PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 183 
almost all of whom have borne away some me- chap. 
.IV. 
morial of their visit to the place, not a single ■ 
specimen of this very curious variety of lime- 
stone has yet been observed in any collection of 
minerals, public or private*. Shaw mentions 
the mortar used in the construction of the Pyra- 
mids*; although a very erroneous notion be still 
prevalent, that the most antient buildings were 
erected without the use of cement. A reference 
to this kind of test has been frequently made, 
with a view to ascertain the age of antient 
architecture. All that can be asserted, how^ 
ever, upon this subject, with any degree of 
certainty, is, that if the most antient architec- 
ture of Greece sometimes exhibit examples of 
masonry without mortar, that of Egi/pt is 
very differently characterized. As we de- 
scended from the summit, we found mortar in 
all the seams of the different layers upon the 
outside of the pyramid ; but no such appear- 
ance could be discerned in the more perfect 
masonry of the interior. Of this mortar we 
detached and brought away several specimens. 
(4) Greaves was almost disposed to doubt the truth of Strabo'scle^ 
scriptkiu, because he did not observe these petrifactions. " Were not 
Slrabo a writer of much gravity, I should suspect these petrified 
graiiies." Pyramidog. p. 119. Land. lG"4(i. 
(5) Travels in the Levant, p..5'^8. Lend. 1737. 
