observe without astonishment, that American 
edifices, the form of which is almost the same as 
that of one of the most ancient monuments on 
the banks of the Euphrates, belong to times so 
near our own. 
When we consider in the same point of view 
the pyramidical monuments of Egypt, of Asia, 
and of the New Continent, we see, that, though 
their form is alike, their destination was alto-^ 
gether different. The group of pyramids at 
Geeza and at Sakhara in Egypt ; the triangular 
pyramid of the Queen of the Scythians, Zarina, 
which was a stadium high, and three in circum- 
ference, and which was decorated with a colossal 
figure* ; the fourteen Etruscan pyramids, which 
are said to have been enclosed in the labyrinth 
of the king Porsenna, at Clusium ; were reared 
to serve as the sepulchres of the illustrious dead. 
Nothing is more natural to men, than to com- 
memorate the spot where rest the ashes of those, 
whose memory they cherish ; whether it be, as 
in the infancy of the race, by simple mounds of 
earth, or in later periods by the towering height 
of the tumulus. Those of the Chinese and of 
Thibet have only a few metres of elevation^. 
Farther to the west the dimensions increase : 
* Diodorus Siculus, lib. 2, c. 34. 
f Duhalde, Description of China, tom. 2, p. 126. Asiatic 
Researches, vol. ii, p, 314. 
