THE PYRAMIDS. 



353 



posed ; 206 tiers compose the whole height of the Pyramid. As the 

 square of every tier is less than the one below it, the space of two 

 or three feet which is left on all sides by each of them as. they diminish 

 towards the top, forms what is generally called the steps. They are 

 of different dimensions, as may be seen on a preceding paper where the 

 height of each is separately marked. It was thought proper, by 

 means of a level and measure, to take the height of the steps one by 

 one from the bottom to the top, a tedious, though the most certain 

 and satisfactory method of having the exact perpendicular height of 

 the whole, which agrees also with that taken by the Theodolite. — 

 The entrance is upon the sixteenth step, on the side facing the north. 

 It is not in the middle as is generally imagined ; being only 350 feet 

 distant from the N.E. corner, whereas it is 396 feet from the N.W. 

 corner. 



Oct. 18. — Went a second time to the Pyramids, and returned the 

 23d of the same month. Slept in the Nizlet every night near the 

 village of one of the principal Sheiks : thence sailed before sunrise in 

 the morning, and landed a little to the east of the large Pyramid. 



Oct. 19. — Left the Nizlet at sunrise, and reached the Pyramid 

 before eight. Began immediately to level and measure every step, 

 one by one, and did not reach the top till one in the afternoon ; at 

 three entered the pyramid, retook some of the measures, and came out. 



Oct. 20. -—Set out at six in the morning, and in three quarters of 

 an hour landed to the east of the Pyramid*; left the boat at seven 

 o'clock, and visited a great number of grottoes and rooms cut out of 

 the rock ; many of them are adorned with hieroglyphics, which in 

 some places are distinct, notwithstanding the pains employed by the 



* Mr. Davison mentions in his journal the fossil remains near the Pyramid, of which 

 Niebuhr speaks : On y trouve encore de petites petrifications en forme de lentille, qui 

 semblent etredelameme espece, que les petites helices dontj'ai recueilli plusieurs a Bukir ; 

 on avoit dit a Strabon, que ces petites petrifications s'etoient formees des miettes qu' avoient 

 laisse tomber a terre ceux qui ont travaille aux Pyramides. Lib. 161. See also Forskal 

 F. A. Testacea Fossilia Kahirensia. — " Nautilus? Gizensis, ad Pyramides vulgaris, 

 jam a Strabone membratus." 



z z 



