120 ANCIENT EGYPT. 



object being intended. Each pyramid had a chapel built 

 outside the structure, and in it the relations met at certain 

 seasons to pay their respects to the dead. As far as has been 

 ascertained from examples standing, the pyramid age com- 

 menced with the first dynasty, possibly even earlier, and may 

 be said to have ended in Egypt proper with the twelfth, when 

 a pyramid was erected by Amenhotep III., thus covering a 

 period of something like 2,000 years. There are, however, 

 some late pyramids at Meroe and Gebel Barkal in the Soodan, 

 built by the Ethiopians. They are very numerous, and are 

 more vertical than those of Egypt. I shall only have time 

 this evening to give you a short account of three or four 

 pyramids, but I will choose for exposition those that are 

 among the most distinctive. 



Manetho, Mer-en-Tehuti, Beloved of Toth, a learned Greek 

 who summarized the chronology of Egypt from the temple 

 records by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 286, states 

 that the first pyramid known to have been built was for 

 Ouenephis, a king of the first dynasty ; and the step pyramid 

 of Sakkarah, standing out, as it does, in the centre of the 

 Abooseer group, a necropolis mentioned by Manetho, is 

 thought to be that monument, and is thus probably nearly 

 7,000 years old. In it are a number of chambers which have 

 been lined out with bluish green slabs like Dutch tiles, and 

 there are everywhere evidences of a considerable degree of 

 artistic refinement. There are four entrances, and the passages 

 are so intricate as to form a perfect labyrinth. The height is 

 197 feet. Then comes, in point of antiquity, a pyramid attri- 

 buted to Seneferoo, a king of the third dynasty, at Meydoom, 

 which Mariette considers to be but the nucleus of a much 

 larger building. It is about 230 feet high from the foot of 

 the mound on which it stands — the mound itself rising about 

 120 feet from the ground level. Built of an orange coloured 

 stone, it resembles somewhat in appearance the donjon 

 of a Norman castle. It has never been opened. At 

 Sakkarah you have the truncated pyramid of Ooonas, a 

 king of the fifth dynasty, whose oval ring or cartouche was 



