﻿90 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



wind. A flock of gazelles, or a troup of Bedouins, scouring across 

 the plain, would have relieved its monotony ; but neither the one nor 

 the other appeared. To the north and the east, the landscape pre 

 sented a perfect contrast to this savage scenery ; night and day are 

 not more different. All that remains of the valley of the Nile is 

 luxuriantly covered with verdure and beauty; corn-fields, green 

 meadows, woods of various growth and foliage, scattered villages, a 

 thousand shining sheets of water, and above all, the broad, glittering 

 stream of the Nile, spreading fertility on all sides. Beyond this 

 were the white buildings of Cairo, Babylon and Rhoda, backed by 

 the long, lofty range of the Gebel Mokattam, reflecting the bright 

 rays of the mid-day sun. 



" We remained for some time on the summit of the pyramid, as if 

 loth to quit the spot, admiring, with unwearied delight, the extraor- 

 dinary features of the landscape beneath ; but at length it became 

 necessary to descend. We descended rapidly. I had an Arab on 

 each side of me, who actively assisted my efforts, springing from 

 step to step with the agility of a chamois. It was now that the 

 height looked dangerous, the blocks on which we stood vast, and the 

 labor that had piled them upon each other marvellous ; but we 

 reached the bottom in safety, in one twentieth part of the time it 

 had taken us to ascend." 



The pyramids are not perfectly solid, but contain numerous gal- 

 leries and chambers, which have often been explored. Some of the 

 large stones of which I have spoken were used in constructing these 

 chambers, and they are often worked as smooth and as true as the 

 best marble. 



The original use and object of these imperishable structures has 

 never been discovered ; but they are supposed to have been con- 

 nected in some way with the religion of the ancient Egyptians, and 

 employed as tombs and temples. Many bodies, embalmed, have 

 been found in them, and the coffins covered over with hieroglyphics. 

 The pyramids, from some recent discoveries which have been made 

 in deciphering these characters, are supposed to have been built 

 about eighteen hundred years before our Saviour came upon the 

 earth, though some of them are, doubtless, much more ancient. 



