HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 245 
as soon as daylight appeared, and at eleven chap, 
A. M. again entered the canal of Cairo. ^ ^' . 
Having thus concluded our observations upon 
the Pyramids of Saccara, as well as those of 
Dj'iza, the remainder of this chapter will be 
appropriated to a few observations upon the 
history of these remarkable monuments. 
After the numerous accounts which, duriner Hisiory 
so many ages, nave been written to illustrate Pyramids. 
the origin of the Pyramids, it is not probable 
that any new remarks will meet with much 
attention. Yet how few, among all the authors 
who have undertaken to investigate this sub- 
ject, have ever ventured to express an opinion 
of their own. Struck by the magnitude of the 
objects themselves; by their immense antiquity; 
and by a consciousness of the obscurity in 
which their history has been veiled, every suc- 
ceeding traveller contents himself with a detail 
of the observations of his predecessors, only 
shewing the extent of the labyrinth wherein he 
is bewildered. Yet something, perhaps, might 
be accomplished, were it allowable, upon good 
authority, to annihilate a most redundant 
source of error and imposture. With this view, 
it may be advisable to abandon all that the 
