360 
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Bat after contemplating the remains of the great Diof- 
polis, Latopolis, Apollinopolis, and Tentyra, and the 
other glories of Egyptian architecture, the ruins of An- 
tinoe appear mean and paltry. 
Again eroding' the Nile, and p'affing the town of Mi- 
nier, or Minyeh, we come to Behnefe, or Benefecli, the 
ancient Oxyrinchus, the capital of the thirty-third nome, 
or province, of Egypt, Nothing, however, remains of 
this city but fome fragments of done pillars, marble co¬ 
lumns in the mofques, and a (ingle column left ftanding, 
along with its capital * and part of the entablature, which 
(hew that it is the fragment of a portico of thb compo¬ 
site order. This folitary monument brings a melancholy 
fenfation to the mind ; Oxyrinchus, once a metropolis 
furrounded by a fertile plain, two leagues off .the Lybian 
range of hills, has difappeared beneath the fa.nd ; and the 
new town has been obliged to retreat from this delbiating 
invafion, leaving to its ravages houfe after houfe, and the 
inhabitants will at lad be driven beyond the canal Jul'ef, 
on the border of which they will dill be menaced. In 
this didricl are valleys, and petrified wood ; there have 
therefore been rivers and forefls; thefe lad have been 
dedroyed, and after this have difappeared the dew, the 
mid, the rain, the rivers, and with them all the animated 
beings. In the mofque of Benefech are a number of co¬ 
lumns of diderent marbles, which are doubtlefs the fpoils 
of the ancient Oxyrinchus, but which were not of the 
dile of ancient Egypt. 
Quitting Oxyrinchus, we again reach Benefuef, and 
Sedinan ; and then palling Arfinoe or Feyyum, we enter 
the plain of the pyramids, or Saccarali, the feite of the 
ancient Memphis. The pyramids of Saccarali mark out 
that immenfe number of monuments which decorated the 
field of death, the necropolis of Memphis, and bounded 
that city on the Couth, as the pyramids of Gizeh did on 
the north. This place is now called the plain of the mum¬ 
mies. We might dill be feeding in vain the feite of that 
fuperb city, which exceeded the metropolitan dignity of 
Thebes, and even eclipfed its grandeur, if thefe fump- 
tuous tombs did not atted its exidence, and afeertain in¬ 
dubitably the extent of ground it once occupied. Mod 
of the difeufiions publiflied on this fubjedt, and which 
render its fituation uncertain, have been written by learn¬ 
ed men, who never vifited Egypt, and were therefore in¬ 
capable of judging how fcrupulouily exa£t are the deferip- 
tions of it given by Herodotus and Strabo. If the feite of 
Memphis, as Denon fuggeds, extended from the pyra¬ 
mids of Gizeh to thofe of Saccarah, its magnitude mud 
indeed have been immenfe, allowing for its eadern and 
wedern boundaries. The pyramids are in number about 
twenty, difperfed over this border of the Lydian defert; 
but the three larged, which have fo long excited the 
curiofity of travellers, are fituated near Gizeh, almod in 
a line acrofs the river to the wdhvard of Cairo. It is in the 
rich territory which furrounds them that fable has placed 
the Elyfian fields: the canals which interfedl them being 
the fancied Lethe, and the Styx. The larged of thefe 
pyramids might well have been confidered as one of the 
wonders of the world. The north fide of the ftruddure, 
being meafured by a radius of ten feet in length, taking 
two ieveral feflions, was found by Mr. Greaves to be 693 
Englifh feet. The other fides were examined by a line 
for want of an even level, and a convenient didance to 
place the indruments. The.'altitude, if meafured by its 
perpendicular, is 481 feet; but if it be taken as the pyra¬ 
mid afeends inclining, then it is equal, in refpedt of the 
lines Subtending the feveral angles, to the latitude of the 
bads. If we pidture to ourfelves four equilateral triangles 
on the fides of the fquare bafis, mutually inclining till 
they terminate in a point, (for fuch is the appearance of 
the top to thofe who dand below,) we (hall obtain an ac¬ 
curate idea of the true figure and dimenfions of this py¬ 
ramid, the area of whole bafis contains 480,249 fquare 
feet, or fomething more than eleven Englilh acres of 
ground, a proportion lufriciently mondrous to dagger our 
Y P T. 
belief, if the fadh were not efiablifhed beyond difpute. 
The meafurement taken by the French engineer Grof- 
bert, in the year 1800, agrees very nearly with that of 
Mr. Greaves. 
Tim afeent to the fummit of this pyramid is contrived 
by a fuccefiion of heps, which running about the build¬ 
ing in a level, made a narrow walk, when the dones were 
entire on every fide. Thefe fteps are made of rnalfy po- 
IiHied (tones. The lowermod is about four feet deep, 
and three broad, but they diminifh in fize towards the 
top, and they end not in a point as mathematical pyra¬ 
mids do, but in a little fiat or fquare confiding of nine 
ftones, betides two which have fallen from the corners. 
The entrance into this wonderful monument of human 
induftry is by a narrow paflage, which opens on the fix- 
teenth dep, in the midfl of the north (ide. It goes de¬ 
clining with an angle of twenty-fix degrees, and is in 
breadtli exadliy 3^ Englilh feet, and in length ninety- 
two feet fix inches. At the end of this paflage there is 
another, fimilar in appearance but a little riling, where 
the iowermod done of the roof forms a (harp ridge, be¬ 
neath which there is fometimes fo fmall a fpace that a 
man mud prodrate himfelf on the ground in order to 
pafs through. -This difficulty, however, is chiefly owing 
to the fand which is blown in by the wind, as the paflage, 
when cleared, is of the fame dimenfions with the entrance. 
Beyond tiiis flraight is a deep mafly done, by which the 
curious traveller may afeend to the lower end of the fird 
gallery. This has been deferibed as five feet broad, five 
feet high, and no feet long; the pavement, confiding of 
white polifhed marble, rifes with a gentle acclivity; and 
the fides and roof are conflruited of unpoliflied done, lefs 
compa6t than that of the pavement. At the end of this 
gallery are two pillages, one low and horizontal, and the 
other high and rifing. At the commencement of the lower 
pillage, on the right hand, is a circular well, lined with 
white marble, and meafuring fomewhat more than three 
feet diameter. Pliny aflerted that this well was eighty 
cubits deep, but it is now almod filled up with rubbifh, 
and does not polfefs a depth of more than twenty feet. 
About fifteen feet didant from this well is another paflage 
of exquifite workmanlliip, which runs in a level no feet, 
and then terminates in an arched vault or chamber, hand¬ 
ing due ead and wed, called the Queen’s Chamber. The 
length of this room is nearly twenty feet, its breadth. 
about feventeen, and its height rather lefs than fifteen ; 
the walls are coated over with white cement, and the roof 
is covered with large fmooth dones, which are placed in 
a (helving polition, and meet above in an angle. 
The fecond gallery, divided from the fil'd by the wall in 
which is the entrance to the lad-mentioned paflage, is by 
no means inferior either in curiofity of art or richnefs of 
materials to the moll, lplendid buildings; it rifes with an 
angle of twenty-fix degrees, and is 154 feet in length from 
the well beneath, but if meafured on the pavement it is 
fomething lefs, on account of a vacuity of about fifteen 
feet. The height of it is twenty-fix feet, and the breadth 
fix feet fix inches, in which mud be included two para¬ 
pets, each nineteen inches in diameter, pierced with holes 
wherein to faden fome machines for railing the f'arco- 
phagus. The done of which this gallery is conllructed is 
white marble, very evenly cut in large tables, and finely 
polifhed. Beyond this admirable gallery is a.fquare bole, 
which leads into two clofets or fmall anti-chambers lined 
with a rich and fpeckled kind of Thebaic marble. The 
fird of thefe is almod equal to the fecond, and of an ob¬ 
long figure, one (ide containing feven feet, and the other 
three feet fix inches : the height is about ten feet, and 
the floor is perfectly level. The inner anti-chamber is 
feparated from the former by a done of red granite, about 
two feet lower than the roof, and three feet above the 
pavement. This fecond clofet leads to another fquare 
padage, formed entirely of granite, and opening to a 
Sumptuous and well-proportioned room, fituated in the 
center of the pyramid, equi-diflant tro.11 all the fides, and 
2 almod 
