PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 187 
instrument for ascertaining distances durinpf a char 
lY. 
journey. 
Having- collected our party upon a sort of visit to ti,e 
platform before the entrance of the passage the larger 
leading to the interior, and lighted a number of ''^'^'*™ ' 
tapers, we all descended into its dark mouth. 
In viewing this entrance, the impression made 
upon every one of us was, that no persons could 
thus have laid open the part of the pyramid 
where this channel was concealed, unless they 
had been previously acquainted with its situa- 
tion ; and for obvious reasons : First, because 
its position is almost in the centre of one of its 
planes, instead of being at the base. Secondly, 
that no trace appears of those dilapidations 
which must have been the result of any search 
for a passage to the interior; such, for example, 
as now remain for a memorial of the labours of 
the French near the smaller pyramid, which 
they attempted to open. The opening has been 
effected in the only point, over all the vast sur- 
face of the great pyramid, where, from the 
appearance of the stones inclined to each other 
above the mouth of the passage, any admission 
to the interior was originally intended. So 
marvellously concealed as this entrance must 
have been, shall we credit the legendary story 
