680 



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



Approximate Pyramid Dimensions — continued. 



Feet. Inches. 

 Angle of entrance passage = 26° 41'. 



Length from beginning of roof to the junction of ascending ) „ ^ 

 passage, . . . . . . . . j 



From thence to end of descending part, . . . . = 257 H 



Depth from base of Pyramid to roof of subterranean chamber, = 90 8 



First ascending passage, length, 



. =124 



4 



Angle = 26° 18'. 







Grand Gallery, length, 



. =156 







Horizontal passage, length, . 



. =109 



11 



= 331 

 = 233 

 = 174 

 = 138 



Inches. 



758 



3092 

 1088 



1492 



1872 

 1319 



3972 

 2796 

 2091 

 1665 



831 



808 



Northern and southern air-channels, — 



Inclined height from base of Pyramid, 



Northern channel, length, ..... 



Southern channel, length, 



From base of Pyramid to floor of King's Chamber, . 



Height from floor of King's Chamber, to roof of Col. Camp- | 



bell's chamber, or " topmost chamber of construction,'' ) ~ 

 Height from base of Pyramid, to floor of Queen's Chamber, = 67 



(5.) Unique Interior. , , 



Though Pyramids are numerous in Egypt, and may be counted, some say by 

 hundreds, there is not a second instance, to be found in any part of the land, of 

 the full interior arrangements of the Great Pyramid of Jizeh. 



In proof of this remarkable assertion, the reader may be referred either to 

 Colonel Howard Vyse's and Mr Perring's very numerous plans and sections of 

 all the principal pyramids in Lower and Middle Egypt, or to the " theory of 

 pyramid structure" put forth by Dr Lepsius, and Mr Wild, architect, and testified 

 to by BoNOMi, Gliddon, and almost all other modern Egyptologists. The theory 

 is, when abstracted to set forth the subject we are dealing with, that a pyramid 

 is a king's tomb, built by himself: that he begins on his first accession to the 

 throne, by excavating deep in the rocky soil a sepulchral chamber, reached only 

 by a descending passage ; and that he then goes on adding masonry every year 

 round about a nucleus erected vertically over the said chamber, until he dies. 

 When the upper pyramidal mass has spread at its base, by yearly additions, 

 beyond the descending entrance-passage's mouth in the rocky soil, — it, the pas- 

 sage, is continued upwards, and at the same angle as before, through every addi- 

 tional layer of masonry. But when the king dies, his body is conveyed down 

 that inclined passage, and deposited in a stone sarcophagus, in the underground 

 chamber ; after which the entrance to the passage is sealed up, and all the rough 

 rectangular corners of the layers of masonry on the outside of the pile are bevelled 

 off, in situ, to one, smooth, inclined surface. 



Now that mere subterranean chamber with a descending passage, which is 

 all the internal arrangement implied in the theory, and all that is found in 

 general Egyptian practice; (except when one king has broken into the Pyramid 

 cellar of another, and made himself a subterranean sepulchre and entrance- 



I 



