PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 198 
subterraneous chambers '; but it were impos- 
sible to know any thing of their existence, 
unless the pyramid had first been entered. 
Hence it is evident, that a passage to the inte- 
rior had been obtained from the earliest age in 
which any account was given of this pyramid ; 
and perhaps it never was so completely closed, 
but that with a little difficulty an access might 
be effected. Proceeding down this channel 
(which may be compared to a chimney about a 
yard wide, inclined, as Greaves affirms*, by an 
angle of twenty-six degrees to the platform at 
the entrance,) we presently arrived at a very 
large mass of granite : this appears to have 
been placed on purpose to choke up the pas- 
sage; but a way has been made round it, by 
which we were enabled to ascend into a second 
channel, sloping, in a contrary direction, to- 
wards the mouth of the first. This is what 
Greaves calls the Jirsl gallery '; and his descrip- 
tion is so exceedingly minute, both as to the 
admeasurements and other circumstances be- 
longing to these passages, that it were a useless 
(3) Herodot. Euterpe, c. 125. 
(4) Pyramidographia, p. 85. Land. 1G46. 
:(5) Ibid. p. 86. 
