188 PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 
CHAP, of an uirahian writer, who, discoursing of the 
' . Wonders ot Egypt^, attributed the opening of 
this pyramid to yilmamon, a Cahph of Babylon, 
about nine hundred and fifty years since ? A 
single observation of Strah overturns its credit 
in an instant; as the same passage w^as evi- 
dently known to him, above eight centuries 
before the existence of the said Caliph. He 
describes not only the exact position of the 
mouth of the pyramid, but even the nature of 
the duct leading to the Qn'/.ri, or Soros, in such a 
manner, that it is impossible to obtain, in fewer 
• words, a more accurate description". It seems 
also true, that this opening had been made 
before the time of Herodotus, although his testi- 
mony be less decisive. He speaks only of 
(1) G. Jlmcc. Hint. Jinh. ex edit. Erp, See Greaves's Pvramiuo- 
grapliia, paij. 44. Loud. 10'4(>. 7I/i«//pMiad a similar notion : " Ce fut 
done sans doute sous les Princes ^!a!lom^tans, et par le Calife Mah- 
mout, (jui reg'noit h. Bagdad, et qui mourut I'an de rEL;yre 205, ainsi 
que le rapportent les auteurs Arabcs, que cette impiety fut conimise." 
Description de l' Egypte, torn. I. p. 319. J "40. 
gi^ty^tirri a'xoXia i^'^x?.' ~'>' ^^'*ij- " I'l media fere latcrum altitudine, lapis 
exemtilis est: eoque sublato obliqua fistula usque ad loculuin." Strab. 
Geog. lib. xvii. ;>. 1145. Ed. Oxnn. 
The Oxford Editor cf Strabo, in commenting upon the words 
evpnl IffTi ffKoXik fiizc '='^5 ^>i»»!j'. justly observes ( Vid. Xot. '27. ibid.) the 
coincidence between kirabo's description of the entrance, and that givcu 
by Greaves and Lc Bru^n, 
