The great pyramid passages and chambers

PLATE CLXII.

inches respectively. John is sitting at the entrance of a long horizontal excavation which is now largely filled with debris; while 1am shown walking toward the door, the top of which, it will be noticed, is in line with the top of my head.

589 Professor C. Piazzi Smyth believed that the exact measurement of the eccentri-

city of the Niche southward from the centre of the east wall, is intended as another key to the length of the Pyramid Cubit; and his measurements’ to support this theory are verified by those of Professor Flinders Petrie. 590 The long horizontal excavation driven eastward from the back of the Niche, is another of those fruitless attempts to discover additional chambers and passages in the Great Pyramid. Mr. Covington frequently expressed to us his opinion that the Granite Plug in the First Ascending Passage conceals the lower end of a small vertical shaft; and if he could obtain the necessary permission, he would have the Plug removed in order to test the

truth of his theory.

The Descending Passage of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, as viewed from the lower end of the Well-shaft; showing, when contrasted with Plate XLVIII, the greater headroom which one has when walking upward

in this passage.

He bases his theory on the fact that the small vertical Well-like

shaft in the Trial Passages (See Par. 520) descends to the junction of the two inclined passages, and argues, therefore, that a similar shaft should be found at the junction of the Descending Passage with the First Ascending Passage in the Great Pyramid. We

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