The great pyramid passages and chambers

Great Pyramid—Plate II. From this hill a commanding view is obtained of the pyramids, and of the intervening strip of desert covered with tombs and with great mounds of sand, some of which were formed by excavators of the tombs. My object was to gain a correct impression as to the relative sizes of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx, when viewed froma distance. Although the sun was setting behind the pyramids, anda peculiar dark haze was fillmg the little valley below me, I was fortunate enough to secure a photograph of the scene, showing the Sphinx to the extreme right, and the Great Pyramid to the left, with the three small ruined pyramids on its right (east) sidePlate CXXXIX.

522 The entrance of the extensive and laborious excavation made by Col. Howard Vyse on the south side of the Great Pyramid, can be seen very well in this photograph. It looks like the mouth of another Entrance Passage. It was in pursuance of a theory that the Great Pyramid contained a second system of passages and chambers entered from the south, that Col. Howard Vyse caused his workers to search for a southern Entrance, in the same relative position westward of the centre line of the Pyramid, as the present northern Entrance lies eastward of the centre—Plate V. The work of excavating was continued for well over three months, but without finding any indication of a passage, either by an inclination in the courses of the stones, or by any other circumstance. The deduction drawn by Col. Howard Vyse as a result of this work is instructive—* After much labour, the excavation at the southern front of the Great Pyramid had been carried to the level of the supposed Entrance, but without the slightest appearance of a passage. The difficulties encountered in this operation proved how much expense and labour would be necessary to take down one of these great edifices. The stones must be carefully lowered from the top, or they would be broken, and unfit for any useful purpose; and unless extensive causeways were formed, the surrounding ground would soon be encumbered to that degree as to impede all further operations. So wonderfully have these monuments been constructed for duration.”

523 The failure to discover additional passages in the Great Pyramid, or to find passages and chambers constructed high up in the masonry of any of the other pyramids, caused an impression of wonder in the mind of Col. Howard Vyse. He wrote: ‘‘I had not at that time any idea that the stupendous masses of the pyramids were composed of solid masonry, and that (with the exception of the King’s and Queen’s Chambers and adjoining passages, and Chambers of Construction afterwards discovered in this Pyramid), the apartments were invariably excavations in the solid rock. Indeed, after having ascertained the fact almost beyond the possibility of doubt, it was difficult to believe it, or to comprehend an adequate motive for the construction of these magnificent buildings merely as sepulchral monuments over a tomb, unless it was the all-powerful influence of superstitious feelings.”

524 This photograph (Plate CXXXIX) shows at once how immeasurably larger the Great Pyramid is than the Sphinx; and we have noticed that the greater the distance from which we view these monuments, the greater becomes the contrast. In another view of the pyramids and Sphinx, taken from east of the Arab village (Plate CXLI), the Sphinx appears most insignificant. By this method of comparison, one can get some impression of the truly immense size of the Great Pyramid ; for the Sphinx, when viewed at close quarters, is itself huge, as may be appreciated by the photograph of it which we show

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