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

finding of which is not an impossibility, since the topstones of other pyramids have been discovered and rescued from the debris surrounding them, though it is true these were much smaller than that necessary to cap the Great Pyramid.t Then will be fulfilled in symbol our Lord’s prophecy: ‘‘ The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner ” (Matt. xxi, 42).

The outstanding result, therefore, of the most recent investigations carried out at the Great Pyramid itself, is to confirm the interpretation of the allegory enshrined in it, by bringing the allegory thus derived into complete harmony with the facts as discovered.

While the idea of restoring the Great Pyramid, refacing it with its casing, and setting up its apex-stone, may seem an impossible one, or even fantastic on account of the immensity of the task involved—both as to labour and cost—a task, too, with apparently no practical or useful purpose behind it, but of purely archzological and sentimental interest—it does not necessarily follow that it will therefore never be undertaken. A past generation might well have thought the same of projects which have been carried out in recent years, under conditions, too, financial and otherwise, which have been anything but easy. (See Note U.)

1 Tt has been suggested by some that the Great Pyramid’s top-stone is perhaps hidden somewhere in the pyramid itself, and the recent clearance of sand round its base for the survey of 1925-6, referred to above, has not disclosed it. As, however, the pyramid was constructionally completed as far up as its present summit when the topstone was rejected, the latter could not be hidden in its masonry, and could only have been concealed in some hitherto undiscovered chamber, the existence of which, however, is unlikely. It may still be lying somewhere buried on the Gizeh plateau, or in the rubbish mounds at its base. See Smyth’s Plate VI, showing large bank made by ancient builders against north face of plateau.