DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0191
CHAP. XXII.]
PYRAMIDS
157
mite imputation, that ascribes to the spirit of what is called the
False Pyramid a woman's form ?
But these are practical times, and we would fain write in a
practical spirit, when not led astray by visions, that, perhap ,
should find no place in the broad daylight of the nineteenth cen.
tury. There, then, we let go our moorings on the pier of Old
Cairo, some three miles distant from the city of Saladin, and af-
ter sailing some nine miles, we pass the village of Bedrasheen,
on the right, close to which are the almost undiscoverable traces
of Memphis : yet Abdollatif in the fourteenth century seems to
have found here as extensive ruins almost as those of Thebes.
Thence, moving southward, we pass the Pyramids of Dashour,
together with many nameless and crumbling edifices of the same
description : then come the Pyramids of Saccara, one of which
is built in successive terraces or stages ; as is the False Pyra-
mid,* which seems to haunt your voyage, and meets the eye at
every turn.
Beyond this astonishing vista of Pyramids, far to the North,
behind you, are visible the Great Pyramids of Gizeh, dwarfing
all others notwithstanding their distance. The whole space that
lies between these pyramids is honey-combed with graves and
mummy-pits : kings, crocodiles, priests, polecats, cats, and ca-
naille, seem indiscriminately embalmed by these poor people,
who strove so zealously against corruptibility. After that of II-
lafoon, near Beni Souef, the traveller sees no more pyramids
until he arrives at Semneh, beyond the Second Cataract: hence
they occur at intervals throughout ^Ethiopia, on to Meroe ; where
under a somewhat new form, they appear, as it were, in cities.
Further, on the Arabian side, is the town of Boash, with a
Coptic Convent—a sort of nursery for monks, who are trans-
planted thence to the convents of St. Anthony and St. Paul, in
the Eastern desert. The first town of any importance is Beni
Souef, on the western bank, eighty-three miles from Cairo.
Here is an important cotton factory ; ani here is the starting,
point for the Lesser Oasis and Fayoum. In this district were
* It derives this epithet from being supposed to be half natural, with only
a pyramidal top, added to a rocky base.
PYRAMIDS
157
mite imputation, that ascribes to the spirit of what is called the
False Pyramid a woman's form ?
But these are practical times, and we would fain write in a
practical spirit, when not led astray by visions, that, perhap ,
should find no place in the broad daylight of the nineteenth cen.
tury. There, then, we let go our moorings on the pier of Old
Cairo, some three miles distant from the city of Saladin, and af-
ter sailing some nine miles, we pass the village of Bedrasheen,
on the right, close to which are the almost undiscoverable traces
of Memphis : yet Abdollatif in the fourteenth century seems to
have found here as extensive ruins almost as those of Thebes.
Thence, moving southward, we pass the Pyramids of Dashour,
together with many nameless and crumbling edifices of the same
description : then come the Pyramids of Saccara, one of which
is built in successive terraces or stages ; as is the False Pyra-
mid,* which seems to haunt your voyage, and meets the eye at
every turn.
Beyond this astonishing vista of Pyramids, far to the North,
behind you, are visible the Great Pyramids of Gizeh, dwarfing
all others notwithstanding their distance. The whole space that
lies between these pyramids is honey-combed with graves and
mummy-pits : kings, crocodiles, priests, polecats, cats, and ca-
naille, seem indiscriminately embalmed by these poor people,
who strove so zealously against corruptibility. After that of II-
lafoon, near Beni Souef, the traveller sees no more pyramids
until he arrives at Semneh, beyond the Second Cataract: hence
they occur at intervals throughout ^Ethiopia, on to Meroe ; where
under a somewhat new form, they appear, as it were, in cities.
Further, on the Arabian side, is the town of Boash, with a
Coptic Convent—a sort of nursery for monks, who are trans-
planted thence to the convents of St. Anthony and St. Paul, in
the Eastern desert. The first town of any importance is Beni
Souef, on the western bank, eighty-three miles from Cairo.
Here is an important cotton factory ; ani here is the starting,
point for the Lesser Oasis and Fayoum. In this district were
* It derives this epithet from being supposed to be half natural, with only
a pyramidal top, added to a rocky base.