Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Section of the Great Pyramid of Gizah, built by Khufu (Cheops), showing the internal passages and chambers, and the underground corridor and sarcophagus chamber.

197

[graphic]

covered with inscribed slabs of smooth limestone or polished granite, and it is calculated that it at present contains 85,000,000 cubic feet of masonry. The illustration on page 197 illustrates the general arrangement of the chambers and corridors inside the pyramid, and the corridor and mummy chamber beneath it. The stone used in building was quarried at Tura, on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 8 or 9 miles from the pyramid site. It was rolled down to the river on a made road, and ferried across in barges, and then rolled up the embanked road and causeway to the rock. According to Diodorus (i, 63), the building occupied at least twenty years, and some 300,000 men were employed in the work. Herodotus says (ii, 64) that ten years were consumed in the quarrying of the stone, and ten more in building, and that the men worked in gangs of ten thousand, each gang working three months at a time. A group of three casing stones from the Great Pyramid are exhibited in the Egyptian Vestibule, Nos. 10-12, and also a plaster cast of a statue of Khufu (No. 13). Attached to the Great Pyramid was a funerary temple in which commemorative services were performed; and either towards the end of the king's reign, or soon after his death, one of the chief priests in it was Ka-tep, who held the office of “Prefect of the sa"

[ocr errors]

ff, ie., of the "fluid of life." Ka-tep was a "royal kinsman," and his wife Hetepheres was a "royal kinswoman." For the statues of Ka-tep and his wife, see page 177, and for "false doors" from his mastaba tomb, see Egyptian Vestibule, Nos. 14-17, and for his censers, see Wall-case 200 in the Fourth Egyptian Room, Nos. 52, 53. Another official who flourished about this period was Sheshȧ, from whose tomb came the limestone stele in the Egyptian Vestibule, No. 18.

During the reign of Khufu a large number of fine tombs were built round about the Great Pyramid, and in some of them fine monolithic sarcophagi were placed. An excellent idea of this class of monument may be gained from an examination of the cast of the sarcophagus of Khufu-ankh (Egyptian Vestibule, No. 19).

Here, because the monument is associated with the name of Khufu in the inscription of Thothmes IV, must be mentioned the Sphinx, in Egyptian Hu. The early history of this wonderful man-headed lion is unknown, but it seems that some work upon the rock out of which it was fashioned was undertaken by Khufu. Under the XIIth dynasty the

headdress, called nemmes, was cut, and it is possible that an attempt was made to give the face some resemblance to that of Amen-em-hat III, or one of his predecessors, about the same time. At a later period the Sphinx was identified with RaHarmachis, probably under the influence of an ancient tradition which connected it with the Sun-god. It is 150 feet long and 70 feet high; the head is 30 feet long and the

King Khafra (Chephren).

face 14 feet wide. Originally the face was painted a bright red, and traces of the colour are still visible. Traditions and superstitions have gathered about it in all ages, and it is probable that the rock out of which it was made was regarded with veneration in primitive times. In the Middle Ages the natives. believed that the Sphinx kept the sands of the Western Desert from swallowing up the village of Gizah. A portion of the painted limestone. uraeus, or asp, from the forehead and a portion of the beard of the Sphinx are exhibited in the Egyptian Vestibule, Nos. 20 and 21.

Khufu was succeeded by Tet-f-Ra, of whom nothing is known; and he again was succeeded by Kha-f-Ra, the Chephren of the Greek writers, who is famous chiefly as the builder of the Second

[graphic]

Pyramid at Gizah, called in Egyptian "Ur", ie, the "Great." Its height is about 450 feet, the length of each side at the base is 7c0 feet, and it is said to contain about 60,000,000 cubic feet of masonry, weighing some 4,883,000 tons. It was first opened by Belzoni (born 1778,

died 1823) in 1816. It was originally cased with polished stone, but only towards the top has the casing been preserved. The illustration on page 171 shows the arrangement of the corridor and sarcophagus chamber, which is very different from that of the Great Pyramid. A funerary chapel was attached to the pyramid; and among those who ministered in it was Rutchek, the chief of the libationer priests, who calls himself a "friend of Pharaoh"

[graphic]

King Menkaura (Mykerinos). [Vestibule, South Wall, No. 30.]

66

[ocr errors]

www

(For an architrave and
an inscription from his
tomb see Egyptian
Vestibule, Nos. 22 and
23.) The Pyramid it-
self was in charge of
the royal kinsman "
Thethȧ, who was the
royal steward, and "over-
"seer of the throne of
Pharaoh," and priest of
Hathor and Neith. Two
fine doors
doors from the
maṣṭaba tomb of Thetha
are exhibited in the
Northern Egyptian
Gallery (Bay 1, Nos. 24
and 25), together with a
short inscription refer-
ring to the burial of his
father and mother (No.
26). The perfection to
which the sculptor's art
had attained at this
period is well illustrated
by the casts of statues
of Chephren, from the
hard stone originals in
the Museum in Cairo,

exhibited in the Egyptian Vestibule, Nos. 27 and 28. A fragment of an alabaster vessel from the king's tomb, bearing his name, is in Wall-case 138 in the Fourth Egyptian Room, No. 56.

Men-kau-Ra, the Mykerinos of Greek writers, reigned, it is said, about sixty-three years; no details of his reign are

« PreviousContinue »