The great pyramid passages and chambers

of last century. This is evident from the names and dates which innumerable visitors have carved on the stones that form the present flat summit, the size of which is about twenty-three and a half feet square, forming, therefore, a platform with an area of over 550 square feet.

100 To resume: having passed through the forced hole in the west wall of the Descending Passage into the cavernous hollow, and having examined the exposed west side of the upper two-thirds of the Granite Plug, with above it the opening into the First Ascending Passage, we looked about us and saw in the upper portion of the west wall of the hollow, the inner extremity of the long channel which Al Mamoun’s workmen had forced through the core masonry from the north face of the Pyramid—Plate V. Then, taking advantage of a ledge and a series of notches on the high south-east wall of the hollow, we climbed to the upper end of the Granite Plug and gained access to the First Ascending Passage, which runs in the same vertical plane and at the same angle to the horizon as the Descending Passage.

101 To proceed up this passage, we required to stoop uncomfortably low, for, like the Descending Passage, its roof is scarcely four feet above its floor. When, however, we reached the southern upper extremity of the passage, we emerged into a large place where, to our joy, we found a level floor, and abundance of room to stand erect and so relieve our aching backs. We were now at the lower end of the noblest passage in the Great Pyramid, which has been well named the Grand Gallery. This Gallery ascends in the same vertical plane, and at the same angle, as the First Ascending Passage, of which, therefore, it forms a continuation. The reason why the floor is level is because another passage, called the Horizontal Passage, also has its beginning at the upper extremity of the First Ascending Passage.

102 Every time we reached the Grand Gallery, we were glad of a little rest and a quiet look round—Plate XII.

(1) Behind us was the low steep passage up which we had just laboriously clambered.

(2) When facing south, we perceived at our feet, on the west or right-hand side, a very small passage branching off in a horizontal direction. The roof of this small passage is on a level with the floor of the Horizontal Passage at this place. When investigating this small passage we found it necessary, after stepping down into it, to crawl along its floor on hands and knees, but we required to exercise extreme caution, for at a very short distance to the west, it terminates in a deep vertical shaft, 28 inches square in bore. This is the upper end of the Wel/, the lower opening of which, as already mentioned, appears on the west wall near the foot of the Descending Passage —-Plate XIII.

(3) Straight in front of us we saw the low entrance to the Horizontal Passage, which extends southwards in the same vertical plane as the Descending and First Ascending Passages, but, as indicated by its name, in a horizontal direction. In height and width, it corresponds to the Descending and First Ascending Passages, and leads to a large square room with a high gabled roof, known as the Queen's Chamber, on the east wall of which is a peculiar shallow Niche. On the occasions of our visits to the Queen's Chamber, we required to keep a careful watch as we proceeded along the low Horizontal Passage; otherwise we would have been in danger of a severe fall, for after

32