valley the remains of villages overwhelmed by the sand may be every where discovered; adding, that nothing is so melancholy to the feelings as to march over these ruins, to tread under foot the roofs of houses and the tops of minarets, and to think that these were once cultivated fields, flourishing gardens, and the habitations of man. Every thing living has disappeared, silence is within and around every wall, and the deserted villages are like the dead, whose skeletons strike with terror.*

When these circumstances are considered, it will be allowed, both that there is good evidence for the existence of an ancient building of great magnificence on the shores of Lake Maris, and also that the changes to which the neighbouring soil is constantly subjected render the discovery of the Labyrinth, more especially the subterraneous chambers, an undertaking of the utmost uncertainty. From what still remains under our eyes, we are justified in believing almost every thing of Egyptian grandeur, when the object of the architect was to do honour to the gods, or to preserve the memory of a beneficent king.

Of the wonderful people, indeed, who inhabit the banks of the Nile, there is nothing more remarkable than that their greatest efforts were made at a time when, in regard to religious faith, they were in the grossest ignorance and darkness, and that, when light sprang up around them, their power, their taste, or their zeal seemed to decay,-yielding to the domination of barbarian tribes, who were indebted to them for all their knowledge, as well as for their superstition. Persia added nothing to the arts or architectural improvement of Egypt; the Greeks presumed not to rival their masters in the construction of temples, pyramids, and labyrinths; and the propagation of the true religion, under the Roman emperors, put an end to the lofty imaginations which the subjects of the Pharaohs were wont to realize in their national structures. Christianity, which blesses every land where it is cordially received, contributed most of all to the extinction of that spirit which had impelled the Egyptians to undertake and carry into effect designs so vast and imperishable as those which still call forth the astonishment of the traveller. The day's of their mythology

* Denon, vol. ii. p. 218.

labour of forming the road on which these stones were to De 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 dimen sions than thirty feet.*

"The ascent of the Pyramid was regularly graduated 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 sum

mit of the Pyramid was first finished and coated, and the process was continued downward till the whole was com pleted. 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

* 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 enclosa, with the sacred stream the repository of the royal corpse in the interior of the buildingτας ἐποιέετο θηκας ἑωυτῳ ἐν νησῳ, διωρυκα τοῦ Νειλοῦ loayaywr.-Euter. 124.

informed me amounted to no less a sum than one thousand six hundred talents. If this be true, how much more must I 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 admission of the Nile, which, in the other pyramid, is made to surround an island where the body of Cheops is said to be deposited. Thus, for the space of one hundred and six years, the Egyptians were exposed to every species of oppression and calamity; not having had, during this long period, permission to worship in their temples. Their aversion for the memory of these two monarchs is so great, that they have the utmost reluctance to mention even their names. They call their pyramids by the name of Philitis, who, at the epoch, in question, fed his cattle in that part of Egypt." It is from the last circumstance mentioned by Herodotus that the very reasonable conclusion has been formed by Bryant, Dr. Hales, and others, in regard to the people by whom the Pyramids are supposed to have been erected. We have already explained the connexion which subsists between the term Pales, Phalis, or Philitis, and the Shepherd kings who, having invaded Egypt from the east, possessed that country as masters during more than a hundred years, and who, upon being expelled by the indignant natives, settled on the adjoining coast of Syria under the denomination of Philistines. It is manifest, at first sight, that the dynasty of princes to whom these stupendous works are ascribed were foreigners, and also that they professed a religion hostile to the animal worship of the Egyptians; for it is recorded by the historian, with an emphatic distinctness, that, during the whole period of their domination, the temples were shut, sacrifices were prohibited, and the people subjected to every species of oppression and calamity. Hence it follows that the date of the Pyramids

must synchronise with the epoch of the Shepherd kings,→→ those monarchs who were held as an abomination by the Egyptians, and who, we may confidently assert, occupied the throne of the Pharaohs during some part of the interval which elapsed between the birth of Abraham and the captivity of Joseph.

The reasoning now advanced will receive additional confirmation, when we consider that buildings of the pyramidal order were not uncommon among the nations of the East, having probably some connexion with the principles of that more refined and lofty adoration which directed the feelings of its votaries to the magnificence of the heavenly host, and to the influence supposed to be exercised by their aspect and movements on the destiny of man.. At the present day there are pyramids in India, and more especially in Benares, where there is one formed of earth and covered with bricks. An edifice of the same kind has been observed at Medun in Egypt, constructed in different stories or platforms, diminishing in size as they rise in height, until they termi nate in a point, the exact pattern, it is said, which was supplied by the followers of Budha in the plan of their ancient pyramids, as these have been described by European travellers, on the banks of the Indus and the Ganges. Such, too, is understood to have been the form of the Tower of Babel, the object of which may have been to celebrate the mysteries of Sabaism, the first and purest superstition of the untaught mind. Mr. Wilford informs us, that on his de scribing the great Egyptian Pyramid to several very learned Brahmins, they declared it at once to have been a temple; and one of them asked if it had not a communication with the river Nile. When he answered that such a passage was mentioned as having existed, and that a well was at this day to be seen, they unanimously agreed that it was a place appropriated to the worship of Padma Devi, and that the supposed tomb was a trough which, on certain festivals, her priests used to fill with the sacred water and lotusflowers.*

The most probable opinion respecting the object of these vast edifices is that which combines the double use of the sepulchre and the temple, nothing being more common in

* Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 439.