PYRAMID. 



now ftand, was fuggefted by Mr. Hooke. See Birch's 

 Hiil. Royal Society, vol. iv. p. 245. 



It is very furpnliiig that the pyramids, which have been 

 reckon d among the wonders of the world, rtiould not 

 have prefcrved a more certain era, and tradition of tlic 

 names of their founders. Phny reckons a number of authors 

 who iiave wrote concerning them ; and all, he informs us, 

 difagree in their accounts of thofe who built them. Some 

 modern writers maintain, that they were erefted by the 

 Ifraelites, under the tyranny of tlie Pharoahs, and allege to 

 this purpofe the teftimony of Jofephus, Antiq. lib. i. 



According to the relations of Herodotus (lib. ii. ), and 

 Diodorns (lib.i.), the firft pyramid was erefted by Cheops, 

 or Chcmmis, a king of Egypt, who is faid to have cm- 

 ployed tiiroe hundred and fixty thoufand men for twenty 

 years in the ftrutture. Cephrsn, brother and fiicced'or to 

 the former king, is faid to be the founder of the fecond 

 pyramid ; and the third is faid to have been built by 

 Mycerinus, the fon of Chemmis, according to Diodorus, 

 but according to Herodotus, of Cheops. However, Hero- 

 dotus favs, that fome afcribed the lall to Rhodope, a cour- 

 tezan, and the other two to the (hepherd Philittion. The 

 learned Greaves places the three kings who eredled thefe 

 pyramids in the twentieth dynafty ; Cheops having begun 

 his reign in the year 3448 of the Julian period, 490 years 

 before the firft olympiad, and 1266 years before the 

 Chriftian era. He reigned fifty years, fays Herodotus, and 

 built this pyramid, as Diodorus obfeives, 1000 years before 

 hib time, or in the i8oth olympiad ; whereas, he might 

 have faid 1 207. C'^phren, the builder of the fecond, reigned 

 fifty-fix years ; and Mycerinus, the builder of the third, 

 feven years. 



Dr. Bryant gives a different account of the origin of 

 thefe pyramids : he afcribes the ftrufture of them to the 

 Cuthites (fee Dispersion of Mankind), or Arabian (hep- 

 herds, who built Heliopolis, and who were the giants and 

 Titans of the firft ageS. Thefe fons of Chus, accord- 

 ing to this writer, feeni to have come into Egypt imme- 

 diately after their difp.rfion from Babel. 



Many have confidered thefe ancient ftruftures with con- 

 tempt, as being vaft piles without any great fymmetry, and 

 have thought the labour idle, and the expence unnecefiary. 

 Thus Pliny (lib. xxxvi. cap. 12.) calls them regum pecunis 

 otlofa ac Jhilta oJlentaUo, l^c. built for oftentation, to keep 

 an idle people employ -d, and to prevent commotion and 

 rebellion. Ariftotle iPolit. lib. iii.) calls them the work 

 of t ranny. 



The general opinion with regard to their intention and 

 life is, that they were fepulchres and monuments of the 

 dead, particularly of kings. This is exprelsly affirmed by 

 Diodorus lib. i.), and Strabo (lib. xvii.), and the opinion 

 is confirmed by the writings of the Arabians. And the 

 reafon, fays Greaves, of their ereding thefe magnificent 

 ftruftures is founded in the theology of the Egyptians, who, 

 as Servius ftiews in his comment upon Virgil (jEneid, 

 lib. iii. ), where he defcribes the funeral of Polydorus — 

 Ammamque fepuUhro condhnus — believed, that as long as the 

 body endured, fo long the foul continued with it ; and this 

 was alfo the opinion of the Stoics. Upon this principle, 

 that the bodies might neither be reduced to duft by putre- 

 faftion, nor converted into afties by fire, they embalmed 

 them, and laid them up in thefe ftately repofitories, where 

 they might continue free from the injury of time and of 

 men. The reafon of their building their fepulchres in the 

 form of pyramids, was either from a notion that this was 

 the moft permanent form of ttrufture, or becaufe they 



hereby intended to reprefent fome of their gods : parti- 

 cularly, as Greaves conjeftures, Ofiris, or the fun with 

 many rays ; for, under this form, the ftatues of the gods 

 were frequently exhibited, and the gods themfelves wor- 

 flilppcd. 



Among the Egyptians, the pyramid is faid to have been 

 a fymbol of human life ; the beginning of v.hich is repre- 

 fented by the bafe, and the end by the apex ; on which 

 account it was that they ufed to ereft them on fepulchres. 

 Herodotus. 



Some, however, have objcfted to this defign of the 

 Egyptian pyramids, and are of opinion that they were 

 originally intended for fome nobler purpofe. If Cheops, or 

 any other perfon, fays Dr. Shaw, who was the founder of 

 the great pyramid, intended it only for his fepulchre, what 

 occafion was there for fuch a narrow crooked entrance 

 into it ; for the well, as it is called, at the end of the 

 entrance ; for the lower chamber, with a large nitch or 

 hole in the eaftern wall of it ; for the long narrow cavities 

 in the walls of the upper room ; or, for the two anti- 

 chambers and the lofty gallery, with benches on each fide 

 that introduce us into it. 



As the whole of the Egyptian theology was clothed in 

 myfterious emblems and figures, it fcems reafonable to fup- 

 pofe, fays this writer, that all thefe turnings, apartments, 

 and fecrets in architefture were defigned for fome purpofe 

 of religion, and that the Deity, which was typified in the 

 outward form of this pile, was to be worfhipped within. 

 The fqnare cheft of granite marble, which is placed in the 

 upper chamber of the great pyramid, may be fup] ofed to 

 have been rather intended for fome religious ufe than for 

 the coffin of Cheops, It might have fervid for one of 

 their facred chefts, in which either the images of their 

 deities, or their facred veftments or utenfils were kept, 

 or it might have been a fa-viffa or ciftern, fuch as con- 

 tained the holy water ufed in their ceremonies. Its 

 length favours the opinion of its having been defigned for 

 a coffin, but its height and breadth far exceed the dimenfions 

 that were adhered to on fuch occafions ; the Egyptian 

 ftone coffins were made of a different form, and infcribed 

 with hieroglyphics. Nor is this cheft placed according to 

 the manner in which the Egyptians depofit their dead ; 

 for their mummies always ftand upright, whereas this cheft 

 lieth flat upon the floor. If, therefore, this cheft was not 

 intended for a coffin, it is inferred that the pyramid itfelf 

 could not have taken the name of a fepulchre from it. 

 Cheeps, indeed, and others might have been buried v^'ithin 

 the precinft of this or any other of the pyramids, and this 

 was no more than was praAifed in other temples, and there- 

 fore could not deftroy the principal ufe and defign for which 

 they were ereded. Upon the whole, Dr. Shaw concludes, 

 from the outward figure of thefe piles, the ftrufture and 

 contrivance of the feveral apartments in the infide of the 

 greateft, together with the ample provifion that was made 

 on each fide of it for the reception, as may be fuppofed, of 

 the priefts, that the Egyptians intended the latter for one 

 of the places, as all of them were to be the objefts, at lealt, 

 of their worfhip and devotion. 



Dr. Bryant has lately maintained, with confiderable force 

 of argument, this opinion, that the pyramids were defigned 

 for high altars and temples, and were conftrufted in honour 

 of the Deity. If the chief pyramid were defigned for a 

 place of burial, what occafion, fays he, was there for a well, 

 and for paffages of communication, which led to other 

 buildings ? The apartments near the pyramids he fuppofes 

 to be defigned for the reception of priefts, and to be ap- 

 pendages not to a tomb, but to a temple of the Deity. 

 I 2 The 



