75 
TO THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS. 
Bay of Taman* . Indeed, it would be vain to ask c ha p - 
where they are not observed : but the size, the 1 — /— ' 
grandeur, and the riches, of those upon the 
European and Jsiatic sides of the Cimmerian 
Straits excite astonishing ideas of the wealth and 
power of the people by whom they were con- 
structed. In the view of labour so prodigious, 
as well as of expenditure so enormous, for the 
purpose of inhuming a single body, customs and 
superstitions are manifested which serve to illus- 
trate the origin of the pyramids of Egypt, of the 
caverns of Elephanta, and of the first temples of 
the antient world. In memory of “ the mighty Origin of 
J Temples. 
dead,” long before there were any such edifices 
as temples, the simple sepulchral heap was 
raised, and this became the altar upon which 
sacrifices were offered. Hence the most antient 
Heathen structures for offerings to the Gods 
were always erected upon tombs, or in their 
immediate vicinity. The discussion which has 
been founded upon a cpiestion “ Whether the 
Egyptian pyramids were tombs or temples,” seems 
altogether nugatory: being one, they were ne- 
sarily the other. The Soros in the interior 
chamber of the greater pyramid of Djiza, proving 
its sepulchral origin, as decidedly establishes 
(•’) Travels through the Southern Provinces, &c. vol. II. p. 305, &c. 
