Volume I Part 19 (2/2)

The pyrareat pyramids at Gizeh are built of fine limestone from Mokattam and Toura; the chief one at Sakkarah of a bad clayish li rocks; at Dashour and Abou-Roash there are pyramids of unburnt brick

Finally there are pyramids built chiefly of stone which is kept in place by a carefully constructed skeleton, so to speak, of brick This construction is to be found in the pyra 131)

There is the same variety in the position of the mummy chamber

Sometimes this is within the sides of the pyramid itself, as in that of Cheops; sometimes, after the exa rock upon which the pyraement is to be found, for instance, in the pyramid of Mycerinus, where the roof of the mummy chamber is about 33 feet below the lowest course of the pyramid itself So too in the Stepped Pyramid, where the whole couishes that edifice, is cut in the rock, so that the building itself is absolutely solid Most of the pyra access to narrow galleries, so, which lead to one or two chambers of very small dimensions when compared to the enor 132) In the subterranean part of the Stepped Pyranificant This pyramid, which is not nearly so carefully oriented as the others, has four entrances and a series of internal passages, horizontal galleries, staircases and cells, which ular also in having, upon its central axis and at the point upon which, at various heights, all its galleries converge, a sort of large well, a chah, in the paveranite cut into the shape of a cork or plug was so placed as to open at will[191] and leave a free passage for the descent into a second chamber, the purpose of which is more than obscure, as it is too sus[192] The end of the long passage which leads to the thirty chambers which have been counted beneath this pyra 134)

[191] The weight of this stopper is about four tons, and it has long been a puzzle to egyptologists how it, and others like it, could be raised and lowered M Perrot's words must not, therefore, be taken too literally--ED

[192] ARTHUR RHONe, _L'egypte a petites Journees_, p 259

[Illustration: FIG 131--The pyramid of Illahoun, horizontal section in perspective; fro]

Another point of difference:rock, which is embraced by the lower courses of their masonry But the pyramid of Mycerinus is just the reverse of this It is built over a hollow in the rock which is filled up with masonry

The inequalities of the surface were usually taken advantage of so as to econoreater shoith less labour

Mycerinus, however, did not fear to increase his task by rearing his pyramid over a depression in the plateau

[Illustration: FIG 132--Section of the pyra]

There is no less diversity in the external aspects of the pyrareat pyraes have been raphy, but we ine all the royal tombs at Memphis to be built upon this one model They do not all present the saular slope fro which distinguished those great monuments when they were in complete preservation The southern pyramid of Dashour offers us one of the133) Its angle-ridges are not unbroken straight lines from base to summit The slope of its faces becoht The lower part of its sides les of 54 41' with the horizon, while above they suddenly fall back to an angle of 42 59' This latter slope does not greatly differ frohbourhood No indication has yet been discovered as to the builder of this pyramid

A second variation, still reat pyramid of Sakkarah, the Stepped Pyramid, which was considered by Mariette as the oldest of thee froht hi of the first dynasty, Ouenephes or Ata, and he was inclined to see in it the Serapeum, or Apis tomb, of the Ancient Empire Its present elevation is about 190 feet Each of its sides is divided horizontally into six large steps with inclined faces The height of these steps decreases progressively, from the base to the summit, from 38 feet 2 inches to 29 feet 6 inches The width of each step is nearly 7 feet It will be seen, therefore, that this building rather tends to the pyrah sketch for a pyramid

[Illustration: FIG 133--The southern pyra]

[Illustration: FIG 134--Section of the Stepped Pyra]

Does this want of completion result fronorance of the full beauties of the pyramidal form on the part of its builders? If the conjecture of Mariette is well founded, the Stepped Pyraypt but in the whole world; and in the remote century which witnessed its construction les left in their masonry, they may have been quite satisfied to leave their work in a condition which to us seems imperfect

[Illustration: FIG 135--The Stepped Pyra]

The Germans have evolved a complicated system of construction from notes made by Lepsius upon the details of the masonry in different pyramids In order that this systee, a series of representations of such a pyras 136 to 142) A co a very narrow and perpendicular pyra 136)

This finished, sloping ainst it so as to form, with the pyramidion of the first mass, a second pyrale stone,137); or, if the builder were sanguine as to tiht seek to push on still farther Then, at the line where the slopes of the pyramid left the earth, four perpendicular walls were erected to the height of the pyramidion The space between the sides of the pyramid and the inner faces of these walls was filled in, and thus a kind of terrace, or huge rectangular block, was obtained (Fig 138), which served as the core for a new pyraer section and gentler slope (Fig 140), whose sides reached the ground far beyond the foundations of the terrace In the case of a long reign this operation s 140 and 142) A large pyramid would thus be composed of a series of pyramidal envelopes placed one upon another Theof the first course of stone, or it was contrived in the thickness of thein thickness, galleries were left for ventilation and for the introduction of the sarcophagus and the mummy The mummy-chamber is always found either upon the axis of the pyrahbourhood, and always nearer the base than the summit

[Illustration: FIG 136

FIG 137

FIG 138

FIG 139

FIG 140