260 THE PYRAMIDS. 
CHAP, back to a period earlier than the age of 
■ Abraham\ Of this nature are the records re- 
quired by the last question in the proposed 
inquiry, without having recourse to any of the 
writers of Greece or Iialy. As for the traditions 
which refer the origin of these monuments to 
the age of the Israelites in Egypt, these exist 
not only among the Arabians, but also among 
the Jews and Egyptians. The author of a book 
entitled Morat Alzeman, cited by Greaves in his 
Pyramidographia^, speaking of the founders of 
the Pyramids, says, ** Some attribute them to 
Joseph, some to Nimrod." The Arabians distin- 
guished the Pyramids by the appellation of 
Djebel Pharooim, or Pharaoh's Mountains^', and 
there is not one of these Oriental writers who 
does not consider them as antient sepulchres*. 
Upon these premises, thus derived from 
fienephen, Pyratnidos erexisse tradit ; ac dein, in dynastia iV. regem 
secundum, Suphin, pyramidum maximam exstrusisse." Perizon. 
^gt/ptiactE, cap. 21» j». 383. L. Bat. 1711. This authority, admitted 
by MaTsJiam, is contemned by the author from whom it is now cited. 
(1) Ibid. p. 384. 
(2) P. 6. Lond. 1646. 
(3) See also Egmont and HeymavH?, Travels, vol. II. p. 83. Lond. 
1759. 
(4) See the Extracts from Ibn Abd Alhokm, and the Arabian authors, 
as given by Greaves, &c. &c. 
