EGYPT, AND SYRIA. iyj 
An abfurd opinion has recently been ftated, that the pyra- 
mids are hewn out of the rock on which they ftand ; but the 
firft ocular infpe£lion would fet this afide, the joinings of the 
ftones being everywhere marked with cement. But it is unne- 
ceflary to dwell on a conjecture fo futile. 
In the open pyramid, the chamber is lined with granite, and 
the farcophagus alfo formed of that ftone. But the materials 
ufed in the general fabrication of thefe edifices is free-ftone, of 
a foft kind and white hue ; it is replete with fhells. The rock 
on which they ftand is of the fame foft ftone. Returned to 
Kahira. 
On another occafion I vifited the pleafant fite of the antient 
Memphis, on the left bank of the Nile, about two hours to the 
South of Kahira, in a plain above three miles broad, between 
the river and the mountains. The land is now laid down in 
corn, with date trees toward the mountains. Nothing remains 
except heaps of rubbifh, in which are found pieces of fculp- 
tured ftone. The fpot has been furrounded with a canal, and 
feems every way a more eligible fituation than that of Kahira *. 
Its extent might be marked by that of the ground where re- 
mains are dug up, and which is always overgrown with a kind 
* TeV MTva, TrpccTov Baai'hivamra 'AiyyVla, o'l U^iti; i?\£yov toIitov y.h aTroyE^u^uaai nctl 
Triv MiiA<piv. Herodot. 
Of the fa£l of Memphis having been furrounded by water, fome evidences ap- 
pear even at this day. Parts of the banks of the canal yet are vifible toward the 
mountains, and at the extremities of the ground, where ruins are diftinguifliable. 
of 
