CHAP. IV. AFRICA. Country, but in his chronological annals of the Aegyptian kings. That he may have seen numerous other pyramids besides those he has named, we may take for granted, from the exceedingly careless manner in which he refers to the one on each side of that built by the daughter of Cheops. Probably, however, as he could obtain no information concerning them which came within the scope of his epic history, he did not think it advisable to load his work with details of a purely architectural character. If however the origin, or description, of any building would illustrate any historical fact, he pursued his investigations to the utmost, and we find him making a voyage to Tyre, for the special purpose of ascertaining the origin of the temple of Heracles, in reference to the antiquity of the worship of that deity. It was his religious reserve, or the absence of trustworthy information concerning its founder, that doubtless prevented him from describing the Great Sphinx, though it stands on the same rocky plateau as the pyramids of Gizeh, and is only about 650 yards to the east of the Pyramid of Chephren. We shall also find in his account of Upper Aegypt, that he makes no mention of the magnificent temples of Thebes, but merely notices the wooden colossi of the chief priests, which seemed to him to throw some light upon the antiquity of the Acgyptian nation and deities.* State of the pyramids at The state in which Herodotus found the pyramids the time of 2300 years ago, may to some extent be gathered from his description. They must have appeared to his visit. 3 It is singular that neither Herodotus, nor Diodorus, nor any ancient author before the Roman age, mentions the sphinx, especially as the inscriptions, which have been found on it, prove it to be at least as old as the reign of Thothmes IV. in the fourth dynasty of the Old Monarchy. Most probably its existence is coeval with that of the pyramids themselves, and certainly, the design of carving a rock, which broke the view of the pyramids, into a gigantic sphinx, was worthy of the grandeur of Aegyptian conceptions in architecture and sculpture. For a description of the sphinx, I cannot do better than refer the reader to Mr. Kenrick's Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. An account of the discoveries of Caviglia, who cleared away much of the sand, and a translation of the inserintions, may be found in Col. Vyse's work, vol. iii. 4 ii. 143. ance of the mids of Che Mycerinus. him to be solid quadrangular masses, covering an AFRICA. immense area, and presenting on each of their four CHAP. IV. sides a beautifully polished and perfectly even surface, gradually narrowing until it terminated at the summit. He appears to have entered the interior His ignorof the Great Pyramid of Cheops,' but denies the interiors of existence of any chambers in the Pyramid of Che- the Pyraphren; and we may also infer that he was equally phren and ignorant of the interior of the Pyramid of Mycerinus. His notions of the material of which the pyramids were constructed, were evidently derived from an examination of the exterior casing only; thus he says that the Pyramid of Cheops was built of stone, brought from the Arabian, or Mokattam, mountain; that the first course of the Pyramid of Chephren was composed of variegated Aethiopian stone,* or, rather, of granite brought from Syene; and that the Pyramid of Mycerinus was constructed half way of the same material." But recent researches, as we have already shown, distinctly prove that the limestone and granite, of which he speaks, were only employed for the exterior casing, and the lining of the internal passages and chambers; and that the masses, which form the body of the pyramids, were quarried from the rocky plateau on which they stand. His information concerning the manner in which the works were carried on, is most likely accurate, though he was apparently misled by his informants concerning the size of the stones employed. up the pyra known. The circumstances connected with the first build- Origin of ing of the pyramids are as much unknown to the mids unmodern explorer as they were to the great father of history three and twenty centuries ago. "The Called by Aegyptians," says Herodotus, "call the pyramids tians after after Philition, a shepherd, who at the time of their Philition, 6 2 Ibid. 3 ii. 124. 4 ii. 127. 1 ii. 127. 5 ii. 134. 6 The name Philition bears a strong resemblance to that of the Philistines, though we shall presently see that the builders of the pyramids flourished some centuries before the invasion of the Hyksos, or Shepherd kings. Ancient traditions seem to indicate that the Shepherd kings, after their expulsion, separated into three divisions. One passed the Aegyp and there fore sup posed to have been built by the Hyksos. AFRICA. erection kept his cattle in that region; and so strong CHAP. IV. is the hatred of the people against them that they are not very willing to name them." From this passage it has been generally concluded, that the princes who constructed these stupendous works belonged to the foreign dynasty of Hyksos, or Shepherd kings; and, as our author also states with an emphatic distinctness, that during the whole period of their domination the temples were shut and the sacrifices prohibited, it has been taken equally for granted that the invaders professed a religion hostile to the animal worship of the Aegyptians. But, since the pyramids have been explored, no doubt can remain that they are the work of native kings who reigned long before the invasion of the Hyksos. The to have been period of the Hyksos extended over what is called built prior the Middle Monarchy, and thus stretched from the sos, by the thirteenth to the seventeenth dynasties inclusive." fourth dy. But the three builders of the three great pyramids nasty of the mentioned by Herodotus-Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus, have been discovered to belong to the fourth dynasty in the Old Monarchy of Menes. In Manetho the second, third, and fourth kings in this dynasty are named Suphis, Souphis, and Mencheres. Cheops of Herodotus has been identified with both Recently discovered to the Hyk kings of the Old Mon archy of Menes. Cheops identified with the Suphis and Souphis of over into Greece under Inachus; a second occupied south-western Palaestine, and were called Philistines; whilst a third, or remnant, accompanied the Israelites part of the way after the exodus under the designation of a mixed multitude. ii. 128. 2 ii. 124. 3 Aegyptian history, during what may be called the Pharaonic period, has been divided into three distinct periods. 1. The old empire of Menes, comprising the first twelve dynasties. 2. The middle empire of the Hyksos, comprising the five dynasties following, or the thirteenth to the seventeenth inclusive. 3. The new empire of the eighteenth dynasty downwards. The Aegyptian history of Herodotus is nothing more than a narration connected with public monuments, and on monuments too either in, or near, Memphis; indeed we may restrict ourselves to the single temple of Hephaestus, or Phtha. The history commences with Menes, the founder of the temple; it mentions three of his successors who embellished it; it treats those kings as tyrants who made no addition to it; and of those princes who left no monuments the priests could only give a dry catalogue of names. Hence the line of kings co chasms (ii. 137); it is also interwoven with alle 111, 121, 122.) y wide (ii. covered by not yet Suphis and Souphis. In the chambers above the AFRICA. King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid, already CHAP. IV. described,' Col. Vyse discovered some shields in the through the common phonetic character drawn with red paint shields disupon the walls. One of these shields contained four Col. Vyse. characters, which it is agreed should be pronounced Chufu, or Shufu; whilst another shield presented the same group of characters, but having the same jug and ram prefixed to it which are found with the figures of Kneph, the ram-headed god of Thebes. It has been supposed that Cheops or Shufu was buried in the Queen's Chamber, and that his successor, Kneph Shufu, finished the pyramid, and was buried in the King's Chamber; and that as they were both engaged in the building, and were both buried in it, they were supposed by Herodotus to be one and the same person. Chephren cannot be found in Mane- Chephren tho, but in the tombs near the Second Pyramid the identified. shield of a king, whose name reads Shafre, has been found together with the figure of a pyramid. My- Mycerinus, cerinus, we have already shown, can be identified Menwith Mencheres by the hieroglyphics on his mummy- identified case, which have been translated by Mr. Birch. Mencheres All therefore that we can gather from the statement of Herodotus is, that the Aegyptians hated the very memory of the pyramid kings, and would gladly have regarded them as a foreign race. The popular dislike against Cheops is exhibited in the story preserved by Herodotus, of his compelling his own daughter to raise money by prostitution; and even Mycerinus, who is acknowledged to have been a pious, just, and able monarch, is charged with having indulged in an unnatural passion for his own daughter, and with deceitfully endeavouring to convict the oracle of falsehood." 5 4 or kah-re, with the of Manetho. mids un erected as That the pyramids were specially erected as The pyrasepulchres for kings is now generally admitted. doubtedly The inclined passages were for the conveyance of the sepulchres, sarcophagi; the blocks which filled up the entrance the inclined 1 See page 404. ii. 126. 2 See chap. v. 3 See page 412. passages being intended for AFRICA. were intended to prevent disinterment and violation; CHAP. IV. and, as the pyramids were closed with solid masonry, it is certain that they could not have been used for astronomical observation, nor for initiation or other the convey- mysterious purposes. Around the larger structures sarcophagi are smaller pyramids, in which queens may have into the in- been deposited; whilst the chief officers of state and chambers. religion were buried in excavated tombs near the vast sepulchres of their masters. ance of the ternal Interesting discovery These latter theories however may be considered as by Dr. Lep. almost exploded by the discovery of Lepsius, whose sius relative examination of a pyramid, in which the interior was al construc- partly laid open, enabled him to arrive at the follow to pyramid tion. Effect pro duced by the pyra the modern ing results. At the commencement of each reign the rock chamber, destined for the monarch's grave, was excavated, and one course of masonry erected above it. If the king died in the first year of his reign, a casing was put upon it and a pyramid formed; but if the king did not die, another course of stone was added above, and two of the same height and thickness on each side: thus in process of time the building assumed the form of a series of regular steps, which, on the death of a monarch, were cased over with limestone, or granite. The different sizes of the pyramids is therefore to be accounted for, by the difference in the duration of the several reigns, and the length of a reign might be ascertained if it were possible to learn the number of courses over the internal rock chamber, in which the monarch himself was deposited. The traveller approaching the pyramids for the first time, views them without enthusiasm, and almost mids upon without emotion. From the clearness of the atmotraveller. sphere the larger ones seem to be close at hand, when they are four or five miles off; and the want of a proper standard by which to measure them disables him from forming any idea of their size, until he stands at their base and gazes up the slanting side of the quadrangular mass. Gradually hends the magnitude of the pile. I colossal, and his imagination, expa: pre |