Many of the embalmed bodies, or mummies, have been brought from Egypt and placed in national museums. Some of the coffins in which they lie are very thick. They are generally of sycamore, which does not decay so easily as some wood. Some are of stone, others of cloth pasted together, making them very strong.
The top of the coffin is usually cut into the shape of a head, with a face resembling a woman's painted on it. Some of these coffins are handsomely marked with hieroglyphics. The body of the coffin is plain, with a broad pedestal at the lower end on which it can rest in an upright position.
The embalmed body appears wrapped in a shroud of linen upon which are fastened many linen scrolls painted with sacred characters. The face is covered with a headpiece of linen fitted with plaster. On this the countenance of the deceased is represented in gold.
The whole body is swathed with linen bands with great neatness and skill. There cannot be less than one thousand yards of these linen bands upon a single body.
The great pyramids of Gizeh have a situation on a hill six miles west of the Nile and at a distance of ninety miles from the Mediterranean Sea. They are three in number.
There is a fine highway, built at some elevation above the plain and shaded by acacia trees, running from Cairo to these pyramids, a distance of about eight miles. As we cross the river by means of a modern iron bridge, we behold from the center of it a series of most beautiful pictures.
The Nile, even at its lowest stage, impresses us as a noble river. It is the longest river of the eastern continent, and is exceeded in length only by the Amazon and the Mississippi. True, the volume of its waters is doubtless exceeded by that of several others, since the amount is diminished by the light rainfall and the narrow watershed of the latter half of the course.
Gazing at the Nile, we can but reflect upon what it has done and what it now does for Egypt, and we realize that its flood is one of the greatest blessings, if not one of the greatest wonders in the world.
We cross the bridge, and the road we follow leads to the western hills, on the northern extremity of which stand the pyramids of Gizeh, at an elevation of one hundred feet above the sea. The whole of this region was, from the earliest period, one of the cemeteries of old Memphis, which was the residence of the ancient Egyptian kings.
The largest and most ancient of the pyramids was built by Khufu. Within the solemn stillness of the chambers of the pyramid of Khufu the stone coffin which contained the royal mummy was placed. Upon the walls was sculptured the story of the dead king's deeds. A stone sealed the passage leading to these silent chambers. Three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed for twenty years in building this pyramid.