The third pyramid, commonly attributed to Mycerinus, or Mencheres, was opened by Colonel Vyse, who found in it the mummy-case of its founder, bearing the hieroglyphic name of Menkaré. This pyramid, though small in comparison with the first and second, its base being about three hundred and thirty feet, and its perpendicular height about two hundred, is a very noble monument. Its construction is excellent; and it was distinguished by being partly, or wholly, cased with granite. Several courses of the granite casing-stones remain at the lower part. The chamber in which the sarcophagus was found, and the entrance-passage, are formed of granite; and the roof of the former is composed of blocks leaning together, and cut so as to form an arched ceiling. The sarcophagus was lost at sea, on its way to England. The third pyramid was the first that I entered; and highly was I gratified by the view of its interior, after I had summoned courage to crawl through its entrance, which was almost closed by huge masses of stone.
Adjacent to the pyramids which I have mentioned are several others; but these are comparatively insignificant; and I shall not attempt to describe them: nor shall I undertake to give you a detailed account of any of the numerous tombs to which I have before alluded. Most of these lie in a large space to the west of the Great Pyramid, and north of the second; and are, with few exceptions, disposed in regular lines, from north to south, and from east to west; their walls, like the sides of the pyramids, facing the four cardinal points. Some of them are nearly buried in the drifted sand; and many are almost entirely demolished. Some contain no chambers above ground; but have a pit, entered from the roof, descending to a sepulchral chamber. Others contain narrow chambers within their walls, adorned with painted sculptures in low relief, representing agricultural and other scenes. Most of these are of the same age as the Great Pyramid. In one of them, which is of that age, are represented persons engaged in various arts, carpenters, makers of papyrus-boats (probably like the ark in which Moses was exposed), agricultural employments, the wine-press, eating, dancing, &c. Among the subjects in this tomb, we find two men sitting at a tray which is supported by a low pedestal, and loaded with food; one is holding a fowl in his left hand; and, with his right, tearing off one of the wings: the other is holding a joint, and about to bite off a piece. Each of these persons is almost naked; had they more clothing, they would exhibit a true representation of two modern Egyptians at their dinner or supper. There are also many sepulchral grottoes, excavated in the rock, in the neighbourhood of the pyramids. In one we find representations of the flocks and herds of the principal occupant, with the number of each kind: he had 835 oxen, 220 cows with their young, 2234 he-goats, 760 asses, and 974 rams. This interesting tomb is of the remote age of Khephré, or Shefré, before mentioned. It is in the front of the rocky elevation on which the Great Pyramid stands, a little to the right of Colonel Vyse’s quarters, facing the valley of the Nile.
Had I attempted a regular description of the pyramids and the monuments around them, I should have begun with the Great Sphinx, which faces the traveller approaching the Great Pyramid by the easiest route from the southeast, and lies but a short distance from that route. Its huge recumbent body, and its enormous outstretched fore-legs, are almost entirely buried in sand and rubbish. The head alone is twenty feet high. The face (which lays claim to be regarded as a portrait of Thothmos IV., whom many believe to have reigned during the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, or shortly before or after, and who may have been the very Pharaoh in whose reign the Exodus took place) is much mutilated; the nose being broken off. This loss gives to the expression of the face much of the negro character: but the features of the countenance of the ancient Egyptian, as well as the comparative lightness of complexion, widely distinguished him from the negro; and the nose of the former greatly differed from that of the latter. At first the countenance of the Sphinx, disfigured as it is, appeared to me absolutely ugly; but when I drew near, I observed in it a peculiar sweetness of expression, and I did not wonder at its having excited a high degree of admiration in many travellers. The whole of this extraordinary colossus was doubtless painted: the face still retains much of its paint, which is red ochre, the colour always employed by the ancient Egyptians to represent the complexion of their countrymen; yellow or pink being used by them for that of the Egyptian women. All that is visible of the Sphinx is hewn out of a mass of limestone rock, which perhaps naturally presented something of the form which art has given to it.
I did not think to have written to you so much on the pyramids and the monuments around them; but having entered upon the subject, I have found it difficult to stop. So wonderful in themselves are the principal pyramids, and so impressive by reason of their remote antiquity, that all other existing works of man must, I think, in comparison with them, sink into insignificance. I could hardly believe that monuments of such stupendous magnitude, and such admirable construction, were erected several centuries before the period of the Exodus, were it not for the fact that the Tower of Babel, probably an equally wonderful edifice, was raised in an age yet earlier.
During this excursion I was gratified by observing among innumerable Arabs belonging to the villages not a single instance of blindness, a calamity so common in Cairo. These peasants seem to enjoy a very small share of this world’s goods; but the exhilarating air usually blowing from the neighbouring desert has an extraordinary effect on their health and spirits.
On the morning before our departure several well-dressed young Bedawees arrived near our tent, the sons of the sheykh of a distant village. After dismounting and loitering about for nearly an hour, they confessed to one of our party that they had ridden several miles in the hope of seeing the faces of some European ladies, who, they had been informed, were passing a few days at the pyramids, and they were seriously disappointed on finding veiled ladies only. A few weeks since these same young men enjoyed the treat of seeing an American lady who is travelling in Egypt, and who is a beautiful person. A friend of ours asked their opinion of the lady on that occasion, when they replied that her appearance was “excellent.” “But,” exclaimed one of the young men, “the sword! the sword! if we dared to use it, we would kill that man,” alluding to the lady’s companion, “whether her husband, or her brother, and take her ourselves.” ’Tis well for pretty women travelling in the East that these lawless Arabs are kept under a degree of subjection by the present government.
LETTER XXVI.
March, 1844.
My dear Friend,