The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE LXXVI. background, and John, Stanley and myself at the doors of our tents—Plate LXXVI. Judah “pressed the button.’ In this latter photograph the tents look as if they were almost touching the Pyramid; but this is owing to the clearness of the air. There is actually a distance of several hundred yards between our tents and the Pyramid, as another view taken from the west makes more evident—Plate LXXVII.

“Tents at the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.”

336 The diminishing effect which the clearness of the air has on distance, is very noticeable when one is approaching the pyramids by the electric tramway from Cairo. After crossing the Nile by the fine bridge recently erected opposite Old Cairo, and reaching the village of Gizeh on the west bank, the tramcar runs for about four miles in a straight line over the flat plain to Mena House Hotel, quite close to the pyramids. The pyramids are plainly visible throughout the whole of this four-mile stretch ; but after about a third of the distance has been traversed, they appear so near, that the newcomer feels convinced that each stopping place he sees ahead must surely be the

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