sepulchral grotto, and our nights in a tent, we set out on this
agreeable excursion with the most pleasing anticipations. The illusion
so general in the East with regard to distance, occasioned by the
extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere, is strikingly demonstrated in
approaching the pyramids; it is very remarkable that the nearer we
approached the objects of our destination, the less grand and imposing
did they appear. From their aspect, as I first drew near to them, I
should have formed a very inadequate idea of their dimensions. As soon
as we had crossed the river they appeared within a mile of us; and after
we had proceeded more than a league from El-Geezeh, I could scarcely
believe that we were still a full league from the pyramids; for the
distance to them from El-Geezeh, by the route which we took, is more
than six miles, though it is just five miles in a direct line. When we
arrived within a mile of the pyramids, the illusion became greater: the
courses of stone were then plainly discernible, and it was easy to
calculate that they were not more in number than the courses of brick in
a house about fifty or sixty feet high. These presented a scale by which
the eye was much deceived in estimating the altitude of the structure;
being unaccustomed to the sight of stones of such enormous magnitude
employed in building. But neither of these causes would be sufficient to
produce such an illusion if there were any neighbouring object with
which the pyramids might be contrasted. I was fully convinced of this
when I arrived at the base of the great pyramid. It was then curious to
observe how distant appeared those places where I had thought myself
nearly at my journey’s end. The clearness of the air would have deceived
me then, as before; but I was looking at objects less strange to me;
such as palm-trees, villages, and the tents of Arabs.
A conspicuous object as we approached the pyramids was an old ruined
causeway, most probably a part of that which was built by Kara-Koosh for
the convenience of transporting stones from the pyramids to Cairo, when
he constructed the citadel, and third wall of that city; and this
portion may have been raised on the ruins of that which Herodotus
describes, as the more ancient causeway was raised for the purpose of
facilitating the conveyance of stones from the quarries on the eastern
side of the Nile to the site of the Great Pyramid, to line the passages
of that structure, and perhaps to case its exterior.
When we were at least a mile from our journey’s end, I remarked to my
brother, “The pyramids do not appear so grand as I expected now we are
almost close to them.” “Almost close to them!” replied he; “wait a
little, and then tell me what you think.” Accordingly we rode on; the
provoking appearance of nearness to the objects of our visit surprising
me during our whole approach. At this season it occupies three hours to
reach the pyramids from Cairo, and this month, on account of its
coolness, is particularly agreeable for such an excursion. A kind
friend, Mr. Bonomi, well known for the length of time he has spent in
this country, and his extensive acquaintance with its monuments, was
staying at the pyramids, and prepared for us a tent, and another
comfortable place of abode, an ancient sepulchral grotto in a rock,
which latter has served as the foundation of a pyramid, now for the most
part destroyed. This excavation we found ample and airy, having three
large square apertures, serving us as windows, besides the entrance. Our
tent was pitched near it, our carpets spread, and our home in the desert
had an air of comfort I had hardly anticipated. There is much that is
homeish in carrying one’s own carpet: place it where you will, in the
boat or in the desert, your eyes rest upon it while thinking, and its
familiar patterns afford a sort of welcome. The habit of placing the
seggádeh (a small carpet) on the saddle enables an Eastern lady to take
it wherever she may wander. When she is disposed to rest, her attendants
spread it; and nothing is more refreshing during a desert excursion than
to rest upon it, and take a simple meal of bread and fruit, and a
draught of delicious Nile water.
As soon as possible after our arrival, we mounted the rock on which the
pyramids are built, and there observed the effect I have described with
regard to the objects we had passed on our way. From the brightness of
their colour, apparently little changed by the thousands of years that
have passed since their erection, the pyramids do not appear venerable:
there is an appearance of freshness about them which amazed me: but with
regard to their wonderful magnitude, I found that I was no longer
disappointed when I had ascended the rocky elevation on which they rest:
when I was within a few yards of the base of the Great Pyramid, I was
enabled to the full to comprehend its vastness.
We lingered late among the objects of our visit, and were interested in
observing the enormous shadows of the two greater pyramids, stretching
across the cultivated plain to the river, as the sun was setting. The
general view from the rocky eminence on which they are built is the most
imposing that can be conceived.
Returning to our grotto, we enjoyed our evening meal with the appetite
of desert travellers, and went to rest with our minds impressed by
reflections on what we had seen, and by the novelty of our situation.
We were not the only dwellers in tombs during our stay near the
pyramids; for a row of sepulchral excavations, which Colonel Vyse and
his party occupied in 1837, are now inhabited by a Nubian, who has taken
possession of them to afford lodgings (for a small remuneration) to
travellers. Also at a short distance from our grotto, an Arab had taken
up his abode in a similar but better tomb. Living there as a hermit, he
is esteemed a saint by the people of the neighbouring villages, and is
supported entirely by casual charity. Very probably he has adopted the
life of an anchorite because he is idle, and finds it easier to depend
on others than to gain his own bread. It is common to see the Arabs on
their way to leave a deposit of bread or other food, and sometimes
money, with this recluse, more especially on Friday, when he receives
numerous visitors.
My brother, during a long visit to the pyramids in 1825, occupied one of
the tombs of which the Nubian has now taken possession. They are
excavated in the eastern front of the rocky eminence on which stands the
Great Pyramid. At that time a family consisting of a little old man
(named ’Alee), his wife (who was not half his equal in age), and a
little daughter, occupied a neighbouring grotto; guarding some
antiquities deposited there by Caviglia. Besides these, my brother had
no nearer neighbours than the inhabitants of a village about a mile
distant. The Sheykh ’Alee made himself useful in bringing water from a
well which Caviglia had dug in the sandy plain, just at the foot of the
slope before the grottoes. He was a poor half-witted creature, but
possessed strong feelings, as was exemplified by an occurrence which
happened during my brother’s stay at the pyramids. One afternoon, his
cook had sent old ’Alee’s little girl to the neighbouring village to
purchase some tobacco. The child not having returned by sunset my
brother became uneasy, and despatched a servant to search for her, and
bring her back. ’Alee had also become anxious, and had sent his wife for
the same purpose; but when the night had closed in, and he had received
no tidings of the little girl, he became almost frantic: he beat his
breast, stamped on the ground, and continued for some time incessantly
screaming, “Yá Mebrookeh! yá Mebrookeh!” (the name of the child,
signifying blessed.) After my brother had endeavoured for a little while
to pacify him, he set off towards the village. About five minutes more
elapsed, and my brother was sitting before the grotto, wondering that no
one had returned, and that not even his two Bedawee guards had come as
usual, when he was alarmed by loud and piteous cries in the desert plain
before him. Leaving a servant in the grotto—for a strange youth was
there—my brother ran towards the spot whence the voice seemed to issue.
As it was dark, he could see nothing; but after he had proceeded some
distance, he heard the following words repeated very rapidly over and
over again. “I testify that there is no deity but God, and I testify
that Mohammad is God’s apostle;”—and soon he found poor old ’Alee lying
on the ground. He told my brother that an ’efreet (or demon) had seized
him by the throat, and thrown sand into his mouth, and that he was
almost suffocated. (It seems that the Arabs are subject to a spasm in
the throat, which they attribute to the above cause.) The two Bedawees,
in the meantime, whom the servant and ’Alee’s wife had engaged to assist
them in their search, had found the child, and were, like my brother,
drawn to that spot by the old man’s cries. They helped him to walk back,
but the poor creature had been so terrified and distressed, that for
several days after he was quite idiotic.
On the second day after my brother had taken up his quarters at the
pyramids, a young Bedawee—the stranger I have mentioned—claimed from him
the rights of hospitality. He remained with him until he quitted his
sepulchral abode, and, being a very clever and witty youth, amused him
exceedingly, every evening while he was smoking his pipe, by reciting
stories and verses from the popular romance of ’Aboo-Zeyd: but at the
same time he gave much offence to my brother’s Egyptian servants, by his
contempt of the felláheen (or peasants). He had deserted from the
Pasha’s army of regular troops, as he frankly confessed; and was afraid
to enter the villages, lest he should be recognised, and sent to the
camp. When my brother was leaving the pyramids, he asked this young man
what he would now do for provision, as he dared not enter the villages.
He replied, “Who brought _you_ here? God is bountiful.”
On the occasion of our visit to the pyramids, my brother inquired of our
guards if they knew or remembered poor old ’Alee, to which one of them
replied that he was his son, and that he had been dead for some years.
He then inquired whether Mebrookeh was living—“Yes,” answered the man,
“she is well and married, and the mother of two children.” He went on to
assure my brother he remembered his former visits well, and there was
something satisfactory in the prospect of being guarded by one man, at
least, who, for old acquaintance sake, might be on the alert. This man,
though especially remarkable for his honesty, is not distinguished for
his social virtues—he has married ten wives, and says he would marry
twenty if he could afford to do so; asserting that although he has
divorced several, he has only done so because they deserved it, for that
they failed in their duty to him, notwithstanding his kindness to them.
According to his own account, he was always good to them; he never
reviled, but _only_ beat them! The facility of divorce is a prodigious
evil; often productive of want and misery. It is sadly common to find
wives rejected for some trifling offence; when a kind admonition would
have shown them all that had been amiss in their conduct, and would have
rendered them valuable helpmates. I grieve to say that wives here are
generally divorced merely from caprice.
Our guards, three in number, were remarkably picturesque objects; more
like Bedawees than like peasants; belonging to a tribe which, not many
years ago, exchanged the life of desert-wanderers for that of
agriculturists; and having retained the dress of their fathers, which
consists chiefly of a loose shirt, and a kind of blanket, which
envelopes the body, and gives to the wearer an appearance quite
primeval. It was at first amusing but at last very tiresome, to hear
these men calling to each other during the whole night, as though they
feared their companions might be asleep; their constant repetition of,
“Open your eyes! open your eyes well!” effectually kept us watching
also. One guard lay outside the tent, close to my head, and amused
himself by singing constantly. I should have been very happy if
something more substantial than canvass had separated me from such a
lively neighbour. We rose in the morning fatigued, but the invigorating
desert-air soon revived us; and we set out on our adventures with
becoming energy.
The bed of rock on which the Great Pyramid is situated is about one
hundred and fifty feet above the sandy plain which intervenes between it
and the cultivated land. It is a soft testaceous limestone, abounding
particularly with those little petrifactions described by Strabo as
found in great quantities around the pyramids, and supposed to be
_petrified lentils_, the leavings of the workmen who built the pyramids!
These abound in many parts of the chain of mountains by which the valley
of the Nile is confined on this side. The stone, when newly cut, is of a
whitish colour; but, by exposure to the air, it becomes darker, and
assumes a yellowish tint. The level parts and slopes of the rock are
covered with sand and pebbles and fragments of stone, among which are
found pieces of granite and porphyry, rock crystal, agates, and
abundance of petrified shells, &c.
The Great Pyramid is that which is described by Herodotus as the work of
a Pharaoh named Cheops, whom Diodorus Siculus calls Chemmis. Diodorus
adds, that some attributed this pyramid to a king named Armæus.
According to Manetho (a better authority in that case), it was founded
by Suphis, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty, which was the second
dynasty of the Memphite kings.
Colonel Vyse’s most interesting discoveries of the hieroglyphic names of
the royal founders of the first and third pyramids afford remarkable
confirmations of the truth of the statements of Manetho and others
respecting these monuments. The name of the founder of the Great Pyramid
in hieroglyphics, according to the pronunciation of different dialects
is Shofo, or Khofo; the former nearly agreeing with the Suphis of
Manetho, the latter with the Cheops of Herodotus.
The height of the Great Pyramid is not much greater than that of the
second; the former having lost several ranges at the top; while the
upper part of the latter is nearly entire; but the base of the former is
considerably larger, though the difference is not very remarkable to the
eye, and in the solidity and regularity of its construction, it is
vastly superior.
The pleasure which is felt by the modern traveller in surveying the
pyramids is not a little increased by the consideration of their
venerable antiquity, and the reflection that many philosophers and
heroes of ancient times have in like manner stood before them, wrapt in
admiration and amazement. The stupendous magnitude of the Great Pyramid
is most clearly apparent when the observer places himself near one of
its angles. The view of the pyramid from this point, though the best
that can be obtained, cannot convey an adequate idea of its size; for a
gap in the angle, which appears to be near the summit, is not much more
than half-way up. Thus greatly is the eye deceived by this extraordinary
object.
Each side of the base of the Great Pyramid is seven hundred and
thirty-three feet square, and the perpendicular height is four hundred
and fifty-six feet, according to my brother’s measurement. It consists
of two hundred and three courses, or layers of stone; therefore the
average height of a single course is about two feet and a quarter: but
the courses vary in height from about _four_ feet to _one_ foot. The
lower courses are higher than the rest; and the lowest is hewn out of
the solid rock; as is also part of the second. Opposite the angle from
which my brother’s view was taken, about twelve feet distant, is a
square place, twelve feet in width, and between two and three inches in
depth; apparently marking the place of the original corner-stone of the
pyramid. About the middle of each side of the pyramid, the exterior
stones have been much broken by the masses which have been rolled down
from above; but at the angles they are more entire, and _there_,
consequently, the ascent is not difficult. The upper and lower surfaces
of the stones are smoothly cut; but the sides have been left very rough,
and in many cases, not square: the interstices being filled up with a
coarse cement, of a pinkish colour. This cement is, in some parts,
almost as hard as the stone itself; and sometimes very difficult to
detach. Among the dust and small fragments of stone which have crumbled
away from the sides and yet rest upon the upper surfaces of the steps,
or exterior stones, we find a great number of the small petrifactions in
the form of lentils, which I have before mentioned.
Dr. Lipsius lately gave, at a meeting of the Egyptian Society in this
city, a very interesting account of the mode in which the Great Pyramid,
and similar monuments, appear to have been constructed, as suggested by
Mr. Wild, an English architect, accompanying the Doctor. The following
engraving will explain the description of the system which appears to
have been adopted:—
[Illustration:
f
e c e
d b a b d
]
A structure of moderate size, _a_ with its sides slightly inclining
inwards, containing, or covering the sepulchral chamber, and with a flat
top, was first raised. Then a structure, _bb_, the same height as the
former, with its exterior sides similarly inclined, and its top flat,
was raised around. Next, another structure, _c_, was raised on the
first. Another circumstructure, _dd_, was raised around that marked
_bb_; then another, _ee_, around the structure _c_, then another
structure, _f_, upon the latter. After this manner, the building
probably continued to increase (like the royal tombs at Thebes) as long
as the founder reigned. The structure was finished, as Herodotus says,
from the top downwards. A small pyramid being constructed on the top,
occupying the whole of the highest platform, and the angles formed by
the other platforms, and the sides of the structures against which they
were built being filled up, the simple pyramidal form was made out. The
several platforms composed convenient ample stages on which to raise the
massive stones employed in the construction. This mode of construction
was certainly practised in some of the pyramids, and most probably in
all, excepting those of very small dimensions. That the Great Pyramid
and others originally presented plane sides has been proved by Colonel
Vyse.
On each side of the Great Pyramid is an accumulation of fragments of
stone and mortar which have fallen down from the summit and sides of the
building, and have composed a very compact mass, which rises, in the
centre, to about fifty feet above the base. The sand of the desert has
contributed but little to augment these slopes of rubbish, which are
nearly of the same height on each side of the pyramid. That on the
northern side forms a convenient acclivity to the entrance.
The ascent to the summit of the Great Pyramid is not dangerous, though
rather tedious, as the description of the exterior must have shown. At,
or near, any of the angles, there is, on almost every course, or range
of stones, a secure and wide footing; but some of the steps are
breast-high; and these, of course, are awkward masses to climb. I had
fully determined to attempt the ascent; but the wind was so high during
the period of our visit, that I dared not do so. On some other occasion
I hope to be more fortunate.
Many stones have been thrown down from the top of the Great Pyramid,
which consequently wants about twenty-five feet (or perhaps something
more) of its original height; for, without doubt, it terminated in a
point. It appears, therefore, that its original height was, at the
least, four hundred and eighty feet. It is worthy of remark that
Diodorus Siculus describes the top of the pyramid as being six cubits
(or nine feet) square; Pliny states it to have been, in his time,
twenty-five feet; or, according to some copies of his work, fifteen
feet; the latter of which readings must be considered the more correct.
Several courses of stone have been thrown down in later ages; so that
now, on arriving at the summit, there is a platform thirty-three feet
square, upon which, near the eastern edge, are a few stones yet
remaining of two upper courses. Upon these the names of many travellers
are cut. The platform is quite flat; the stones being well joined and
cemented. The ascent to the summit generally occupies between fifteen
and twenty minutes.
The view from the summit of the Great Pyramid is described by my brother
as being of a most extraordinary nature. On the eastern side the eye
ranges over an extensive verdant plain, watered by numerous canals, and
interspersed with villages erected upon mounds of rubbish, and
surrounded by palm-trees. In the distance is the Nile; beyond which are
seen the lofty minarets and citadel of Cairo, backed by the low yellow
range of Mount Mukattam. Turning towards the opposite side, the
traveller beholds a scene exactly the reverse: instead of palm-groves
and corn-fields, he sees only the undulating sandy hills of the great
Syrian Desert. The view of the second pyramid, from this commanding
situation, is extremely grand. A small portion of the third pyramid is
also seen; with one of the small pyramids on its southern side. The
space which lies on the west of the Great Pyramid, and north of the
second, is covered with oblong tombs, having the form of truncated
pyramids; which from that height appear like patches of gravel. The head
of the Great Sphinx, and the distant pyramids of Aboo-Seer, Sakkárah,
and Dahshoor, are seen towards the south-southeast.
About half an hour or more after sunset, the gloom contributed much to
the grandeur and solemnity of the scene. On one occasion my brother
ascended the Great Pyramid about two hours before daybreak, and waited
upon the summit until sunrise. He found it extremely cold, and the wind,
sweeping up the northern side of the pyramid, sounded like a distant
cataract. The second pyramid was at first faintly discernible, appearing
of vastly more than even real magnitude. Soon after, its eastern side
was lighted up by the rising moon; and the effect was truly sublime.
On the second day after he had taken up his quarters at the pyramids,
during the visit to which I have referred, he went out without his
pistols; and in the evening one of his guards reproved him for having
done so. “How easy,” he observed, “would it be for one of our people
(the Bedawees) to rob you, and, if you resisted, to murder you, and
throw you down one of the mummy-pits, and who would ever know what was
become of you?” On the following day he ascended the Great Pyramid
alone, but not unarmed. While on the summit, he perceived a solitary
Arab, making towards the pyramid, from the west. He began to ascend the
southwestern angle; and when he arrived about half-way up, little
thinking that my brother’s telescope was directed towards him, he
stopped, and took out a pistol from a case which was slung by his side,
looked at it, and then continued the ascent. As it was evident that the
fellow had no good intentions, my brother called to him, and desired him
to descend; but he either did not hear him, or would not obey. My
brother then discharged a pistol, to show him that he was not without
the means of defence. Upon this, he immediately began to return, and,
having reached the base, walked slowly away into the desert.
Under the present government, travellers seldom are subjected to any
danger from the natives in this or any other part of Egypt; but from the
crowding and importunity of the Arab guides at the pyramids they
generally suffer much annoyance. They are always attended for a
considerable distance, sometimes even from El-Geezeh, by a party of
Arabs who are in the habit of extorting money from the traveller on the
top of the Great Pyramid before they will suffer him to descend. A few
days ago, a gentleman of distinction bargained with some of these men to
attend him to the summit of the Great Pyramid; and when they had done
so, they claimed the promised payment, saying that they had fulfilled
their engagement. Being afraid to descend without their aid, he was
compelled to submit to their exactions, and paid them five dollars.
[Illustration: SECTION OF PASSAGES]