PYRAMIDS built of great blocks of stone were a form of cairns in which wero placed tho bodies of the ancient rulers in Egypt. Subsequent dynasties have largely dismantled them in order to obtain building materials; but still, froin the head of the delta of the Nile southward beyond Sakkara, where once existed the great cemetery of Memphis, thero are 70 of Ow tomb-pyrainIA left, and three of the largest are near Cairo, on the left or western bauk of the Nile. 'Ile pyramid of Maydoom is aupposed to hare been built about the middle of the fifth millennium before Christ, some 2000 years before Abraham came Hun the world. Manysuppositions have been put forward as to their object, but it is recognised that they are cairns,—tombs of the great men of the past, who sought not only to perpetuate their memory, but also to preserve their own botlios for that return to the world which was promised by their religion. They are all built on rocky and sandy plains. The largest ifs near Gizeh, and is 461 feet in perpendicular height, with a platform on the top 32 feet square, and the length of the base bi 746 feet. It occupies 11 acres of ground, and in constructed of such stupendous blocka of stone, that a more marvellous result of human labour has not been found on the earth. Here aLso are caverns containing mummies, or embalmed dead bodies, which are found ia coffins ranged in niches of the walls, and are at least 4000 years old. The Great Pyramid was the mausoleum of Khufu or Cheops of Dynasty Iv. There have been a variety of opinions as to its dimensions. Ac cording to General Vyse, the present perpendicular height of the structure is 450 feet 9 inches, and the side of its present base 74G feet ; and he gives the former height at 480 feet 9 inches, and the side at the former base at 764 feet,. Like all the other pyrainids, it faces the cardinal point& As regards the inanner of elevating the stones, no explanation seems so probable as that of Robert Stephenson. It was done, he maintained, by
conveying the blocks on rollers up inclined planes of sand; and this theory has been confirmed by the most recent facts concerning the building of Nineveh.
All the pyramids, except one at Sakkara, face the four cardinal points of the compass. All have their entrance on the north side. All contain provision for a single kin„,n.'s burial. Many are identified with the names of kings of whom it is recorded that they did build pyramids in various places ; and the Great Pyramid is, without any doubt which a reasonable man can entertain, the burial mound of one of a long lino of kings, who all erected similar mounds.
They are built of soft calcareous stone, of the same nature as the rock on which they stand, but faced with granite or syenite, most of which has been carried off for other structures. Herodotus mentions a block at Sais, 21 cubits long, 14 broad, and 8 high, the transport of which, from quarry to site, employed 2000 men fur three years. The stones were quarried out of the neighbouring hill& and 80100 from the opposite side of the Nile, and are all of a great size, and carefully cut into shape.
First Pyramid. base, 707 ft. sq. Pcrp. height. 479 ft.
Second „ 690 .1 447 „ Third „ 354 It 303 „ The second pyramid is in some points of inferior workmanship to the great one. Pyramidal forms aro ordinarily given to the templas of the non Aryan races of India. All Fijian temples have a pyramidal forni, and are often erected 011 terraced mounds, in this respect reminding us of the ancient Centrid American structures. We inect the rani° terraced mounds also in Eastern Polynmia, with which Fiji and all other groups of the South Sea shares the principal features of its religious belief. The pyramidal sign A, with the apex upwards, was a symbol of fire ; with the apex pointing down v, it indicates water.—Sharpe's History of Egypt, i. p. 24 ; Cal. Rev., Sept. 1861 ; Piazzi Smyth ; Encyc. Britan.