The pyramids, whose entrances pointed to the North star, and which were perhaps two thousand years old when Abraham was born, looked from a distance like isolated mountain peaks or faint blue triangles outlined against the sky, and the clear air made them seem nearer than they were. They occupied the whole horizon as one advanced beyond the plain of tombs. “Anear,” says Miss Edwards, “a mighty shadow, sharp and distinct, divided the sunlight where it fell, as its great original divided the sunlight in the upper air and darkened the space it covered like an eclipse—registering sixty centuries of history.” In the early times the three large pyramids were probably almost central in the embrace of the city, which stretched away westward from the Nile in “a succession of gardens, squares, palaces and monuments, girdling the lake with beautiful villages and climbing, with its terraces, grottoes, shrines and marble pavilions, the very sides of the cliffs two leagues from the Nile. From the top of the great pyramid of Cheops to-day one views the broad domes and the minarets of Cairo, the hills beyond and a palm grove on the site of ancient Memphis,” says Bayard Taylor. “Over the rich palm trees the blue streak of the river and the plain beyond you see the phantoms of two pyramids in the haze which still curtains the Libyan desert. Northward, beyond the parks and palaces of Shoba, the Nile stretches his two great arms towards the sea, dotted far into the distance with sails that flash in the sun.” Many other pyramids are in sight, while higher than St. Peter’s, Rome, St. Paul’s, London, or the Capitol at Washington, the greatest of them, this enormous structure of past ages still dominates the plain. A modern poet has said of them:
“Amid the deserts of a mystic land,
Like Sibyls waiting for a doom far-seen,
Apart in awful solitude they stand,
With thoughts unending caravan between.”
Even then it was probably a magnificent city in which Queen Mertytefs dwelt. Colossal gateways, with the disk and extended wings above, pillars on which lights burned at night, avenues of sphinxes, palaces along the river bank, columns with carved capitals, with the lotus in bud and bloom, as well as other plants, and gorgeously painted shafts, temples of red sandstone, with forests of pillars, lakes surrounded with trees and flowering shrubs, oranges, scarlet pomegranates, olives, figs, vines, and everywhere crowds of freemen and troops of slaves.
The Sphinx, previously sculptured, doubtless underwent some work of restoration at this time, and is said by certain authorities to bear the features of Chephren aggrandized, by others that it was in the image of the god Harmachis. The Arabs named it “Abuthol, Father of Terrors.” Its present state called forth from an illiterate voyager of modern times the caustic remark, “They keep it in shocking repair!” Maspero believed the Sphinx belonged to the period of the Horshesu, “Followers of Horus,” chiefs of the clans gathered into one kingdom under Menes.
The Book of the Dead, which laid down rules, as we may say, both for the dead and the living, belonged to the Fourth Dynasty, and the fragments of it which have descended to us are the source of much of our information about this ancient land and people.
Besides the serious business of pyramid building, the kings and queens had their amusements of other sorts. The harp and flute were known in the Fourth Dynasty, and music, singing and dancing no doubt date from the Garden of Eden. Dwarfs were favorite pets, and a story is told of a frolic of King Seneferu’s, who, for diversion, kept a boat manned with girls whose airy costumes consisted of network. Perchance he may not have been so sober-minded a person as his successor in the queen’s affections. Khufu built the Great Pyramid, and perhaps rebuilt the temple of Isis near the Sphinx, also a temple at Denderah, added to or restored later, first by Thothmes IV and afterwards by some of the Ptolemies.
Mertytefs or Khufu’s sons and daughters are spoken of by Rawlinson, and a daughter, Hents or Hentsen, was buried under a small pyramid near her father. There is a tradition that he sold his daughter for money to carry on the building of his pyramid, while she, sharing in the profits, built one for herself. The king consecrated gold and copper statues to Isis in honor of his daughter. Other stories tell of treasures buried in the pyramids which were appropriated by the sovereigns of other centuries.