IV. 
lO-l PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA, 
CHAP, the Aiitients; for this exactly answers to the 
description given by Plimj of this well ' ; and, in 
all probability, the depth of it does not much 
differ from that which he mentions, of eighty- 
six cubits, or one hundred and twenty-nine feet, 
making the cubit equal to eighteen inches. 
Pliny says that the water of the i\7/e was be- 
lieved to communicate with this well. The 
inundation of the river was now nearly at its 
height. May it be supposed, that, by some 
hitherto unobserved and secret channels, it is 
thus conveyed to the bottom of this well ? It 
seems more probable, that the water is nothing 
more than the usual result of an excavation in a 
stratum of limestone, carried on to the depth at 
which water naturally lies in other v.^ells of the 
same country ; as, for example, in the pit called 
Joseplis JVell, in the Citadel of Grand Cairo\ 
The hill whereon this pyramid stands, is ele- 
vated about a hundred feet above the level o-f 
the plain country through which the Nile flows ; 
and, allowing for the height of the mouth of the 
well above the base of the pyramid, we shall 
(1) " InPyramitle maxiniA est iiitus puteus octoginta sex cuhi- 
torum,flumcn illo ailniissum arbitrautur." Plin. Hist. Nat. Hb.'xxxvL 
V. 12. L. fiat. 1635. 
