ent purpose. a large subterraneous apartment was constructed professedly for festivals, but in reality for a differShe invited to this place a great number of those Ægyptians whom she knew to be the principal instruments of her brother's death, and then by a private canal introduced the river amongst them. They added, that to avoid the indignation of the people, she suffocated herself in an apartment filled with ashes. CI. None of these monarchs, as my informers related, were distinguished by any acts of magnificence or renown, except Maris, who was the last of them. Of this prince, various monuments remain. He built the north entrance of the temple of Vulcan, and sunk a lake, the dimensions of which I shall hereafter describe. Near this he also erected pyramids*, whose magnitude, when I speak of the lake, I shall particularize. These * It is very surprising that the pyramids, which from their first foundation must have been looked upon with wonder and attention, should not have preserved a more certain tradition of the time when they were founded, or of the names of the founders. Pliny reckons up a number of authors who have written of the pyramids, and all of them, he tells us, disagree concerning the persons who built them.Shaw. The same author adds:-Neither is there an universal consent for what use or intent they were designed. Pliny asserts that they were built for ostentation, and to keep an idle people in employment; others, which is the most received opinion, that they were to be the sepulchres of the Ægyptian are lasting monuments of his fame: but as none of the preceding princes performed any thing memorable, I shall pass them by in silence. kings. But if Cheops, Suphis, or whoever else was the founder of the great pyramid, intended it only for his sepulchre, what occasion was there for such a narrow sloping entrance into it, or for the wall, as it is called, at the bottom of the gallery, or for the lower chamber, with a large niche or hole in the eastern wall of it, or for the long narrow cavities in the walls or sides of the large upper room, which likewise is incrustated all over with the finest granite marble, or for the two anti-chambers, and the lofty gallery, with benches on each side, that introduce us into it? As the whole of the Ægyptian theology was clothed in mysterious emblems and figures, it seems reasonable to suppose that all these turnings, apartments, and secrets in architecture, were intended for some nobler purpose; and that the deity, which was typified on the outward form of this pile, was to be worshipped within. No places could certainly have been more ingeniously contrived, for those secret chambers or adyta, which had so great a share in the Ægyptian mysteries and initiations. The following beautiful passages from different authors, on the hidden sources of the Nile, should have been inserted at p. 245. Lucan, B. 10. Quæ tibi noscendi Nilum, Romane, cupido est, Notitiam sed vincit adhuc natura latendi. : Summus Alexander regum quos Memphis adorat Venit Venit ad occasum, mundique extrema Sesostris, Ante tamen vestros amnes Rhodanumque, Padumque See also Tibullus, L. 1. E. 7. before quoted. Ammianus Marcellinus, L. 22, affirms that their sources Origines fontium Nili ut mihi quidem videri solet, sicut Claudian, Idyl. 4. Qui rapido tractu mediis elatus ab austris, In this place also it may not be improper to add the various And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the In Jeremiah, ii. 18. What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the Joshua, xiii. 3. From Sihor which is before Ægypt.-The Greeks called it Oceanus was its very common appellation. It was also Siculus, Plutarch, Strabo, Pliny, and Ammianus Marcellinus. We find the name of Tuiton given it by Cœlius Rhodiginus. Pliny, 1. 5. c. 10. calls it Astabores and Astapus. Athenæus speaks of it by the term of Jupiter Ægyptius. It is alluded to by the name of Gihon, in Genesis, ii. 13. And the name of the second river is Gihon, the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Æthiopia. See also Jeremiah, ii. 18. Pliny and Dionysius both give it the name of Sinis. Theocritus uses the epithet of Chrysoroas, αργύριος Νείλος. In Egyptus it is named Noym. I have seen it also somewhere termed Mehara. P. Jovius calls it Abbahius; and Dionysius, in some other places, Syene. Pierius Valerius gives it the appellation of Dynis; besides which, in different authors, I have seen it distinguished by the names of Tacus, Alaodecaton, Pisson, Bahar, &c. The following account of the present state of the pyramids, from one of the last persons who was able to visit and examine them with leisure and security, may properly conclude this volume. "To relieve the ennui which the present indolent state of the army produced, and particularly as no permission was given to enter into Cairo, the pyramids, distant only about four miles, had become the constant subject of occupation; and the very soldiers in going there seemed to find a recompence for many of their toils, to exult more in their triumphs, and feel the enjoyment which travellers must experience on attaining the ultimate object of their research; their minds aggrandized with honest pride and honourable reflections. "The pyramids, which are consecrated from the most remote antiquity, as forming one of the seven wonders of the world, at a distance impose neither awe nor any idea of stupendous magnificence: they are situated on the immediate borders of the Desert, which elevates itself like a cliff above the cultivated country; their form, if one of the objects of their construction was to excite surprise at their grandeur and altitude, was the worst which could be conceived; but when arrived at the very base of the great pyramid, then its wonders require positive vision to credit. The mind is lost in the calculation, and the eye, unaccustomed to such masses, cannot imagine to itself such dimensions. The vastness of the granite blocks, the quantity of labour which must have been employed, the lever which must have been necessary to raise such stupendous masses of rock, its original beauty from the various coloured marbles, porphyry and granite, with which the sides have been cased, impress with unequalled sentiments of admiration and astonishment. When, however, reflection directs the thought to the surprising works of genius and learning of those ages in which these were constructed, and contrasts the present abject race of their posterity, the mind cannot but lament the degradation of such a portion of human nature, and consider the pyramids as a monument of melancholy instruction. "The height of the large pyramid is at last definitively ascertained by the French to be six hundred feet; the length of its base seven hundred feet. The quantity of cubic feet. of solid stone is by them estimated to contain a sufficiency for the building of a wall of four hundred and fifty miles in extent, three feet in height, and five inches in thickness. Near the top, part of the case still remains, on which are supposed to be hieroglyphics; its pinnacle is about thirty yards square, on which the French Savants once dined, and which was now constantly crowded with English. The names of Bruce*, of Algernon Sydney, Volney, and several others, were carved on the stones; and it does them no small credit to have ventured as solitary travellers to the top of this gloomy pile. The view from hence is frightfully barren; an immeasurable waste of desert is only interrupted by the *For the honour of Bruce it should be told that every circumstance tends to corroborate his veracity. The French made many inquiries, and unite in testifying to his reputation; and many of the Abyssinians who came with the caravans remembered him in the country. |