Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

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TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
ed with infinite pains and labour, the earth which surrounds it
being covered on all sides with immense blocks of beautiful red
granite and porphyry, with which it is highly probable it was ori-
ginally coated. On several of the blocks there are deep furrows,
from which it would seem that they had been anciently connected
together by metallic hoops or fastenings, which having been corroded
by time, by the occasional moisture of the atmosphere, and
by other causes, the blocks had been set at liberty, and had succes-
sively fallen to the ground.
The whole of these stupendous monuments of antiquity, which,
if
they cannot boast of
any particular elegance of structure, are notwithstanding
very extraordinary efforts of human enterprise and labour,
are built of a calcarious substance, some parts of which are
hard, and others of a softer texture. On the larger of the pyramids
I engraved mv name near to the entrance without any difficulty;
and in so doing followed the example of thousands of persons who
had thus commemorated their visit to this celebrated spot. In en-
tering within I ascended but a small distance, contenting myself
with barely penetrating into the narrow passage. My companions
were, however, in general, more adventurous, and supplied me with
a variety of interesting facts and observations.
The pvramids of Giza are situated about ten miles to the south-
Avest of Cairo, on an elevated and rocky ground, the surface of
which is covered with white sands, forming the ridge of the Lybian
mountains by which the inundation of the Nile is bounded to the
westward. Their planes are directed towards the four quarters of
the globe. The external dimensions of the great pyramid have been
the subject of much dispute : Neither of its sides being level with
the others, it was difficult to find the true horizontal base j but the
length of the supposed base has been variously estimated at from six
to
eight hundred English feet. Accordingto
the measurement
lately taken by the French, however, the height of the great pyramid
is six hundred feet, and its base seven hundred. Above the
great chamber withinside, in which the sarcophagus or coffer is de-
posited, there is a smaller chamber about eighteen feet in length
and in width. The first passage by which the visiter descends into
the pyramid is more than an hundred (cet in length. That which
'cads to the great chamber is nearly of the same extent; and the
main gallery is in length an hundred and fifty feet. I have been
favoured by a British officer of engineers with the following rnca-