The great pyramid passages and chambers, page 137

PLATE XXXVI.

LETTER IV.

Tent at the Great Pyramid oy Gizeh. Tuesday, 8th June, 1909.

DEAR BRETHREN,—At six o’clock this morning I started off with Judah to ascend the Second Pyramid, for the purpose of taking some photographs from the summit. As will be seen from a photograph which I took of the north face, this pyramid is covered with a smooth casing of limestone, and is very steep—Plate XXXIV. According to Col. Howard Vyse, the two lowest courses of casing immediately above the base are of granite, though Professor Flinders Petrie reports having only observed one during his investigations in 1881. After climbing to the lower edge of the upper casing-stones, I thought it too dangerous to proceed higher, and from this point I took a photograph giving a bird's-eye view of the recently excavated foundations of the temple, which is situated close to the base of this pyramid on its east side—Plate KXXV.

249 Yesterday morning I had a quiet walk alone among the ruins of this temple, and also among the ruins of the temple of the Third Pyramid, and I wondered at the immense size of many of the limestone blocks with which, for the most part, they have been built. Some of them are beautifully white, and cleanly cut to very sharp arris edges. While strolling through the temple of the Second Pyramid, I was somewhat startled to see about fifty human skulls arranged in two or three rows on a ledge. I have learned since that these skulls were discovered during the excavations of the temple.

250 The Second Pyramid has two Entrance Passages, both on the north side of the building and meeting each other below the base of the pyramid—Plate XXVIII. One of them is somewhat similar in position and inclination to the Entrance Passage of the Great Pyramid, but its walls are composed of granite instead of limestone, and the wide joints and other details of construction are not to be compared with the fine workmanship which the Great Pyramid displays. As already mentioned, the mouth of the

Human skulls unearthed during the excavations of the Temple of the Second Pyramid of Gizeh.

121