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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



81 



had been made level by a layer of fine sand, and confined on all sides 

 by a stone platform 14ft. C in. wide and 2 f(. 'Jin. thick, which sup- 

 ported the external casing, and the pyramid was built upon the sanil, 

 which is firm and solid. Mr. Perring has met with many other in- 

 stances in Egvpt where sand had been thus used, and provided it be 

 retained in its place it apparently may be depended upon. The 

 blocks composing the platform were laid upon four courses of bricks. 

 Several of the blocks of the casing were held together by stone 

 cramps of the double wedge form. 



According to Herodotus, Asychis, the successor of Myserinus, 

 added lofty propyliea to the eastern front of the temple of V'ulcan, 

 and from a desire to surpass his predecessors, constructed a pyra- 

 mid with bricks, upon wliich was this inscriplion — "Do not degrade 

 me by comparing me with the pyramids built with stone, which I 

 excel as much as Jupiter excels the other gods, for those who built 

 me thrust poles into the lakes, and collecting together the mud which 

 adhered to them, they made bricks, and thus they constructed me." 

 The pyramid in question has been supposed by Mr. Hamilton and bv 

 other good authorities, to have been built by Asychis: and in support 

 of that opinion it may be observed that it is the most considerable 

 pyramid built with bricks, and that it is near the other pyramids 

 built with stone, with which it might have been compared, and also 

 that it is within a sliort distance of the Temple of Vulcan, which 

 Asychis had so considerably embellished: the solidity of its con- 

 struction is likewise remarkable, not a single brick appears to have 

 settled from its place ; and although the boasting terms of the in- 

 scription has excited much surprise, it is difficult to imagine a mass 

 more solid and also more durable, as long as it was protected by an 

 external casing of stone from the effects of the atmosphere. It is 

 certainly, therefore, as superior to those built with conmion stone 

 rubble, as Jupiter may have been supposed to the other gods. As the 

 whole of the bricks are not composed of alluvial soil, the latter part 

 of the inscription can only refer to those formed of the mud or clay 

 drawn out of one of the sacred lakes. ]f it be urged that this py- 

 ramid could not have been built by Asychis, because from having been 

 cased it must have had the appearance of stone, it may be remarked, 

 that all the brick pyramids in Egypt (which are four) appear to have 

 been covered with stone ; and likewise that the above-mentioned in- 

 scription vvould have been unnecessary had the material of which the 

 pyramid was formed been apparent. 



The southern brick pyramid is much destroyed, and Mr. Perring 

 did not discover any traces of the chamber, the roof of which is stated 

 by Dr. Richardson and others, to have fallen in, nor did he perceive 

 any considerable settlement. It is built in the same manner, but not so 

 carefully, as the other brick pyramids. The bricks contain a greater 

 quantity of straw, and vary from ISJin. to 13iiu. long, and 73 in. to 

 biin. wide, and oiin. to 4jin. thick. The upper surfaces have been 

 marked with the fingers. 



The pyramid of Meydoom is called the false pyramid, because the 

 base is supposed to have been formed out of a knoll of rock, and it 

 certainly has that appearance. The base is about 53UI't. scpiare, and 

 124ft. Gin. Iiigh. It is formed in three degrees, each having the 

 form of a truncated pyramid, at an angle of 74" lU'. The blocks are 

 of compact limestone 2 ft. thick; they are laid at right angles to the 

 extern.d face, and have been worked and put together with greatskill. 

 The entrance was nut discoveretl. Mr. ferring thinks the whole has 

 probably been covered with large unsquared blocks, so as to complete 

 the shape of a regular pyramid. The appearance is very striking from 

 the river, and particularly commanded the attention of Mr. Scoles 

 and his fellow-travellers in passing up the Nile. 



The lllahoon pyramid is built round the knoll of a rock, which is 

 nearly 4U ft. higher than the base ; the rock has been faced with crude 

 bricks, and a superstructure has been erected over it, composed of the 

 same material, and supported by walls of stone wdiich proceed from 

 the centre of the edifice. The bricks are laid in a mortar formed of 

 Nile earth, as high as the walls extend, and above them in gravel. 

 They measure Ibiin. by Si in., and about Oiin. in thickness, are well 

 worked, and are formed of Nile earth, mixed up with various propor- 

 tions of chopped straw, and are marked with the fingers as at Dash- 

 hour. 



Another ruined brick pyramid exists at Hovvarah : the bricks laid 

 in tine gravel. No entrance to it has been discovered. There are 

 three other pyramids,-tvvo at Biahhrao and one at hi Koofa, both built 

 of stone, but of small dimensions. 



Most of the pyramids have been connected with the plain by in- 

 clined causeways formed of large blocks of stone, some with a parapet 

 wall on each side. These inclined roads were no doubt originally con- 

 structed for the conveyance of the stone, and of the other materials 

 used in the erection of the pyramids, but they seem afterwards to have 

 constituted the regular approaches. Herodotus mentions that they 



' were adorned with tlie figures of animals, which were probably either 

 sculptured hieroglyphics, or an avenue of sphinxes; and at Abousecr 

 fragments of black basalt, at nearly equal distances, were found on the 

 causeway. Pavements about two feet in thickness extended around 

 the buildings, and where the rock was low the pavement was placed 

 upon a layer of sand. 



The pyramids correspond in their general arrangement ; with one 

 exception their sides are placed exact to the cardinal points ; and in 

 the excepted one the difference is only 4°35'; the entrances are on 

 the north side (the pyramid at Sakkarah being the only one having, 

 in addition, an entrance on the south side), and in having the inclined 

 passages leading to various apartments, which passages, to a con- 

 siderable way down, have been filled up with solid blocks of stone or 

 granite of the exact size of the apertures. 



The discovery of sarcophagi, mummies, and other memorials of the 

 dead, show that the pyramids were used for tombs, and the filling in 

 of the passages with solid blocks proves that the interior could not 

 have been used for astronomical purposes, and the question of those 

 passages having been constructed lor the purpose of seeing the Polar 

 Star is set at rest by that circumstance ; and Colonel Vyse, in his 

 desire to further elucidate the question of the astronomical theory, 

 communicated with Dr. Herschell, and has appended that distinguished 

 astronomer's reply, which is to the following effect, viz. : — " That 4,000 

 years ago the present Polar Star, or Ursa Minoris, could by no possi- 

 bility have been seen at any time in the twenty-four hours through the 

 gallery in the great pyramid ; but that the star a Draconis was at that 

 time the Polar Star, and as it is comparatively insignificant, and only 

 of the third magnitude, if so much, it can scarcely lie supposed that it 

 could have been seen in the day time, even in the climate of Ghizeli, 

 or even in such a recess as the inclined entrance of the Great Pyramid, 

 though it would have been directly in view of an observer stationed 

 in the descending passage. No other astronomical relation can be 

 drawn from the table containing the angles and dimensions of the 

 passages, for although they all point within five degrees of the polo 

 of the heavens, they differ too much and too irregularly to admit of 

 any conclusions. The exterior angles of the buildings are remarkably 

 uniform, but the angle of 52° is not connected with any astronomical 

 fact, and was probably adopted for architectural reasons." 



Col. Vysc's work also contains some valuable information in the form 

 of notes hy Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, upon the hieroglyphics 

 discovered in the pyr.imids, with reference to the dates, pre-nomens, 

 and royal standards of the monarchs by whom the pyramids were 

 erected ; but many of these hieroglyphics are quarry marks, some 

 in red ochre, but instead of having been inscribed, like those on 

 the pyramids at Ghizeh, upon stone brought from the Mokattam 

 quarries, they were found also upon blocks quarried on the spot, and 

 Mr. Birch observes — "This is remarkable; in the former instance 

 they may have been intended to distinguish the materials which 

 had been prepared for a royal edifice, but in the present case their 

 use is not obvious, and they can only have served to denote the 

 founder of each particular pyramid." But Mr. Harris, an English 

 merchant, wdio has been resident in Egypt above twenty years, in 

 a letter to Mr.Perring gives a mure matter of fact meaning, by suppos- 

 ing that these incripliuns were directions to guide those who em- 

 barked the stones at the quarries, who conveyed it to its destination, 

 and who built it when there, and that some of the characters indicate 

 the building for which the stones were destined, and others the posi- 

 tion in which they were to be placed, and that these directions could 

 not be necessary to all the stones of a building, but would be requisite 

 for all or most of those composing the linings of the chambers, passages, 

 and other particular positions. 



The desecration of these magnificent mausoles by the intombmentof 

 subjects, as the inscriptions relate to the interments of a royal scribe 

 and a military chief, is a surprising fact, which cannot now be satisfac- 

 torily accounted fur ; although history informs us that the memory of the 

 monarchs who erected some of the pyramids was not held in much 

 veneration. 



As regards the period in which the pyramids were erected Mr. Scoles 

 could not offer any satisfactory opinion ; by some authors they are placed 

 more than 2,000 B.c.or about 4,000 years since; tiy others 1,200 years 

 later, or only 2,300 since. This latter opinion is supported by Mr. 

 Watiien, an architect, who, in his work on the arts, antiquities, and 

 chronicles of ancient Egypt, from observations made in 1S39, has very 

 fully entered into this subject, and supposes the spoils, the gold and 

 silver, taken from the Temple of Solomon, by the king Shishak of 

 Scripture, 970 B.C., were applied to build these pyramids, and the 

 author has given some curiuus dissertations on the chronology and 

 dynasties of ancient Egypt. Many circumstances show that those 

 at Ghizeh were the first erected, and that the pyramids of Dash- 



