DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17#0055
THE PYRAMIDS OF KHAFRA AND MENKAURA.
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH : VIEW LOOKING EASTWARDS TOWARDS THE CULTIVATED LAND.
(From a Sketch by the Author,)
who were supported by landed estates and endowments. The hierarchy of
several of these early monarchs' memorial services seems to have existed down
to Greek and Roman times. But the temples here have nearly all disappeared ;
only their foundations exist and fragments of sculptured walls and of the votive
treasures they once contained—morsels of broken marble, granite, alabaster,
diorite, and basalt, many of them showing traces of polish or sculpture. The
entrance to the Pyramids was always on the north side.
The authorities of the Cairo Museum issue no licences for excavating on
the pyramid-fields, and no proper researches have been made for many years.
Dr. Pétrie was only permitted to examine the pyramids here and those of
Medum and the Fayum. All around the various groups of pyramids are
thousands of tombs, mastabas, and monuments, which for
fifty years have been unscientifically rifled by the Arabs
in search of treasure. There are still no Official custodians.
This is a great disgrace, and it is to be hoped that the
Government will soon give attention to the matter.
The Third Pyramid (that of Menkaura, 3800 b.c., the
Mykerinos of Herodotus) is much smaller than the others,
but is very interesting. It is easily entered and ascended,
and, Pétrie thinks, was perhaps never finished. It was
cased with red granite, but apparently only in the lower
-J_U
\
iJ&
J
( \
part, and there the stone is left rough, the blocks re- mace-head of khafra.
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH : VIEW LOOKING EASTWARDS TOWARDS THE CULTIVATED LAND.
(From a Sketch by the Author,)
who were supported by landed estates and endowments. The hierarchy of
several of these early monarchs' memorial services seems to have existed down
to Greek and Roman times. But the temples here have nearly all disappeared ;
only their foundations exist and fragments of sculptured walls and of the votive
treasures they once contained—morsels of broken marble, granite, alabaster,
diorite, and basalt, many of them showing traces of polish or sculpture. The
entrance to the Pyramids was always on the north side.
The authorities of the Cairo Museum issue no licences for excavating on
the pyramid-fields, and no proper researches have been made for many years.
Dr. Pétrie was only permitted to examine the pyramids here and those of
Medum and the Fayum. All around the various groups of pyramids are
thousands of tombs, mastabas, and monuments, which for
fifty years have been unscientifically rifled by the Arabs
in search of treasure. There are still no Official custodians.
This is a great disgrace, and it is to be hoped that the
Government will soon give attention to the matter.
The Third Pyramid (that of Menkaura, 3800 b.c., the
Mykerinos of Herodotus) is much smaller than the others,
but is very interesting. It is easily entered and ascended,
and, Pétrie thinks, was perhaps never finished. It was
cased with red granite, but apparently only in the lower
-J_U
\
iJ&
J
( \
part, and there the stone is left rough, the blocks re- mace-head of khafra.