The great pyramid passages and chambers

then the support afforded by the side walls may not be disdained. Visitors who are wearing boots and have no one to assist them, have generally to sit on their heels at this part, and slide down a few feet till their further descent is arrested by a block of limestone. This block lies on the floor end-on against a large fractured granite stone, which is tightly wedged in the passage. Across the top of this granite stone, between it and the roof, a small iron grill-door has been adjusted. (Neither the two stones nor the grill-door form any part of the original design.) So confined is the space between the upper surface of the block of granite and the roof, that, whenever we required to descend to the lower parts of the Pyramid during the progress of our work, we were compelled first to sit on the granite stone with our feet thrust through the narrow opening, and then, taking firm hold of the thin iron lintel of the grill-door, lower ourselves cautiously through the opening till our feet rested on the inclined floor of the passage below the block. This grill-door is generally locked, but M. Maspero, DirectorGeneral of Antiquities in Egypt, kindly permitted it to remain unlocked during the course of our investigations at the Pyramid.

92 This lower portion of the Descending Passage is a direct continuation of the part above, and is similar to it, except that it is nearly three times the length, and instead of being built with masonry, it bores though the solid rock on which the Pyramid is erected. It ends in a Small Horizontal Passage which, in its turn, leads past a small Ante-Chamber or Recess on its west side, toa large unfinished Pit, or Subterranean Chamber, hewn in the solid rock a hundred feet vertically below the base-line of the Pyramid—Plate X.

93 In the floor of the Pit appears the opening of a large square shaft, which’ descends vertically to a considerable depth ; and directly opposite on the south wall, is the square doorway of a small passage, which, on investigation, we found to run horizontally southwards for a length of over 50 feet toa blind end. In passing round the large open shaft to get to this small south passage, we had always carefully to avoid walking too near its edge, because of the loose crumbling debris which covers the floor of the Pit. ’

94 In the Descending Passage at a distance of seven or eight yards up from the foot, there is an opening in the west wall, so that when we retraced our steps, it appeared in the wall on our left-hand side. This is the entrance into a small passage, six feet in length, which leads to the lower end of an almost vertical shaft, only a little over two feet square in bore, named the Well. A reference to Plate IX will show that this shaft communicates with the upper passages.

95 Immediately above or north of the granite stone on which the grill-door is fixed, there is an irregular opening in the west wall of the Descending Passage. When we stepped through this opening, we found ourselves in a large cavernous space hollowed ont in the Pyramid masonry. This large cavity and the opening into it from the Descending Passage, were forced fully a thousand years ago by Caliph Al Mamoun, son of Harun Al Raschid of Arabian Nights’ fame. After entering the cavity, when we turned round and looked up, we saw by the light of our candles that the west side of the upper two-thirds of the Granite Plug, already mentioned, had been exposed by the large excavation.

96 The small space between the lower end of the Granite Plug, and the roof-line

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