The mystery of the Great pyramid : traditions concerning it and its connection with the Egyptian Book of the dead : with numerous illustrations

MYSTERY OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

last seven years of Cheops’ reign. This is a surprising achievement in an age which the late Sir Gaston Maspero placed, paradoxically as it would now seem, in the Dawn of Civilization’ (Davidson).

Referring also to the same period, which he describes as “‘one of the most fascinating epochs of Egyptian history’, Sir Wallis Budge writes in the “ Preface” to his History of Egypt (vol. ii): “ In it we see the dominant race in Egypt at their best, and it has been truly said that it was the kings of the Fourth Dynasty, with their architects and practical mechanics, artists and sculptors, who made the great reputation which the Egyptians have enjoyed ever since throughout the world . . . It is the fact that the master minds which planned and the mechanical skill which built them (the Pyramids) remained unsurpassed in all the subsequent history of Egypt. Cheops and his immediate successors certainly deserve praise for the good sense which they displayed in giving their architects and clerks of works a free hand in their mighty undertakings ; and it must not be forgotten that the sculptures and basreliefs executed during their reigns are as wonderful for their delicacy and beauty as the Pyramids are for their size and solidity.”

Once, indeed, the Great Pyramid came into existence, it is not difficult to account for the others. Having been shown how to build a true pyramid, and with the Great Pyramid as a model ever before them, the Egyptians could copy it—externally—as often as they liked. But as a copy is never so good as the original, and lacking, too, the guidance of the master-architect, it is not surprising that all subsequent pyramids indicate a steadily deteriorating standard of construction, combined with a total lack of knowledge of the mathematical and scientific basis of its design and of its upper interior chambers, since, having

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