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THE PYRAMIDS. 389 
their services in assisting us among the ruins, and clearing the pas- 
sage that led to what is usually called the Sepulchral chamber, from 
the sand that had accumulated in it. This was rapidly executed, 
and the flambeaux being lighted, the party entered. The different 
passages and chambers have been so often visited and described, 
that it is impossible any new discovery can be made by a modern 
traveller. The French have ascertained the actual dimensions, and 
it is curious, that Diodorus should have been proved to be correct, 
who has stated the base to be seven hundred feet, and the elevation 
six hundred. The British army had leisure to visit it frequently, 
and the officers have added their testimony to that of their prede- 
cessors, that the great pyramid is built of a stone found in the vici- 
nity, and of which the rock itself on which it is erected, is composed. 
If ever this, or the others, were covered with marble or granitCj not 
a vestige now remains to prove the fact ; but it is probable that 
they were at least intended to be thus adorned, from the passages 
being of the finest white marble, and the chambers of the red 
granite of Upper Egypt. 
If it were dubious in the time of Herodotus, by whom, or for 
what purpose, the pyramids were constructed, it is scarcely possible 
that modern ingenuity should clear away the deeper gloom with 
which the course of ages has covered the mystery ; yet every per- 
son, who has written on the subject, has embraced some decided 
opinion, and many have laboured hard to prove, what must ever 
remain doubtful. Among these, Monsieur Maillet is the most re- 
markable, who has described the process of closing the great pyra- 
mid, as accurately as if he had been present when it was done. I 
am myself inclined to believe that it never was intended to be shut 
