CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



each side of the base, and is 480 feet high. It 

 covers an area of 543,696 square feet. 



The pyramids have given rise to infinite specu- 

 lation as to their uses. There seems now to be no 

 doubt that they were erected by the kings as 

 eternal tombs for the preservation of their bodies 

 and their memories. The cells in which the 

 sarcophagi were placed, with the approaches to 

 them, are constructed with the most consum- 

 mate skill, and lined with huge blocks of polished 

 granite. 



The pyramids were erected by the ten early 

 dynasties of the kings, the date of the great pyra- 

 mid of Suphis being about 3000 years B.C. Many 

 books have been written on their shape and the 

 meaning of their forms, but the simplest solution 

 seems to be the best that they were designed 

 so that the four sides should be four equilateral 

 triangles. Besides the above great pyramids, there 

 are numerous others of different forms, some end- 



\uiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir 



ing in two peaks. There are also many tombs of 

 the same date, constructed round the base of the 



11 



Fig. I. Sarcophagus of Mycerinus, found in third Pyramid. 

 (From Fergusson's History of Architecture.) 



Fig. 2. 



pyramids. These have been partly excavated, 

 and display in wonderful preservation 

 paintings of the period, shewing the 



rich man to whom the tomb belonged, 



surrounded by his family and retainers, 

 all . engaged in their various industrial 

 occupations. Domestic animals abound, 

 and everything indicates peace and 

 prosperity. It is remarkable that there 

 is not a single representation of a 

 soldier in all these early tombs. 



We are thus enabled to realise the 

 domestic life of the Egyptians of 3000 

 years B.C. with a vividness which is 

 scarcely attained by the descriptive 

 writings of any later period. The names 

 of the builders are preserved on the 

 walls, and in the case of the great 

 pyramid, the name of Suphis was 



Fig. 3. From Fergusson. 



found on the wall of an inner chamber, which had | 

 not been entered since its erection till recent years. 

 The entrance-doors of these tombs are often 

 ornamented with carved work, shewing signs of 

 derivation from a wooden original, a feature which 

 we shall have frequent occasion to remark in other 

 countries, the walls being cut as if composed of 

 upright squared timbers with cross-beams, &c. all 

 mortised together (see fig. i). 



The pyramid-building kings were succeeded by 



466 



the first Theban dynasties, whose monuments were 

 chiefly obelisks, and all placed on the eastern 

 bank of the Nile. These monolithic designs are 

 familiar to every one, and are still greatly used 

 as monuments to the dead. Many of the largest 

 and finest have been carried off, no fewer than 

 twelve being erected in Rome. One of the tombs 

 of this dynasty at Beni- Hassan (fig. 2) is of great 

 interest, from being the probable prototype of 

 Doric architecture in Greece. The portico has two 



