Since the dawn of history the Pyramids have been considered one
of the wonders of the earth. They are unique. There is nothing to
compare with them in any other land. Strangers have gazed upon them
in amazement, and pondered what they were and how and why they were
built.
Myths that they were the work of the gods became numerous, for the
structures were so gigantic that it seemed impossible that puny man
could have built them. About their human origin there was no doubt to
discerning travellers, but the object in building them was not always
so plain.
Long and learned books have been written to show that the Pyramids
bore some special astronomical significance; that one of the main
passages in the Great Pyramid was built at a certain angle to enable
the astronomers of earlier days to watch a certain star pass in its
course across the opening in the face of the Pyramid; that the height
of the Great Pyramid bore a definite relation to the distance of the
earth from the sun; that the base of the Pyramid meant something
else. In fact, the Pyramid has been measured in all directions, in
all sorts of manners, and these measurements have been made to fit in
with pet theories which have been the basis of many books.
There is not the slightest mystery as to what the Pyramids actually
are. They are merely tombs. But people have not been content to
accept this explanation, perhaps because it is too simple, so they
have endowed the Pyramids with all sorts of wonderful meanings which
would astound the builders were they to come back from the Fields of
the Blessed. Astrologers who puzzled on the meanings of the stars in
the heavens claimed the Great Pyramid as peculiarly their own, and
pointed out certain coincidences in measurements to support their
claim; the astronomers adduced their own reasons for claiming that
the Pyramid had some astronomical meaning; Biblical students, on the
other hand, who sought the hidden meanings of the Bible, concluded
that the Pyramid was definite proof of certain of their own theories.
The Pyramids have indeed been so enwrapped in mystery, by the
writings and theories of successive generations, that thousands of
people to-day regard them with a sort of religious belief.
Notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject, and the
undoubted cleverness with which these theories have been propounded,
the Pyramids are only tombs. But they are the most wonderful tombs
in the world. They are simple and grand, with the desert sands
surging round their bases, while a short distance away the Nile flows
along to the blue sea. There is one other tomb without peer, the Taj
Mahal, in India, that beautiful dream in marble which Shah Jehan
erected in Delhi to the memory of the lady he loved so well. But the
Taj is very different—graceful, glorious. Yet the Pyramids, in their
simple grandeur, are not without a beauty of their own.
Kings have come and gone, civilizations have bloomed and vanished,
the very earth itself has altered since the Pyramids were first
built. Whirlwinds have caught up the sands of the desert and used
them as a giant sandblast in their attempts to wear away the stone,
earthquakes have shattered temples, but on the monuments the forces
of Nature have had little effect. The hand of man has wrought more
destruction in a few centuries than Nature herself wrought in two or
three thousands of years. What man built, man has partly destroyed;
yet man, with all his ingenuity for destruction, has done little but
touch the outer surface of the Great Pyramid.
[Illustration: THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE
WORLD, WITH THE GREAT SPHINX IN THE FOREGROUND, LAPPED BY THE ETERNAL
SANDS OF THE DESERT]
There are nearly eighty Pyramids of different sizes scattered
throughout the Nile valley. The greatest and most renowned is that of
King Khufu or Cheops, at Gizeh, which originally measured 355 feet
8 inches at the base, and 481 feet 4 inches in height. The base of
the Great Pyramid covers well over 12 acres, and an idea of the size
of the monument may be gained when it is known that to walk round it
means trudging through the sands for more than half a mile.
Over nineteen centuries ago, Julius Cæsar sent from Egypt one of the
most famous letters ever written. It was short, but three words:
“Veni, Vedi, Veci.” These three words carried a wealth of meaning.
They told of a safe journey, of an emperor gazing on the land he
was going to conquer, of a successful invasion. “I came, I saw, I
conquered,” wrote Cæsar, who in turn was conquered by the beauty of
Cleopatra.
Who can say what were the thoughts of the Roman emperor as he
stood within the shadow of the age-old Pyramids? He was a powerful
potentate, but the same thoughts must have flitted through his mind
as have surged through the brains of countless unknown men when
they first caught sight of the Wonders of the Desert. He must have
meditated on their origin, and how they were built.
In modern times Napoleon, the greatest soldier the world has ever
seen, paced in the shadow of these same Pyramids, and reflected on
the eternal questions regarding them. Lord Kitchener, before he
attained to fame, gazed on them hundreds of times. The great ones go
to their eternal rest, but the Pyramids remain.
They were built to endure for all time. The Egyptians looked upon the
tomb as their permanent home, which was to last for all eternity.
This is the reason for the erection of these mountains of stone, for
their solidity of construction, for their gigantic size. They have
grown out of Egypt’s religious beliefs. They were built solid and big
and strong, so that nothing should overturn them, so that they should
defy the hand of Time and Man, and forever provide a resting-place, a
home for the shadow-self of the King.
Directly a Pharaoh came to the throne, he began preparing for his
last long sleep. His lifework was to prepare a tomb for himself
befitting his rank and power, and he spared no pains nor means to
accomplish his desire. He called his chief architects and his high
priests around him, and demanded that plans be made and a site
selected. Then he saw the foundation stone laid, and year by year
watched the pile of masonry grow.
Judging by the number of Pyramids in existence and their size, it
has been reckoned that the total man-power of Egypt was devoted
for over a thousand years to building tombs for the rulers, that
tomb-building, in fact, was the main industry of the country for
centuries.
To build another pyramid the size of the Great Pyramid of Khufu
or Cheops would be a brilliant engineering feat even in our time,
with all the engineering means we have at our disposal. The more
we consider the Great Pyramid, the more amazing it seems that the
Egyptians should have succeeded in erecting such an enormous monument
some six thousand years ago. To this day it is not fully understood
how it was done, but gradually evidence is accumulating which serves
to indicate the principal methods that were adopted.
A few miles away, on the other side of the Nile, the limestone was
quarried from the hillside at Turah. Thousands of men laboured at
cutting out the mighty blocks. These were probably squared up roughly
in the quarries, and then either transported to the barges on rollers
made from the trunks of palm trees, or else mounted on wooden sledges
that were dragged over the ground by the united efforts of hundreds
of slaves. Great skill must have been required to get them safely
aboard, and to unload them from the barges when they arrived on the
other side of the river. There is little doubt that the site of the
Pyramid was chosen close to the river and to the Turah quarries to
make transport as simple as possible.
The Pyramid is built in a series of steps, the lower courses of
blocks being 4 feet 11 inches high, the size diminishing as the
Pyramid gets higher. Before a stone was cut or laid the Pyramid must
have been carefully planned on papyri; for aught we know models may
have been built to ensure its accuracy. It is plain that the builder
must have calculated the sizes of all the stones course by course
and the number required, for their regularity in size is not only
amazing, but is also proof that the building of the Pyramid was most
carefully worked out.
So extraordinary was the degree of accuracy attained by the ancient
architects, that it is doubtful if a single building in all London
is so correctly and accurately built as was the Great Pyramid sixty
centuries ago. The Egyptians were clever enough to fix their site
so that the sides of the Pyramid faced exactly north, south, east
and west, without any deviation whatsoever. They had some means of
measuring whereby they were able to build the lengths of the sides
so truly, that there was not half an inch of difference in any one
of them. The builder who is able to build four such walls over 750
feet long, without varying them half an inch in all that length, is a
king of his profession. Probably there is not a house put up to-day
that does not vary considerably more in the length of its small
walls. For sheer accuracy in its measurements, the Great Pyramid is
one of the most marvellous structures on earth, and the Egyptians
were apparently able to do six thousand years ago what we find it
difficult to accomplish to-day.
The Great Wall of China was built at the sacrifice of hundreds of
thousands of lives, and probably thousands of men perished in the
building of the Pyramids. Accidents must have been happening all day
long. The huge blocks were handled by men who dragged and pushed
them to their positions. The labourers were kept hard at it by their
taskmasters, whose one thought was to keep up the supply of stone.
Mighty blocks weighing many tons must have often slipped and crushed
the workers to death. Many of the labourers must have been maimed for
life; legs were broken, arms smashed, heads and bodies crushed, as
the blocks rolled and swerved in their progress.
From inferences from papyri, the great Pyramids were looked upon by
the Egyptians as one of their plagues, as a scourge to the land. Men
were pressed into the work, were compelled to go on with it. What
mattered it to Khufu if his subjects and slaves died, so long as he
built a home that would last his shadow-self for ever? We are wont
to marvel at the building of the Pyramids, but under it all there
must have been great cruelty as well as an incredible skill. Those
monuments which to-day are the glory of Egypt, were in the past one
of the afflictions of the land.
The building of the Great Pyramid entailed the creation of a mighty
sloping road, which Herodotus says took 100,000 men ten years to
construct. Men swarmed over the desert like ants over a disturbed
anthill, making this enormous slope up which to drag and push these
gigantic blocks. The centre of the slope was paved with polished
stone, so that the blocks would slide easily along, but in spite of
this attempt to ease the burden, the moving of the stones must have
been a heart-breaking task. As the Pyramid rose, so the road grew
higher.
The blocks would be heaved out of the barges by dozens of men.
Great wooden levers would be inserted under the stones to prise
them up to allow the rollers to be slipped under; then hundreds of
men would take hold of the long ropes, harnessing themselves like
beasts of burden, and drag the stones along. Men with levers would
help by thrusting behind; others would walk at the sides to attend
to the rollers, and run to the front with new ones directly the last
had passed underneath the stone at the back. We can imagine ropes
breaking, and mighty stones plunging down the causeway, sweeping
scores of poor victims to destruction. Blood and tears as well as
labour went to the building of the Pyramids.
From first to last, so far as we are able to gather, about 100,000
men slaved for thirty years to build the tomb of Khufu. The site
chosen was not exactly level. A little hillock of rock rose on one
part of it, and this was cleverly squared off and incorporated into
the Pyramid, saving the transport of so many hundreds of tons of rock.
The great aim of Khufu, or Cheops, as that of all the other Pharaohs,
was to protect his mummy, and prevent thieves getting into his
burial chamber. To this end were devised numerous secret passages,
all of which show an extraordinary ingenuity in planning, and great
engineering skill in execution. The entrance to the Great Pyramid
is about 45 feet up on the north face. One of the blocks of stone
was made to swing inward on a pivot, and when closed it was quite
impossible to locate the entrance. The Pyramid looked quite solid,
without a single breach in any one of its sides. So cleverly was
the entrance contrived that it baffled men for thousands of years,
although countless thieves went over the Pyramid seeking eagerly for
a way in. Only a lucky accident could have led the discoverer to
touch that particular stone in the right way to make it swing back
and disclose the opening.
Even when he found the opening, he was not much nearer the burial
chamber. An underground passage was driven for over 350 feet through
the solid rock at an angle below the foundations of the Pyramid,
until it opened out in a chamber immediately beneath the point of
the Pyramid. The chamber is really a fine hall about 46 feet long
by 27 feet wide, with a roof 11½ feet above the level of the floor.
On the other side of the chamber the underground passage continues
for over 50 feet, but we are quite at a loss to divine the reason
for this extension. Maybe the engineers drove this gallery with the
definite intention of misleading any one who should eventually break
a way into this underground retreat. At any rate, it is, like the
rest of the passage, driven through the solid rock, and finishes up
against the rock wall. No other outlet from this passage has ever
been discovered, so its object is a mystery. Perhaps the engineers’
plans were altered, or perhaps it was designed to baffle thieves,
and compel them to waste time by searching for an opening where none
exists.
Khufu did not underrate the skill of the plunderers of the tombs. He
realized to the full their patience and cleverness, and did all in
his power to outwit them. The passage is lined throughout with blocks
of stone, and we can imagine the robbers searching anxiously up and
down the dark passage, casting back and fore, tapping the stones to
try to find the outlet leading to the King’s Chamber. All the blocks
look exactly alike, and they may have sought for months before they
found that block in the roof which pivoted in a similar manner to
the stone covering the entrance. This passage branched upward to the
Queen’s Chamber, and opened out to the Grand Gallery, which is very
narrow and high, at the end of which comes another passage leading
to the Chamber of King Khufu.
Before the robbers were able to reach these chambers, they had many
difficulties to surmount and problems to solve. At various intervals
the passage was sealed by four mighty blocks of very hard granite.
These blocks must have been supported until after the funeral
ceremonies were completed; then the priests withdrew, the supports
were knocked away, and the blocks crashed down into position in the
deep grooves that were cut for them in the passage.
When the intruders surmounted one block, they were confronted by
another. Their labours on the second brought them to a full stop
against the face of the third. No one knows how long it took for
the thieves to break into the Pyramid, but it must have taken years
from the time the first secret opening was discovered. So hard was
the granite with which the passage leading to the King’s and Queen’s
Chambers was closed, that in one case the thieves despaired of ever
getting through it, so they laboriously cut a way through the roof
of the passage and clambered over the top of the granite block. They
must have reaped a very rich booty, of which every trace has long
since vanished.
All that remains to-day is the red granite sarcophagus in the King’s
Chamber. It is an enormous stone coffin, so big that its removal is
an impossibility. It is too big to be taken through the passages.
The size of it indicates that it must have been placed in position
when the Pyramid was being built. It shows how carefully everything
was planned.
The King’s Chamber is 34 feet 3 inches long, by 17 feet 1 inch wide,
with a height of 19 feet 1 inch. It is one of the wonders of the
Pyramid, lined with enormous slabs of highly polished granite which
reach from floor to ceiling, slabs 19 feet 1 inch high. The ceiling
itself is composed of the same granite, in giant slabs nearly 4 feet
wide and 17 feet 1 inch long. There are nine of these mighty slabs
of polished stone, reaching from wall to wall. Their weight must be
enormous, and the difficulty of getting them into position must have
been prodigious. So skilfully and accurately fitted were many of the
stones in the passages, that even now the point of a needle cannot be
inserted between the slabs where they join.
It seems incomprehensible at first sight why this King’s Chamber
has not been crushed out of existence thousands of years ago by
the weight of the masonry over it. It must be remembered that what
amounts to a mountain of stone rears its peak 200 feet or more
above. Investigation reveals that the builders were fully alive
to this danger, and the steps they took to avoid it were not only
very clever, but they have worked perfectly for thousands of years.
Earthquakes have occurred from time to time and displaced some of
the stones, but the King’s Chamber is still intact and uncrushed.
The methods adopted by these clever old builders to preserve the
Chamber are very simple, yet anything more brilliantly successful it
would be difficult to devise. Above the King’s Chamber four other
chambers were built to take the weight off the roof, and over these
chambers two mighty slabs of hard stone were placed astride, leaning
together at the top edges, which were so accurately cut that they
could not possibly become displaced. These two stones, with their
tops resting against each other, just as children lean two cards
together on a table, take the weight of all the masonry above them,
and deflect the thrust of the weight outwards instead of downwards,
so that the King’s Chamber is amply protected.
The Pyramid of Khafra or Chephren, slightly smaller than the Great
Pyramid, is still a mighty monument of the past, and although the
Egyptians were free from foreign wars when it was built, they groaned
under the necessity of doing this work for the king at home. The
building of the Pyramids was one of the hardships of the Egyptian
nation.
When the Great Pyramid was finished, a pinnacle of hard limestone
was set on the top, and all the steps were filled in from the peak
downwards with the same stone, to make the surface of the Pyramid
quite smooth from apex to foundation. But the facing blocks of stone
have now all disappeared. Many of them have been carried off to put
into new buildings, others lie shattered all about the base, where
the debris rises for 40 feet or so. The point of the Great Pyramid
has also gone, and there is now a platform about 36 feet square, on
which visitors may stand and gaze on the wonders of the desert.
Only 500 yards away the head of the Great Sphinx emerges from the
sands. Nobody knows what the Sphinx represents. The most learned
investigators are uncertain of its origin and age. Some think it
may have been carved by the sculptors of one of the great pyramid
builders, but others regard it as very much older. Probably it
represents the sun god Ra, but for centuries the Arabs have known it
as the Father of Terrors.
From the tip of its paws to the end of its back it measures 190
feet. It is 65 feet high, and its neck is 69 feet round, while the
tallest man could roll in between the lips, were they open, for
they are 7 feet wide. The Sphinx is still joined to the mother rock
which forms the floor of the desert hereabouts. It was carved out
of the outcropping stone, which the sculptors chipped and fashioned
with infinite labour into the shape of the Father of Terrors. The
astounding thing is that in spite of the gigantic size of the figure,
the proportions are faultless.
[Illustration: THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON, SET UP BY AMENHOTEP III., IN
FRONT OF HIS TEMPLE AT THEBES. THE TEMPLE HAS DISAPPEARED, BUT THESE
GIGANTIC FIGURES, WHICH ARE ABOUT 50 FEET HIGH, ARE AMONG THE MARVELS
OF THE NILE]
Between its paws was a temple, that gave up a statue of Khafra,
the builder of the Second Pyramid, but temple and paws are now
covered with sand. Indeed the Sphinx has spent the greater part of
its existence under the sands of the desert. One of the first things
Thothmes IV did when he came to the throne over three thousand years
ago, was to set men to uncover the Sphinx, and dig the sand away from
its 140-foot-long body. From time to time others have removed the
sand, but always the sand comes back and quickly steals over the body
and covers it, leaving the head emerging like some monster of the
desert.
In the past the Sphinx has been badly treated by the ignorant Arabs,
who have smashed its face about and given it that strange expression
which is a half-wry smile. Probably thousands of years hence, when
our present civilization has disappeared and been forgotten, the
Sphinx will still be regarding the Nile and the world with the same
half-sad, half-mocking expression.
The Sphinx is as lasting as the mountains, as eternal as the rock out
of which it is carved. The riddle of the origin of this masterpiece
of an ancient civilization may yet be solved by a man digging with a
spade in the desert sands.
The famous Colossi of Memnon, set up by Amenhotep III in front of his
chapel on the bank of the Nile at Thebes, almost rival the Sphinx in
their gigantic stature. The great figures, 50 feet high, are carved
out of solid blocks of limestone, and there they sit on guard as they
have sat for thousands of years. The floods of the Nile swirl about
them, laving their injured feet, but the temple they guarded has long
since vanished from the face of the earth.