Part 42

From this Pyramid we went to the second, being scarce distant the flight of an arrow from it; where by the way, I observed on the west side of the first, the ruins of a pile of building, all of square and polished stone; such as _Pliny_ calls _Basaltes_, and describes to be _ferrei coloris, & duritiæ_;—_of an iron colour and hardness_. Formerly it may be some habitation of the Priests, or some monument of the dead. To the right hand of this, tending to the south, stands this second Pyramid, of which besides the miracle, the ancient and modern writers have delivered little. _Herodotus_ relates, that _Cephron_, in imitation of his brother _Cheops_, built this, but that he fell short in respect of the magnitude. _For_ (saith he) _we have measured them._ It were to be wished, for fuller satisfaction of the reader, he had expressed the quantity, and also the manner how he took his measure. He adds, _It hath no subterraneous structures, neither is the ~Nilus~ by a channel derived into it, as in the former_. _Diodorus_ somewhat more particularly describes it thus: That _for the architecture, it is like unto the former, but much inferior to it in respect of magnitude: Each side of the basis contains a ~Stadium~ in length._ That is, to comment on his words, of _Grecian_ feet, six hundred; of _Roman_, six hundred and twenty-five. So that by this computation, each side should want an hundred _Grecian_ feet of the former Pyramid. _Pliny_ makes the difference to be greater, for assigning eight hundred eighty-three feet to the former, he allows to the side of the basis of this, but seven hundred thirty-seven. By my observation, the stones are of colour, white, nothing so great and large, as those of the first and fairest Pyramid; the sides rise not with degrees like that, but are smooth and equal, the whole fabrick (except where it is opposed to the south) seeming very entire, free from any deformed ruptures or breaches. The height of it, taken by as deliberate a conjecture as I could make (which it was easy to do, by reason of the nearness of this and the former, being both upon the same plain) is not inferior to it; and therefore _Strabo_ hath rightly judged them to be equal. The sides also of the basis of both are alike, as, besides the authority of _Strabo_, the _Venetian_ doctor assured me, who measured it with a line.

There is no entry leading into it, and therefore what may be within, whether such spaces and compartments, as I observed in the former; or whether different, or none, I must leave to every man’s private conjecture, and to the discovery of after-times.

This is bounded on the north and west sides, with two very stately and elaborate pieces, which I do not so much admire, as that by all writers they have been pretermitted. About thirty feet in depth, and more than a thousand and four hundred in length, out of the hard rock these buildings have been cut in a perpendicular, and squared by the chessel, as I suppose, for lodgings of the Priests. They run along at a convenient distance, parallel to the two sides we mentioned of this Pyramid, meeting in a right angle, and making a very fair and graceful prospect. The entrance into them is by square openings, hewn out of the rock, much of the same bigness with those I described in the first Pyramid. Whether these were symbolical, as the theology of the _Egyptians_ consisted much in mysterious figures, and the depressure and lownes of these were to teach the Priests humility, and the squareness and evenness of them, an uniform and regular department in their actions, I leave to such as have written of their Hieroglyphics to determine. The hollow space within of them all, is somewhat like to a square and well proportioned chamber, covered and arched above with the natural rock: In most of which, as I remember, there was a passage opening into some other compartment, which the rubbage and darkness hindered me from viewing. On the north side without, I observed a line, and only one, engraven with sacred and _Egyptian_ characters, such as are mentioned by _Herodotus_ and _Diodorus_, to have been used by the Priests, and were different from the vulgar characters in civil affairs: In which former kind _Justin Martyr_ makes _Moses_ to have been skilful, as the Scripture makes him to have been learned in all the wisdom of the _Egyptians_. These ran not downwards, as the _Chinese_ in our times write, but were continued in a straight line, as we use to write; and are to be read (if any understand those mysterious sculptures) by proceeding from the right hand to the left, and, as it were imitating the motion and course of the planets: For so _Herodotus_ expressly informs us, That the _Grecians_ write and cast account, going from the left hand to the right, the _Egyptians_ from the right hand to the left. And this is that which in an obscure expression is also intimated by _Pomponius Mela_: _Egyptii suis literis perverse utuntur._ A manner practised by the _Hebrews_, _Chaldeans_, and _Syrians_ to this day, and not unlikely to have been borrowed by them from the _Egyptians_, to whom the _Chaldeans_ also owed their first skill in astrology, as the _Grecians_ did their knowledge in geometry, the former being attested by _Diodorus_, and the latter confessed by _Proclus_ and other _Grecians_. And surely in imitation of these, or of the _Jews_, the _Arabians_ neighbouring upon both, have taken up this manner of writing, and continued it to our times, communicating it also by their conquests, to the _Persians_ and _Turks_.

_A description of the third Pyramid out of Mr ~Belon~ and ~Greaves~._

Amongst many modern writers, none deserves to be placed before _Bellonius_, or rather before _P. Gillius_. For _Thuanus_ makes the other to have been a _plagiarius_, and to have published in his own name the observations of _P. Gillius_, a man very curious, and inquisitive after truth, as appears by his _Typography_ of _Constantinople_, and his _Bosphorus Thracius_, to whom _Bellonius_ served as an _Amanuensis_: ‘The third Pyramid is much less than the former two, but is a third part greater than that which is at _Rome_, near the _Mons testaceus_, as you pass to St _Paul_’s in the _Ostian_ way. It is still perfect, and no more corrupted, than as if it had been newly built; for it is made of a kind of marble, called _Basaltes_, or _Ethiopic_ marble, harder than iron itself.’

It will be in vain to repeat the traditions and descriptions of several others; all which by a kind of confederacy agree in the same tale for substance, only differing in some circumstances: So that I shrewdly suspect that _Diodorus_ hath borrowed most of his relation from _Herodotus_; and _Strabo_ and _Pliny_ from _Diodorus_, or from them both; and the more learned Neoterics from them all. For else how can it be imagined they should so constantly agree in that, which if my eyes and memory extreamly fail me not, is most evidently false? And therefore I have a strong jealousy, that they never came near this third Pyramid; but that they did, as I have observed all travellers in my time in _Egypt_ to do, fill themselves so full, and, as it were, to surfeit with the sight of the greater and fairer Pyramid, that they had no appetite to be spectators of the rest, where they should only see the same miracle, for the Pyramids are all of the same figure, the farther they went, decreasing, and presented as it were in a less volume. Or if they did view this, it was _quasi per transennam_, very perfunctorily and slightly, and that through a false and coloured glass; for they have mistaken both in the quality of the stone and colour of the Pyramid. I begin with _Herodotus_, who, by a notable piece of forgetfulness, if it be not a σφάλμα in the copies, makes the dimensions of each of the sides, in the basis of this, to be three hundred feet, and yet want but twenty of the first Pyramid, to which he assigns before eight hundred feet; an impossibility in arithmetic; and therefore it will be no preemption to correct the place, and instead of ἐείκοσι ποδῶν καταδέουσαν, to write, πεντεκοσίων ποδῶν καταδέουσαν. I know not how to palliate or excuse his other error, where he makes this Pyramid to be built as far as to the middle of it, with _Ethiopic_ marble. If this sort of marble be _ferrei coloris_, as it is described by _Pliny_, and granted by _Diodorus_ and _Strabo_, both of them expressing the colour to be black, and the latter bringing it from the remotest mountains of _Ethiopia_, where the marble hath the same tincture and colour with the inhabitants, then can this relation of _Herodotus_ no way to be admitted; for the whole Pyramid seems to be of clear and white stone, somewhat choicer and brighter than that in either of the two other Pyramids. And therefore I wonder that _Diodorus_, _Strabo_, and _Pliny_, and amongst later authors, _Bellonius_, _Gillius_, and several others, should have all followed _Herodotus_, when with a little pains and circumspection, they might have reformed his, and their own error. It may perhaps be alledged in their defence, that they mean the buildings within are erected with black and _Ethiopic_ marble; and yet if this be granted, since there is no entrance leading into this, no more than is into the second Pyramid, what may be within depends upon the uncertainty of tradition or conjecture, both which are very fallible; though it cannot be denied, but that close by this, on the east side of it, there are the ruins of a pile of building, with a sad and dusky colour, much like that we described in passing to the second Pyramid, which might be the ground and occasion of this error. I cannot excuse the ancients, but _Bellonius_ or _Gillius_, for it is no matter which of them owns the relation, when both of them have erred, are far more inexcusable, because it might have been expected from them what _Livy_ supposes, _Novi semper scriptores, aut in rebus certius aliquid allaturos se, aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem superaturos credunt_. Whereas these on the contrary have depraved what hath been in this particular with truth delivered by the ancients; for whereas _Herodotus_ and _Diodorus_ equal the side of the basis to three hundred feet, and _Pliny_ extends it to three hundred sixty-three, these make it only a third part greater than the Pyramid at _Rome_ of _C. Cæstius_, near the _Mons testaceus_. So that either they have much enlarged that at _Rome_, or shrunk and contracted this; for the Pyramid at _Rome_, exactly measured on that side which stands within the city, is compleatly seventy-eight feet _English_ in breadth, to which if we add a third part of it, the result will be an hundred and four; which should be equal to this _Egyptian_ Pyramid in the notion and acception of _Bellonius_.

_Of the rest of the Pyramids in the ~Lybian~ desart._

I have done with these three Pyramids, each of them being very remarkable, and the two first reckoned amongst the miracles of the world. The rest in the _Lybian_ desart, lying scattered here and there, are, excepting one of them, but lesser copies, and, as it were, models of these: And therefore I shall neither much trouble my self, nor the reader, with the description of them. Though to speak the truth, did not the three first, standing so near together, obscure the lustre of the rest, which lie far scattered, some of them were very considerable. And therefore I cannot but tax the omission of the ancients, and the inadvertency of all modern writers and travellers, who with too much supineness have neglected the description of one of them; which in my judgment is as worthy of memory, and as near a miracle as any of those three which I have mentioned. And this stands from these south and by west, at twenty miles distance, more within the sandy desart, upon a rocky level like these, and not far from the village whence we enter the Mummies. This as the _Venetian_ doctor assured me, and as I could judge by conjecture at a distance, hath the same dimensions that the first and fairest of these hath, graduations, or assents without, and of the same colour like that, but more decayed, especially at the top, and an entrance into it on the north side, which is barred up within; and therefore whatsoever is spoken of the first, in respect of the exterior figure, is applicable to this. _Bellonius_ exceeds in his computation of the number of them, who thus writes: _Above an hundred others are seen dispersed up and down in that plain._ I could not discover twenty. And long since, _Ion Almatoug_, in his book of the _Miracles of ~Egypt~_, reckons them to be but eighteen: _There are in the west side no more famous buildings than the Pyramids, the number of them is eighteen; of these there are three in that part which is opposite to ~Fostat~, or ~Cairo~._

_In what manner the Pyramids were built._

We had ended our discourse of the Pyramids, but that I find one scruple touched upon by _Herodotus_, _Diodorus_, and _Pliny_, which is worth the discussion as a point of some concernment in architecture; and that is, in what manner these Pyramids were built; and with what art and contrivance the stones, especially those vast ones in the first were conveyed up. _Herodotus_, who first raised the doubt, gives this solution: ‘They carried up the rest of the stones with little engines made of wood, raising them from the ground upon the first row: When the stone was lodged upon this row, it was put into another engine, standing upon the first step, from thence it was conveyed to the second row by another: For so many rows and orders of steps as there were, so many engines were there; or else they removed the engine, which was one, and easy to be carried to every particular row, as often as they moved a stone. We will relate that which is spoken of either part; therefore those in the Pyramid were first made, which were the highest, then by degrees the rest, last of all, those which are nearest to the ground, and are the lowest.’ The first part of this solution of _Herodotus_ is full of difficulty. How in the erecting and placing of so many machines, charged with such massy stones, and those continually passing over the lower degrees, could it be avoided, but that they must either unsettle them, or in danger the breaking of some portions of them; which mutually would have been like scars in the face of so magnificent a building? His second answer is the sounder; but I conceive the text to be imperfect. _Diodorus_ hath another fancy: ‘The stones, (saith he) at a great distance off were prepared in _Arabia_, and they report, that by the help of _Aggeres_ (engines not being then invented) the work was erected. And that which begets the greatest admiration is, that so vast a structure was perfected in that place, which is all about replenished with sand, where there appears not any relics, either of the _Aggeres_, or of the hewing and polishing of the stones; so that it seems not piecemeal by the industry of men, but altogether, and at once, the whole pile, as it were by some God, was erected in the midst of the sands. Some of the _Egyptians_ relate wonders of it, and endeavour to obtrude I know not what fables; namely, That these _Aggeres_ consisting of salt and nitre, were dissolved by letting in the river, which wholly consumed them without the labour of hands, leaving this structure entire. But the truth of the business is not so, but that those multitudes of men which were employed in raising the _Aggeres_, carried them away unto their former places: For, as they report three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed in these offices, and the whole work was scarce finished in the space of twenty years.’ _Pliny_ partly agrees with him, and partly gives another answer, _the question is, by what means the cement is conveyed up to such a height_ (he rather might question how those vast stones were conveyed up,) _some say, that banks of nitre and salt were made up as the work rose, which being finished, they were washed away by the river ~Nilus~. Others imagine that bridges were made with brick; which, the work being ended, were distributed into private houses: for they conceive that the ~Nilus~ being much lower, could not come to wash them away._ If I may assume the liberty of a traveller, I imagine that they were erected, neither as _Herodotus_ describes, nor as _Diodorus_ reports, nor as _Pliny_ relates, but that first they made a large and spacious tower in the midst reaching to the top; to the sides of this tower, I conceive, the rest of the building to have been applied, piece after piece, like so many buttresses or supporters, still lessening in height, till at last they came to the lower-most degree. A difficult piece of building taken in the best, and easiest projection; and therefore it is no wonder if it were not often imitated by the ancients, and no where expressed or commended by the great Master of architecture _Vitruvius_. Yet surely if we judge of things by the events, and if we reflect upon the intention of monuments, which are raised by the living, to perpetuate the memory of the dead, then is this as commendable a way as any. And therefore we see at _Rome_, that though by the revolution of so many ages the _Mausoleum_ of _Augustus_ be almost decayed, and the _Septizonium_ of _Severus_ be utterly lost, both intended for lasting and stately sepulchres, yet the Pyramid of _C. Cæstius_ stands fair and almost entire; which is no more to be compared, either for the vastness of the stones or the whole bulk and fabric of it, with these, than are the limbs and body of a dwarf to the demensions of a giant, or some large _Colossus_.

I have done with the work, but the Artizans deserve not to be pretremitted; concerning whom the observation of _Diodorus_ is as true, as it is boldly delivered by him. ‘It is confessed, that these works, (speaking of the Pyramids) far excel the rest in _Ægypt_, not only in the massiness of the structures, and in the expences, but also in the industry (and skill) of the artificers.’ The _Egyptians_ think the Architects are more to be admired than the Kings, who were at the expence; for they by their abilities and study, these by their wealth received by inheritance, and by the labours of others erected them.

_The Conclusion._

And thus much of the _Sciography_, or of the artificial and architectonical part; I shall shut up all with one observation in nature for the recreation of the reader, recited by _Strabo_ in these words. ‘We ought not to omit one of the strange things seen by us at the Pyramids: Some heaps of stone, being fragments hewn off, lie before the Pyramids, amongst these are found little stones, some in the similitude and bigness of lentils, some as grains of barley, which appear half unscaled; They report these are some relics of the provisions, which were given to the workmen, and have been petrified; which seems probable enough.’

These, if they were ever any such, are either consumed by time, or scattered by the winds, or buried with those tempests of sand, to which the desarts are perpetually exposed: But _Diodorus_, who not long preceded him, was not so curious as to deliver this relation. And were not _Strabo_ a writer of much gravity and judgment, I should suspect that these petrified grains (though I know such petrefactions to be no impossibility in nature; for I have seen at _Venice_ the bones and flesh of a man, and the whole head entirely transmuted into stone; and at _Rome_ clear conduit water, by long standing in Aqueducts, hath been turned into perfect alabaster) are like those loafs of bread, which are reported to be found by the Red Sea converted into stone, and by the inhabitants supposed to be some of the bread the _Israelites_ left behind them, when they passed over for fear of _Pharoah_. They are sold at Grand _Cairo_, handsomely made up in the manner of the bread of these times, which is enough to discover the imposture; for the Scripture makes them to have been unleavened cakes: _And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought fourth out of ~Egypt~._ Or else _Strabo_’s relation may be like the tradition of the rising of dead mens bones every year in _Egypt_[28]; a thing superstitiously believed by the Christians and by the Priests, either out of ignorance or policy, maintain’d as an argument of the resurrection. The possibility and truth of it, _Metrophanes_, the Patriarch of _Alexandria_ thought, but very illogically; might be proved out of the Prophet _Esaiah_: ‘And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.’

But I have digressed too far; the confutation of these, and the description of the Mummies, or of the rest of the _Egyptian_ sepulchres, for from thence comes the matter of this their supposed resurrection, and that infinite mass and variety of hieroglyphics, which I have either seen there, or bought or transcribed elsewhere, may be the argument of another discourse[29].

_Of the ~Pyramids~, ~Sphynx~, ~Mummies~, &c. By Father ~Vansleb~ and others._

In my first voyage to _Egypt_ I had seen the Pyramids, but having another opportunity offer’d to me, I went thither to view again these rare monuments of antiquity, to see whether I might not observe something more than I have taken notice of in my first relation.

On the 27th of _April_ I went thither in the company of the _French_ Consul and many other Merchants, and with almost all his houshold; we had with us three Janizaries to guard us, so that we were in all about fifty Cavaliers well mounted upon asses, taking with us provisions sufficient for three days.

1. When we were come to the Pyramids, and had observed exactly every thing, I took notice that the place where they stood was a burying-place. This is plain to any that see the place; and doubtless it was the burying-place of the old city of _Memphis_; for all the _Arabian_ history inform us, that this city stood where the Pyramids now are, over-against old _Cairo_.

2. I took notice, that all the Pyramids have an entrance that leads to a low alley, which is very long, and at the end is a chamber, where the ancient _Egyptians_ did place the bodies of those persons for whom the Pyramids were built. This entrance is not to be seen in every one of the Pyramids, because the wind hath stopt them with sand. I saw upon some of them some Hierogliphic characters, but I had not time to write them out.

3. I took notice, that all the Pyramids were built in very good order; and that each of the three greatest were at the head of ten lesser, which are not well to be distinguish’d, because of the heaps of sand; one may yet imagine, to see the place, that in former ages there have been here one hundred Pyramids little and great.

4. I took notice, that they are all built upon an even rock cover’d over with white sand; so that it is very probable that the stones have been taken from the place, and not brought from far, as some travellers imagine, and old writers, for the greatest is nothing but a rock cut as a Pyramid, and cover’d over with a wall of stone.

5. I took notice, that of all the stones of the greatest there is scarce one intire, but either worn out with the weather and time, or broken by some other accident; so that tho’ one may ascend on all sides to the top, yet not in all places with the same ease.

6. I have taken notice, that none of the Pyramids are alike, or perfectly square, but that all have two sides longer than the others. I intended to measure the greatest; for that purpose I had with me a string of about thirty land-yards, but because the winds have heaped about it mountains of sand, I could not possibly draw a line straight from one angle to the other.