The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE CLIV,

LETTER XXII.

Train en route for Port Said. Sp.m., Saturday, 17th July, 1909.

DEAR BRETHREN,—We are now seated in the train, bound for Port Said and home. Our work at the Great Pyramid is ended.

574 This morning at 7 a.m., the sky was overcast with heavy clouds. Usually at that time, and even earlier, it is bright and cloudless overhead. This morning it seemed to frown at the thought of our near departure! A day or two ago, however, I looked out of my tent door in the direction of the Great Pyramid to see how it was getting on, and to bid it Good Morning,” but to my astonishment I could not see the summit! It was quite obscured with mist. I saw the mist driving up the north face, blown by the wind, just as I have so often seen the mist driven up and over the hills of Scotland. I hastened to secure a photographic record of the interesting sight, for I knew that the strong sunlight of Egypt would soon dispel the phenomenon.

575 We spent the first part of the morning in packing, and at 10-30 a.m., John and I with Judah paid our last visit to the interior of the Great Pyramid. We had a few more photographs to take, and another passage to measure—the Horizontal Passage to the Queen’s Chamber. Among the photographs taken were three in the Grand Gallery. We have found it very difficult to secure a proper photograph of the north end of the Grand Gallery as it appears to one standing about thirty feet up the inclined floor. However, we have succeeded in getting some fairly good ones of certain portions of it, enough to indicate the proper perspective, so that a drawing may afterwards be taken from them.

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The Great Pyramid obscured in mist.