WONDERS OF ART.
THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.
From the natural wonders of the desert, let us next pass to some of the wonders of art which attract the attention of the traveler in lands that once were as flourishing and powerful, as now they are degraded and depressed. Most of these monuments are, indeed, in ruins; but many of them still stand in all their original grandeur, and all are enduring and faithful witnesses to the wealth and greatness of nations that have now passed away forever.
The pyramids of Egypt are familiar, by name, to every intelligent reader, not to say to every child. The largest of these stupendous monuments, equally famous for their enormous size and their remote antiquity, are those of Djiza, or (as now spelled) Gizeh, so called from a village of that name, on the bank of the Nile, some three or four miles above Cairo. The three which perhaps most attract the attention of travelers, stand near each other, on the west side of the river, almost opposite Cairo, and not far from the site of the ancient Memphis. A view of them, and of the celebrated sphinx, which is spoken of hereafter, is given in the engraving on the next page. When seen from a distance, peering above the horizon, they display the fine distinct appearance so often remarked by travelers in the various objects seen through the clear, transparent atmosphere of the Egyptian climate. M. Savary, having approached to within three leagues of them, in the nighttime, while the full moon shone bright upon them, describes them as appearing to him, under this particular aspect, like two points of rock crowned by the clouds. On a nearer approach, their sloping and angular forms disguise their real hight, and lessen it to the eye; independently of which, as whatever is regular is great or small by comparison, and as these masses of stone eclipse in magnitude every surrounding object, at the same time that they are inferior to a mountain, to which alone the imagination can successfully compare them, a degree of surprise is excited on finding the first impression produced by a distant view so much diminished in drawing near to them. On attempting, however, to measure any one of these gigantic works of art by some known and determinate scale, it resumes its immensity to the mind; since, on drawing near to the opening, the persons who stand beneath it appear so small that they can scarcely be taken for men.
THE SPHINX AND PYRAMIDS.
The base of the great pyramid of Cheops, so named after a king of Egypt, is estimated by Denon at seven hundred and twenty feet, and its hight at four hundred and forty-eight feet, calculating the base by the mean proportion of the length of the stones, and the hight by the sum of that of each of the steps or stages. Its construction required so many years, and employed such a multitude of laborers, that the expenditure for garlic and onions alone, for their consumption, is said to have amounted to one thousand and sixty talents, or more than twelve hundred thousand dollars. Its interior is thus accurately described by the above traveler.
“The entrance of the first gallery is concealed by the general outer covering which invests the whole of the pyramid. It is, however, probable, that the attention of the earlier searchers was by some particular appearance directed to this spot. This gallery goes toward the center of the edifice, in a direction sloping downward to the base: it is sixty paces in length; and at the further end are two large blocks of granite, an obstacle which caused some uncertainty in the digging. A horizontal passage has been made for some distance into the mass of stone; but this undertaking was afterward abandoned.
“Returning to the extremity of the first gallery, and working upward by the side of the two granite blocks, you come to the beginning of the first sloping staircase, which proceeds in an oblique direction upward, for a hundred and twenty feet. You mount the steep and narrow gallery, helping your steps by notches cut in the ground, and by resting your hands against the sides. At the top of this gallery, which is formed of a calcareous stone cemented with mortar, you find a landing-place about fifteen feet square, within which, to the right of the entrance, is a perpendicular opening called the well. This appears, from its irregularity, to have been the result of a fruitless attempt at a search, and has a diameter of about two feet by eighteen inches. There were no means of descending it; but by throwing down a stone, it was ascertained that its perpendicular direction could not be very considerable. On a level with the landing is a horizontal gallery, a hundred and seventy feet in length, running directly toward the center of the pyramid; and at the extremity of this gallery is a small room, called the queen’s chamber. This is an oblong square of eighteen feet and two inches, by fifteen feet and eight inches; but the hight is uncertain, the floor having been turned up by the avidity of the searchers. One of the side walls has also been worked into, and the rubbish left on the spot. The roof, which is formed of a fine calcareous stone, very nearly brought together, has the form of an angle nearly equilateral, but contains neither ornament, hieroglyphic, nor the smallest trace of a sarcophagus. Whether it was intended to contain a body, is uncertain; but, in this case, the pyramid must have been built with a view of containing two bodies, and would not therefore have been closed at once. If the second tomb was really that of the queen, the two blocks of granite at the end of the first gallery, must have been finally reserved to close all the interior chambers of the pyramid.