101 



observe without astonishment, that American 

 edifices, the form of which is almost the same as 

 that of one of the most ancient monuments on 

 the banks of the Euphrates, belong to times so 

 near our own. 



When we consider in the same point of view 

 the pyramidical monuments of Egypt, of Asia, 

 and of the New Continent, we see, that, though 

 their form is alike, their destination was alto- 

 gether different. The group of pyramids at 

 Geeza and at Sakhara in Egypt ; the triangular 

 pyramid of the Queen of the Scythians, Zarina, 

 which was a stadium high, and three in circum- 

 ference, and which was decorated with a colossal 

 figure* ; the fourteen Etruscan pyramids, which 

 are said to have been enclosed in the labyrinth 

 of the king Porsenna, at Ciusium ; were reared 

 to serve as the sepulchres of the illustrious dead. 

 Nothing is more natural to men, than to com- 

 memorate the spot where rest the ashes of those, 

 whose memory they cherish ; whether it be, as 

 in the infancy of the race, by simple mounds of 

 earth, or in later periods by the towering height 

 of the tumulus. Those of the Chinese and of 

 Thibet have only a few metres of elevation-^. 

 Farther to' the west the dimensions increase: 



* Diodorus Siculus, lib. 2, c. 34. 



f Duhalde, Description of China, toui. 2 r p. 126. Asiatic 

 Researches, vo]. ii, p. 314. 



