( 667 ) 



XLIII. — On the Reputed Metrological System of the Great Pyramid. By Professor 

 C. PiAzzi Smyth, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland. (Plates XXIII.— XXVII.) 



(Read 21st March 1864.) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



(1.) Circumferential Analogy of the Pyramid, 667 



(2.) Standard of Length, .... 672 



(3.) Figure of the Earth, .... 675 



4.) Latitude Markings, .... 677 



(5.) Unique Interior, 680 



(6.) The Porphyry Coffer ; its Size and Material, 683 



j.) Why of that Size ? .... 685 



8.) Of what Weight ? '. . . . 686 



(9.) Pyramid Weights and Measures, . 688 



(10.) The Sacred Cubit of the Jews, . . 694 



(11.) Time Measures in the Pyramid, . . 696 



(12.) The Final Argument, .... 700 

 Appendix 1. — Chronology corrected by the 



Pyramid, 700 



Appendix 2. — Colonel Strange's Measure of 



the Queen Elizabeth's Standard Ell, . 702 



In the year 1859, a book of remarkable power and originality was published 

 by Mr John Taylor, of London, entitled " The Great Pyramid, why was it built ? " 



On first looking into it, I was unfortunately inclined to fear that its results 

 were unlikely to be very sound ; though merely because they seemed to bear, in a 

 hitherto nearly barren, or difficult, and certainly most mysterious field, such a 

 remarkably large crop of rich and promising-looking fruit. But considering after- 

 wards, that that was not the proper frame of mind to be indulged in connection 

 with, and certainly not in place of, strict scientific investigation into the merits 

 of the case, — I read the book carefully, and then searched for the data required 

 to test it, both in the original authors appealed to, and in some others. 



Without attempting to follow Mr Taylor in all the learnedly copious breadth 

 with which he treats the subject, and which would be quite beyond my powers, — I 

 have endeavoured to submit to a still more searching examination than he him- 

 self has done, such part of his inquiry as I felt myself in some measure pro- 

 fessionally conversant with the general principles of, — and have now to submit 

 the results to the indulgence of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 



(1.) Circumferential Analogy of the Pyramid. 



The first proposition or statement which Mr Taylor puts forward, admitting of 

 scientific examination is, that — " the vertical height of the Pyramid (which rises 

 from a square bed, see Plate XXVII. fig. 7), is, to twice the length of one side 

 of its base, as the diameter to the circumference of a circle : " or, as in fig. 1 on 

 the next page ; 



Where, AC DB x 2 Diam. Circumference 



: DEFB 1 : 3-14159, &c. 



VOL. XXIII. PART III. 8 R 



