But The Truth Seems To Be After All, That The
Pyramids Are Quite Of This World; That They Were Piled
Up into the
air for the realisation of some kingly crotchets about immortality,
some priestly longing for burial fees; and
That as for the
building, they were built like coral rocks by swarms of insects - by
swarms of poor Egyptians, who were not only the abject tools and
slaves of power, but who also ate onions for the reward of their
immortal labours! {37} The Pyramids are quite of this world.
I of course ascended to the summit of the great Pyramid, and also
explored its chambers, but these I need not describe. The first
time that I went to the Pyramids of Ghizeh there were a number of
Arabs hanging about in its neighbourhood, and wanting to receive
presents on various pretences; their Sheik was with them. There
was also present an ill-looking fellow in soldier's uniform. This
man on my departure claimed a reward, on the ground that he had
maintained order and decorum amongst the Arabs. His claim was not
considered valid by my dragoman, and was rejected accordingly. My
donkey-boys afterwards said they had overhead this fellow propose
to the Sheik to put me to death whilst I was in the interior of the
great Pyramid, and to share with him the booty. Fancy a struggle
for life in one of those burial chambers, with acres and acres of
solid masonry between one's self and the daylight! I felt
exceedingly glad that I had not made the rascal a present.
I visited the very ancient Pyramids of Aboukir and Sakkara. There
are many of these, and of various shapes and sizes, and it struck
me that, taken together, they might be considered as showing the
progress and perfection (such as it is) of pyramidical
architecture. One of the Pyramids at Sakkara is almost a rival for
the full-grown monster at Ghizeh; others are scarcely more than
vast heaps of brick and stone: these last suggested to me the idea
that after all the Pyramid is nothing more nor less than a variety
of the sepulchral mound so common in most countries (including, I
believe, Hindustan, from whence the Egyptians are supposed to have
come). Men accustomed to raise these structures for their dead
kings or conquerors would carry the usage with them in their
migrations, but arriving in Egypt, and seeing the impossibility of
finding earth sufficiently tenacious for a mound, they would
approximate as nearly as might be to their ancient custom by
raising up a round heap of stones - in short, conical pyramids. Of
these there are several at Sakkara, and the materials of some are
thrown together without any order or regularity. The transition
from this simple form to that of the square angular pyramid was
easy and natural, and it seemed to me that the gradations through
which the style passed from infancy up to its mature enormity could
plainly be traced at Sakkara.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 125 of 170
Words from 65821 to 66325
of 89094
