668 



PROF. C. P. SMYTH ON THE REPUTED METROLOGICAL SYSTEM 



Now this statement alludes of course to the primitive condition of the Pyramid, 

 as it came out of the hands of its builders nearly 4000 years ago ; and to identify, 

 without any doubt, which Pyramid is referred to, we may mention that it is the 



largest of the group of stone Pyramids 

 near the modern village of Jizeh, Jeezeh, or 

 Gheezeh, and some 15 miles north of the 

 ancient city of Memphis ; standing there- 

 fore on the western or opposite side of the 

 river Nile, to that on which the modern city 

 of Cairo is presently found. Altogether it 

 is the largest, most solidly, and compactly 

 built, and most exquisitely finished in its 

 interior, as well as one of the earliest of 

 all the Egyptian Pyramids ; has generally 

 been known amongst all nations for ages 

 as " the Great Pyramid ;" and has been 

 in later years tried by more theories than 

 any other, yet without yielding hitherto 

 any fully satisfactory account of its objects or intentions. 



For nearly 3000 years after its erection, the external surface of the Great 

 Pyramid remained untouched ; and would have at that time allowed Mr Taylor's 

 proposition to be instantly tested with severity ; for the Pyramid was then as 

 beautiful a realisation of the mathematical solid so called, as well could be 

 imagined ; but after that interval, the Arabian Caliphs in Cairo began systema- 

 tically to carry away the whole of the external marble casing ; leaving at last 

 only the rude steps of the inner component masonry, which made the new 

 exterior assume sensibly another figure. These stone steps too, serving unfor- 

 tunately after that, to render the climbing of the Pyramid easy to any one and 

 every one,— European, as well as other travellers have been for ages past seized 

 with a strange madness to clamber up to the top of the structure, and then begin 

 throwing down some of the uppermost stones, for the ignorant pleasure of seeing 

 them smashing and thundering down the steep sides of the monument ; whence it 

 comes to pass, says the learned " Description de I'Egypte" of the French nation, 

 that " the area which now exists, in place of the original sharp point, at the 

 top of the Pyramid, is daily growing larger, and the height becoming smaller." 



Hence the original height of the Pyramid cannot now be determined by 

 direct measurement ; and though, abstractly, we might compute the proportions 

 required in Mr Taylor's proposition, — either, from the measured axial height 

 and the length of one of the sides of the base,— or, from the angle made by one 

 of the sides with the base, without reference to linear measures at all — yet we 

 must in practice confine ourselves to the last method alone ; that is, to procuring 



