59 
Nilus, tlic successor of Rameses the Great, and in perfect 
accordance with the testimony of Eratosthenes, as well as with 
the general system of chronology that may be gathered from 
the monuments of Egypt. And if we add the 186 years men- 
tioned by him as the interval between Menes and Pharaoh 
Nilus, w r e obtain B.C. 2309 as the date for the commencement 
of the Egyptian monarchy; and which approximately accords 
with the date for the dispersion of mankind after the overthrow 
of the Tower of Babel, according to our computation of the 
chronology of Scripture * 
38. In an event between the time of the first colonization of 
Egypt and the accession of the twelfth Dynasty, for which the 
Turin papyrus allows 355 years, we have a striking confirmation 
to the truth of this chronology. All authorities are agreed that 
the Great Pyramid of Ghizeh was built during the reign of 
Pharaoh Cheops, as Plerodotus calls him, the twenty-first 
king on the Tablet of Abydos, and second king of Manetho’s 
fourth Dynasty. The supposed age of the Great Pyramid has 
been calculated by Sir John Herschel, upon the assumption 
that the Polar Star could be seen by an observer standing in 
the passage leading to the chambers of that wonderful monu- 
ment, and determined by him to fall within the years 
2171 — 2123 B.C.f This theory has been further confirmed 
by Professor Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, 
who sums it up in the following words : “It would seem that 
the resulting conclusion should be in favour of a high pro- 
bability, and something that must be admitted until more 
direct and positive evidence can be adduced on the opposite 
side — that if we could by a miracle overtake the time that 
is passed and revisit the Jeezeli Hill at the date of B.C. 2170, 
* The best and most authentic Chinese chronology, on the authority of 
Confucius, gives B.C. 2.334 as the commencement of the Chinese Empire. 
See Jackson’s Chronological Antiquities, ii. 489. 
t See Howard Vyse’s Pyramids of Ghizeh, ii. App. p. 107 ; and 
Piazzi Smyth’s Life and Work at the Great Pyramid , iii. 287. The 
following table will show the great variety of dates assigned by scholars 
to the building of the Great Pyramid : — 
Le Suer dates it 
B.C. 
4975 
Brugsch 
33 
33 
3 Go 7 
Bunsen 
33 
33 
34G0 
Lepsius 
3 ’ 
33 
342G 
Poole 
53 
33 
2352 
Piazzi Smyth 
33 
2170 
Palmer 
33 
33 
1903 
Sir G. Cornwall Lewis 
33 
993 
Showing a difference of more than 4,000 years ! 
