E G Y r T. 
almoft in the midft between tlie bafis and the top. The 
lloOr, the (ides, and the roof, confift exclu lively of line 
marble. The (tones which cover this room are of a fur- 
prifnig length, and actually referable a number of large 
beams defigned to fuftain the enormous weight of the 
pyramid above. The length of the chamber on the fotith 
fide, where the firft and fecond row of (tones meet, is 
34^ Englifh feet; the breadth of the weft lide, meafured 
in the fame manner, is 17-^; and the height is about 19 
feet 6 inches. It is curious to remark, that at the top of 
the Lift-mentioned gallery is a fmall platform, in which 
is a thick block of granite, like an imtnenfe cheft im¬ 
bedded in the folid building - , and hollowed out fo' as to 
leave alternate projections and retirings, into which, 
blocks of the fame material, with correfponding grooves 
and projections, are let in, which were intended for ever 
to conceal and protect the entrance to the principal 
chamber which is behind them. It mull: have required 
immenfe labour to conftruft this part of the edifice, and 
not lefs to have broken an opening through ; fo that the 
zeal of fuperftition has here been oppofed to the eager- 
nefs of avarice, and the latter has prevailed. After 
mining through thirteen feet of folid granite, a door, 
three feet three inches fquare was difcovered, which is 
the entrance to the principal chamber. This magnificent 
Chamber contains the farcophagus of Cheops, or Chem- 
mis, whofe body, however, was not depofited in the py¬ 
ramid. It conlifts of one piece of fine fpeckled marble, 
cut fmooth and plain, without any fculpturcor infcrip- 
tion ; its figure is that of an altar, or of two cubes finely 
fet together ; its pofition is exactly in the meridian, and 
almoft at an equal diftance from all fides of the room, 
except the eaft, from which it is twice as rempte as any 
of the reft. A hollow fpace is obfervable beneath it ; 
and a large (tone has been removed from the pavement at 
the angle next adjoining it. In the fouth and north fides 
of the chamber are two inlets evenly cut in the walls, 
oppofite to each other, which feem to have been defignpd 
for the reception of lamps. The tomb is fix feet eleven 
inches long, three feet wide, and three feet one inch and 
a half in depth : it is empty and open, and no traces of 
any cover can be perceived. Here terminates the inte¬ 
rior of this immenfe edifice, in which the work of the 
hand of man appears to rival the gigantic forms of nature; 
and for no other purpofe than to inclofe in the center of' 
it the fmall farcophagus above deferibed, which was in¬ 
tended to receive the mummy of its projector, Cheops; 
put the Almighty Difpofer of human events permitted 
not the pride and vanity of the founder to be thus grati¬ 
fied. Plutarch has noticed a curious echo in this pyra¬ 
mid, as anfwering four Or five times, and which M. Lucas 
alferts will repeat ten or twelve times diftinftly. We are, 
however, at no lofs to account f6r this efl'eft, when we 
contemplate the narrow entrance, the long galleries which 
lie in cue continued line, and the termination of thofe 
paffages in the center of the pyramid. 
The fecond pyramid, fitnated at a fmall diftance from 
the former, has been but imperfectly deferibed either by 
ancient or modern writers. Herodotus merely afferts, 
that its magnitude falls (hort of the other, though its al¬ 
titude is equal, and that it contains no fubterraneous 
chambers. Diodorus informs us, that its architecture 
refembles the former, but that the dimenfions are lefs by 
one hundred Grecian feet; and Pliny makes the difference 
to be (till greater by forty-fix feet: yet Strabo has ven¬ 
tured to affirm that both thefe pyramids are equal; and 
Mr. Greaves, on the credit of a perfon who meafured 
the fecond with a line, affures us that the bales of both 
are alike, and that the height is not inferior to that of 
the firft. This ftrufttire has no entrance ; the ftones of 
which it is built are much fmaller than thofe of the firft ; 
the fides, inftead of riling by degrees, are fmooth and 
equal ; and the whole fabric, except on the fouth fide, 
is quite entire. This is the pyramid of Cephrenes. 
The third pyramid, erected on an advantageous accli- 
Vol. VI. No. 355. 
t »1 
vity, at the diftance of a furlong from the (econ.d,>is men¬ 
tioned by Herodotus as men hi ring three hundred feet on 
every fide, and as being built to the center with Ethiopia 
marble. Diodorus, who give’s the fame dimenfions of 
the bafis, afterts, that the walls were raifed fifteen frbries 
with black (tone like Thebaic marble ; and that this piece 
of workmanfhip, on which the name of Mycerinus, the 
founder, was engraved, far exceeds the other pyramids 
in its architecture and the richnefs of its materials. 
' Why the Egyptian mcnarchs (hould have burdened theiru. 
felves or their people with fuch an enormous expence, as 
nnift of necefiity have been attached to the building thefe 
pyramids, is an enquiry not eafily folved. Arilfotle has 
fuppofed them the work of tyranny, and Pliny imagines 
that they were built partly from oftentation, and partly 
out of (late policy. But the true defign might V ve 
fprung from the Egyptian theology, which taught jfs 
votaries that fo long as the body was preferved from de¬ 
cay, the foul continued with it ; and hence we may ob- 
l’erve the great pains and curious precautions of the 
Egyptians to preferve the bodies of their deceafed friends. 
The realon why a pyramidal figure was generally chofen 
for the monuments feems to have been, becaufe it is the 
moft permanent form of ftrufttire ; for, by reafon of the 
gradual conftruftion towards the top, it is neither over¬ 
burdened with its own weight, nor fubjeft to the (baking 
of rain, as other buildings are. But it may be proper to 
obferve that all the. Egyptian pyramids are not of the 
fame form, fome being round and aimed conical, and 
others riling with a lefs inclination, and not fo pointed at 
the top. Pliny and Diodorus agree in the afl'ertion that 
no lefs than three hundred and iixty thoufand men were 
employed in erefting the firft pyramid ; and it is (aid that 
twenty years were (pent in the work. Such is the nfto- 
niftiing bulk of thefe pyramids, that engravings of them 
have ever tended to mitlead the mind in forming due con¬ 
ceptions of their immenfe magnitude ; for as it is impof- 
fible to reprefent their relative bulk on paper, fo all 
drawings made to (hew their form, naturally diminifti the 
idea of their fize in the imagination of the obferver. 
The utmoft hncertainty alfo exifts as to the time in which 
thefe pyramids were firft violated, as does even that of 
their conftruftion ; the latter, which is loft in the night of 
ages, gives an immenfe period to the annals of art ; and 
in this view we cannot too much admire the accuracy of 
the pyramidal ftrufttire, the permanency fecured by'their 
form and conftruftion, and by fuch immenfe proportions, 
that thefe gigantic monuments may be conlidered as the 
lad link in the chain of the colofii of art and nature. 
Near thefe pyramids (lands the gigantic monument of the 
fpliinx; and near Sacarrah are the caves of the Egyptian 
ibis, with thoufand.s of mummies of that venerated bird ; 
which feems now almoft loft to Egypt, fince few modern 
travellers have been able to defcribe it from a living fub- 
jeft. Thefe caves are on the Couth of the Necropolis, 
or city of the dead, of ancient Memphis, and where the 
tombs and fepulchres have been highly ornamented and 
filled with mummies, exactly fimilar to thofe deferibed 
at Thebes. 
By what is related of the celebrated ftruftitre, lituate 
in the Heracleoric nome, near Arfinoe, and diltinguillied 
by the name of the Labyrinth, it feems to have been de¬ 
figned as a pantheon of all the Egyptian deities that were 
vvorlhipped in the provinces, and as a place for the ac¬ 
commodation of the general atlembly of magiftracy of 
the whole nation. For this reafon every home had a hall 
or palace appropriated to itfelf: the whole edifice, ac¬ 
cording to Herodotus, containing twelve. Thefe halls 
were vaulted, and had an equal number of doors oppofite 
to one another, and encompaifed with the fame wall. 
This truly magnificent building contained no lefs than 
three thoufand chambers, fifteen hundred of which were 
fubterraneous, and fet apart either for the fepulchre of 
the kings who built the labyrinth, or for the abodes of 
the lacred crocodiles. Thefe were never (liown to Itrahg- 
4 Z ersj 
