For the height, Mr. Petrie, after duly weighing all data, such as the thickness of the three casing-stones yet in situ, and the presumed thickness of those which formerly faced the upper courses of the masonry, gives from his observations of the mean angle of the pyramid, a height from base to apex of 5776.0 ± 7.0 inches. See “The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh,” chap. vi. pp. 37-43. [Note to the second edition.]
[4] Now, seventy-seven years ago; the first edition of this book having been published thirteen years ago. [Note to second edition.]
[5] One only is said to have escaped—a certain Emin Bey, who leaped his horse over a gap in the wall, alighted safely in the piazza below, and galloped away into the desert. The place of this famous leap continued to be shown for many years, but there are no gaps in the wall now, the citadel being the only place in Cairo which is kept in thorough repair.
[6] “It is related that the Sultan Ez-Zahir Beybars, King of Egypt, was the first who sent a mahmal with the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, in the year of the flight 670 (A.D. 1272) or 675; but this custom, it is generally said, had its origin a few years before his accession to the throne. Shegered-Durr, a beautiul Turkish female slave who became the favorite wife of the Sultan Es-Sáleh Negm-ed-Deen, and on the death of his son (with whom terminated the dynasty of the house of the Eiyoob) caused herself to be acknowledged as Queen of Egypt, performed the pilgrimage in a magnificent ‘hódag,’ or covered litter, borne by a camel; and for several successive years her empty ‘hódag’ was sent with the caravan, merely for the sake of state. Hence, succeeding princes of Egypt sent with each year’s caravan of pilgrims a kind of ‘hódag’ (which received the name of mahmal) as an emblem of royalty.”—“The Modern Egyptians,” by E. W. Lane, chap. xxiv, London, 1860.
[7] The hereditary prince, it need scarcely be said, is the present khedive, Tewfik Pasha. [Note to second edition.]
[8] Arabic—Kemengeh.
[9] The goolah, or kulleh, is a porous water-jar of sun-dried Nile mud. These jars are made of all sizes and in a variety of remarkably graceful forms, and cost from about one farthing to two-pence apiece.
[10] Some of these tiles are to be seen in the Egyptian department of the British Museum. They are not blue, but of a bluish green. For a view of the sepulchral chamber, see Maspero’s “Archéologie Egyptienne,” fig. 230, p. 256. [Note to second edition.]
[11] Nectanebo I and Nectanebo II were the last native Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and flourished between B.C. 378 and B.C. 340. An earlier temple must have preceded the Serapeum built by Nectanebo I.
[12] For an excellent and exact account of the Serapeum and the monuments there discovered, see M. Arthur Rhoné’s “L’Egypte en Petites Journées.” [Note to second edition.]