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tive superstition was no longer allowed, and another faith was introduced in its place, the temples were gradually abandoned, and the spirit of the Egyptians, unsubdued by the severest political oppression, yielded at length to a more prevailing power, which directed their hopes and fears to the contemplation of loftier and more spiritual objects.*

But whatever doubt may exist in respect to the situation and remains of the Labyrinth, there can be none relative to the next great object of Egyptian art, which we are about to introduce to the reader. The Pyramids, during several thousand years, have attracted the curiosity of the traveller, and given rise to much learned disquisition; while so great is their magnitude, and so durable the material of which they are constructed, that they present to the moderns the same subject of study which was contemplated by Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Diodorus, and Strabo. Pursuing the plan we have hitherto followed, we shall first extract from the oldest Greek historian the tradition which prevailed in his days, and then draw from other sources the most probable account of the origin, the date, the intention, and the actual appearance of those famous buildings.

Herodotus, it is well known, ascribes the largest of the Pyramids to Cheops, a tyrannical and profligate sovereign. "He barred the avenues to every temple, and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice to the gods; after which, he compelled the people at large to perform the work of slaves. Some he condemned to hew stones out of the Arabian mountains, and drag them to the banks of the Nile;

* Webster, vol. ii. p. 221.

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others were stationed to receive the same in vessels, and transport them to the edge of the Libyan Desert. In this service a hundred thousand men were employed, who were relieved every three months. Ten years were spent in the hard labour of forming the road on which these stones were to be drawn,a work, in my estimation, of no less difficulty and fatigue than the erection of the Pyramid itself. This causeway is five stadia in length, forty cubits wide, and its greatest height thirty-two cubits; the whole being composed of polished marble, adorned with the figures of animals. Ten years, as I have observed, were consumed in forming this pavement, in preparing the hill on which the Pyramids are raised, and in excavating chambers under the ground. The burial-place which he intended for himself, he contrived to insulate within the building, by introducing the waters of the Nile. The Pyramid itself was a work of twenty years; it is of a square form, every side being eight plethra in length, and as many in height. The stones are very skilfully cemented, and none of them of less dimensions than thirty feet.*

"The ascent of the Pyramid was regularly gradu

* We have departed from the common translation of this passage, which, it must be acknowledged, is shrouded in some degree of obscurity. In Beloe's version, and even in Larcher's, to which he appears to have been much indebted, the reader is led to conclude that the object of the architect, in forming leads or canals from the Nile, was to surround the Pyramids themselves with water; whereas it appears that the real intention was to place in an island, or, in other words, to inclose with the sacred stream the repository of the royal corpse in the interior of the building —τας ἐποιέετο θηκας ἑωυτῳ ἐν νησῳ, διωρυκα τοῦ Νειλοῦ ἐσαγαγων. -Euter. 124.

ated by what some call steps, and others altars. Having finished the first tier, they elevated the stones to the second by the aid of machines constructed of short pieces of wood; from the second, by a similar engine, they were raised to the third; and so on to the summit. Thus there were as many machines as there were courses in the structure of the Pyramid, though there might have been only one, which, being easily manageable, could be raised from one layer to the next in succession; both modes were mentioned to me, and I know not which of them deserves most credit. The summit of the Pyramid was first finished and coated, and the process was continued downward till the whole was completed. Upon the exterior were recorded, in Egyptian characters, the various sums expended in the progress of the work, for the radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the artificers. This, as I well remember, my interpreter informed me amounted to no less a sum than one thousand six hundred talents. If this be true, how much more must it have cost for iron-tools, food, and clothes for the workmen !—particularly when we consider the length of time they were employed in the building itself, besides what was spent on the quarrying and carriage of the stones, and the construction of the subterraneous apartments.

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According to the account given to me by the Egyptians, this Cheops reigned fifty years. He was succeeded on the throne by his brother Cephrenes, who pursued a policy similar in all respects. He also built a pyramid, but it was not so large as his brother's, for I measured them both. It has no subterraneous chambers, nor any channel for the ad

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