THE PYRAMIDS. 263 
visible. I had only time to go over one properly, the Pyramid of 
Cheops, whose dimensions you doubtless know, 456 feet high, and 
each base 763 feet. The crowd of vociferous and importunate Arabs 
who surrounded us here, impeding our motions, and menacing 
us with a colony of vermin, was most disagreeable. They all 
belong to one tribe, and are under the Sheik of the district, who 
pays tribute to the Pacha, and demands money for permission to 
ascend, or enter the edifices. Two naked beings take you to the 
top, scrambling like cats, and dragging you from ledge to ledge. 
As the steps are much higher than they are broad, each measuring 
four feet and two-thirds of a foot high in the lower tiers, the ascent 
is fatiguing, though it may be accomplished in ten minutes. All 
parts, except some of the interior, are formed of shell-limestone, the 
same as the subjacent rock, of a pale yellow colour, and tolerably hard. 
The whole was once cased in a still harder rock, which, receiving 
a beautifully smooth surface, rendered the slope of each face as 
sheer as polished marble. But all this casing is gone from the Great 
Pyramid ; a little only remains at the apex of the second, or Pyra- 
mid of Cephrenes, which is thus rendered all but inaccessible. The 
view from the summit is magnificent. Beneath, looking westward, lies 
the emerald plain, through which sweeps the mighty Nile, sparkling 
in the sun, as it winds through groves, gardens, and cultivated 
land. Beyond rises the city of Cairo, a dense mass of white houses, 
and minarets like spear-heads, crowned by the Citadel, with its 
monster castle, domes, and pinnacles, and backed by the white 
cliffs of the Mohattem Hills. Looking up the Nile, the ribband 
of verdure appears to dwindle to nothing, as the river retreats into 
the desert, its course buoyed out, so to speak, where it traverses 
the sandy plain, by two other groups of Pyramids on its banks ; 
beyond which the eye perceives no outline, or horizon, to the sand 
hills. Due S. E. in a line with the diagonal of the great 
Pyramid whereon I stood, the second Pyramid rose, about 300 
yards distant, of nearly equal height, capped with the relies of its 
casing, and terminating in all but a sharp point. At its foot were 
little Pyramids, awkwardly placed, without reference to the parent 
one, and much dilapidated. All to the west was bathed in the 
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