VI 
ni8 FROM GRAND CAIRO 
CHAP, the principal Pyramids of Saccara '. It is proper 
to mention this, because it tends to confirm 
what was before said of the sepulchral origin of 
the Pyramids; and also because this peculiarity 
is not observable in the coemetery at Massora 
Shibrecki, which might be supposed to exhibit 
the usual form of Oriental tombs. The shapC 
here of the smaller sepulchres is rather cylindrical 
than pyramidal. 
A little below Berimhal, there is a canal which 
extends to the Lake Berelos ". At the mouth of 
it we saw some birds of exquisite beauty, to 
which the Arabs give the name of Sicsack ; but 
(1) Colonel Squire mentions this circumstance twice in his Journal ; 
once in describins^ the Ccemeteries of Damascus, and a second time iu 
his account of the Pyramids of Saccara. Speaking of the latter, he 
says, " To this day the inhabitants cover the spot where the body is 
interred with a sort of monument, which is evidently takea from the 
form of a pyramid. The large pyrumid at Sacc&ra is formed in four 
stages, and is flat at the top. Indeed, all the Pyramids, although, as 
it is reported, they may have been cased with a smooth stone surface, 
are built with steps, and many of them are flat on the summit. At 
present, the common tombs of the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria are 
built in this form. In the towns, the work is masonry ; in the vil- 
lages, they are constructed of mud ; but they retain, in either in- 
stance, a resemblance to the Pyramids \n their forms. This, joined 
to other cirrumstances, seems to afford a strong proof that the 
Pyramids were originally intended as receptacles for the dead." 
Squire's MS. Journal. 
(2) See the Map facing p. 290, in Vol. II. of the 4to. edition of 
th&se Travels. 
