The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE CXXXV. constructed high up in the body of the building. In the other pyramids, these are either cut in the rock more or less after the example of the Descending Passage and Pit of the Great Pyramid, or else are situated low down near the base-line, partly in the rock, and partly in the masonry. This important distinction is strikingly apparent, when one has before him drawings which show in vertical section the internal arrangement of each of the thirty-eight pyramids of Egypt — Plates CXXXIII & CXXXIV. When it is remembered that the Great Pyramid was the first to be erected (Par. 401), the fact that the other pyramids are without upper passages and chambers, together with the history of the accidental discovery The casing-stones of one of the Sakkara Pyramids. of those in the Great Pyramid by Al Mamoun in 820 A.D.-(Pars. 96-98), is strong evidence that the builders of the other pyramids were ignorant of their great model's upper system.

515 In the Sakkara Pyramid, whose interior we visited, some of the lower casingstones, which are still to be seen in their original position, are very large. We took a photograph of those on the west side, getting the Arab care-taker to stand close to them for the purpose of showing their size—Plate CKXXV. Although these stones are large on the outside, they do not seem so substantial and solid as the recently uncovered casing-stones of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.

516 There can be no doubt that the temple in connection with this pyramid was built simultaneously with it; for this is clearly shown by a few remaining casing-stones on the east side. The stones are ‘‘L”’ shaped, containing the angle of junction between the sloping side of the pyramid, and the perpendicular wall of the temple jutting out at right angles. The photograph which we secured of this right-angled junction will give some idea of its appearance—Plate CKXXVI.

517 We should like to have gone on to the Pyramids of Dashur, but Mr. Faid said it would take too long to do the journey. We had, therefore, to content ourselves with photographing them as they appeared to us in the dim distance—Plate CXXXVII.

518 Excavations round most of the pyramids throughout Egypt have demonstrated the fact that they all had temples, situated on their east sides. We are inclined to the opinion that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh is the one exception to this general rule. We

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