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chambers.* The Great Pyramid is now totally deprived of the 
external polished limestone coating which covered it at the time 
of Herodotus’ visit, some twenty-two centuries ago ; and “ now 
(writes Mr Smyth) is so injured as to be in the eyes of some 
passing travellers little better than a heap of stones.” But all 
the internal built core of the magnificent structure remains, and 
contains in its interior (beside a rock chamber below) two higher 
built chambers or crypts above — the so-called King’s Chamber and 
Queen’s Chamber — with galleries and apartments leading to them. 
The walls of these galleries and upper chambers are built with 
granite and limestone masonry of a highly-finished character. The 
pyramid standing next the Great Pyramid, and nearly of equal size, 
is said by Herodotus to have been raised by the brother of Cheops. 
The other pyramids at Gizeh are usually regarded as later in 
date. But the exact era of the reign or reigns of their builders has 
not as yet been determined, in consequence of the break made in 
Egyptian chronology by the invasion of the Shepherd Kings. 
In their mode of building, the pyramids of Gizeh, &c., are all 
similar. “ There is nothing” (observes Professor Smyth) “in the 
stone-upon-stone composition of the Great Pyramid which speaks 
of the mere building problem to be solved there, as being of a 
different character or requiring inventions by man of any absolutely 
higher order, than elsewhere.” But the Great Pyramid has been 
imagined to contain some hidden symbols and meanings. For “ it 
is the manner of the Pyramid” (according to Professor Smyth) 
“ not to wear its most vital truths in prominent outside positions.” 
Alleged Metrological Object of the Great Pyramid. 
By several authorities the largestf of the group of pyramids 
* Mr Birch, however — and it is impossible to cite a higher authority in such 
a question — holds the cartouches of Shufu and Nu Shufu to refer only to one 
personage — namely, the Cheops of Herodotus ; and, believing with Mr Wilde 
and Professor Lepsius, that the pyramids were as royal sepulchres built and 
methodically extended and enlarged as the reigns of their intended occupants 
lengthened out, he ascribes the unusual size of the Great Pyramid to the 
unusual length — as testified by Manetho, &c. — of the reign of Cheops ; the 
erection of a sepulchral chamber in its built portion being, perhaps, in conse- 
quence of some ascertained deficiency in the rock chamber or gallery below. 
f The Mexican Pyramid of Cholula has a base of more than 1420 feet, and 
is hence about twice the length of the basis of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. 
See Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico, book iii. chap, i., and book v. chap. iv. 
