This pyramid is situate on a rocky hill, in the sandy desert of Libya, about a quarter of a mile from the plains of Egypt, above which the rock rises 100 feet or more, with a gentle and easy ascent. Upon this advantageous elevation, and solid basis, the pyramid is erected : the height of situation adding to the beauty of the work, and the solidity of the rock atrord ing it a stable support.
\Ve may here observe, that the sides of this pyramid stand exactly ficing the four cardinal points, and consequently mark the true meridian of the place: which precise position could not have been well owing to chance, but was, probably, the effect of design and art. \Ve may hence infer that the Egyptians had made an early progress in astronomy.
The entrance is nearly in the centre, and a passage descend ing at an angle of 27° terminates in an unfinished chamber, below the level of the ground. About 100 feet from the entrance, this passage is joined by an upper one, which ascends at the same angle to the great gallery, where it runs horizontally into what is now called the Queen's Chamber. But the gallery itself, continuing at an angle of 27°, leads to a larger room, called the King's Chamber, in which is a sarcophagus of red granite, 7 feet 4 inches by 3 feet, being only 3 inches less than the width of the door by which it was admitted. At the bottom of the great gallery is the well ; and it was by this that the workmen descended, after they had closed the lower end of the upper passage, which was done with blocks of granite. And having gone down by the well, and reached the lower passage, they followed it upwards to the mouth, which they also closed.
Several other chambers and passages, hitherto undiscovered, no doubt exist in the upper part of the pyramid, and one seems to be connected with the summit of the great gallery. It appears to run upwards in a contrary direction to the north, from that end which is above the well ; where a block, appa rently of granite, projects at the complement of the usual angle of these passages. It probably turns afterwards, and extends in a southerly direction over the great gallery. Above what is called the King's Chamber, is a low room, which should support another similar chamber, and the stone at the south-west corner of it, has probably been let hm after the workmen had closed the above-mentioned passage; so that this room served also as an outlet from the upper apartments, as the well from those about the great gallery.
The second pyramid stands at about a bow-shot from the first, towards the south. Herodutus says, after having
measured both, that it fidls short of the other in magnitude ; that it has no subterraneous chambers, and that the Nile is not conveyed into it by a channel, as into the former, hut that it is of equal altitude. Diudorus says it resembles the first in architecture, but is inferior in magnitude; each side of the base containing a stadium, or 600 Grecian feet, in length, so that by his computation each side is less than that of the former in length by 100 feet. Pliny makes the difference to be greater by .16 feet. Thevenot makes it but 631 feet square. Strabo supposes these pyramids to be equal ; and Greaves assures us, that the basis of both are alike, and that the height of the second is not inferior to that of the first. This pyramid is built of white stones, not near so large as those of the first : the sides du not rise with gradations, but are smooth and equal, and the whole fimbri•, except on the south side, is quite entire. On the North and West sides of this second pyramid arc two very stately and elaborate pieces of architecture, about 33 feet in depth, and about 1,400 in length, cut out of the rock in a perpendicular direction, and squared by a chisel ; supposed to be designed for the lodgings of the Egyptian priests. The entrance to the interior is on the north front.
The first passage is built of granite, the rest are cut out of the natural sandstone rock, which rises above the level of the basis of the pyramid. This passage is 104 feet long, 4 feet high, and 3 feet 6 inches wide; descending at an angle of 26'', at the bottom is a portcullis, beyond which is a horizon tal passage of the same height as the first, and at the distance of 22 feet, it descends in a different direction, leading to some passages below. Hence it re-ascends towards the centre of the pyramid, by a gallery 81 feet long, 6 feet high and 3.6 feet wide, leading to a chamber also cut out of the solid rock. The chamber is 46 feet in length, 16 feet wide, and 23.6 feet high, and contained a sarcophagus of granite, S feet long, 3.6 feet wide, and 2.3 feet deep in the inside. Returning from the chamber to the bottom of the gallery, a passage descends at an angle of 26° to the extent of 4S.6 feet, when it takes a horizontal direction for a length of 55 feet ; it then ascends at the same angle, and proceeds to the base of the pyramid, where another entrance is formed from the outside.