Jan. 27, 1882.] 



KNOVVALEDGE 



267 



slii'wu in Fig. 3 would be unsuitable. To mention only one 

 casi: out of many, supposing he wanted not only to observe 

 a transit of a heavenly body along such a course as /;„ pi, 

 or (^j, q.,, which during the short time the body was \'isible 

 would be practicalh' a horizontal line, but also by observa- 

 tions on successive nights to determine the course of a 

 heavenly Ixidy on the star sphere along a path as P,, P.>, 

 which might be inclined : then, the slant of the walls would 

 entirely defeat his purpose. He would require, as an 

 astronomer, that the walls should be absolutely vertical 



plan of the Great Pyramid, and that such a plan intli- 

 cated an astronomical purpose, we should find, I take it, 

 in this double character of tlie a-scending gallery, proof 

 positive that it was intended for astronomical observations. 

 Only au astronomer would have set the architect such a 

 problem. 



But it may l>e said. How are observers to be stationed 

 along a slant gallery such as this, with smooth and much- 

 inclined floor t. Is not the idea that such an unstable place 

 was intended for exact astronomical observation almost as 



-Pt 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



(note the diflerence between the paths y);, p... i}„ fj,, 

 P„ Py in Fig. 2, and the similarly-lettered paths in Fig. 3), 

 while as an architect he would know that they must be 

 closer at the top than at the bottom of a passage so lofty 

 as the great ascending gallery. Fig. 4, giving the actual 

 shape of the vertical section of the great gallery, shows 

 how the astronomical architects of the Great Pyramid 

 combined both qualities. Every part of the walls is 

 absolutely vertical, and yet the walls, regarded as wholes, 

 are aslant. 



If we had not seen from the beginning the astronomical 



absurd as the notion that th<^ top of tlic Pyramid was 

 meant for that purpose '! 



Certainly, if a modem astronomer were planning a slant 

 fallerv fortransit work he would arrange for comfortaVile 

 observation (the only obser\ation whicli can be trustworthy). 



Now the ramps, as Prof. Piazzi Sniytli calls them — the 

 long slant stone banks, shown in section at R and R in 

 Fig. 4 — seem as if they had some reference to such a 

 purpose. They are at a convenient height above the level 

 of the slant floor, insomuch that Smyth pictures his Arabs 

 leaning on them, stepping on to them, and so forth. But 



