﻿THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 



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the pyramid diminishes sensibly; and at length, after considerable 

 toil, you find yourself upon 



THE TOP OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



"A number of large blocks of an unfinished layer occupy a portion 

 of the square area, and serve the traveller as a desk to write on. 

 They are covered with the names of innumerable visitors, of all 

 nations, cut deep in the stone ; but I saw none to which any great 

 celebrity is attached. 



"It was now about mid-day, and the sun, entirely free from clouds, 

 smote upon the pyramid with great vehemence, so that, with the 

 warmth produced by the labor of the ascent and the ardor of its rays, 

 we experienced a heat resembling that of an oven. The air was 

 clear, and our view unimpeded on all sides. To the south, scattered 

 in irregular groups, were the pyramids of Sakkarah, Abousir, and 

 Dashour, glittering in the sun, like enormous tents, and appearing, 

 from their number, and the confusion of their arrangement, to 

 extend to an unknown distance ,into the desert. On the west was 

 the wilderness of Lybia, stretching away to the edge of the horizon, 

 arid, undulating, boundless, apparently destitute of the very princi- 

 ple of vegetation, an eternal prey to the sand-storm and the whirl- 



