M. Jomard, in the _Description de l'Egypte_, drawn up by the French
Academicians, remarks in vol. ii. p. 182, that looking to the length of
the cavity or interior of the sarcophagus in the King's Chamber, that it
could not hold within it a cartonage or mummy case, enclosing a man of
the ordinary height. This statement proceeds entirely upon a
miscalculation. The length of the interior or cavity of the sarcophagus
is six and a half English feet; and the average stature of the ancient
Egyptians, "judging from their mummies, did not" observes Mr. Kenrick,
"exceed five feet and a half." (See his _Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. p. 97.)
The space thus left, of one foot, is much more than sufficient for the
thickness of the two ends of a cartonage or mummy case; and the embalmed
body was generally, or indeed always, closely packed within them. The
length of the coffin was, long ago, quaintly observed Professor
Greaves, "large enough to contain a most potent and dreadful monarch
being dead, to whom, living, all Egypt was too strait and narrow a
circuit" (_Works_, i. p. 131).
V.--MEMORANDUM ON THE CUBIT OF MEMPHIS AND THE SACRED CUBIT, BY SIR
HENRY JAMES. (_Page_ 242.)
Sir Isaac Newton says, "for the precise determination of the cubit of
Memphis I should choose to pitch upon the length of the chamber in the
middle of the Pyramid, where the king's monument stood, which length
contained 20 cubits, and was very carefully measured by Mr. Greaves."
(_See_ vol. ii. p. 362 of Professor Smyth's _Life at the Pyramids_,
etc.)
Greaves' measures of the King's chamber are given at p. 335, vol. ii. of
the same work.