PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 171 
Upon the twenty-third of ^wo-M^; we set out chap. 
for the Pyramids, the inundation enabling us , ^^' 
to approach within less than a mile of the larsrer Voyage 
* ' . *^ to the 
Pyramid, in our djerm. Messrs. Hammer and Pvramids. 
Hamilton accompanied us. We arrived ^tDjiza 
by day-break, and called upon some English 
officers who wished to join our party upon this 
occasion. From Djiza, our approach to the 
Pyramids was through a swampy country, by 
means of a narrow canal, which however was 
deep enough; and we arrived without any 
obstacle, at nine o'clock, at the bottom of a 
sandy slope, leading up to the principal /)z/r«m2W. 
Some Bedouin Arabs, who had assembled to 
receive us upon our landing, were much amused 
by the eagerness excited in our whole party, to 
prove who should first set his foot upon the 
summit of this artificial mountain. As we drew Appearance 
near its base, the effect of its prodigious magni- by\'he '^ 
tude, and the amazement caused in viewing the ^p'yramid. 
enormous masses used in its construction, 
affected every one of us ; but it was an im- 
pression of awe and fear, rather than of plea- 
sure. In the observations of travellers who 
had recently preceded us, we had heard the 
Pyramids described as huge objects which gave 
no satisfaction to the spectator, on account of 
their barbarous shape, and formal appearance: 
