PYRAMID. 
■population, wlio found the taxes demanded 
of them appropriated to a purpose utterly 
unproductive of future advantage. 
When M. Savary visited the pyramids of 
Gizeh the country was under the govern- 
ment of its present natives, whose kiaschif, 
or governor, for the above district, exacted 
a small tribute from travellers, and in return 
provided them with an escort, as a protec- 
tion against the Arabs, who seized every 
opportunity to plunder them. The gentle- 
man just mentioned, accompanied by some 
friends and the guards furnished by the 
kiaschif, departed from Gizeh at an hour 
after midnight, and were soon after gratified 
tvith a view of the two greatest pyramids, 
on the summits of which the moon shone 
with full splendour ; as tliey approached 
them they assumed the appearance of vast 
pointed rocks penetrating the clouds. At 
half an hour past three in the morning the 
company prepared to enter the passages of 
the great pyramid by taking off great part 
of their clothing, and each taking a lighted 
torch in their hands, thus prepared they be- 
gan a long descent, which at last became 
so much contracted that the party were 
compelled to crawl upon their hands and 
knees ; this terminating, they commenced 
an ascent nearly under the same uncom- 
fortable circumstances, except that they 
proceeded on their knees, and made use of 
their hands against the sides to facilitate 
their progress, and this mode of getting for- 
W'ard was necessary, as the stone at the 
bottom of the passage did not afford suffi- 
cient level for a firm step ; when in this 
dismal gallery they were so imprudent as to 
discharge a pistol, the report, of which long 
echoed and re-echoed through the place, 
and alarmed numbers of bats who darted 
against them and extinguished some of their 
torches. Succeeding in their efforts, they ar- 
rived at the upper termination of the second 
passage, where they passed through a very 
small door into a large oblong apartment, 
entirely composed of granite, seven enor- 
mous blocks of which formed the ceiling. 
At one extremity of this apartment M. 
Savary saw an empty piarble sarcophagus 
composed of one piece, but without a lid, 
and fragments of earthen vases lay scattered 
over the floor of the room ; they also visited 
a second chamber, situated beneath that 
just described, and of smaller dimensions, 
which contained the entrance of a conduit 
then filled with rubbish. Satisfied with the 
progress they had made, the party descend- 
ed by the passage already noticed, and with 
some difficulty avoided a deep and danger* 
ous well on their left hands j ! prr their arrival 
in the open air each person observed that 
his companions were pale and exhausted 
by the heat they endured when immured 
within the frightfril abySs they had just ex- 
plored. 
After having rested their weary limbs, 
and recovered their strength and spirits, the 
party began to ascend the exterior of the 
pyramid, which consists, according to their 
enumeration, of above 200 gradations of 
stone, varying from two to four feet in 
height. This operation, fatiguing and se- 
verely laborious, occupied an hour ; but on 
their reaching the summit they liad the 
satisfaction of seeing that the rays of the 
approaching sun were darted on the points 
of Mokaltam, and not long after they be- 
held it rise from behind that mountain ; the 
landscape, thus illuminated, they perceived, 
witli infinite pleasure, the Nile and the ad- 
joining fruitful fields, Gizeh, Grand Cairo, 
and part of the Delta, forming a striking 
contrast with the remainder of the view 
composed of sterile hills and wide spread, 
ing sands, with tlie intervening pyramids of 
Sakkara, three leagues from their then 
situation. 
Fully sated with the rich prospect before 
them, they cut their names on the upper 
stones of the pyramid, and descended with 
the utmost caution, as this was a far more 
dangerous undertaking than the ascent ; 
having reached the base in safety, they 
paced around it and contemplated the rug- 
ged mass with terror, which strongly resem- 
bles a vast pile of detached rocks when 
near it, but at a distance, the inequalities 
are lost, and the sides appear plain surfaces. 
The form of this immense monument pre- 
vents an accurate measurement of its diraen-, 
sions, without severe labour and imminent 
danger; consequently, those authors who 
give them may have judged from mere con- 
jecture. Herodotus mentions its reputed 
height, in his time, to have been 800 feet, 
and the width of each side of the base the 
same ; Strabo made it 625 feet ; but Dio- 
dorus reduces it to 600 ; modern observers 
have agreed with Strabo, and some of those 
bring it below Diodorus; if, however, aij 
average may be permitted of these various 
accounts, that will amount to more thaii 
500 feet. 
One cause of the difference between the 
assumed heights is, that the pyramid is 
measured or observed on different sides; 
the north-east angle is most fret^uqntly" 
