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Section of the Pyramid of Cheops at Gizeh. From Vyse. "Pyramids of Gizeh," Vol. I. p. 2.

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of justice, and that all Egypt was in a high state of prosperity; but that after him Cheops, coming to reign over Herodotus them, plunged into every kind of wickedness. For that,

on the

building

of the Great

having shut up all the temples, he first of all forbade them to offer sacrifice, and afterwards he ordered all the Egyptians Pyramid. to work for himself; some, accordingly, were appointed to draw stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountain down to the Nile, others he ordered to receive the stones when transported in vessels across the river, and to drag them to the mountain called the Libyan. And they worked to the number of 100,000 men at a time, each party during three months. The time during which the people were thus harassed by toil, lasted ten years on the road which they constructed, along which they drew the stones, a work, in my opinion, not much less than the pyramid; for its length is five stades (3,021 feet), and its width ten orgyæ (60 feet), and its height, where it is the highest, eight orgyæ (48 feet); and it is of polished stone, with figures carved on it on this road then ten years were expended, and in forming the subterraneous apartments on the hill, on which the pyramids stand, which he had made as a burial vault for himself, in an island, formed by draining a canal from the Nile. Twenty years were spent in erecting the pyramid itself: of this, which is square, each face is eight plethra (820 feet), and the height is the same; it is composed of polished stones, and jointed with the greatest exactness; none of the stones are less than thirty feet. This pyramid was built thus; in the form of steps, which some call crossæ, others bomides. When they had first built it in this manner, they raised the remaining stones by machines. made of short pieces of wood: having lifted them from the ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived there, it was put on another machine that stood ready on the first range; and from this it was drawn to the second range on another machine; for the machines were equal in number to the ranges of steps; or they removed the machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher; for I should relate it in both ways, as it is related. The

on the

Great

highest parts of it, therefore, were first finished, and afterwards they completed the parts next following; but last of all they finished the parts on the ground, and that were lowest. On the pyramid is shown an inscription, in Egyptian characters, how much was expended in radishes, onions, and garlic, for the workmen; which the interpreter,1 as I well remember, reading the inscription, told me amounted to 1,600 talents of silver. And if this be really Herodotus the case, how much more was probably expended in iron building tools, in bread, and in clothes for the labourers, since they of the occupied in building the works the time which I mentioned, Pyramid. and no short time besides, as I think, in cutting and drawing the stones, and in forming the subterraneous excavation. [It is related] that Cheops reached such a degree of infamy, that being in want of money, he prostituted his own daughter in a brothel, and ordered her to extort, they did not say how much; but she exacted a certain sum of money, privately, as much as her father ordered her; and contrived to leave a monument of herself, and asked every one that came in to her to give her a stone towards the edifice she designed of these stones they said the pyramid was built that stands in the middle of the three, before the great pyramid, each side of which is a plethron and a half in length." (Cary's translation.)

THE SECOND PYRAMID.

The second pyramid at Gîzeh was built by Chā-f-Rā, 8

or Chephren, the third king of the IVth dy-
A, His name has

nasty, B.C. 3666, who called it ▲, ur.

not been found inscribed upon any part of it, but the fragment of a marble sphere inscribed with the name of Cha-f-Rā,

1 Herodotus was deceived by his interpreter, who clearly made up a translation of an inscription which he did not understand. William of Baldensel, who lived in the fourteenth century, tells us that the outer coating of the two largest pyramids was covered with a great number of inscriptions arranged in lines. (Wiedemann, Aeg. Geschichte, p. 179.) If the outsides were actually inscribed, the text must have been purely religious, like those inscribed inside the pyramids of Pepi, Tetà, and Unås.

Pyramid of

Chephren.

Pyramid of

Chephren.

which was found near the temple, close by this pyramid,
confirms the statements of Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus, that Chephren built it. A statue of this king, now
in the Gîzeh Museum, was found in the granite temple
close by. This pyramid appears to be larger than the
Great Pyramid because it stands upon a higher level of stone
foundation; it was cased with stone originally and polished,
but the greater part of the outer casing has disappeared.
An ascent of this pyramid can only be made with difficulty.
It was first explored in 1816 by Belzoni (born 1778,
died 1823), the discoverer of the tomb of Seti I. and of the
temple of Rameses II. at Abu Simbel. In the north side of
the pyramid are two openings, one at the base and one about
50 feet above it. The upper opening leads into a corridor
105 feet long, which descends into a chamber 461 x 16 x 22
feet, which held the granite sarcophagus in which Chephren
was buried. The lower opening leads into a corridor about
100 feet long, which, first descending and then ascending,
ends in the chamber mentioned above, which is usually called
Belzoni's Chamber. The actual height is about 450 feet, and
the length of each side at the base about 700 feet. The rock
upon which the pyramid stands has been scarped on the
north and west sides to make the foundation level. The
history of the building of the pyramid is thus stated by
Herodotus: "The Egyptians say that this Cheops reigned
fifty years; and when he died, his brother Chephren suc-
ceeded to the kingdom; and he followed the same practices
as the other, both in other respects, and in building a
pyramid; which does not come up to the dimensions of his
brother's, for I myself measured them; nor has it sub-
terraneous chambers; nor does a channel from the Nile flow
to it, as to the other; but this flows through an artificial
aqueduct round an island within, in which they say the body
of Cheops is laid. Having laid the first course of variegated
Ethiopian stones, less in height than the other by forty feet,
he built it near the large pyramid. They both stand on the
same hill, which is about 100 feet high. Chephren, they said,
reigned fifty-six years. Thus 106 years are reckoned, during
1 Bk. H. 127.

which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and for this length of time the temples were closed and never opened. From the hatred they bear them, the Egyptians are not very willing to mention their names; but call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd, who at that time kept his cattle in those parts." (Cary's translation.)

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THE THIRD PYRAMID.

The third pyramid at Gizeh was built by Men-kau-Rā, the fourth king of the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3633, who called it A, Her. Herodotus and other ancient authors tell us that Men-kau-Rã, or Mycerinus, was Pyramid of Myburied in this pyramid, but Manetho states that Nitocris, a cerinus. queen of the VIth dynasty, was the builder. There can be, however, but little doubt that it was built by Mycerinus, for the sarcophagus and the remains of the inscribed coffin of this king were found in one of its chambers by Howard Vyse in 1837. The sarcophagus, which measured 8×3× 2 feet, was lost through the wreck of the ship in which it was sent to England, but the venerable fragments of the coffin are preserved in the British Museum, and form one of the most valuable objects in the famous collection of that institution. The formula on it is one which is found upon coffins down to the latest period, but as the date of Mycerinus is known, it is possible to draw some interesting and valuable conclusions from the fact that it is found upon his coffin. It proves that as far back as 3,600 years before Christ the Egyptian religion was established on a firm base, that the doctrine of immortality was already deeply rooted in the human mind. The art of preserving the human body by embalming was also well understood and generally practised at that early date.

The pyramid of Men-kau-Ra, like that of Chephren, is Pyramid of Mybuilt upon a rock with a sloping surface; the inequality of cerinus. the surface in this case has been made level by building up courses of large blocks of stones. Around the lower part the remains of the old granite covering are visible to a depth of

B. M.

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