A splendid line was the line bearing 43° 36′ 10·15″, or 223° 36′ 10·15″ from Cheops and Cephren, the pyramids covering each other, the line of hypotenuse of the great 20, 21, 29 triangle of the plan. This I call the 20, 21 line. (See Figure 42.)
Figure 43 represents the 3, 4, 5 triangle line from the summits of Mycerinus and Cheops in true line bearing 216° 52' 11·65". This I call the south 4, west 3 line.
The next line is what I call the 2, 1 line, and is illustrated by figure 44. It is one of the most perfect of the series, and bears S. 26° 33' 54·9" W. from the apex of Cephren. This line demonstrates clearly why Mycerinus was cased with red granite.
Not in memory of the beautiful and rosy-cheeked Nitocris, as some of the tomb theory people say, but for a less romantic but more useful object; simply because, from this quarter, and round about, the lines of the pyramids would have been confused if Mycerinus had not been of a different color. The 2, 1 line is a line in which Mycerinus would have been absolutely lost in the slopes of Cephren but for his red color. There is not a fact that more clearly establishes my theory, and the wisdom and forethought of those who planned the Gïzeh pyramids, than this red pyramid Mycerinus, and the 2, 1 line.
Hekeyan Bey, speaks of this pyramid as of a "ruddy complexion;" John Greaves quotes from the Arabic book, Morat Alzeman, "and the lesser which is coloured;" and an Arabic writer who dates the Pyramids three hundred years before the Flood, and cannot find among the learned men of Egypt "any certain relation concerning them" nor any "memory of them amongst men," also expatiates upon the beauties of the "coloured satin" covering of this one particular pyramid.
| Fig. 42. South 21. West 20. Bearing 223°.36'.10·15". | |
| Fig. 43 South 4. West 3. Bearing 216°.52'.11·65". | |
| Fig. 44. South 2. West 1. Bearing 206°.33'.54·18". | |
| Fig. 45. South 96. West 55. Bearing 209°.48'.32·81". | |
| Fig. 46. South 3. West 1. Bearing 198°.26'.5·82". | |
| Fig. 47. South 5. West 2. Bearing 201°.48'.5". | |
| Fig. 48. South 7. West 3. Bearing 203°.11'.55". |
Figure 45 represents the line south 96, west 55, from Cephren, bearing 209° 48' 32·81"; the apex of Cephren is immediately above the apex of Mycerinus.
Figure 46 is the S. 3 W. 1 line, bearing 198° 26' 5.82"; here the dark slope angle of the pyramids with the sun to the eastward occupies half of the apparent half base.
Figure 47 is the S. 5, W. 2 line, bearing 201° 48' 5"; here Cephren and Mycerinus are in outside slope line.
Figure 48 is the S. 7 W. 3 line, bearing 203° 11' 55"; here the inside slope of Cephren springs from the centre of the apparent base of Mycerinus.