A Letter from Cairo. 109 



beneath our feet changed by degrees to a blowing sand, and the terrein 

 began to rise too rapidly for our humble cavalry. Still ascending, the rock 

 began to peer out through the diminishing sand, which disappeared entirely 

 before ue arrived at the foot of the great pyramid. This amazing monu- 

 ment of misdirected power is built of great blocks of calcareous stone, each 

 about four feet long by tliree in height and thickness, and so disposed as 

 to form steps, by which we ascended to the top, after a severe effort of 

 twenty minutes. The obtruncation of the pyramid, which is scarcely 

 perceptible when standing at its base, forms, above, a plane of twelve or 

 thirteen paces square, whence the eye can range around without limit. On 

 returning to earth, we entered the interior by a passage four feet high and 

 three wide, which descends for about forty paces, in an angle of thirty de- 

 grees with the horizon. It then ascends with a similar angle, and terminates 

 in a chamber of thirty feet in length and twenty in height, wherein is a very 

 large Soros : this chamber must be nearly in the centre of the pyramid. 

 Returning, another passage leads to a second, but smaller chamber, which, 

 by the dim light of my taper, seemed hewn out of the living rock. I had 

 left my companions, and was groping my way downwards, preceded by a 

 single Arab, bearing a light, through a narrow passage, when I was sud- 

 denly seized by my guide, and an accomplice, who had been dogging my 

 steps. A rapid and well-directed blow took effect upon one of them, who 

 disappeared from before me, and I heard him fall heavily into what must 

 have been a fatal depth, on one side of my path. The other wretch I could 

 hear, for some moments, moving quickly away : I did not chuse to follow 

 him, but retraced my steps, and was glad to recover ray companions. 

 There can be little doubt that robbery, and perhaps murder, was intended; 

 as, a few days afterwards, an English gentleman ascending this pyramid, 

 separate from his company, was assassinated and stripped by some of these 

 Bedouins. 



I will close this short notice of my visit to these imperishable and mys- 

 terious monuments, by one remark. — Whatever may have been the original 

 purposes for which they were built, it seems certain that their scite and 

 form and proportions were determined with some reference ta astronomical 

 considerations. " Le cot(i de la base de la grande pyraraide," says Dupuis, 

 as quoted by Volney, "est cgalc juste a un stade Alexandrin, (684 pieds, 

 9 pouces, de France,) et exacteraent a la cinq centieme j)artie d'un degr6 

 du cerclc terrestre. Ses pans sont disposes sous un angle tel qn' a I'entree 

 du soleii dans les signes equinoxiaux, son disque parait plac^ au somraet, 

 pour le spectateur i la base." The sides, as nearly as I could ascertain by 

 a pocket compass, face exactly the cardinal points. It is not reasonable 

 to suppose that such peculiar astronomical relations were the result of 

 mere pliancc. The mass, as it now exists, is probably an incrustation of a 

 natural mountain, trimmed into the shape of the required nucleus, and 

 quarried within, for the double purpose of forming interior apartments. 



No. 3.— Vol. I. Q* 



