250 THE PYRAMIDS. 
CHAP. Sesostris; and therefore it must have been 
V. 
• -^- ■ erected some ages before the Trojan war. 
Without, however, placing any rehance upon 
this record, or attempting to assign a particular 
epocha for any one of these monuments, we 
may venture to assume, as a fact, upon the 
authority of all writers by whom they are no- 
ticed, that they existed above sixteen hundred 
years before the birth of Christ. Almost a 
century before that time, the prosperity of 
Joseph, then a ruler in this country, and a 
dweller in the very city to which these monu- 
ments belonged, is described as having ex- 
tended "unto the utmost bounds of the ever- 
lasting HILLS." These words', as applied 
to the place of his residence, and the seat of his 
posterity, are very remarkable. He " bought 
all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh,'' reducing all 
its independent provinces into one monarchy. 
The entire administration of this empire was 
entrusted to him; for Pharaoh said^ " Only in 
the throne will I be greater than thou." In the 
remote period, therefore, to which the Pi/ramids 
refer, "Joseph dweltin Egypt, he, and his father's 
house." It is said of them', that they "increased 
(1) Gen. xlix. 26. (3) Ibid. xli. 40. 
(3) Exod. i. 7. 
