DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0369
328 SECOND PYRAMID. [Chap. VI.
served for tombs, and also have been intended
for astronomical purposes. For though it is in vain
to look for the pole-star at the bottom of a passage
descending at an angle of 27°, or to imagine that a
closed* passage, or a pyramid covered with a smooth
and inaccessible casing, were intended for an obser-
vatory, yet the form of the exterior might lead to
many useful calculations. They stand exactly due
north and south; and while the direction of the
faces to the east and west might serve to fix the
return of a certain period of the year, the shadow
cast by the sun, or the time of its coinciding with
their slope, might be observed for a similar purpose.
* The second was opened by Belzoni in 1816, but he found,
from an inscription in the chamber, that it had been entered
before and reclosed by the Soltan Alee Mohammed. Strabo says
the great pyramid was closed by a stone fitted into the mouth of the
passage; and a further proof of its having been opened before the
time of the caliph Mamoon is drawn from Pliny, who speaks of a
well of eighty-six cubits in depth, by which it was supposed that
the Nile water was admitted. Eighty-six cubits, or one hundred
and twenty-nine feet, do not, however, agree with the depth of
what is now called the well, which is nearly two hundred; and it
is possible that he is speaking of the lower passage, which, in
his time, may have been cleared only to that distance. At all
events, we must conclude that the pyramid had been purposely
or accidentally closed before the time of the caliph. With regard
to the admission of the water of the Nile, mentioned by Herodotus,
the much lower level of the river at once prevents the possibility
of its being introduced into the pyramid, the base of which is even
now upwards of one hundred feet above the surface of the water
during the inundation, and must have been more in the time of
Herodotus, and still more again at the period of its erection. Pliny,
who was not led away by credulity and want of judgment, justly
questions the story, and observes that the Nile is much lower.
served for tombs, and also have been intended
for astronomical purposes. For though it is in vain
to look for the pole-star at the bottom of a passage
descending at an angle of 27°, or to imagine that a
closed* passage, or a pyramid covered with a smooth
and inaccessible casing, were intended for an obser-
vatory, yet the form of the exterior might lead to
many useful calculations. They stand exactly due
north and south; and while the direction of the
faces to the east and west might serve to fix the
return of a certain period of the year, the shadow
cast by the sun, or the time of its coinciding with
their slope, might be observed for a similar purpose.
* The second was opened by Belzoni in 1816, but he found,
from an inscription in the chamber, that it had been entered
before and reclosed by the Soltan Alee Mohammed. Strabo says
the great pyramid was closed by a stone fitted into the mouth of the
passage; and a further proof of its having been opened before the
time of the caliph Mamoon is drawn from Pliny, who speaks of a
well of eighty-six cubits in depth, by which it was supposed that
the Nile water was admitted. Eighty-six cubits, or one hundred
and twenty-nine feet, do not, however, agree with the depth of
what is now called the well, which is nearly two hundred; and it
is possible that he is speaking of the lower passage, which, in
his time, may have been cleared only to that distance. At all
events, we must conclude that the pyramid had been purposely
or accidentally closed before the time of the caliph. With regard
to the admission of the water of the Nile, mentioned by Herodotus,
the much lower level of the river at once prevents the possibility
of its being introduced into the pyramid, the base of which is even
now upwards of one hundred feet above the surface of the water
during the inundation, and must have been more in the time of
Herodotus, and still more again at the period of its erection. Pliny,
who was not led away by credulity and want of judgment, justly
questions the story, and observes that the Nile is much lower.