Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. See
on p. 199 the carefully executed drawing of the best
preserved among the diorite statues which the Gîzeh Museum
now possesses of this Pharaoh.
The internal arrangements of the pyramid are of the simplest character; they consist of a granite-built passage carefully concealed in the north face, running at first at an angle of 25°, and then horizontally, until stopped by a granite barrier at a point which indicates a change of direction; a second passage, which begins on the outside, at a distance of some yards in advance of the base of the pyramid, and proceeds, after passing through an unfinished chamber, to rejoin the first; finally, a chamber hollowed in the rock, but surmounted by a pointed roof of fine limestone slabs.
The sarcophagus was of granite, and, like that of Kheops, bore neither the name of a king nor the representation of a god. The cover was fitted so firmly to the trough that the Arabs could not succeed in detaching it when they rifled the tomb in the year 1200 of our era; they were, therefore, compelled to break through one of the sides with a hammer before they could reach the coffin and take from it the mummy of the Pharaoh.*
* The second pyramid was opened to Europeans in 1816 by
Belzoni. The exact date of the entrance of the Arabs is
given us by an inscription, written in ink, on one of the
walls of the sarcophagus chamber: “Mohammed Ahmed Effendi,
the quarryman, opened it; Othman Effendi was present, as
well as the King Ali Mohammed, at the beginning and at the
closing.” The King Ali Mohammed was the son and successor of
Saladin.
Of Khephren’s sons, Menkaûrî (Mykerinos), who was his successor, could scarcely dream of excelling his father and grandfather;* his pyramid, the Supreme—Hirû** —barely attained an elevation of 216 feet, and was exceeded in height by those which were built at a later date.*** Up to one-fourth of its height it was faced with syenite, and the remainder, up to the summit, with limestone.****
* Classical tradition makes Mykerinos the son of Kheops.
Egyptian tradition regards him as the son of Khephren, and
with this agrees a passage in the Westcar Papyrus, in which
a magician prophesies that after Kheops his son (Khâfrî)
will yet reign, then the son of the latter (Menkaûrî), then
a prince of another family.
** An inscription, unfortunately much mutilated, from the
tomb of Tabhûni, gives an account of the construction of the
pyramid, and of the transport of the sarcophagus.
*** Professor Petrie reckons the exact height of the pyramid
at 2564 ±15 or 2580 ± 2 inches; that is to say, 214 or 215
feet in round numbers.
**** According to Herodotus, the casing of granite extended
to half the height. Diodorus states that it did not go
beyond the fifteenth course. Professor Petrie discovered
that there were actually sixteen lower courses in red
granite.