TEE MYSTERY OF TEE PYRAMIDS. 



2G5 



epoch of the pyramids' construction. We find, 

 indeed, some explanations given by the earliest 

 historians ; but they were professedly only hy- 

 pothetical, like those advanced in more recent 

 times. Including ancient and modern theories, 

 we find a wide range of choice. Some have 

 thought that these buildings were associated 

 with the religion of the early Egyptians ; others 

 have suggested that they were tombs ; others, 

 that they combined the purposes of tombs and 

 temples ; that they were astronomical observa- 

 tories ; defenses against the sands of the Great 

 Desert ; granaries like those made under Joseph's 

 direction ; places of resort during excessive over- 

 flows of the Nile ; and many other uses have 

 been suggested for them. But none of these 

 ideas are found on close examination to be tena- 

 ble as representing the sole purpose of the pyra- 

 mids, and few of them have strong claims to be 

 regarded as presenting even a chief object of 

 these remarkable structures. The significant 

 and perplexing history of the three oldest pyra- 

 mids — the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Sbofo, or 

 Suphis, the pyramid of Chephren, and the pyra- 

 mid of Mvcerinus — and the most remarkable of 

 all the facts known respecting the pyramids gen- 

 erally, viz.,. the circumstance that one pyramid 

 after another was built as though each had be- 

 come useless soon after it was finished, are left 

 entirely unexplained by all the theories above 

 mentioned, save one only, the tomb theory, and 

 that does not afford by any means a satisfactory 

 explanation of the circumstances. 



I propose to give here a brief account of some 

 of the most suggestive facts known respecting 

 the pyramids, and, after considering the difficul- 

 ties which beset the theories heretofore ad- 

 vanced, to indicate a theory (new, so far as I 

 know) which seems to me to correspond better 

 with the facts than any heretofore advanced ; I 

 suggest it, however, rather for consideration than 

 because I regard it as very convincingly support- 

 ed by the evidence. In fact, to advance any 

 theory at present with confident assurance of its 

 correctness would be simply to indicate a very 

 limited acquaintance with the difficulties sur- 

 rounding the subject. 



Let us first consider a few of the more strik- 

 ing facts recorded by history or tradition, noting, 

 as we proceed, whatever ideas they may suggest 

 as to the intended character of these struct- 

 ures. 



It is hardly necessary to say, perhaps, that 

 the history of the Great Pyramid is of paramount 

 importance in this inquiry. Whatever purpose 



pyramids were originally intended to subserve, 

 must have been conceived by the builders of that 

 pyramid. Few ideas may have been superadded 

 by the builders of later pyramids, but it is un- 

 likely that the original purpose can have been 

 entirely abandoned. Some great purpose there 

 was, which the rulers of ancient Egypt proposed 

 to fulfill by building very massive pyramidal 

 structures on a particular plan. It is by inquir- 

 ing into the history of the first and most massive 

 of these structures, and by examining its con- 

 struction, that we shall hn,ve the best chance of 

 finding out what that great purpose was. 



According to Herodotus, the kings who built 

 the pyramids reigned not more than twenty-eight 

 centuries ago; but there can be little doubt that 

 Herodotus misunderstood the Egyptian priests 

 from whom he derived his information, and that 

 the real antiquity of the Pyramid-kings was far 

 greater. He tells us that, according to the Egyp- 

 tian priests, " Cheops on ascending the throne 

 plunged into all manner of wickedness. He 

 closed the temples, and forbade the Egyptians to 

 offer sacrifice, compelling them instead to labor 

 one and all in his service; viz., in building the 

 Great Pyramid." Still following his interpreta- 

 tion of the Egyptian account, we learn that 100,- 

 000 men were employed for twenty years in build- 

 ing the Great Pyramid, and that ten years were 

 occupied in constructing a causeway by which 

 to convey the stones to the place and in convey- 

 ing them there. " Cheops reigned fifty years ; 

 and was succeeded by his brother Chephren, who 

 imitated the conduct of his predecessor, built a 

 a pyramid — but smaller than his brother's — and 

 reigned fifty-six years. Thus, during one hun- 

 dred and six years, the temples were shut and 

 never opened." Moreover, Herodotus tells us 

 that "the Egyptians so detested the memory of 

 these kings that they do not much like even to 

 mention their names. Hence they commonly 

 call the pyramids after Phiiition, a shepherd, 

 who at that time fed his flocks about the place." 

 "After Chephren, Mvcerinus, son of Cheops, as- 

 cended the throne. He reopened the temples, and 

 allowed the people to resume the practice of sac- 

 rifice. He, too, left a pyramid, but much in. 

 fcrior in size to his father's. It is built, for half 

 of its height, of the stone of Ethiopia," or, as 

 Prof. Smyth (whose extracts from Rawlinson's 

 translation I have here followed) adds, " expen- 

 sive red granite." " After Mycerinus, Asychis as- 

 cended the throne. He built the eastern gate. 

 way of the temple of Vulcan (Phtha) ; and, be- 

 ing desirous of eclipsing all his predecessors on 



