SCIOPTICON MANUAL. 



113 



quarries on the other side of the Nile, about sixteen miles 

 off. It covers about 13 acres; its present height is 456 

 feet; it must formerly have been about 480 feet high. Its 



sides now present the appearance of irregular steps, 

 varying from four feet eight inches to one foot eight 

 inches; but it appears to have been covered originally 

 with a casing of polished granite; a portion of the cover- 

 ing still remains on the second Pyramid. Herodotus 

 tells us that 100,000 men were employed twenty years 

 in building this Pyramid, which appears to have been 

 chiefly intended as a mausoleum of its founder. The 

 granite covering on the second Pyramid makes its ascent 

 more dangerous than the first, which presents no other 

 difficulty than the ascent of a rugged staircase, about 

 four hundred feet in height, in which the steps vary from 

 two feet to a little more than four. 



