The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE XXV. Chicago University in his New History of Egypt, 1904. But now, in the latter end of May of this year, exactly 72 years after Col. Howard Vyse's celebrated discovery, 15 more of these stones have been excavated, besides a fair area of the pavement and levelled rock in front. I think I am indeed fortunate to have come just in time to see these, and to be the first to have had the privilege of photographing them as they now appear ;—this was with Mr. Covington’s permission, which was gladly granted.

226 The first three or four of these stones are immediately under the Entrance of the Pyramid, and are still in excellent preservation, though I notice that the small portion referred to by Colonel Howard Vyse as adhering with such tenacity (Par. 86), has disappeared—Compare Plate VIII, with one of my photographs which shows a very near view of the largest stone, Plate XXIV. The others to the west of these show more or less signs of surface wear, especially the last five to the extreme west which are much broken—Plate XXVI. When I stand at the east end of the line of the casingstones, and look squarely along the upper and front surfaces of the long row extending about 86 feet in front of me,I cannot help being impressed with the wonderful level and almost glossy appearance which both surfaces present, and cannot but marvel at the wonderful skill which the ancient builders of the Pyramid possessed. The upper surface is as level and even asa billiard table. Even the core masonry immediately behind the casing-stones preserves the same wonderful level. Professor Petrie, by means of his special apparatus, found that in a length of forty feet to the east of the three casing-stones then uncovered, the upper surface of the first course of core masonry differed from a dead level by only one-fiftieth part of an inch!

227. The casingstones rest on a platform between sixteen and seventeen inches in thickness, which, in its turn, rests on the levelled natural rock. This platform projects sixteen inches beyond the comparatively sharp bottom edge of the bevelled casingstones. A peculiar feature of the platform is that its front edge is not quite at right- angles with its upper surface, but is bevelled after the manner of the casingstones, though only to the extent of two or

A fractured butt-joint between the pavement (on the left), and ; the bevelled front edge of the platform (on the right) in front of the three degrees. This casing-stones of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.

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