naked, and most of them
blind of an eye, came running towards me, dashed
through the stream, and pulling, hauling, and
scuffling at each other, all laid hold of me to carry
me over. All seemed bent upon having something
to do with me, even if they carried me over piece-
meal ; but I selected two of the strongest, with little
more than one eye between them, and keeping the
rest off as well as I could, was borne over dryshod.
Approaching, the three great pyramids and one
small one are in view, towering higher and higher
above the plain. I thought I was just upon them,
and that I could almost touch them ; yet I was
more than a mile distant; the nearer I approached,
the more their gigantic dimensions grew upon me,
until, when I actually reached them, rode up to the
first layer of stones, and saw how very small I
was, and looked up their sloping sides to the lofty
summits, they seemed to have grown to the size of
mountains.
The base of the great pyramid is about eight
hundred feet square, covering a surface of about
eleven acres, according to the best measurement,
and four hundred and sixty-one feet high ; or, to
give a clearer idea, starting from a base as large
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL,
had gone too far to return, and my guide proved to
be right. Standing alone on an elevated mountain-
ous range on the edge of the desert, without any
object with which to compare them, the immense
size of the pyramids did not strike me with full
force. Arrived at the banks of a stream, twenty
Arabs, more than half naked, and most of them
blind of an eye, came running towards me, dashed
through the stream, and pulling, hauling, and
scuffling at each other, all laid hold of me to carry
me over. All seemed bent upon having something
to do with me, even if they carried me over piece-
meal ; but I selected two of the strongest, with little
more than one eye between them, and keeping the
rest off as well as I could, was borne over dryshod.
Approaching, the three great pyramids and one
small one are in view, towering higher and higher
above the plain. I thought I was just upon them,
and that I could almost touch them ; yet I was
more than a mile distant; the nearer I approached,
the more their gigantic dimensions grew upon me,
until, when I actually reached them, rode up to the
first layer of stones, and saw how very small I
was, and looked up their sloping sides to the lofty
summits, they seemed to have grown to the size of
mountains.
The base of the great pyramid is about eight
hundred feet square, covering a surface of about
eleven acres, according to the best measurement,
and four hundred and sixty-one feet high ; or, to
give a clearer idea, starting from a base as large