AFRICA. thought it would be less burdensome to the memory CHAP. IV. of his readers if he calculated the length of every Three kinds of materials 1st, Blocks Quarried from the masses. pact lime side, and the height, from base to summit, at eight plethra, than if he entered into more minute, though more correct, detail. From Colonel Vyse's measurement this Great Pyramid is calculated to be about 100 feet higher than St. Paul's. Supposing its contents to be entirely solid, they would exceed three millions of cubic yards, and the mass of stone contained in it would be six times as great as that contained in the Plymouth breakwater.1 We next come to the materials. Herodotus says employed, that all the stone was brought from the Arabian mountains, or the Gebel Mokattam, on the eastern side of the Nile valley. Mr. Perring discovered that three qualities of stone were employed in the construction of the pyramids. 1. The internal masses were chiefly quarried on the spot, being taken Libyan rock from the Libyan rocks on which the massive strucused for the internal tures are erected. These rocks are of a loose and granulated texture, abounding with marine fossils, and consequently unfit for fine work and liable to 2nd, Com- decay. 2. The stone for the casing of the exterior stone from and for the lining of the chambers and passages, mountains excepting where granite is expressly named, was brought from the Gebel Mokattam, near the Gebel Attaka, on the Arabian side of the Nile valley, as Herodotus distinctly states; and the ancient quarries seem to have been in the neighbourhood of the modern village of Tourah, a little to the south of Cairo. It is a very compact limestone, containing but very few fossil remains, and is called by geologists, swinestone, or stinkstone, because when struck item its a foetid odour. 3. A beautiful red granite was also used for similar purposes to the limestone, the Arabian used for casingstones. 3rd, Red granite from the 1 Comp. Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii. Lib. of Ent. Knowledge. 2 The face of the Tourah is not cut away according to the most common mode of quarrying, but excavated in spacious chambers, whose openings resemble those of a line of sepulchral grottoes. Beside the quarry marks of the workmen, there are inscriptions recording the sovereigns under whom the quarries were wrought, and the buildings erected or repaired by them. Perring in Vyse, vol. iii. Kenrick, vol. i. and was apparently obtained from the granite region AFRICA. between Syene and Philae, being brought down in CHAP. IV. boats on the river Nile to the polished causeway cataracts of which led to the Great Pyramid.' Syene, also used for lin nical agen ployed. so large as describes. The mechanical means adopted in constructing ing and casthe pyramids cannot be clearly ascertained. He- Character of rodotus says, as we have seen, that none of the the mechastones were less than thirty feet long, and that they cies emwere raised to their respective places on the several Internal tiers by machines constructed of short peices of blocks not wood. The first statement, respecting the size of Herodotus the stones, is incorrect, and may have been a mere exaggeration on the part of his priestly informants; for the exterior coating, which we shall presently describe, prevented his ascertaining the real truth. The loss of the casing, which was stript off at a subsequent period, shows us that from 5 feet to 12 is the common size of the stones; that they were laid in courses varying from 2 feet 2 inches to 4 feet 10 inches in depth; and that each course projected about a foot beyond the one above it, and thus now present the appearance of steps, and furnish an easy ascent to the summit, though originally presenting a smooth surface, having the spaces between the courses filled up by casing-stones. The blocks composing the Great Pyramid appear to have been finally prepared on the level rock in front of its northern face. Here there are several rows of holes. 1 A short sketch of the geology of Aegypt may perhaps assist the student in bearing in mind the physical geography of the country. LOWER AEGYPT is, as we have already seen, principally composed of alluvium deposited by the waters of the Nile. In UPPER AEGYPT three geological regions can be distinguished. 1. The limestone region, extends from the Delta to some days' journey south of Thebes, near Esneh. 2. The sandstone region, extends from Esneh to Syene, and is a comparatively recent deposit. Its colours are white, grey, and yellow. It is very soft and easily united, but was used in building the great temples, and many pillars and obelisks, which were however protected from the weather by being covered with a coloured varnish. 3. The granite region, extends from Syene through the cataract region to Philae, and besides granite affords syenite and some other crystalline primitive rocks, which are red and highly crystallized, and remarkable for the durability and the fine polish which they are capable of receiving. Colossal statues, pillars, obelisks, and even whole temples are constructed of these beautiful rocks. 2 ii. 125. CHAP. IV. AFRICA. Each row being about four or five feet from the others, and including three or four holes of about a foot in diameter and eight or ten inches deep. These holes were apparently cut for the insertion of shears, or for the erection of scaffolding for turning and moving the blocks. Wherever also the courses are exposed, circular holes are to be observed in the Stone, eight inches in diameter and four inches deep, which probably supported the machinery made of short pieces of wood described by Herodotus.' Holes for the inser tion of the still visible. machines Exterior coating of casingstones of limestone and beauti ed. We now come to the exterior coating. Herodotus tells us that the summit was first finished, and that the process was continued downward till the whole or granite, was completed. This without doubt is perfectly carefully cemented, accurate. The casing-stones were of a far finer fully polish-quality than the interior blocks, and, as we have seen, were brought either from the limestone quarries in the Arabian mountains, or from the granite region between Syene and Philae. Those for the Great Pyramid were brought from the Mokattam quarries in the Arabian mountains, as Colonel Vyse discovered under the rubbish accumulated at the base, two of the casing-stones in their original position. Those found were 4 feet 11 inches in perpendicular height, and 8 feet 3 inches long, the outer face sloping with an angle of 51° 50. They were carefully cemented with a mortar composed entirely of lime, which was also employed in the lining of the passages; whilst in the body of the pyramid a mortar was used, made of ground red brick, gravel, Nile earth, and crushed granite, or of calcareous stone and lime; and in some places the 1 See Vyse, vol. ii. Mr. Perring suggests that the machine mentioned by Herodotus may have resembled the polyspaston described by Vitruvius. If however I may judge from the drawing of the polyspaston in the second volume of Newton's Vitruvius, it is a kind of crane in which numerous pullies are employed; and though doubtless very well adapted for the elevation of such blocks as those of which the pyramids are composed, yet totally unlike a machine made of short pieces of wood. I would suggest that a succession of wedges were introduced, which gradually raised the blocks on short supports, or piles, and that it was to these wedges or piles that Herodotus is alluding when he talks of machines. 2 ii. 125. servations of construc blocks were only joined together by a grout or liquid africa. mortar of desert sand and gravel. Part of the casing CHAP. IV. being left unfinished in another of the pyramids,' Mr. PerMr. Perring was enabled to make the following ad- ring's obditional observations. He found that the beds on the mode and sides of the casing blocks were worked to a tion. perfect surface, so that when put together the joints were scarcely visible; but the faces of the blocks were roughly hewn, and projected so as to preserve the edges from being injured in raising the stones required for the higher parts of the edifice above them. When the whole was completed, the levelling commenced from the summit downwards, one set of workmen probably trimming off the projecting parts, whilst another planed down the whole to a perfect and beautiful surface. the Great sage de wards the centre. The reader must now go with us into the interior Interior of of the Great Pyramid. We may here remark, that Pyramid. every pyramid has each of its sides facing one of the four cardinal points; that the entrance to each of them is to be found on the north side in or near the centre; and that the passage leading towards the interior invariably slopes downward at an angle of about 26° 41'. Over the entrance of the Great Sloping pasPyramid is a block of unusual size, on which rest scending tofour others, meeting so as to form a kind of pointed arch; an arrangement which lessened the pressure from above, and preserved the opening from being crushed in. The sloping passage before us is 3 feet 5 inches in height, and the same in width, and is roofed and paved with broad flat blocks of red granite, smooth and highly polished. After a slop- Passage diing descent of 63 feet the passage divides, one con- continuing tinuing the descent, and the other ascending towards the descent the centre of the pyramid. The descending passage reaches the is prolonged for 320 feet from the exterior entrance, an Chamand with such exactness that we can see the sky other asfrom the further end; it then runs for 27 feet further cending, in a horizontal direction, and terminates in a Subter- again dividranean Chamber, 90 feet below the base of the pyra- branch run 1 The eighth, which is not noticed by Herodotus. vides; one till it Subterrane ber; the and then ing, one the Queen's and the to the AFRICA. mid. The ascending passage continues for 125 feet CHAP. IV. at an angle of 26° 18', when it again divides; one ning hori- branch runs horizontally for 110 feet to the Queen's zontally to Chamber; the other branch in the shape of a great Chamber, gallery leads to a vestibule, which forms the entrance other inclin- to the King's Chamber. This gallery ascends in ing upward the same angle as the previous passage; it is 150 feet long, 28 feet high, and 6 feet wide; but this width is lessened by a projecting stone seat or ramp which runs along each side, 19 inches wide and 2 feet high. The side walls are formed of eight assizes of stone, which projecting inward over each other, give the passage the appearance of being arched. The accompanying diagram exhibits the course of the passages and position of the chambers. King's Description of the Subterranean Chamber. Subterranean Chamber. Great Pyramid of Cheops. Sections from North to South. Having thus hastily run through the various passages, we will visit the chambers in succession. The SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER is 46 feet long and 27 broad. No sepulchral remains have been found in it. On |