PRECESSION: AND THE PYRAMIDS 



457 



The Great Pyramid Observatory. 



descending passage which looked at the pole-star and thence by an 

 ascending one at about the same angle which opens into it. It is one 

 hundred and fifty-seven feet long, twenty-eight feet high and about 

 eight feet wide. Along the center of its floor a smooth stone flagging 

 ascends, flanked on either side by raised curbs or ramps half as wide 

 each as the central paved pit. These curbs are not continuous but are 

 cut at approximately equal intervals of about five and a half feet by 

 notches with vertical edges. There is no doubt that these were for the 

 insertion of benches, as the notches tally on opposite sides. At about 

 sixteen feet from the bottom the central incline stops in a vertical wall 

 which descends to a horizontal pavement, giving entrance to the corri- 

 dor which runs to the Queen's apartment. 



The roof of the gallery is everywhere smaller than the floor, so that 



Vertical Section of the Great Pyramid, showing the Ascending and 

 Descending Passages, Grand Gallery and Queen's Chamber. 



