174 



Silbury. 



of later ages. As it is interesting to compare their dimensions 

 with those of Silbury, I havo taken pains to ascertain the most 

 accurate measurements, as given not long since by the French 

 engineers. The base of the great pyramid (that of Cheops) was 

 found to measure 232*747 metres (763 feet 7 inches) and its height 

 139*117 metres (456 feet 5 inches) the whole mass containing 

 nine million cubic feet, and covering above eleven acres, the area 

 of its base nearly coinciding with Lincoln's Inn Fields. 



The second pyramid, (that of Chephren) presents a breadth of 

 base of 700 feet, and a height of 425 feet ; its summit (as is well 

 known) remains uninjured, and shows the ancient casing of plaster, 

 consisting of gypsum, sand and pebbles. The third pyramid (that 

 of Mycerinus) measures 300 feet at the base, and 173 feet in height. 

 Nearly in the centre of the two largest pyramids are small sepul- 

 chral chambers, containing a single sarcophagus, but the chambers 

 are of very diminutive size when compared with the whole mass of 

 the pyramid. 1 Farther on in the interior of the country in the 

 midst of the vast expanse of the Sahel, where the traces of men are 

 so slight, the eye is attracted by an object bespeaking an altogether 

 different order of things. This is a conical pyramid, standing on 

 the highest part of the Sahel, which even from that distance 

 indicates that it must have been raised by the hand of man, and 

 formed of material of a more durable character than the ordinary 

 soil of the hills. Among the natives it is known by the name of 

 "Khober el Rouniiyeh" Tomb of the Roman woman (or the Christian 

 woman), and appears on the charts under that of " Tombeau de la 

 Reine." Shaw says that in his time the Turks called it " Maltapasi " 

 the treasure of the sugar loaf Really it is an old Mauritanian work, 

 called by the Roman geographer Mela 2 "monumentum commune 

 regise gentis," the common monument of the Royal family : it may 

 be seen for many miles out at sea, and from the whole of the 

 Northern crest of the Atlas, and forms the best of landmarks. 3 In 



1 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, Article Pyramid. Herodotus, book ii., cap. 

 124 — 134. Rollin's Ancient History, book i., chap. 2. 



2 Mela, de situ orbis, i., 6, 10. 

 3 Four months in Algeria, by Rev. J. W. Blakesley, 1859, p. 126. 



