The great pyramid passages and chambers

is well seen in Plate XXVI. Continuous with the platform to the distance of over thirty feet northward (outward) from the line of the casing-stones, are the fragmentary remains of a pavement, the level upper surface of which is flush with that of the platform, and still preserves here and there a smooth appearance. The flat stones of which it is composed approximate to the same thickness as the stones of the platform; but as the natural rock on which they lie is not exactly level, they are not all of a uniform thickness. They vary also in length and breadth. The abutment joints between the bevelled front edge of the platform and the stones of the pavement, are very close, as will be seen in one of my photographs of a fractured pavement stone adjoining the platform—Plate XXV.

228 In one of the photographs, which shows a front and partly top view of the best preserved of the casing-stones, with Mr. Covington standing at the east end looking along the upper surface of the row, a large open fissure in the rock can be seen in the foreground—Plate XXVII. According to the account of Col. Howard Vyse, this fissure had originally been filled in with rubble stone-work, and covered over with large inset stones, one of which may be seen in the photograph, partly fallen in. Over these inset stones which were flush with the levelled rock, the beautifully fitted pavement had been laid. It had been Col. Howard Vyse’s intention to have blasted the rock to a considerable depth at this part in hope that he might discover a subterranean communication with a secret tomb-chamber under the Pyramid, supposed to have been alluded to by the Greek historian, Herodotus. He chose this part because it is in line with the Entrance Passage of the Pyramid, but the discovery of the fissure saved him considerable trouble and expense. He caused it to be cleared to a depth of 47 feet, and to a length of 74 feet from east to west, but without discovering a passage. He was therefore satisfied that there was no subterranean passage in connection with the Great Pyramid, save that of the Well-known Descending Passage leading down to the Pit, a hundred feet below the base of the Pyramid—Plate IX. In the Second Pyramid, however, he did discover a second and lower communication, the entrance of which was hidden under that Pyramid’s pavement about 40 feet out from the base—Plate XXVIII. This lower subterranean passage, which is in direct line with the upper Entrance Passage, besides being hidden at its entrance by the pavement, was also completely blocked up in its length by large well-fitted and cemented stones. Col. Howard Vyse had most of these removed.

229 In a second view of the casing-stones of the Great Pyramid, taken with my camera erected a little more to the east, Hadji Ali Gabri is seen sitting some distance up the side of the Pyramid, pointing to the entrance of Al Mamoun’s forced passage, which is situated in the seventh course of the Pyramid’s horizontal core masonry—Plate XXIX. In the upper part of the section shown in this photograph, part of the great angular limestone blocks above the mouth of the Entrance Passage, may be seen. The relative positions of the casing-stones, Al Mamoun’s forced passage, and the Entrance to the Pyramid can better be judged, however, by a third view which I took with the camera erected at a greater distance from the base of the Pyramid—Plate XXX. But the square mouth of the Entrance, which lies some distance in from the face of -the Pyramid, cannot be seen from the ground below; also the angular blocks above the Entrance appear much lower down than they are in reality—Compare Plate XXX.

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