r • •• " high and 150 ft. 10 in. long, with a short horizontal passage leading to the upper or so-called King's chamber. In this short passage was a portcullis 12 ft. 5 in. high, to defend any entrance into the chamber. The King's chamber had a flat roof, and measures 17 ft. I in. by 34 ft. 3 in., with a height of 19 ft. 1 in., and the north side is more than 16 ft. 3 in. south of, the pyramid, probably because the monarch was expected to survive so long as to admit of sufficient masonry being added to enable it to be placed there. As the heat and confinement of this chamber appears to have been stifling, two air-channels, one 94 in. by 9 in., the other 9A in by 8; in., ran from the chamber to the north and south faces of the pyramid : these, when opened by Mr. Perring in 1837, restored the ventilation to the chamber. In the chamber itself is a sarcophagus of red granite, 7 ft. 64 in. long by 3 ft. 3 in. broad, and 3 ft. 5 in. high without its cover, entirely plain, and neither ornamented with sculpture or inscriptions. This no doubt anciently contained a wooden coffin, in which was deposited the body of the founder ; but both have disappeared long since, when the pyramid was opened and plundered. The King's chamber is surmounted by five other small chambers placed above, the uppermost having a pointed roof formed by stones placed en decharge. The object of these chambers appears to have been to lighten the roof of the apart ment, which is flat, from the weight of the superincumbent mass. These chambers are from 37 ft. to 38 ft. 4 in. long, and from 10 ft. 4 in. to 20 ft. 6 in. wide. The height varies from I ft. 4 in. to 8 ft. 7 in., and they rise for 69 ft. 3 in. from the roof of the great chamber. The first of these nearest that point was discovered by Davison in 1764, the others by Colonel Howard Vyse in 1837, who named them Wellington, Arbuthnot, and Campbell chambers; but they are generally called the chambers of construction, as showing the purpose for which they were made.
The opening of these chambers solved the enigma of the pyramid ; their floors and roofs'were made by blocks of red or syenitic granite from the quarries of Assonan, but the sides were partly formed by blocks of a hard calcareous stone, brought from the quarries of Mokat tam and Tourah. While yet in the quarries the workmen had scrawled upon them in large linear hieroglyphics, in a red colour, the names and royal titles of two kings, accompanied by other words. Those in the so-called Nelson chamber, nearest the king's chamber, had only the standard name of Khufu, or Cheops ; those in the Arbuthnot chamber the standard name, titles, and eartotiche of Khuum Khufu; and those in the uppermost chamber, the titles and cartouehe of Khufu, or Cheops, and hieroglyphs with numerals. Although an attempt has been made to show that these are two different monarchs, yet the fact of both having the same Horus or standard name at this epoch, shows that both names belong only to one monarch, the Khufu of the hiero glyphs and Cheops of Iferodotus, whose body anciently reposed in the sarcophagus of the sepulchral chamber beneath. These quarry
marks were placed in all sorts of ways in the chamber, and some times had been cut short by the sawing of the blocks of stone, showing that they were inscribed while the material was in the quarries. At the junction of the two inclined passages is the so-called well, con sisting of a shaft 2 ft. 4 in. square, descending perpendicularly for 26 ft. 1 in., then 32 ft. 5 in. to a recess called the grotto, and finally for 133 ft. to tile subterraneous apartment. It was cut through the masonry after it had been constructed, and therefore evidently did not form part of the original design, and is supposed to have been made for the workmen to descend after they had closed up the passage from the upper end of it. The base of this pyramid is about ft. above the level of the inundation of the Nile ; it contains at present 82,111,000 cubic feet of masonry, and anciently about 7,000,000 more, and the weight is calculated as 6,316,000 tons, covering at present 12 a. 3 r. 3 p. As it exists at present, stripped of its casing, there are 203 steps; they decrease, but not regularly, from the bottom to the top from 4 ft. 10 In. to 2 ft. 2 in., the stones being 9 ft. long, and 64 ft. broad. The ascent is fatiguing, but not attended with danger, the summit having boon often reached by ladies. The horizontal lines of the platforms are fitted with the greatest nicety, and joined by a cement of lime without sand. Some of the casing.stonem at the base were discovered by Colonel Howard Vyse, and gave the angle of incli nation. This pyramid is supposed to have been open at the Roman times, and traces of Latin inscriptions are said to have been found in the passages, as well as Cufic inscribed during the rule of the Arab conquerors of Egypt.
to Iferodotus the great pyramid was built by Cheops, who closed the temples, and stopped the sacrifices, and made a con scription of the people to build this monument by bringing the stone from the Tourah quarries; gangs of 100,000 men were relieved every three months ; ten years were employed for the causeway, 3,000 ft. long, 60 ft. wide, 48 ft. high, which had a hieroglyphical inscription ; the subterraneous chamber, he states, was in an island made by a canal from the Nile ; twenty more years were consumed for the masonry. It was constructed like steps, and the stones were raised from layer to layer by machines. He describes the manner of facing the pyramid from the top, and gives an account of a hieroglyphical Inscription, recording 1600 talents of silver spent for the radishes and onions supplied to the workmen. Cheops reigned 50 years. Diodorus calls this monarch Chembes. At the time of I'liny the pyramids were then ascended, although the casing of the great pyramid is said to have remained till the Christian era. The pyramids in recent times have been visited and described by travellers since Belonius, AA). 1553.