There are said to be in Upper Egypt thirty-four temples, still in
existence, and five palaces. The most ancient have been constructed
chiefly of sand-stone, and a few with calcareous stone. Granite was only
used in obelisks and colossal statues. After the seat of empire was
removed to Memphis, granite was made use of.
Memphis, according to Herodotus, was built (eight generations after
Thebes) by Menes; but Diodorus attributes its origin to Uchoreus, one of
the successors of Osymandyas, king of Thebes. To reconcile this want of
agreement, some authors ascribe the commencement to Menes, and its
completion and aggrandisement to Uchoreus, who first made it a royal
city.
The occasion of its having been erected, is thus stated[357]:--A king of
Egypt having turned the course of the Nile, which diffused itself over
the sands of Lybia, and the Delta being formed from the mud of its
waters, canals were cut to drain Lower Egypt. The monarchs, who till
then had resided at Thebes, removed nearer the mouth of the river, to
enjoy an air more temperate, and be more ready to defend the entrance of
their empire. They founded the city of Memphis, and endeavoured to
render it equal to the ancient capital; decorating it with many temples,
among which that of Vulcan drew the attention of travellers: its
grandeur and sumptuousness of rich ornaments, each excited admiration.
Another temple beside the barren plain was dedicated to Serapis, the
principal entrance to which had a sphinx avenue. Egypt has always been
oppressed with sands, which, accumulating here, half buried some of the
sphinxes, and others up to the neck, in the time of Strabo; at present
they have disappeared. To prevent this disaster, they built a large
mound on the south side, which also served as a barrier against the
inundations of the river, and the encroachments of the enemy. The palace
of the kings and a fortress built on the mountain, defended it on the
west; the Nile on the east; and to the north were the lakes, beyond
which were the plain of mummies, and the causeway which led from Busiris
to the great pyramids. Thus situated, Memphis commanded the valley of
Egypt, and communicated by canals with the lakes Moeris and Mareotis.
Its citizens might traverse the kingdom in boats; and it therefore
became the centre of wealth, commerce, and arts; where geometry,
invented by the Egyptians, flourished. Hither the Greeks came to obtain
knowledge, which, carrying into their own country, they brought to
perfection. Thebes, and her hundred gates, lay forgotten, and on the
hill near Memphis, rose those proud monuments, those superb mausoleums,
which alone, of all the Wonders of the World, have braved destructive
time, and men still more destructive.
Strabo says, that in this city there were many palaces, situated along
the side of a hill, stretching down to lakes and groves, forty stadia
from the city. "The principal deities of Memphis," says Mr. Wilkinson,
"were Pthah, Apis, and Butastis; and the goddess Isis had a magnificent
temple in this city, erected by Amasis, who also dedicated a recumbent
colossus, seventy-five feet long, in the temple of Pthah or Vulcan.
This last was said to have been founded by Menes, and was enlarged and
beautified by succeeding monarchs. Moeris erected the northern
vestibule; and Sesostris, besides the colossal statues, made
considerable additions with enormous blocks of stone, which he employed
his prisoners of war to drag to the temple. Pheron, his son, also
enriched it with suitable presents, on the recovery of his sight; and on
the south of the temple of Palain, were added the sacred grove and
chapel of Proteons. The western vestibule was the work of Rhampsinetus,
who also erected two statues, twenty-five cubits in height; and that on
the east was Asychis. It was the largest and most magnificent of all
these propyla, and excelled as well in the beauty of its sculpture as
its dimensions. Several grand additions were afterwards made by
Psamaticus, who, besides the southern vestibule, erected a large
hypæthral court, where Apis was kept, when exhibited in public. It was
surrounded by a peristyle of figures, twelve cubits in height, which
served instead of columns, and which were no doubt similar to those in
the Memnonium at Thebes."
Diodorus and Strabo speak highly of its power and opulence:--"Never was
there a city," observes the former of these, "which received so many
offerings in silver, gold, obelisks, and colossal statues."
The first shock this city received was from the Persians[358]. Cambyses,
having invaded Egypt, sent a herald to Memphis, to summon the
inhabitants to surrender. The people, however, transported with rage,
fell upon the herald, and tore him to pieces, and all that were with
him. Cambyses, having soon after taken the place, fully revenged the
indignity, causing ten times as many Egyptians of the prime nobility,
as there had been of his people massacred, to be publicly executed.
Among these was the eldest son of Psammenitus. As for the king himself,
Cambyses was inclined to treat him kindly. He not only spared his life,
but appointed him an honourable maintenance. But the Egyptian monarch,
little affected by this kind usage, did what he could to raise new
troubles and commotions, in order to recover his kingdom; as a
punishment for which he was made to drink bull's blood, and died
immediately. His reign lasted but six months; after which all Egypt
submitted to the conqueror.
When the tyrant came back from Thebes, he dismissed all the Greeks, and
sent them to their respective homes; but on his return into the city,
finding it full of rejoicing, he fell into a great rage, supposing all
this to have been for the ill success of his expedition. He therefore
called the magistrates before him, to know the meaning of these
rejoicings; and upon their telling him that it was because they had
found their god, Apis, he would not believe them; but caused them to be
put to death, as impostors, that insulted him in his misfortunes. And
when he sent for the priests, who made him the same answer, he replied,
that since their god was so kind and familiar as to appear among them,
he would be acquainted with him, and therefore commanded him forthwith
to be brought to him. But when, instead of a god be saw a calf, he was
strangely astonished, and falling again into a rage, he drew out his
dagger, and run it into the thigh of the beast; and then upbraiding the
priests for their stupidity in worshipping a brute for a god, ordered
them to be severely whipped, and all the Egyptians in Memphis, that
should be found celebrating the feast of Apis, to be slain. The god was
carried back to the temple, where he languished for some time and then
died. The Egyptians say, that after this fact, which they reckon the
highest instance of impiety that ever was committed among them, Cambyses
grew mad. But his actions show that he had been mad long before.
The splendour of Upper Egypt terminated with the invasion of Cambyses.
He carried with him not only conquest, but destruction. His warfare was
not merely with the people, but with their palaces and temples.
At a subsequent period, Memphis was taken by Alexander. The account we
give of that event is from the same author[359]. As soon as Alexander
had ended the siege of Gaza, he left a garrison there, and turned the
whole power of his army towards Egypt. In seven days' march he arrived
before Pelusium, whither a great number of Egyptians had assembled, with
all imaginable diligence, to recognize him for their sovereign. The
hatred these people bore to the Persians was so great, that they valued
very little who should be their king, provided they could but meet with
a hero, to rescue them from the insolence and indignity with which
themselves, and those who professed their religion, were treated. Ochus
had caused their god Apis to be murdered, in a manner highly injurious
to themselves and their religion; and the Persians, to whom he had left
the government, continued to make the same mock of that deity. Thus
several circumstances had rendered the Persians so odious, that upon
Amyntas's coming a little before with a handful of men, he found them
prepared to join, and assist him in expelling the Persians.
This Amyntas had deserted from Alexander, and entered into the service
of Darius. He had commanded the Grecian forces at the battle of Issus;
and having fled into Syria, by the country lying toward Tripoli, with
four thousand men, he had there seized upon as many vessels as he
wanted, burned the rest, and immediately set sail towards the island of
Cyprus, and afterwards towards Pelusium, which he took by surprise. As
soon as he found himself possessed of this important city, he threw off
the mask, and made public pretensions to the crown of Egypt; declaring
that the motive of his coming was to expel the Persians. Upon this, a
multitude of Egyptians, who wished for nothing so earnestly as to free
themselves from these insupportable tyrants, went over to him. He then
marched directly to Memphis, when, coming to a battle, he defeated the
Persians, and shut them up in the city. But, after he had gained the
victory, having neglected to keep his soldiers together, they straggled
up and down in search of plunder, which the enemy seeing, they sallied
out upon such as remained, and cut them to pieces, with Amyntas their
leader. This event, so far from lessening the aversion the Egyptians had
for the Persians, increased it still more; so that the moment Alexander
appeared upon the frontiers, the people, who were all disposed to
receive that monarch, ran in crowds to submit to him. His arrival, at
the head of a powerful army, presented them with a secure protection,
which Amyntas could not afford them; and, from this consideration, they
all declared openly in his favour. Mazæus, who commanded in Memphis,
finding it would be to no purpose for him to resist so triumphant an
army, since Darius, his sovereign, was not in a condition to succour
him, set open the gates of the city to the conqueror, and gave up eight
hundred talents, (about £140,000,) and all the king's furniture. Thus
Alexander possessed himself of all Egypt, without the least opposition.
On the founding of Alexandria by the Macedonian conqueror, Memphis lost
the honour of being the metropolis of Egypt; and its history became so
obscure, that little knowledge of it is preserved in history. We must,
therefore, now content ourselves with stating to what a condition it is
now reduced.
Of this celebrated city, which, according to Diodorus Siculus, was not
less than seven leagues in circumference, and contained a multitude of
beautiful temples, not one stone remains to tell the history; even the
site on which it stood being disputed. "Is it not astonishing," says
Savary, "that the site of the ancient metropolis of Egypt, a city
containing magnificent temples and palaces, which art laboured to render
eternal, should at present be a subject of dispute among the learned?
Pliny removes the difficulty of past doubts--the three grand pyramids,
seen by the watermen from all parts, stand on a barren and rocky hill,
between Memphis and Delta, one league from the Nile, two from Memphis,
and near the village of Busiris." Rennell, however, says, that Memf is
on the site of Memphis; since Abulfeda describes it as being a _short_
day's journey from Cairo: Memf being only fourteen road miles from that
city. M. Maillet says, "The most probable opinion is, that this superb
city was built at the entrance of the town of mummies, at the north of
which the pyramids are placed: the prodigious ruins which present
themselves in this spot will serve for a long time as proofs of the
greatness of that city, of which they are remains, and the incontestible
evidences of its true position." Again, he says, that "out of so many
superb monuments, &c., there remain only at present some shapeless ruins
of broken columns of ruined obelisks, and some other buildings fallen to
decay, which one still discovers at the bottom of the lake, when the
increase of the Nile is too small to furnish it with its usual supply of
water. This circumstance has twice happened during my seventeen years'
consulship, particularly in the year 1677, when the surface of the lake
sank between eight and nine feet, and discovered at the bottom of this
vast reservoir a kind of city, which excited the admiration of every
one. This lake can never be dried up, or drawn off again as before;
because they have neglected to keep up the canal which served to drain
off the water. There are, also, some heaps of ruins in the plain of
three leagues in width, that separates the northern from the southern
pyramids, and in which this ancient city extended from the borders of
the lake towards the Nile eastward. These are the faint traces of so
much magnificence."
Dr. Shaw is of opinion that Djizeh, or Giseh, now occupies the site of
Memphis; and that the city is entirely buried in soil. Other
authorities, however, place it, and perhaps with greater probability,
near the village of Menshee or Dashoo. Norden says: "If we give credit
to some authors, the city of Memphis was situated in the place where at
present stands the village of Gize, and I own that this opinion does not
want probability. But if we attend to it carefully, we shall find it
necessary to strike off a great deal of grandeur of that ancient capital
of Egypt, or else raise extremely all the plains about it. In effect,
Gize does not occupy half the space of Old Cairo, and the plains that
extend all round never fail to be deluged at the time of the overflowing
of the waters of the Nile. It is incredible, that they should have built
a city, so great and famous, in a place subject to be under water half
of the year; still less can it be imagined that the ancient authors have
forgotten so particular a place."
Mr. Browne says: "I visited the pleasant site of the ancient Memphis on
the left bank of the Nile, about two hours to the south of Kahira, in a
plain about three miles broad, between the river and the mountains. The
land is now laid down in corn, with date-trees toward the mountains.
Nothing remains except heaps of rubbish, in which are found pieces of
sculptured stone. The spot has been surrounded by a canal. Its extent
might be marked by that of the ground where remains are dug up, and
which is always overgrown with a kind of thistle, that seems to thrive
among the ruins. None of the fine marbles, which are scattered so
profusely at Alexandria, are discoverable here; whether it be that they
were never used, or were carried away to adorn other cities."[360]
But though the site of the city is not absolutely known, certain it is,
that many wonderful erections in its neighbourhood denote its former
grandeur, power, and magnificence. These are the Catacombs, the Sphinx,
the lake of Moeris, and the Pyramids.
"The entrances into the Catacombs," says the Earl of Sandwich, "where
the inhabitants of the neighbouring city of Memphis entombed their
embalmed bodies, are near the last Pyramid of Sakara. The greatest part
of the plain of Sakara is hollowed into subterraneous cavities, all cut
out of the solid rock; not of a hard nature, but yielding to the least
violence. The entrances are many in number; and are in form a square of
three feet, and about twenty feet deep. The vaults contain embalmed
bodies, scattered in confusion, and many of them broken in pieces. These
have been taken out of their chests or coffins; and after having been
ransacked in search of any idol of value, which are frequently found
within the bodies, thrown aside by persons, who would not be at the
trouble of carrying them away. The farther the recesses are penetrated,
however, the bodies are much more entire, and everything less
disturbed. These subterraneous passages are divided into many different
chambers; in the sides of which are to be seen a multitude of
perpendicular niches, of sufficient height to contain the bodies
upright."
A little to the east of the second pyramid, is the SPHINX, cut out of
the same rock upon which the pyramids are built. The length is about
twenty-five feet; and its height, from the knees to the top of the hand,
thirty-eight feet.
"The sphinx," says Mr. Wilkinson, "stands nearly opposite the south end
of the pyramid Cephren: between its paws were discovered an altar and
some tablets; but no entrance was visible. Pliny says, they suppose it
the tomb of Amasis;--a tradition which arose, no doubt, from the
resemblance of the name of the king, by whose order the rock was cut
into this form. But one author has gone farther, and given to Amasis the
pyramids themselves. The cap of the sphinx, probably the pshent, has
long since been removed; but a cavity in the head, attests its former
position, and explains the mode in which it was fixed. The mutilated
state of the face, and the absence of the nose, have led many to the
erroneous conclusion, that the features were African; but by taking an
accurate sketch of the face, and restoring the Egyptian nose, any one
may convince himself, that the lips, as well as the rest of the
features, perfectly agree with the physiognomy of a Pharaoh; for the
reader must be aware, that this, and all other sphinxes, are emblematic
representations of Egyptian kings."
Between the paws of the sphinx, a perfect temple was discovered, a few
years ago, by the intrepid traveller Belzoni, on clearing away the sand
by which it had been choked up for ages.
This figure was[361], a few years ago, at an expense of 800 or 900_l._
(contributed by some European gentlemen,) cleared from the sand which
had accumulated in front of it, under the superintendence of Captain
Caviglia.
The noblest and most wonderful of all the structures[362] or works of
the kings of Egypt, was the lake of Moeris; accordingly, Herodotus
considers it as vastly superior to the pyramids and labyrinth. As Egypt
was more or less fruitful in proportion to the inundations of the Nile;
and as, in these floods, the first general flow or ebb of the waters
were equally fertile to the land; King Moeris, to prevent these two
inconveniences, and correct, as far as lay in his power, the
irregularities of the Nile, thought proper to call art to the assistance
of nature; and so caused the lake to be dug, which afterwards went by
his name. This lake was several thousand paces long, and very deep. Two
pyramids, on each of which stood a colossal statue, seated on a throne,
raised their heads to the height of three hundred feet, in the midst of
the lake, whilst their foundations took up the same space under the
waters; a proof that they were erected before the cavity was filled; and
a demonstration that a lake of such vast extent, was the work of man's
hands, in one prince's reign. This is what several historians have
related concerning the Lake Moeris, on the testimony of the inhabitants
of the country. This lake had a communication with the Nile, by a great
canal, four leagues long, and fifty feet broad. Great sluices either
opened or shut the canal and lake, as there was occasion.
When it is considered, that the object of this work was the advantage
and comfort of a numerous people, all must agree, with M. Savary, that
Moeris, who constructed it, performed a far more glorious work than
either the labyrinth or the pyramids.
At present, this lake is of a much smaller extent: but this by no means
proves that Herodotus and other writers were deceived in their
calculations; for, considering the revolutions to which Egypt has been
subject for a series of two thousand years, it might have undergone
still greater changes.
For the period of nearly one thousand two hundred years, since which
Egypt has fallen into the hands of barbarous nations, they have either
destroyed, or suffered to perish, the chief part of this lake, and the
canal belonging to it. The Moereotis is dried up, the canal of
Alexandria is no longer navigable, and the Moeris is only fifty leagues
in circumference. "If," says an enlightened writer, "the Canal of Joseph
was cleared out, where the mud is raised up to a vast height; if the
ancient dykes were re-established; and the sluices of the canals of
Tamich and Bouch restored; Lake Moeris would still serve the same
purposes. It would prevent the devastation of the too great swellings of
the rivers, and supply the deficiency of those that are inadequate. We
should see it, as on former occasions, extending itself from Nesle and
Arsinoe, to the Lybian mountains, and offering to astonished travellers
what is no where else to be seen;--a sea formed by the hand of man."
The annihilation of Memphian palaces and temples indeed is almost
compensated by the existence of the pyramids, which alone are sufficient
to engage the attention of mankind. The three largest are situated at
Gees, or Ghesa, and named from their founders, CHEOPS, CHEPHREN, and
MYCERINES; of these only we shall speak.
1. That of CHEOPS, the largest, is four hundred and forty-eight feet in
height, and seven hundred and twenty-eight on each side of the base:
that is, forty feet higher than St. Peter's, at Rome; and one hundred
and thirty-three feet higher than St. Paul's, in London.
This pyramid, like the rest, was built on a rock, having a square base,
cut on the outside as so many steps, and decreasing gradually quite to
the summit. It was built with stones of a prodigious size, the least of
which were thirty feet, wrought with wonderful art, and covered with
hieroglyphics. According to several ancient authors, each side was eight
hundred feet broad, and as many high. The summit of the pyramids, which,
to those who viewed it from below, seemed a point, was a fine platform,
composed of ten or twelve massy stones, and each side of that platform
sixteen or eighteen feet long.
It is also remarkable that the four sides of this, and indeed of all the
pyramids, face the cardinal points. The inside contained numberless
rooms and apartments. There were expressed on the pyramid, in Egyptian
characters, the sums it cost only in garlic, leeks, onions, and the
like, for the workmen; and the whole amounted to sixteen hundred talents
of silver; from whence it was easy to conjecture what a vast sum the
whole must have amounted to.
Herodotus ascribes this pyramid to Cheops, a tyrannical and profligate
sovereign. He barred the avenues to every temple, and forbade the
Egyptians to offer sacrifice to their gods; after which he compelled the
people at large to perform the work of slaves. Some he condemned to hew
stones out of the Arabian mountains, and drag them to the banks of the
Nile; others were stationed to receive the same in vessels, and
transport them to the edge of the Libyan Desert. In this service a
hundred thousand men were employed, who were relieved every three
months. Ten years were spent in the hard labour of forming the road on
which these stones were to be drawn,--a work of no less difficulty and
fatigue than the erection of the pyramid itself. This causeway is five
stadia in length, forty cubits wide, and its greatest height thirty-two
cubits; the whole being composed of polished marble, adorned with the
figures of animals. Ten years were consumed in forming this pavement, in
preparing the hill on which the pyramids are raised, and in excavating
chambers under the ground. The burial-place which he intended for
himself, he contrived to insulate within the building, by introducing
the waters of the Nile. The pyramid itself was a work of twenty years;
it is of a square form, every side being eight plethra in length and as
many in height. The stones are very skilfully cemented, and none of them
of less dimensions than thirty feet. Such is the account of Herodotus.
Pliny and Diodorus Siculus agree in stating that not less than three
hundred and sixty thousand men were employed in the work[363].
The pyramid next in size was erected by Cephrenus, and is thence called
CEPHREN: he was the son of Cheops. These two princes, who were truly
brothers by the similitude of their manners, seem to have striven which
of them should distinguish himself most, by a barefaced impiety towards
the gods, and a barbarous inhumanity to men. Cheops reigned fifty years,
and his son Cephrenus fifty-six years after him. They kept the temples
shut during the whole time of their long reigns, and forbade the
offering of sacrifices under the severest penalties. On the other hand,
they oppressed their subjects, by employing them in the most grievous
and useless works; and sacrificed the lives of numberless multitudes of
men, merely to gratify a senseless ambition of immortalising their names
by edifices of an enormous magnitude and a boundless expense. It is
remarkable, that those stately pyramids which have so long been the
admiration of the whole world, were the effect of the irreligion and
merciless cruelty of those princes.
The magnificent prospect from the top of this pyramid has been described
by the French traveller, Savary, who visited Egypt in 1770, in glowing
terms. After occupying seven hours in ascending to its summit, "the
morning light," says he, "discovered to us every moment new beauties:
the tops of gilded minarets, and of date-tree and citron groves, planted
round the villages and hills; anon the herds left the hamlets; the boats
spread their light sails, and our eyes followed them along the vast
windings of the Nile. On the north appeared sterile hills and barren
sands; on the south, the river and waving fields, vast as the ocean; to
the west, the plain of Fayum, famous for its roses: to the east, the
picturesque town of Gizeh, and the towers of Fostat, the minarets of
Cairo, and the castle of Saladin, terminated the prospect. Seated on the
most wonderful of the works of man, as upon a throne, our eyes beheld by
turns a dreadful desert; rich plains in which the Elysian fields had
been imagined; villages; a majestic river; and edifices which seemed the
work of giants. The universe contains no landscape more variegated, more
magnificent, or more awful."
The ancients knew little of the interior structure of these giant
piles.[364] Herodotus, who lived 445 years before Christ, merely speaks
of an entrance leading to the interior, by hearsay from the priests,
who informed him that there were secret vaults beneath, hewn out of the
natural rock. Strabo, who lived after the Christian era, only describes
a single slanting passage which led to a chamber in which was a stone
tomb. Diodorus Siculus, who lived forty-four years before Christ, agrees
with this; and Pliny, who lived A.D. 66, adds, that there was a well in
the Great Pyramid, eighty cubits deep. This is all the ancients have
said about the interior.
"The Egyptian priests, indeed, assured Aristides, a Greek traveller
about two centuries before Christ, that 'the excavations beneath were as
great as the height above.' And Ebn Abd Alkokim, an Arabic writer of the
ninth century, says, that the builders 'constructed numerous excavated
chambers, with gates to them, forty cubits under ground.' Other Arabian
writers say, that these chambers contain chests of black stone, in which
were deposited the sacred archives of king Saurid, who built the
pyramid. Many discoveries (perhaps a burial-place under ground)
obviously remain to be made.
"The same Arab historian, Alkokim, gives an account of the opening of
this building under the Caliphate, from which time it has remained in
the condition seen and described by all modern travellers, to the time
of the Italian traveller Caviglia, who made a discovery of a new chamber
and passages about ten years ago. 'After that, Almamon the Caliph (A.D.
820) entered Egypt, and saw the Pyramids: he desired to know what was
within, and therefore would have them opened. He was told it could not
possibly be done. He replied, I will have it certainly done. And that
hole was opened for him, which stands open to this day, with fire and
vinegar. Two smiths prepared and sharpened the iron and engines, which
they forced in: and there was a great expense in the opening it; and the
thickness of the wall was found to be twenty cubits. Within they found a
square well, and in the square of it there were doors: every door of it
opened into a house (or vault), in which there were dead bodies wrapped
up in linen. Towards the upper part of the pyramid, they found a
chamber, in which was a hollow stone; in it was a statue of stone, like
a man, and within it a man, upon whom was a breast-plate of gold, set
with jewels, and on him were written characters with a pen, which no man
can explain.'
"Greaves, an Englishman, who visited the Great Pyramid in 1648,
described the passages thus opened, and then open, very accurately, and
suspected that at the bottom of a well in the pyramid was the passage to
those secret vaults mentioned by Herodotus; but he made no new
discovery. Davison, who visited it in the middle of the eighteenth
century, discovered some secret chambers and passages connecting the
largest gallery with the central room, and an apartment four feet high
over it. He descended the well 155 feet, but found farther progress
blocked up. Caviglia was the first to discover the above suspected
passage. After much trouble in clearing the narrow opening at the end of
the first or entrance gallery of the pyramid, he found that it did not
terminate at that point, as hitherto supposed, but proceeded downwards
to the distance of two hundred feet. It ended in a doorway on the right,
which was found to communicate with the bottom of the well. But the new
passage did not terminate here: it went beyond the doorway twenty-three
feet, and then took a horizontal direction for twenty-eight more, where
it opened into a spacious chamber immediately under the central room.
"This new chamber is twenty-seven feet broad, and sixty-six feet long.
The floor is irregular; nearly one half of the length from the eastern,
or entrance end, being level, and about fifteen feet from the ceiling;
while, in the middle, it descends five feet lower, in which part there
is a hollow space bearing all the appearance of the commencement of a
well, or shaft. From thence it rises to the western end, so that there
is scarcely room between the floor and the ceiling to stand upright.
"On the south of this chamber is a passage hollowed out, just high and
wide enough for a man to creep along upon his hands and knees, which
continues in the rock for fifty-five feet, and then suddenly ends.
Another at the east end commences with a kind of arch, and runs about
forty feet into the solid body of the pyramid.
Mr. Salt, the late intelligent British Consul to Egypt, was so struck by
this discovery, as to express his belief that the under-ground rooms
were used for 'the performance of solemn and secret mysteries.'
"As to the second pyramid of Gizeh, the ancients knew less about it than
they did of the first. Herodotus says it has no under-ground chambers,
and the other ancient authorities are silent. But the enterprising
Belzoni found its entrance, in the north front, in 1818, and discovered,
at the same time, that it had been previously forced open by the Arabian
Caliph, Ali Mehemet, A.D. 782, more than a thousand years before. After
forcing an entrance, and advancing along a narrow passage, one hundred
feet long, he found a central chamber, forty-six feet long by sixteen
wide, and twenty-three high, cut out of the solid rock. It contained a
granite sarcophagus, (a tomb,) half sunk in the floor, with some bones
in it, which, on inspection by Sir Everard Home, proved to be those of a
cow. An Arabic inscription on the walls implies that it had been opened
in the presence of the Sultan Ali Mehemet[365]."
This pyramid was, as has been already said, opened by Belzoni. We shall
select another account of this enterprise.
"According to Herodotus, (whose information has generally been found
correct,) this pyramid was constructed without any internal chambers. M.
Belzoni, however, believed the fact might be otherwise; and having
reasons of his own for commencing his operations at a certain point, he
began his labours, and with so much foresight as actually to dig
directly down upon a forced entrance. But, even after this success, none
but a Belzoni would have had the perseverance to pursue the labour
required to perfect the discovery. It was by attending to the same kind
of indications, which had led him so successfully to explore the six
tombs of the kings in Thebes, that he was induced to commence his
operations on the north side.
"He set out from Cairo on the 6th of February, 1818, went to the Kaia
Bey, and gained permission; the Bey having first satisfied himself that
there was no tilled ground within a considerable distance of Ghiza. On
the 10th of February he began with six labourers in a vertical section
at right angles to the north side of the base, cutting through a mass of
stones and lime which had fallen from the upper part of the pyramid, but
were so completely aggregated together as to spoil the mattocks, &c.
employed in the operation. He persevered in making an opening fifteen
feet wide, working downwards, and uncovering the face of the pyramid.
During the first week there was but little prospect of meeting with
anything interesting; but on the 17th, one of the Arabs employed called
out with great vociferation that he had found the entrance. He had, in
fact, come upon a hole into which he could thrust his arm and a djerid
six feet long. Before night they ascertained that an aperture was there,
about three feet square, which had been closed irregularly with a hewn
stone. This being removed, they reached a larger opening, but filled
with rubbish and sand. M. Belzoni was now satisfied that this was not a
real, but a forced passage. Next day they had penetrated fifteen feet,
when stones and sand began to fall from above; these were removed, but
still they continued to fall in large quantities, when, after some more
days' labour, he discovered an upper forced entrance, communicating with
the outside from above. Having cleared this, he found another opening
running inward, which proved, on further search, to be a continuation of
the lower horizontal forced passage, nearly all choked up with rubbish.
This being removed, he discovered, about half way from the outside, a
descending forced passage, which terminated at the distance of forty
feet. He now continued to work in the horizontal passage, in hope that
it might lead to the centre, but it terminated at the depth of ninety
feet; and he found it prudent not to force it further, as the stones
were very loose over-head, and one actually fell, and had nearly killed
one of the people. He therefore now began clearing away the aggregated
stones and lime to the eastward of the forced entrance; but by this time
his retreat had been discovered, and he found himself much interrupted
by visitors.
"On the 28th of February he discovered, at the surface of the pyramid, a
block of granite, having the same direction as that of the passage of
the first pyramid, that of Cheops; and he now hoped that he was not far
from the true entrance. Next day he removed some large blocks, and on
the 2d of March he entered the true passage, an opening four feet high,
and three feet and a half wide, formed by blocks of granite, and
continued descending at an angle of about twenty-six degrees to the
length of one hundred and four feet five inches, lined all the length
with granite. From this passage he had to remove the stones with which
it was filled, and at its bottom was a door or portcullis of granite,
(fitted into a niche also made of granite,) supported at the height of
eight inches by small stones placed under it. Two days were occupied in
raising it high enough to admit of entrance. This door is one foot three
inches thick, and, with the granite niche, occupies seven feet of the
passage, where the granite work ends, and a short passage, gradually
ascending twenty-two feet seven inches towards the centre, the
descending commences; at the end of which is a perpendicular of fifteen
feet. On the left is a small forced passage cut in the rock; and above,
on the right, a forced passage running upward, and turning to the north
thirty feet, just over the portcullis. At the bottom of the
perpendicular, after removing some rubbish, he found the entrance of
another passage, which inclined northward. But, quitting this for the
present, he followed his prime passage, which now took a horizontal
direction; and at the end of it, one hundred and fifty-eight feet eight
inches from the above-mentioned perpendicular, he entered a chamber
forty-six feet three inches long, sixteen feet three inches wide, and
twenty-three feet six inches in height, for the greater part cut out of
the rock; and in the middle of this room he found a SARCOPHAGUS of
granite, eight feet long, three feet six inches wide, and two feet three
inches deep inside, surrounded by large blocks of granite, as if to
prevent its being removed. The lid had been opened, and he found in the
interior a few bones, which he supposed to be human; but some of them
having been since carried to England by Captain Fitzclarence, who was
afterwards in this pyramid, and one of them (a thigh-bone) having, on
examination by Sir Everard Home, been found to have belonged to a cow,
it has been doubted whether any of them ever belonged to a human
subject: but such a suspicion is premature, and without any solid
foundation; since it appears, from an Arabic inscription on the west
wall of this chamber, that this pyramid was opened by architects named
Mahomet El Aghar and Othman, and inspected in the presence of the Sultan
Ali Mahomet, the first Ugloch (a Tartaric title, as Uleg Bey, &c.). The
length of time the pyramid remained open is not known; and it indeed
appears to have been closed only by the fall of portions of the
structure, and by the collecting of the sands of Libya. From this, and
from the lid of the sarcophagus having been opened, and the remains of
other animals being also found in the same sarcophagus, as is stated in
other accounts, such an opinion does not even appear to be probable. On
other parts of the walls are some inscriptions, supposed by M. Belzoni
to be in Coptic.
"He now returned to the descending passage at the bottom of the
above-mentioned perpendicular. Its angle is about twenty-six degrees. At
the end of forty-eight feet and a half it becomes horizontal, still
going north fifty-five feet; in the middle of which horizontal part
there is a recess to the east eleven feet deep, and a passage to the
west twenty feet, which descends into a chamber thirty-two feet long,
nine feet nine inches wide, and eight and a half high. In this room were
only a few small square blocks of stone, and on the walls some unknown
inscriptions. He now returned to the horizontal part and advanced north,
ascending at an angle of sixty degrees; and in this, at a short distance
from the horizontal part, he met with another niche, which had been
formerly furnished with a granite door, the fragments of which were
still there. At forty-seven feet and a half from this niche the passage
was filled with large stones, so as to close the entrance, which issues
out precisely at the base of the pyramid. All the works below the base
are cut in the rock, as well as part of the passages and chambers.
"By clearing away the earth to the eastward of the pyramid, he found the
foundation and part of the walls of an extensive temple which stood
before it at the distance of forty feet, and laid bare a pavement
composed of fine blocks of calcareous stone, some of them beautifully
cut and in fine preservation. This platform probably goes round the
whole pyramid. The stones composing the foundation of the temple are
very large: one, which he measured, was twenty-one feet long, ten high,
and eight in breadth[366]."
The pyramid of MYCERINUS is one hundred and sixty-two feet in height,
and two hundred and eighty on each side of the base. "If," says Diodorus
Siculus, "it is less in size and extent than the others, it is superior
to them in the costliness of the materials and excellence of the
workmanship."
Of Mycerinus historians write in the following manner:--He was the son
of Cheops, but of a character opposite to that of his father. So far
from walking in his steps, he detested his conduct, and pursued quite
different measures. He again opened the temples of the gods, restored
the sacrifices, did all that lay in his power to comfort his subjects,
and make them forget their past miseries; and believed himself set over
them for no other purpose but to exercise justice, and to make them
taste all the blessings of an equitable and peaceful administration. He
heard their complaints, dried their tears, eased their misery, and
thought himself not so much the master as the father of his people. This
procured him the love of them all. Egypt resounded with his praises, and
his name commanded veneration in all places.
"Men," says one writer, "have very justly reckoned these prodigious
masses of earth and stone among the wonders of the world; nevertheless
their use appears to us very trivial, or is unknown. The Egyptians seem
to have been more desirous of exciting wonder, than of communicating
instruction."--"The most probable opinion respecting the object of these
vast edifices," says another writer, "is that which combines the double
use of the sepulchre and the temple, nothing being more common in all
nations than to bury distinguished men in places consecrated by the
rites of divine worship. If Cheops, Suphis, or whoever else was the
founder of the Great Pyramid, intended it only for his tomb, what
occasion, says Dr. Shaw, for such a narrow sloping entrance into it, or
for the well, as it is called, at the bottom;--or for the lower chamber
with a large niche or hole in the eastern wall of it;--or for the long
narrow cavities in the sides of the large upper room, which likewise is
incrusted all over with the finest marble;--or for the two ante-chambers
and the lofty gallery, with benches on each side, that introduce us into
it? As the whole of the Egyptian theology was clothed in mysterious
emblems and figures, it seems reasonable to suppose that all these
turnings, apartments, and secrets in architecture, were intended for
some nobler purpose;--for the catacombs or burying-places are plain
vaulted chambers hewn out of the natural rock;--and the deity rather,
which was typified in the outward form of this pile, was to be
worshipped within."
"If thoughtlessness should condemn the immense and apparently useless
labours of ancient Egypt," says a third, "so are they easily condemned,
under the use of the ever-acceptable term tyranny, the ever-ready word
of him who abuses all the power which he can command. Yet he who would
eat must labour: it is the unvarying law, not of God alone, but of human
society; the bond by which it is held together. The soil of Egypt was
the possession of its singular government, and the labour of the people
was the only manner in which they could demand or acquire a share of the
produce: it was the only mode in which they ought to have possessed
their portions. There is reason to believe that the soil had
appropriated all the labour applicable to it; and commercial industry,
as it then was, had probably done the same. An artificial invention to
occupy labour became, therefore, imperiously necessary; and through this
was Egypt peopled to an extent which seems to have been very great. The
bearing of this fact on other cases, where, under a general law
pervading all creation, conditions of labour have been attached to
possession, must be obvious; and though tyranny had been the immediate
cause, even thus does the Deity often direct the wickedness of man to
his own good ends."
"I should, however," says a fourth, (Maupertuis,) "have been much better
pleased had the kings of Egypt employed the millions of men who reared
these pyramids in the air, in digging cavities in the earth of a depth
answerable to the marvellous we find in the works of those
princes."--"There have been many opinions expressed by learned men as to
the object of these structures," says a fifth. One is, that they were
the granaries of Joseph. This may be confuted by the smallness of the
rooms, and the time required in building. Another, that they were
observatories; which is accusing the builders of great absurdity, since
the neighbouring rocks were better calculated for the purpose. The
Arabians generally think that they were built by king Saurid, before the
Deluge, as a refuge for himself and the public records from the Flood;
but this opinion requires no answer. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who
wrote A.D. 71, ascribes them to his countrymen, during the captivity in
Egypt. As sun-dials, they would have failed. Shaw and Bryant, who wrote
in the middle of the last century, believed them to be temples, and the
stone chest, a tank for holding water used for purification. Pauw, who
lived at the same time with Shaw and Bryant, considers the Great Pyramid
as the tomb of Osiris; and that Osiris having fourteen tombs for various
parts of his dismembered body, fourteen pyramids must have been devoted
to them, and the annual funeral mysteries connected with his death and
resurrection. But the greater number of writers, ancient and modern,
believe it to be the tomb of Cheops, the alleged builder. Improving on
this notion, Maillet (1760) supposed that the chambers were built for
the purpose of shutting up the friends of the deceased king with the
dead body; and that the holes on each side of the central chamber of the
Great Pyramid were the means by which they were to be supplied with
food, &c: an opinion which would have appeared sufficiently ludicrous,
if it had not been exceeded by that expressed by an old Moulah to
Buonaparte, when in Egypt (1799), that the object was to keep the buried
body undecayed, by closely sealing up all access to the outward air.
Another ingenious theory ascribes them to the shepherd kings, a foreign
pastoral nation which oppressed Egypt in the early times of the
Pharaohs. However, this is, after all, but conjecture. The utmost
uncertainty exists in all that concerns these gigantic, unwieldy, and
mysterious buildings. Their builders, origin, date, and purposes, are
entirely lost in the night of ages. As the sides of all the pyramids
face the cardinal points, and of course give the true meridian of the
places where they are situated, it would seem that their builders had
made some progress in _scientific_ knowledge; and the buildings
themselves, under all circumstances, notwithstanding their plain
exterior, clearly show the advanced state of art in those very early
times.
When the traveller approaches[367] those vast monuments of human labour,
the imagination seems to burst, as it were, the bands of ages, and the
mind appears as if it had lived a thousand years. When the French were
at Thebes, the whole army stopped among the ruins, and clapped their
hands with delight: and when Buonaparte was about to engage the
Mamelukes, who were advancing with loud cries, superbly accoutred, he
called out to his army, "Behold! Yonder are the Pyramids; the most
ancient of the works of men. From the summits of those monuments forty
ages are now beholding us." The battle which ensued laid all Egypt at
the feet of the French general.
We shall finish this account by selecting a passage from Rollin:--"Such
were the famous Egyptian Pyramids, which, by their figure as well as
size, have triumphed over the injuries of time and the barbarians. But
what efforts soever men may make, their nothingness will always appear.
These pyramids were tombs; and there is still to be seen in the middle
of the largest, an empty sepulchre, cut out of one entire stone, about
three feet deep and broad, and a little above six feet long[368]. Thus
all this bustle, all this expense, and all the labours of so many
thousand men, ended in procuring a prince, in this vast and almost
boundless pile of building, a little vault six feet in length. Besides,
the kings who built these pyramids had it not in their power to be
buried in them, and so did not enjoy the sepulchre they had built. The
public hatred which they incurred, by reason of their unheard-of
cruelties to their subjects, in laying such heavy tasks upon them,
occasioned their being interred in some obscure place, to prevent their
bodies from being exposed to the fury and vengeance of the populace.
"This last circumstance, which historians have taken particular notice
of, teaches us what judgment we ought to pass on these edifices, so much
boasted of by the ancients. It is but just to remark and esteem the
noble genius which the Egyptians had for architecture; a genius that
prompted them from the earliest times, and before they could have any
models to imitate, to aim in all things at the grand and magnificent,
and to be intent on real beauties, without deviating in the least from a
noble simplicity, in which the highest perfection of the art consists.
But what idea ought we to form of those princes, who considered as
something grand, the raising, by a multitude of hands and by the help of
money, immense structures, with the sole view of rendering their names
immortal, and who did not scruple to destroy thousands of their subjects
to satisfy their vain-glory! They differed very much from the Romans,
who sought to immortalise themselves by works of a magnificent kind,
but, at the same time, of public utility.
"Pliny gives us, in few words, a just idea of these pyramids, when he
calls them a foolish and useless ostentation of the wealth of the
Egyptian kings--_Regum pecuniæ otiosa ac stulta ostentatio_,--and adds,
that, by a just punishment, their memory is buried in oblivion."[369]