The second pyramid is situated on a higher elevation than the first, and was built by Suphis II., or Kephreu, who reigned 66 years, according to Manetho, and appears to have attained a great age. It has two sepulchral chambers, and appears to have been broken into by the caliph Alaziz Othman Beu-Yousouf, 1196 A.D. Subsequently it was opened by Belzoni. The masonry is inferior to the first, but it was anciently cased below with red granite.
The third pyramid, built by Menkara, or Mycerinus, who reigned 63 years, is much smaller than the other two, being only 218 ft. high and 354 ft. 6 in. square. It has also two sepulchral chambers, both in the solid rock. The lower sepulchral chamber, which held a sarcophagus of rectangular shape, of whinstone, had a pointed roof, cut Ilk?. an arch inside; but the cedar eollin, in shape of a mummy, had been removed to the upper - or large apartment, and its contents there rifled. Among the debris of the coffin and in the chambers were found the legs and part of the trunk of a body with linen wrapper, supposed by some to be that of the monarch, but by others to be that of an Arab, on account of the anchylosed right knee. This body and fragments of the cotlin were - removed to the British museum; but the stone sarcophagus was unfortunately lost off Carthagena, by the sinking of the vessel in which it was being transported to England. The masonry of this pyramid is most excellent, and it was anciently cased half-way up with black granite.
There are six other pyramids of inferior size and interest at Gizeh ; one at Abou Rouash, 5 m. to the 11.w. of the same spot, is ruined, but of large dimensions; another at Zowyet El Arrian, also made of limestone, is still more ruined; another at Reegah, a spot in the vicinity of Abooseer, also much ruined, and built for the monarch User-en-Ra, by some supposed to be Bitsiris. There are five of these monuments at Abooseer, one with a name supposed to be that of a monarch of the third dynasty; and another with that of the king Sahura. A. group of 11 pyramids remains at Sakkara, one with a doorway inlaid with porcelain tiles, and having a royal name. Five other pyramids are at Dashour, the northernmost of which, built of brick, is supposed to be that of the king .Asychis of Herodotus, and has a name of a king apparently about the twelfth dynasty. Others are
at Meydoon and Mattoon; and two at Biahmo, at Mellinat El Fyoutn, apparently the sep ulchers of the last kings of the twelfth dynasty. Some small brick pyramids of the kings of the eleventh dynasty are at the Dralt Aboo Negger at Thebes. In Nubia, the ancient "Ethiopia, are several pyramids, the tombs of the monarchs of Mero6, and of some of the Ethiopian conquerors of Egypt. They are taller in proportion to their hose than the Egyptian pyramids, and generally have a sepulchral hall, or propylon, with sculptures. which faces the east. The principal groups of these pyramids are at Bege Rauie, or Begromi, 17° n. lat., in one of which gold rings and other objects of late art, resembling that of the Ptolemaic period, were found.
In Assyria the Birs Nimrud, or tower of Belus, was a kind of step-shaped pyramid of seven different-colored bricks, dedicated to the planets by Nebuchadnezzer. The 3Iujel libe, another mound, was of pyramidal shape. The pyramid also entered into the archi tecture of the tomb of Sardanapalus at Taurus, and of the mausoleum of Artemisia at Halicarnassus. A small pyramid, the sepulcher of C. Cestius, imitated from the Egyp tian in the days of Augustus, still exists within the wall of Aurelian at Rome. Temples and other monuments of pyramidal shape are found in India, China, Java, the Polyne sian islands, and elsewhere. The Toltecs and Aztecs erected temples in Mexico, called teocalli, or abodes of gods, of pyramidal shape, with steps or terraces by which to ascend and reach an altar, generally placed on the summit, where they performed human sacri fices and other rites. These, however, are not true pyramids, the pure and simple form of which is restricted to Egypt. The pyramid entered extensively into the architecture of the Egyptians, and appears on the tops of obelisks and tombs as a kind of roof. Small models of pyramids, with inscribed adorations to the sun. or having royal names, were also placed in the tombs.—Lepsins, Ueber den Bau der Pyramiden, 1843; Briefe, pp. 143, 217: Wilkinson, Topogr. of Thebes (Loud. 1835); Vyse, Operations carried on at Gizeh in 1837 (8vo. Lond., 1840-42); Gliddon, Otia tEgyptiaca (Loud. 1849).