PYRAMIDS, the name given to a series of lofty and stupendous buildings in Egypt, which extend from Cairo to the north, upon a plain about fifty miles long, stretching parallel to the Nile. This plain, which is composed of hard calcareous rock beneath, is about eighty feet above the level of the river.
The three largest pyramids are in the neighbourhood of Ghize or Djiza, viz, those of Cheops, Cephrenes, and My cerinus, which are surrounded with many others of a smaller size.
The great pyramid of Cheops has the following dimen sions, according to different authors.
This pyramid is ascended by an uninterrupted series of steps, diminishing from four, to two and half feet high in approaching the top. The breadth of each step is equal to its height. Upon the top there is a platform thirty-two feet square, consisting of nine large stones, about a ton each, though inferior to some of the other stones, which vary from five to thirty feet long, and from three to four feet high. Here the travellers of all ages and nations have inscribed their names in their respective languages. From this platform Dr. Clarke saw to the south the pyra mids of Saccara, and on the east of these, smaller monu ments of the same kind nearer to the Nile. He remarked also an appearance of ruins which might be traced the whole way from the pyramids to those of Saccara, as if the whole had once constituted one great cemetery. The stones upon this platform, as well as most of the others employed in constructing the decreasing ranges from the base upwards, are of soft limestone, a little harder and more compact than what in England is called clunch. It is of a grayish white colour, and exhales a fetid odour when broken by a smart blow. These stones are of the same nature as the calcareous rock upon which the pyramids stand, and it is likely that they were quarried out of this rock, although Herodotus says that they were brought from the western side of the Nile. The pyramids are built with common mortar externally, but no appearance of mortar could be discerned in the more perfect masonry of the interior. The faces of this pyramid arc directed to the four cardinal points.
This pyramid was explored by our countryman, Mr. Davidson, in 1763. Ilis principal object was to deter- . mine the depth of the well C, Plate CCCCLXXI, No. II. Fig. 13. He descended from A to B, where there is a fifteen feet by five feet wide, and less than six feet high. At C, the passage was closed with sand and rub
bish, and he found here a rope ladder that had been used by Mr. Wood sixteen years before, yet in high preserva tion. The length of AB is twenty-two feet, and of BC 123, which, with the addition of live feet between the first and second shaft, gives 155 feet for the whole. The open ings from the entrance II, along HIAG and HID, had been long known ; the former leading to the Queen's ohamber G, and the latter to the King's chamber F. Mr. Davidson having found a new passage at D, and having crawled through it on his face along the ground, dis covered a long, broad, and low room E, immediately above F, but some feet longer than it, though of the same breadth. The covering is composed of eight stones of beautiful granite.
In 1817, Captain Caviglia explored the pyramid with still more success. With a lamp in his hand, and a rope about his body, he entered the shaft A, and he found that the interior of AC was lined with masonry, and that there was a hollow sound below at C. On another occasion, he cleared the entrance at H, to admit more air for his opera tions, and discovered that the passage HI extended to L for 200 feet, and had the same inclination, the same finish of work, and the same dimensions as HI. He found that the channel IL opened directly on the well C, and was continued twenty-three feet farther to M, where it took a horizontal direction MN, twenty-eight feet long, and ter minating in a spacious chamber N, immediately under the centre of the pyramid, and 100 feet below the base of S. This chamber, which is sixty feet long, twenty-seven feet broad, and fifteen high, is cut out of the solid rock upon which the pyramid is built. In the centre of the room the ground sinks five feet. Some rude and illegible 'Ionian characters had been marked on the wall by the flame of a c,andle. From this chamber there extends another low passage to the south for 55 feet, and another to the east for about 40 feet. Captain Caviglia found that the cham ber E, which is only 4 feet high, is coated with the finest polished red granite, and that its rough floor is composed of the same granite blocks which form the roof of the room F. In the chamber F a sarcophagus had been found, 6 feet 11 inches long, 13 feet wide, 3 feet l inches high.