PYRAMIDS 



64 1 8 



PYRAMIDS 



Pyramids of Gizeh, from tbe south. 



Behind the three small pyramids stands the Third Pyramid, on its right the Second, 

 and beyond that the Great Pyramid 



three months of the inundation for 

 20 years. Traces remain of the 

 quarry road over which the lime- 

 stone blocks were hauled from 

 Tura, 9 m. away, and then poised 

 in position over temporary earthen 

 ramps. The stonecutters and 

 masons, doubtless employed all the 

 year round, used saws up to 9 ft. 

 long, and for hollowing out the 

 sarcophagi tubular drills, all with 

 fixed cutting points. 



Tbe second Gizeh pyramid, erect- 

 ed by Khafra, was 454 ft. high, with 

 a base of 708 ft., and two tomb- 

 chambers on or below ground 

 level. The third, Menkaura's, 

 was 219 ft. high, with a base of 

 356 ft. Menkaura also set up a 

 brick pyramid at Dahshur. At 

 Abusir and Sakkara stand the 

 pyramids of Vth and Vlth dynasty 

 kings. Those of Unas and his im- 

 mediate successors at Sakkara 

 bear upon their chamber walls 

 hieroglyphic inscriptions, the so- 

 called ' pyramid texts " which 

 were embodied in the Theban 

 Book of the Dead. These Old 

 Kingdom sepulchres were imitated 

 during the Xllth dynasty, mostly 

 with cores of air-dried brick, at 

 Lisht, Dahshur, lllahun, and Ha- 

 wara, near or within the Fayum. \ 



Much controversy has arisen 

 over the manner of planning the 

 dimensions of these monuments. 

 Lepsius argued that each king 

 began his reign with a nucleus 

 plan, regularly enlarged as the 

 reign lengthened. Petrie regards 

 such a method as disproved by the 

 position of the galleries. A view 



much favoured is that most pyra- 

 mids were planned in a moderate 

 size, and never altered, but that 

 the multiple chambers in the three 

 largest examples point to plan- 

 revision, once or twice only, 

 during the reigns of their builders. 

 Pyramidal tombs, about 30 ft. 

 high, were erected over the remains 

 of nobles and high officials. Pyra- 

 mids form part of some Xlth dy- 

 nasty structures at Thebes, but 

 never as independent sepulchres. 

 Monolithic memorials of New 

 Empire priests and judges assumed 

 the form of miniature pyramids, 

 with scenic reliefs. During the 

 New Empire the pyramidal form 

 was simulated in Nubia by cham- 

 bered sepulchres above ground, 

 usually with porticoes, steep- 

 pitched sides, and flattened tops. 

 Numerous near Gebel Barkal, the 



Pyramids. Plan showing tbe relative positions of the Pyra- 

 mids of Gizeh and (be adjacent ruins 



ancient Napata, they nownere ex- 

 ceed 60 ft. in height. At Meroe 

 there are about 200, including 

 those of Candace queens down to 

 the 2nd century A.D. 



The Egyptian pyramid-tomb 

 was never naturalized by the 

 nations around. The geometrical 

 form influenced Phoenician archi- 

 tecture, and became fashionable in 

 Augustan Rome, as in the marble- 

 faced concrete pyramid of Cestius, 

 116 ft. high, within the Aurelian 

 wall. Earthen tumuli and stone 

 cairns, raised in many parts of the 

 world, with roundish outlines, are 

 related only remotely to the 

 Egyptian form of four plane faces 

 sloping to an apex. This quad- 

 rangular shape marks some pyra- 

 midal mounds of early Chinese 

 emperors. Prehistoric truncated 

 pyramids also occur hi Tonga, 

 Tahiti, and other 

 Pacific islands, 

 and became char- 

 acteristic of the 

 advanced Maya 

 and Toltec archi- 

 tecture of pre- 

 Columbian Ame- 

 rica. See Dongoia: 

 Egypt ; Mastaba ; 

 Teocalli ; consult 

 also Pyramids 

 and Temples of 

 Gizeh, W. M. F. 

 Petrie, 1883 ; The 

 Nile, E. A. Budge, 

 10th ed. 1907 . 

 Egypt, K. Baede- 

 ker (Eng. trans.) 

 7th ed. 1914. 



