I >u. Aiinott on the Proportions of the Pyramids of Egypt. 215 



pole star must have had a still further elevation of 4°; but others say the 

 angle is 27°, and I have heard it mentioned that this angle was 30°, so 

 that perhaps we are not yet in possession of decisive information on the 

 subject; at all events I know of no explanation so good of the northern 

 entrance and its p* Miliar <IcM-li\ it y, as its referring to the elevation of the 

 polo star. Having observed it somewhere stated or conjectured that the 

 pyramids were so constructed as to cast no shadow at noon, from the 

 vernal to the autumnal equinox, my attention was directed to this point, 

 and consequently to the precise proportions of the pyramids. 



It is curious and amusing to glance over the different measurements 

 recorded of the base and height. Herodotus makes the height and base 

 the same ; Strabo makes the height more than the base, and in the pro- 

 portion of 25 to 24 ; but both of these measurements being widely at 

 variance with those given by all other writers, may be safely put out of 

 view, unless with the explanation I shall presently give. M. Savary 

 considers these ancient estimates correct, and that the true base is now 

 covered deeply by sand ; but then the proportions of the present base 

 and height ought to be the same as given by Herodotus, which they are 

 not. 



All indeed must be aware of the great difficulty experienced in modern 

 times in taking accurate measurements, in consequence of the quantity of 

 sand and rubbish now collected around the base ; while, again, ancient 

 observers had not very correct instruments for ascertaining the altitudes 

 of solid bodies of such magnitude. On that account a difficulty arose in 

 my mind if the measures given by ancient writers of the height actually 

 referred to the true or perpendicular altitude, and consequently such 

 modern authors as trusted to those old ones, or made their own to tally 

 nearly with them, must be placed in the same predicament. 



Of all who have pretended to give the measurements from their own 

 observations, the one in whom most confidence seems to be placed is 

 Belzoni : his observations were not made on the Pyramid of Cheops (a 

 Greek corruption of Kopts), or the Great Pyramid, but on what is called 

 the second one, or the Pyramid of Cephrenes. According to Belzoni, 

 each side of this second pyramid is 684 feet, and the perpendicular height 

 456. Now these numbers happen to be precisely in the proportion of 

 3 to 2. Farther, Trench makes the side of the base of the Great Pyra- 

 mid and its height 704 and 670 feet* respectively, or if these be French 

 feet, his measures will be 750*3 and 500 9 feet English ; or, in round 

 numbers, 750 and 500 feet English, which numbers are also as 3 to 2. 



Among the ancient writers, or such of the moderns as givo proportions 



lifterent from these, may be mentioned Diodorus Siculus, Le Bruyn, 



and Prosper Alpinus ; and assuming the base to be 704 French feet, or 



* Not having access to Trench's original memoir, I do not know whether these feet 

 be French or English: I suspect the former, from their being made to enter into the 

 average with what aiv known to be so, in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- 



tannic.i, ;irti.l.- /.}////>/. 



