On the OiJgin of the Pyramids of Egypt. 28/ 



II. Is tliere any thing in the Pyramidsj as they now apjjear, 

 which corresponds v\ith any of the known customs of lids peo- 

 ple ? 



III. Did any thing occur in the history of the same people 

 which can possibly lie adduced to explain th.c present violated 

 state of tlie principal pyramid ? 



IV. Doth any record or tradition attribute the origin of the 

 Pyramids to this people, or to a period equally remote with that 

 of their residence in Et^vpt ? 



If the last three of these queries admit of an answer in the 

 affirmative, and a satii^factory reply can be given to the ^r^^, the 

 result will surely be, either that we do possess documents suffi- 

 cient to illustrate this very difficult subject, or, at least, that a 

 very high degree of probability attaches to the opinion thereby 

 suggested ; and that the obscurity in which this part of ancient 

 history has been involved, is principally owing to the cause as- 

 signed by Pauw, namely, to a train of theories founded upon the 

 bewildering fables of the Greeks. 



To proceed, therefore, according to the proposed method of 

 investigation — 



ll'lio ivere the inhabitants of this part of Egypt in the remote 

 period to luhich these monuments refer P 



The kingdom of Egypt, according to the best authorities ad- 

 mitted in chronology (see the calculation of Constantine Ma- 

 nasses), had lasted about 1700 years at the conquest of Cam - 

 byses (B. C. 52,')). The first princes spoken of in sacred Scrip- 

 ture are those " of Pharaoh," mentioned in the books of Moses 

 (Gen. xii. 1.5), near 2000 years before the Christian sra. The 

 frst pyramid, according to Herodotus (Euterpe, c. 101) was 

 built by Mceris, the last of a line of kings from Menes to Seso- 

 stris; and therefore it must have been erected some ages before 

 the Trojan war. Without, however, placing any reliance upon 

 this record, or attempting to assign a particular epocha for any 

 one of these monuments, we may venture to assume, as a fact, 

 upon the authority of all writers by whom they are noticed, that 

 they existed above 1600 years before the birth of Christ. Al- 

 most a century before that time, the prosperity of Joseph, then 

 a ruler in this country, and a dweller in the very city to wliich 

 these monuments belonged, is described as liaving extended 

 *' vnto the utmost hounds of the everlasting hills," These words 

 ((ien. xlix. 20), as applied to the place of his residence, and the 

 &eat of his posterity, are very remarkable. He " longht all the 

 land (f Egypt for Pharaoh," reducing all its Independent pro- 

 vinces into one monarchy. The entire administration of. tliis 



empire 



