All authors, from the Father of History downwards, have generally agreed
in considering the pyramids of Egypt as magnificent and regal
sepulchres; and the sarcophagi, etc., of the dead have been found in
them when first opened for the purposes of plunder or curiosity. The
pyramidal sepulchral mounds on the banks of the Boyne were opened and
rifled in the ninth century by the invading Dane, as told in different
old Irish annals; and the Pyramids of Gizeh, etc., were reputedly broken
into and harried in the same century by the Arabian Caliph, Al
Mamoon,--the entrances and galleries blocked up by stones being forced
and turned, and in some parts the solid masonry perforated. The largest
of the Pyramids of Gizeh--or "the Great Pyramid," as it is generally
termed--is now totally deprived of the external polished limestone
coating which covered it at the time of Herodotus's visit, some
twenty-two centuries ago; and "now" (writes Mr. Smyth) "is so injured as
to be, in the eyes of some passing travellers, little better than a
heap of stones." But all the internal built core of the magnificent
structure remains, and contains in its interior (besides a rock chamber
below) two higher built chambers or crypts above--the so-called King's
Chamber and Queen's chamber--with galleries and apartments leading to
them. The walls of these galleries and upper chambers are built with
granite and limestone masonry of a highly-finished character. This, the
largest and most gigantic of the many pyramids of Egypt, had been
calculated by Major Forlong (Asso. Inst. C. Engrs.), as a structure
which in the East would cost about L1,000,000. Over India, and the East
generally, enormous sums had often been expended on royal sepulchres.
The Taj Mahal of Agra, built by the Emperor Shah Jahan for his favourite
queen, cost perhaps double or triple this sum; and yet it formed only a
portion of an intended larger mausoleum which he expected to rear for
himself. The great Pyramid contains in its interior, and directly over
the King's Chamber, five entresols or "chambers of construction," as
they have been termed, intended apparently to take off the enormous
weight of masonry from the cross stones forming the roof of the King's
Chamber itself. These entresols are chambers, small and unpolished, and
never intended to be opened. But in two or three of them, broken into by
Colonel H. Vyse, a most interesting discovery was made about thirty
years ago. The surfaces of some of the stones were found painted over in
red ochre or paint, with rudish hieroglyphics--being, as first shown by
Mr. Birch, quarry marks, written on the stones 4000 years ago, and
hence, perhaps, forming the oldest preserved writing in the world. These
accidental hieroglyphics usually marked only the number and position of
the individual stones. Among them, however, Mr. Birch discovered two
royal ovals, viz., Shufu (the Cheops of Herodotus) and Nu Shufu--"a
brother" (writes Professor Symth) "of Shufu, also a king and a co-regent
with him." Most, if not all, of the other pyramids are believed to have
been erected by individual kings during their individual or separate
reigns. If these hieroglyphics proved that _two_ kings were connected
with the building of the Great Pyramid, that circumstance would perhaps
account for its size and the duplicity and position of its sepulchral
chambers.[241]
The pyramid standing next the Great Pyramid, and nearly of equal size,
is said by Herodotus to have been raised by the brother of Cheops. The
other pyramids at Gizeh are usually regarded as later in date. But the
exact era of the reign or reigns of their builders has not as yet been
determined, in consequence of the break made in Egyptian chronology by
the invasion of the Shepherd Kings.
In their mode of building, the various pyramids of Gizeh, etc., are all
similar, and the Great Pyramid does not specially differ from the
others. "There is nothing" (observes Professor Smyth) "in the
stone-upon-stone composition of the Great Pyramid which speaks of the
mere building problem to be solved there, as being of a different
character, or requiring inventions by man of absolutely higher order
than elsewhere." But the Great Pyramid has been imagined to contain some
hidden symbols and meanings. For "it is the manner of the Pyramid"
(according to Professor Smyth) "not to wear its most vital truths in
prominent outside positions."