The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE CXVII.

474 Later in the day we resumed our work in the interior of the Great Pyramid. Placing the camera in front of the Step at the head of the Grand Gallery, we took a picture of it in order to show how dilapidated it now is after the wear of fully a thousand years’ traffic (Plate CXVI); for since the year 820 A.D., when Caliph Al Mamoun forced his way into these upper passages, they have ever been free of access toall. This photograph also shows the low passage which leads from the Grand Gallery to the AnteChamber, and beyond this the second low passage leading out of the Ante- Chamber to the King’s Chamber. The lower edge of the Granite Leaf in the AnteChamber is also

distinguishable, In The low passage leading horizontally southward from the Grand front of the Gran- Gallery to the Ante-Chamber and King’s Chamber.

ite Leaf to the right

or west side, Stanley can be seen sitting in the excavation made by Caviglia in his search for the northern air-channel of the King’s Chamber, which we described in a former letter—Par. 345. Originally the west wall, like the east wall, was continuous and unbroken from its commencement at the south wall of the Grand Gallery to its termination at the King’s Chamber. The continuity of the east wall is shown in another photograph which we took with the camera erected on top of the Step to the west—Plate CXVII. This photograph shows the square but somewhat dilapidated doorway of the small passage as it appears in the south wall of the Grand Gallery, and to the left, part of the east wall of the Grand Gallery.

475 We secured photographs of several parts of interest in the Ante-Chamber. One shows John standing in the twenty-one inch space between the north wall of the chamber behind him, and the Granite Leaf in front—Plate CXVIII. He is leaning against the east wall, which at this part is, like the north wall, composed of limestone. The floor is of special interest. You will no doubt recall how Professor C. Piazzi Smyth and others point out that, while the floor of the King’s Chamber is composed entirely of granite, that of the Ante-Chamber consists mostly of granite, but partially of limestone—Plate XV. The latter portion is a continuation of the limestone blocks which form the Step in the Grand Gallery and the floor of the short passage leading into the

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