Volume 2 — MORE OBSERVATIONS MADE IN EGYPT, BY Guilandinus, Alpinus, and others.

CHAP. I.

Of the weather and seasons in Egypt.

The months of January and February make the spring in Egypt, the trees beginning to germinate and put forth, and the herbs to flower, so that then the fields and gardens are in their glory.

They reckon two summers, their first is in March, April, May, which is the most inconstant, unequal, and most sickly season of the year, as also the hottest and most scorching; which is imputed to the east and south winds, that blow generally for fifty days together over desart sandy places, accompanied with a hot burning sand, that spoils all their eyes; Strangers during this season, retire into grotts and subterraneous places, and drink much of the water of the Nile, which is excellent in quenching epidemical thirst at that time.

Their second summer is in June, July, August, which is equal, constant, and healthful, the wind blowing then from the north over sea, the Nile also swelling and overflowing by the rains falling in Ethiopia, and the air moist and refreshing. Now all the people abstain from business and labour, follow spectacles, games, plays, &c. the land being under water.

September and October make their autumn, at the end whereof they sow their wheat, which they reap in March following. This autumn is temperate and salubrious.

November and December are their winter; ice, snow, and hail are seldom or never seen: Rain falls rarely in the inner parts of Egypt, only a dew; but at Alexandria, and other places near the sea they have rain, and a more healthful air; these showers come most in November.

CHAP. II.

Of the meats and drinks of Egypt.

The inhabitants, especially the Mahometans, live abstemiously, eat little and often; their diet is generally simple, abhorring mixtures and variety. Rice boiled in mutton broth, Lentils, Pulse, and legumes; Bete, Mallows call’d Bamia, Cucumbers, Melons, Citruls, Dates, Figs of the Sycamore, Plantanes, Pomegranates, Grapes, Oranges, Lemons, Citrons, Sugar-canes, Colocasia-root, &c. make up the greatest part of their diet.

The richest sort eat mutton, poultry, and several sorts of fish from the Nile, which tho’ fat, are not esteemed wholsome, because the bottom of that river is very muddy, and the water much troubled. All their bread is made of Wheat, and they make abundance of milk-meats. Their kitchen herbs are water’d every day, all their gardens being planted near the banks of the Nile, which is one reason that their salleting is more watry and insipid than in Italy; yet if they did not water them every day in Egypt, they would soon be dried up. There are no gardens but near the river, because there is no rain nor fresh water in other parts.

The ordinary people will eat Camels, Buffaloes, and Crocodiles. The water of the Nile, purged and clarified, either by standing in jars, or precipitated with powder and pastes of sweet Almonds, is the general drink of the country, being esteem’d the lightest, the most nutritious, and the most refreshing liquor in the world, the water running so far under a hot sun, and falling down so many cataracts.

The inhabitants sleep little, indulge venery, having many wives and concubines, are generally idle, yet live long, and see more years than the Poles, Germans, and other northern nations, where gluttony and drunkenness are much more in fashion than in the Egyptian climate. The Jews and Christians, as also the Turkish soldiers, will often debauch at Grand Caire, with those rich wines brought from Candy, Rhodes, and Cyprus; those from Italy, Corfou, and Zant, will not keep in Egypt, the heat soon pricking them.

CHAP. III.

Of the diseases, and physic.

The most epidemical and endemical distempers of Egypt, are sore eyes, from the east and south winds bringing along with them a burning sand and piercing nitre mix’d with it, which makes them frequently wash and cleanse their eyes with the Nile water at that season. Leprosies from their salt and rotten fish. Inflammatory phrenzies, killing in three or four hours time. A pestilential small pox, and pestilential feavers, especially at Alexandria in autumn. Ruptures are very common, by reason of their moist and watry diet: But that which destroys most is the plague, which they take no care to obstruct or avoid, depending upon their principle of inevitable fate and predestination; therefore in the year 1580, they lost above 500,000 souls in six or seven months time, in the single city of Grand Cairo.

The plague in Egypt rages for the most part from the beginning of September to June, at which time it never fails to cease, the wind turning then to the salubrious quarter of the north, and the Nile swelling with fresh streams.

They reckon this plague is constantly brought either from Barbary, Lybia, or other African countries, or else from Syria or Greece; that from Barbary is most furious and pernicious, the other two mild and gentle.

Their practical physic consists in Phlebotomy, which they administer universally in almost every disease; in cauterizing or burning, in scarrifying, in cupping, bathing in a few lenative purgatives, and cooling quieting alteratives.

They bleed by cutting or pricking the veins and arteries themselves in most parts of the body; yet in eunuchs, women, children, and other soft constitutions, they take away blood by scarrifying the thighs, ears, lips, nostrils, gums, &c. They generally bleed after meat. Their cupping-glasses are of different figures from ours, and their cautery is Cotton set on fire.

They have a gross way of cutting in dropsies to let the water out. Their manner of extracting stones out of the bladder, is by blowing and extending the Urethra, then pressing the stones to the neck of the bladder, by their fingers put into the Anus, or fundament, and afterwards sucking them out through the expanded passages.

Their women bathe very much, and use all manner of arts to soften and plump their bodies.

They abstain from all hot or violent purgatives, as Scammony, Coloquintida, Elaterium, Hellebores, Cataputia, Metezon, &c. and use only the most gentle lenitives, as Cassia, Tamarinds, Manna, Myrobalans, sometimes Rheubarb and a little Sena, as also cooling clysters.

Their alterative physic consists of coolers and anodyns, as Nymphæa, Poppy, Endive, Lettice, Berberries, China-root (never Guaicum or Sursa) Opium, flowers of the Alcanna, Coffee: The women will eat Hermodactyls like roasted Chesnuts at night. They have few compound medicines, unless a Theriaca different from the Venetian, or that of Andromachus, in the preparing of which, they seem very careful and ceremonious. Some amongst them pretend to many Arcanums against feavers.

For a full catalogue of such trees, shrubs, and herbs as grow in Egypt, together with their synonymous names and places, the reader may consult Mr Ray’s Collection of Exotick Catalogues, published at London 1693, and annexed at the end of this work, amongst which he will find an Egyptian one.

The manner of hatching chickens at Grand Cairo, with a particular delineation of the ovens, fire, mats, &c. may be read at large in Mr Greave’s Relation, printed in the Philosoph. Trans. Nᵒ 137. pag. 923, 924, 925.

Several conjectures and experiments upon the Egyptian nitre, commonly call’d Natron, (found floating on the lake Latron near Nitria, a town lower upon the Nile than Grand Cairo) may be read in the Philosoph. Trans. Nᵒ 160. from pag. 609. to pag. 619. also in Nᵒ 167, pag. 837, 838. where ’tis proved to be little different from Sal Armoniac, and may owe it’s original to a natural union or mixture of the fossile salt of the lakes with the urinose one, that comes from the Crocodiles, Hippopotami, and other animal inhabitants of those waters.

Of the Pyramids of Egypt: By Mr Greaves, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford.

A description of the Pyramids in Egypt, as I found them in the 1048th year of the Hegira, or in the year 1638, and 1639 of our Lord, after the Dionysian account.

A description of the first and fairest Pyramid.

The first and fairest of the three greater Pyramids is situated on the top of a rocky hill, in the sandy desart of Lybia, about a quarter of a mile distant to the west, from the plains of Egypt, above which the rock riseth an hundred feet or better, with a gentle and easy ascent. Upon this advantageous rise, and upon this solid foundation the Pyramid is erected; the height of the situation adding to the beauty of the work, and the solidity of the rock giving the superstructure a permanent and stable support. Each side of the Pyramid, computing it according to Herodotus, contains in length 800 Græcian feet; and in Diodorus Siculus’s account 700. Strabo reckons it less than a furlong, that is less than 600 Græcian feet, or 625 Roman. And Pliny equals it to 883. That of Diodorus Siculus, in my judgment, comes nearest to the truth, and may serve in some kind to confirm those proportions, which in another discourse I have assigned to the Græcian measures; for measuring the north side of it near the Basis, by an exquisite Radius of ten feet in length, taking two several stations, as Mathematicians use to do, when any obstacle hinders their approach, I found it to be 693 feet, according to the English standard; which quantity is somewhat less than that of Diodorus. The rest of the sides were examin’d by a line for want of an even level, and a convenient distance to place my instruments, both which the Area on the former side afforded.

The Altitude of this Pyramid was long since measured by Thales Milisius, who according to Tatianus Assyrius lived about the fiftieth Olympiad, but his observations are no where by the ancients express’d; only Pliny tells us of a course proposed by him, how it might be found, and that is by observing such an hour, when the shadow of the body is equal to it’s height. A way at the best, by reason of the faintness and scattering of the extremity of the shadow, in so great an Altitude, uncertain, and subject unto error. And yet Diogines Laërtius, in the life of Thales, hath the same story, from the authority of Hieronymus, who reports, that he measured the Pyramids by their shadow, marking when they are of an equal quantity. Wherefore I shall pass by his, and give my own observations. The Altitude is something defective of the Latitude; tho’ in Strabo’s computation it exceeds; but Diodorus rightly acknowledges it to be less, which if we measure by it’s perpendicular, is 481 feet; but if we take it as the Pyramid ascends inclining, as all such figures do, then it is equal, in respect of the lines subtending the several angles, to the Latitude of the Basis, that is to 693 feet.

What excessive heights some fancy to themselves, or borrow from the relation of others, I shall not now examine. This I am certain of, that the shaft or spire of St Paul’s in London, before it was casually burnt, being as much or somewhat more than the Altitude of the tower now standing (1647) did exceed the height of this Pyramid. For Cambden describes it to have been in a perpendicular 520 feet from the ground.

If we imagine upon the sides of the Basis, which is perfectly square, four equilateral Triangles mutually propending, and enclining, till they all meet on high as it were in a point, for so the top seems to them which stand below, then shall we have a true notion of the just dimension and figure of this Pyramid: the Perimeter of each triangle comprehending 2079 feet, besides the Latitude of a little plain or flat on the top, and the Perimeter of the Basis 2772 feet; whereby the whole Area of the Basis (to proportion it to our measures,) contains 480,249 square feet, or eleven English acres of ground, and 1089 of 43560 parts of an acre. A proportion so monstrous, that if the ancients did not attest as much, and some of them describe it to be more, this age would hardly be induced to give credit to it. But Herodotus describing each side to contain 800 feet, the Area must of necessity be greater than that by me assigned, the sum amounting to 640,000, or computing it as Diodorus Siculus doth, the Area will comprehend 490,000 feet, and in the calculation of Pliny, if we shall square 883, which is the number allotted by him to the measure of each side, the product 779,689, will much exceed both that of Herodotus and this of Diodorus. Tho’ certainly Pliny is much mistaken, in assigning the measure of the side to be 883 feet, and the Basis of the Pyramid to be but eight jugera, or Roman acres; for if we take the Roman jugerum to contain in length 240 feet, and in breadth 120, as may be evidently proved out of Varro, and is expressly affirmed by Quintilian, then will the superficies or whole extention of the jugerum be equal to 28,800 Roman feet, with which if we divide 779,689, the result will be 27 Roman jugera, and 2089 of 28800 parts of an acre. Wherefore if we take those numbers 883 of Pliny to be true, then I suppose he writ 28 jugera instead of 8, or else in his proportion of the side to the Area of the Basis he hath erred.

The ascent to the top of the Pyramid is contrived in this manner: From all the sides without we ascend by degrees; the lowermost degree is near four foot in height, and three in breadth. This runs about the Pyramid in a level, and at the first, when the stones were entire, which are now somewhat decay’d, made on every side of it a long but narrow walk. The second degree is like the first, each stone amounting almost to four feet in height, and three in breadth; it retires inward from the first near 3 feet, and this runs about the Pyramid in a level as the former. In the same manner is the third row placed upon the second, and so in order the rest, like so many stairs rise one above another to the top. Which ends not in a point, as mathematical Pyramids do, but in a little flat or square.

Of this Herodotus hath no where left us the dimensions, but Henricus Stephanus, an able and deserving man, in his comment hath supply’d it for him; for he makes it to be eight orgyiæ; where if we take the orgyia, as both Hesychius and Suidas do, for the distance between the hands extended at length, that is for the fathom, or 6 feet, then should it be 48 feet in breadth at the top. But the truth is, Stephanus, in this particular, whilst he corrects the errors of Valla’s interpretation, is to be corrected himself; for that Latitude which Herodotus assigns to the admirable bridge below, (of which there is nothing now remaining) he hath carry’d up, by a mistake, to the top of the Pyramid. Diodorus Siculus comes nearer to the truth, who describes it to be but 9 feet. Pliny makes the breadth at the top to be 25 feet, Altitudo (I would rather read it latitudo) à cacumine pedes 25. By my measure it is 13 feet, and 280 of 1000 parts of the English foot. Upon this flat, if we assent to the opinion of Proclus, it may be supposed that the Egyptian Priests made their observations in Astronomy; and that from hence, or near this place they first discovered, by the rising of Sirius, their annus κυνικὸς, or Canicularis, as also their periodus Sothiaca, or annus magnus κυνικὸς, or annus Heliacus, or annus Dei, as it is termed by Censorinus, consisting of 1400 sidereal years, in which space their Thoth Vagum, and fixum, came to have the same beginning. That the Priests might near these Pyramids make their observations, I no way question, this rising of the hill being, in my judgments as fit a place as any in Egypt for such a design, and so much the fitter by the vicinity of Memphis. But that these Pyramids were designed for observatories, (whereas by the testimonies of the ancients I have proved before, that they were intended for sepulchres) is no way to be credited upon the singular authority of Proclus. Neither can I apprehend to what purpose the Priests with so much difficulty should ascend so high, when below with more ease, and as much certainty, they might from their own lodgings hewn in the rocks upon which the Pyramids are erected, make the same observations; for seeing all Egypt is but as it were one continued plain, they might from these cliffs have, over the plains of Egypt, as free and open a prospect of the heavens, as from the tops of the Pyramids themselves. And therefore Tully writes more truly, Ægyptii, aut Babylonii, in camporum patentium æquoribus habitantes, cum ex terra ad nihil emineret, quod contemplationi cœli officere posset, omnem curam in siderum cognitione posuerunt. The top of this Pyramid is covered not with one[18] or three[19] massy stones, as some have imagin’d, but with nine, besides two which are wanting at the angles. The degrees by which we ascend up (as I observed in measuring many of them) are not all of an equal depth, for some are near four foot, others want of three, and these the higher we ascend, do so much the more diminish; neither is the breadth of them alike, the difference in this kind being, as far as I could conjecture, proportionable to their depth. And therefore a right line extended from any part of the Basis without, to the top, will equally touch the outward angle of every degree. Of these it was impossible for me to take an exact measure, since in such a revolution of time, if the inner parts of the Pyramid have not lost any thing of their first perfection, as being not exposed to the injury of the air[20], yet the outward parts, that is these degrees or rows of stone, have been much wasted and impaired by both. And therefore they cannot conveniently now be ascended, but either at the south side, or at the east angle on the north. They are well stiled by Herodotus βωμίδες, that is, little altars, for in the form of altars they rise one above another to the top; and these are all made of massy and polish’d stones, hewn according to Herodotus and Diodorus, out of the Arabian mountains, which bound the upper part of Egypt, or that above the Delta, on the east, as the Lybian mountains terminate it on the west, being so vast, that the breadth and depth of every step is one single and entire stone. The relation of Herodotus and Pomponius Mela is more admirable, who make the least stone in this Pyramid to be thirty feet. And this I can grant in some, yet surely it cannot be admitted in all, unless we interpret their words, that the least stone is thirty square, or to speak more properly, thirty cubical feet; which dimension, or a greater, in the exteriour ones, I can without any difficulty admit. The number of these steps is not mentioned by the ancients, and that caused me and two that were with me, to be the more diligent in computing them, because by modern writers, and some of those too of repute, they are described with much diversity and contrariety. The degrees, saith Bellonius, are two hundred and fifty, each of them single contains in height forty five digits, at the top it is two paces broad; for this I take to be the meaning or what Clusius renders thus: A basi autem ad cacumen ipsius supputationem facientes, comperimus circiter, 250 gradus, singuli altitudinem habent 5 solearum calcei 9 pollicum longitudinis, in fastigio duos passus habet. Where I conceive his passus is in the same sense to be understood here above, as not long before he explains himself in describing the Basis below, which in his account is 324 passus paululum extensis cruribus. Albertus Lewenstainius reckons the steps to be 260, each of them a foot and an half in depth. Johannes Helfricus counts them to be 230. Sebastianus Serlius, upon a relation of Grimano the Patriarch of Aquileia, and afterwards Cardinal, who in his travels in Egypt measured these degrees, computes them to be 210, and the height of every step to be equally three palms and a half. It would be but lost labour to mention the different and repugnant relations of several others; that which by experience and by a diligent calculation I and two others found, is this, that the number of degrees from the bottom to the top is 207, tho’ one of them in descending reckoned 208.

Such as please, may give credit to those fabulous traditions of some, that a Turkish archer standing at the top, cannot shoot beyond the bottom, but that the arrow will necessarily fall upon these steps. If the Turkish bow (which by those figures which I have seen in ancient monuments, is the same with that of the Parthians, so dreadful to the Romans) be but as swift and strong as the English; as surely it is much more, if we consider with what incredible force some of them will pierce a plank of six inches in thickness, (I speak what I have seen) it will not seem strange, that they should carry twelve score in length, which distance is beyond the Basis of this Pyramid.

The description of the inside of the first Pyramid.

Having finish’d the description of the superficies of the greater Pyramid, with the figure and dimensions of it, as they present themselves to the view without; I shall now look inwards, and lead the reader into the several spaces, and partitions within; of which if the ancients have been silent, we must chiefly impute it to a reverend and awful regard, mixed with superstition, in not presuming to enter those chambers of death, which religion and devotion had consecrated to the rest and quiet of the dead. Wherefore Herodotus mentions no more, but only in general, ‘That some secret vaults are hewn in the rock under the Pyramid.’ Diodorus Siculus is silent, though both enlarge themselves in other particulars less necessary. Strabo is also very concise, whose whole description both of this and the second Pyramid is included in this short expression: ‘Forty stadia, or furlongs, from the city Memphis, there is a certain brow of an hill, in which are many Pyramids, the sepulchres of Kings, three of them are memorable, two of these are accounted amongst the seven miracles of the world; each of these are a furlong in height; the figure is quadrilateral, the altitude somewhat exceeds each side, and the one is somewhat bigger than the other. On high, as it were in the midst, between the sides, there is a stone that may be removed, which being taken out, there is an oblique, or shelving, entrance, for so I render that which by him is termed σῦριγξ σκολία leading to the tomb.’ Pliny expresses nothing within, but only a well, (which is still extant) of 86 cubits in depth, to which he probably imagines, by some secret aqueduct, the water of the Nile to be brought. Aristides in his oration entituled Αἰγύπτιος, upon a misinformation of the Egyptian Priests, makes the foundation of the structure to have descended as far below, as the altitude ascends above. Of which I see no necessity, seeing all of them are founded upon rocks; his words are these: ‘Now as with admiration we behold the tops of the Pyramids, but that which is as much more under ground opposite to it, we are ignorant of, I speak of what I have received from the Priests.’ And this is that which hath been delivered to us by the ancients, which I was unwilling to pretermit, more out of reverence of antiquity, than out of any special satisfaction. The Arabian writers, especially such as have purposely treated of the wonders of Egypt, have given us a more full description of what is within these Pyramids; but that hath been mix’d with so many inventions of their own, that the truth hath been darkn’d, and almost quite extinguish’d by them. Which traditions of theirs are little better than a Romance; and therefore leaving these, I shall give a more true and particular description out of my own experience and observations.

On the north side ascending thirty eight feet, upon an artificial bank of earth, there is a square and narrow passage leading into the Pyramid, through the mouth of which (being equidistant from the two sides of the Pyramid) we enter as it were down the steep of an hill, declining with an angle of twenty six degrees. The breadth of this entrance is exactly three feet, and 463 parts of 1000 of the English foot; the length of it beginning from the first declivity, which is some ten palms without, to the utmost extremity of the neck, or streight within, where it contracts it self almost nine feet continued, with scarce half the depth it had at the first entrance, (though it keep still the same breadth) is ninety two feet and an half. The structure of it hath been the labour of an exquisite hand, as appears by the smoothness and evenness of the work, and by the close knitting of the joints; a property long since observed, and commended by Diodorus, to have run through the fabric of the whole body of this Pyramid. Having passed with tapers in our hands this narrow streight; though with some difficulty (for at the farther end of it we must Serpent-like creep upon our bellies) we land in a place somewhat larger, and of a pretty height, but lying incomposed: Having been dug away, either by the curiosity or avarice of some, in hope to discover an hidden treasure; or rather by the command of Almamon, the deservedly renowned Calife of Babylon. By whomsoever it were, it is not worth the enquiry, nor doth the place merit describing, but that I was unwilling to pretermit any thing, being only an habitation for batts, and those so ugly, and of so large a size, (exceeding a foot in length) that I have not elsewhere seen the like. The length of this obscure and broken space containeth eighty nine feet, the breadth and height is various, and not worth consideration. On the left hand of this, adjoining to that narrow entrance through which we passed, we climb up a steep and massy stone, eight or nine feet in height, where we immediately enter upon the lower end of the first gallery. The pavement of this rises with a gentle acclivity, consisting of smooth and polish’d marble, and where not smeared with dust and filth, appearing of a white and alabaster colour; the sides and roof, as Titus Livius Burretinus, a Venetian, an ingenious young man, who accompanied me thither, observed, was of impolish’d stone, not so hard and compact as that on the pavement, but more soft and tender; the breadth almost five feet, and about the same quantity the height, if he have not mistaken. He likewise discovered some irregularity in the breadth, it opening a little wider in some places than in others; but this inequality could not be discerned by the eye, but only by measuring it with a careful Hand. By my observation with a line, this gallery contained in length an hundred and ten feet. At the end of this begins the second gallery, a very stately piece of work, and not inferiour, either in respect of the curiosity of art, or richness of materials, to the most sumptuous and magnificent buildings. It is divided from the former by a wall, through which stooping, we passed in a square hole, much about the same bigness as that by which we entred into the Pyramid but of no considerable length. This narrow passage lieth level, not rising with an acclivity, as doth the pavement below and roof above of both these galleries. At the end of it, on the right hand, is the well mentioned by Pliny, the which is circular, and not square, as the Arabian writers describe: The diameter of it exceeds three feet, the sides are lined with white marble, and the descent into it is by fastening the hands and feet, in little open spaces, cut in the sides within, opposite and answerable to one another in a perpendicular. In the same manner are almost all the wells and passages into the cisterns at Alexandria contrived, without stairs or windings, but only with inlets and square holes on each side within, by which, using the feet and hands, one may with care descend. Many of these cisterns are with open and double arches, the lowermost arch being supported by a row of speckled and Thebaic marble pillars, upon the top of which stands a second row, bearing the upper and higher arch: The walls within are covered with a sort of plaister for the colour white, but of so durable a substance, that neither by time, nor by the water is it yet corrupted and impaired. But I return from the cisterns and wells there to this in the Pyramid, which in Pliny’s calculation is eighty six cubits in depth, and it may be was the passage to those secret vaults mentioned, but not described by Herodotus, that were hewn out of the natural rock, over which this Pyramid is erected. By my measure sounding it with a line, it contains twenty feet in depth. The reason of the difference between Pliny’s observation and mine, I suppose to be this, that since his time it hath almost been dammed up, and choaked with rubbage, which I plainly discovered at the bottom, by throwing down some combustible matter set on fire. Leaving the well, and going on strait upon a level, the distance of fifteen feet, we entered another square passage, opening against the former, and of the same bigness. The stones are very massy, and exquisitely jointed, I know not whether of that glistering and speckled marble I mentioned in the columns of the cisterns at Alexandria. This leadeth (running in length upon a level an hundred and ten feet) into an arched vault or little chamber, which by reason it was of a grave-like smell, and half full of rubbage, occasion’d my lesser stay. This chamber stands east and west; the length of it is less than twenty feet, the breadth about seventeen, and the height less than fifteen. The walls are entire, and plaister’d over with lime; the roof is covered with large smooth stones, not lying flat, but shelving and meeting above in a kind of arch, or rather an angle. On the east side of this room, in the middle of it, there seems to have been a passage leading to some other place, whither this way the Priests went into the hollow of that huge Sphynx, as Strabo and Pliny term it, or Androsphynx, as Herodotus calls such kinds (being by Pliny’s calculation 102 feet in compass about the head, in height 62, in length 143, and by my observation made of one entire stone) which stands not far distant without the Pyramid, south-east of it, or into any other private retirement, I cannot determine; and it may be too this served for no such purpose, but rather as a Theca or Nicchio, as the Italians speak, wherein some idol might be placed; or else for a piece of ornament (for it is made of polish’d stone) in the Architecture of those times, which ours may no more understand than they do the reason of the rest of those strange proportions that appear, in the passages and inner rooms of this Pyramid. Returning back the same way we came, as soon as we are out of this narrow and square passage, we climb over it, and going straight on, in the trace of the second gallery, upon a shelving pavement (like that of the first) rising with an angle of twenty six degrees, we at length come to another partition. The length of the gallery from the well below to this partition above, is an hundred fifty and four feet; but if we measure the pavement of the floor, it is somewhat less, by reason of a little vacuity (some fifteen feet in length) as we described before, between the well and the square hole we climbed over. And here to re-assume some part of that, which hath been spoken, if we consider the narrow entrance at the mouth of the Pyramid, by which we descend, and the length of the first and second galleries, by which we ascend, all of them lying as it were in the same continued line, and leading to the middle of the Pyramid, we may easily apprehend a reason of that strange eccho within, of four or five voices, mentioned by Plutarch, in his fourth book De placitis philosophorum; or rather of a long continued sound, as I found by experience, discharging a musquet at the entrance; for the sound being shut in, and carried in those close and smooth passages, like as in so many pipes or trunks, finding no issue out, reflects upon it self, and causes a confused noise and circulation of the air, which by degrees vanishes, as the motion of it ceases. This gallery or Corridore, or whatsoever else I may call it, is built of white and polish’d marble, the which is very evenly cut in spacious squares or tables. Of such materials as is the pavement, such is the roof, and such are the side-walls that flank it; the co-agmentation, or knitting of the joints is so close, that they are scarce discernable by a curious eye; and that which adds a grace to the whole structure, though it makes the passage the more slippery and difficult, is the acclivity and rising of the ascent. The height of this gallery is 26 feet, the breadth is 6 feet, and 870 parts of the foot divided into a thousand of which three feet, and 435 of 1000 parts of a foot, are to be allowed for the way, in the midst; which is set, and bounded on both sides with two banks (like benches) of sleek and polish’d stone; each of these hath one foot 717 of 1000 parts of a foot in breadth, and as much in depth. Upon the top of these benches near the angle, where they close, and join with the wall, are little spaces, cut in right angled parallel figures, set on each side opposite to one another, intended, no question, for some other end than ornament. In the casting and ranging of the marbles in both the side-walls, there is one piece of Architecture, in my judgment very graceful, and that is, that all the courses or ranges, which are but seven, (so great are those stones) do set and flag over one another about three inches, the bottom of the uppermost course oversetting the higher part of the second, and the lower part of this overflagging the top of the third, and so in order the rest, as they descend.

Having passed this gallery, we enter another square hole, of the same dimensions with the former, which brings us into two Anticamerette, as the Italians would call them, or Anticlosets, (give me leave in so unusual a structure to frame some unusual terms) lined with a rich and speckled kind of Thebaic marble. The first of these hath the dimensions almost equal to the second; the second is thus proportioned, the Area is level, the figure of it is oblong, the one side containing seven feet, the other three and an half, the height is ten feet. On the east and west sides, within two feet and an half of the top, which is somewhat larger than the bottom, are three cavities, or little seats, in this manner,

This inner Anticloset is separated from the former, by a stone of red speckled marble, which hangs in two mortices, like the leaf of a sluce, between two walls, more than three feet above the pavement, and wanting two of the roof. Out of this closet we enter another square hole, over which are five lines cut parallel and perpendicular.

Besides these, I have not observed any other sculptures or engravings in the whole Pyramid, and therefore it may justly be wondered whence the Arabians borrowed those vain traditions I before related, That all Sciences are inscribed within in Hieroglyphics. And as justly it may be questioned, upon what authority Dio, or his epitomizer Xiphilinus, reports that Cornelius Gallus (whom Strabo more truly names Ælius Gallus, with whom he travelled into Egypt, as a friend and companion) ingraved in the Pyramids his victories, unless we understand some other Pyramids not now existent. This square passage is of the same wideness and dimensions as the rest, and is in length near nine feet, (being all of Thebaic marble, most exquisitely cut) which lands us at the north end of a very sumptuous and well proportion’d room. The distance from the end of the second gallery to this entry, running upon the same level, is twenty four feet. This rich and spacious chamber, in which art may seem to have contended with nature, the curious work being not inferiour to the rich materials, stands as it were in the heart and center of the Pyramid, equidistant from all the sides, and almost in the midst between the basis and the top. The floor, the sides, the roof of it are all made of vast and exquisite tables of Thebaic marble, which if they were not vailed, and obscured by the steam of tapers, would appear glittering and shining. From the top of it descending to the bottom, there are but six ranges of stone, all which being respectively sized to an equal height, very gracefully in one and the same altitude, run round the room. The stones which cover this place are of a strange and stupendious length, like so many huge beams lying flat, and traversing the room, and withal supporting the infinite mass and weight of the Pyramid above. Of these there are nine which cover the roof, two of them are less by half in breadth than the rest, the one at the east end, the other at the west. The length of this chamber[21] on the south-side, most accurately taken at the joint or line, where the first and second row of stones meet, is thirty four English feet, and 300 and 80 parts of the foot divided into a thousand (that is 34 feet and 380 of 1000 parts of a foot). The breadth of the west side at the joint or line, where the first and second row of stones meet, is seventeen feet, and an hundred and ninety parts of the foot divided into a thousand (that is 17 feet, and 190 of 1000 parts of a foot). The height is nineteen feet and an half.

Within this glorious room (for so I may justly call it) as within some consecrated oratory, stands the monument of Cheops, or Chemnis, of one piece of marble, hollow within, and uncovered at the top, and sounding like a bell. Which I mention not as any rarity, either in nature or in art; (for I have observed the like sound in other tombs of marble[22] cut hollow like this) but because I find modern authors to take notice of it as a wonder. Some write, that the body hath been removed hence, whereas Diodorus hath left above sixteen hundred years since, a memorable passage concerning Chemnis the builder of this Pyramid, and Cephren the founder of the next adjoining. ‘Although (saith he) these Kings intended these for their sepulchres, yet it happened that neither of them were buried there: For the people being exasperated against them, by reason of the toilsomness of these works, and for their cruelty and oppression, threatened to tear in pieces their dead bodies, and with ignominy to throw them out of their sepulchres. Wherefore both of them dying, commanded their friends privately to bury them in an obscure place.’ This monument, in respect of the nature and quality of the stone, is the same with which the whole room is lined; as by breaking a little fragment of it I plainly discover’d, being a speckled kind of marble, with black, and white, and red spots, as it were equally mix’d, which some writers call Thebaic marble; though I conceive it to be that sort of porphyry which Pliny calls Leucostictos, and describes thus: Rubet Porphyrites in eadem Egypto, ex eo candidis intervenientibus punctis Leucostictos appellatur. Quantislibet molibus cædendis sufficiunt lapidicinæ[23]. Of this kind of marble there were, and still are, an infinite quantity of columns in Egypt; but a Venetian, a man very curious, who accompanied me thither, imagined that this sort of marble came from mount Sinai[24], where he had lived amongst the rocks, which he affirmed to be speckled with party colours, of black and white, and red, like this. And to confirm his Assertion, he alledged, that he had seen a great column left imperfect amongst the cliffs, almost as big as that huge and admirable Corinthian pillar[25] standing to the south of Alexandria, which by my measure is near four times as big as any of those vast Corinthian pillars in the Porticus before the Pantheon at Rome, all which are of the same coloured marble with this monument, and so are all the obelisks with hieroglyphics, both in Rome and Alexandria. Which opinion of his doth well correspond with the tradition of Aristides, who reports, that in Arabia there is a quarry of excellent porphyry. The figure of this tomb without is like an altar, or more nearly to express it, like two cubes finely set together and hollowed within: It is cut smooth and plain, without any sculpture and engraving, or any relevy and imbossment. The exteriour superficies of it contains in length seven feet three inches and an half. Bellonius makes it twelve feet, and Monsieur de Breves nine; but both of them have exceeded. In depth it is three feet three inches and three quarters, and is the same in breadth. The hollow part within is in length, on the west side, six feet and four hundred eighty eight parts of the English foot divided into a thousand parts, that is[26] 6 feet and 488 of 1000 parts of a foot, in breadth, at the north end two feet, and two hundred and eighteen parts of the foot divided into a thousand parts, (that is[27] 2 feet, and 218 of 1000 parts of a foot.) The depth is 2 feet and 860 of 1000 parts of the English foot. A narrow space, yet large enough to contain a most potent and dreadful monarch, being dead, to whom living all Egypt was too straight and narrow a circuit. By these dimensions, and by such other observations, as have been taken by me from several embalmed bodies in Egypt, we may conclude, that there is no decay in nature; (though the question is as old as Homer) but that the men of this age are of the same feature, they were near three thousand years ago; notwithstanding St Augustine and others are of a different opinion, Quis jam ævo isto non minor suis parentibus nascitur? Saith Solinus.

It may justly be questioned how this monument could be brought hither, since it is an impossibility that by those narrow passages before described, it should have entered. Wherefore we must imagine, that by some Machina it was raised, and conveyed up without, before this oratory or chamber was finished, and the roof closed. The position of it is thus, it stands exactly in the Meridian, north and south, and is as it were equidistant from all sides of the chamber, except the east, from whence it is doubly remoter than from the west. Under it I found a little hollow space to have been dug away, and a large stone in the pavement removed, at the angle next adjoining to it; which Sands erroneously imagines to be a passage into some other compartiment, dug away, no doubt, by the avarice of some, who might not improbably conjecture an hidden treasure to be reposited there.

The ingenious reader will excuse my curiosity, if before I conclude my description of this Pyramid, I pretermit not any thing within, of how light a consequence soever. This made me take notice of two inlets or spaces, in the south and north sides of this chamber, just opposite to one another; that on the north was in breadth 700 of 1000 parts of the English foot, in depth 400 of 1000 parts; evenly cut, and running in a straight line six feet, and farther, into the thickness of the wall. That on the south is larger and somewhat round, not so long as the former; and by the blackness within seems to have been a receptacle for the burning of lamps. T. Livius Burretinus would gladly have believed that it had been an hearth for one of those eternal lamps, such as have been found in Tulliola’s tomb in Italy, and, if Cambden be not misinformed in England, dedicated to the urns and ashes of the dead; but I imagine the invention not to be so ancient as this Pyramid.

A description of the second Pyramid.

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.

On the 28th of December I went to see the Pyramids the third time with some strangers. In our way we were mightily troubled with a very thick mist, which lasted till ten in the morning; and we found a great deal of mud in the trenches and ditches, which was not yet dry since the retreat of the river, so that we were carry’d over upon the Moors backs that were with us.

At this time I went up to the top of the great Pyramid, and I observed as at the first, that the place where the Pyramids stand is a pure rock, cover’d over with white sand, which appears sufficiently by the ditches and caves round about the Pyramids cut in the rock.

2. The rock is to be seen, upon which stands the greatest Pyramid, by a hole at one of the angles, between the east and the north sides.

3. The Pyramids are not built with marble, as some say, but with a white sandy stone very hard.

4. The greatest hath but two hundred and six steps; and tho’ Monsieur Thevenot saith that it hath two hundred and eight, this proceeds from his not taking notice that two steps are broken into four.

5. On the top of the greatest Pyramid there was anciently a statue or Colosse. This appears, because it is not sharp as the others but plain; and there are yet to be seen great pits, which were to keep fast the Colosse from falling.

At present there is nothing on the top but many letters of the names of persons of all nations, who have left them to witness that they had been there. There is no sign of the play at Manacala, which a Coptie told me was there imprinted in the days of the Pharaohs.

6. The Stones of the biggest Pyramid are not equal, for some of the undermost are four foot high, some three foot and an half, and five foot long. The stones of the middle are three foot and five inches high, and the uppermost stones are but two foot high, and three and an half long.

7. The sides of the Pyramids are not equal; for in the greatest it is visible, and so in the others, that the north side is longer than that which stretches from east to west.

8. In all the Pyramids there are very deep wells cut in the rock square; as I have seen in more than ten.

On the 26th day of June I went the fourth time to see the Pyramids, in the company of Monsieur Sabatery Vice-consul of Alexandria.

In the passage to old Cairo, on the other side of the river, I took notice of one thing very remarkable in it’s channel; the water was perfectly green, as a cake cover’d over with green grass. This was the first time that I saw it of this colour; which caused me to ask of the boatmen what this green colour was; they told me, that the river Nilus did then putrify, that it had continued so fifteen days, and would be so five more. Some of them said, that there was none could remember to have seen the river so green as that year, 1672.

To return again to the Pyramids, I went up this time to the top of the highest Pyramid, I entered into the chamber, but saw no new thing which could cause me either to change or add to my former observation. It is needless to speak of it’s dimensions, seeing so many travellers have already publish’d them, as Monsieur Thevenot in his Levant travels.

From the Pyramids we went to take a view of the caves that are adjoining. There are many, all cut in the side of a rock; their outsides are out of order, without any proportion, but their inside very equal and polish’d. In every one there is a deep square well, cut in the rock, where the Egyptians did put the body of that person for whom the cave was made; for it was their sepulchre. The walls of many of these caves are full of hieroglyphic figures carved in the rock. In some they are but small, in others very lively. In one I numbered sixteen great figures, that represented eight men and eight women, holding one another by the hands, with many other small figures or shapes, on both sides.

The great Pyramid is five hundred and twenty foot high upon a base of six hundred and eighty two foot square; the platform at top is sixteen foot and two thirds square, and is composed of twelve large stones, yet this from below appears to the eye a sharp point. A strong man cannot throw a stone from the top, so as to make it fall beyond the steps or basis of the Pyramid.

Of the SPHYNX.

We saw next the Sphynx, near the Pyramids, on the east side. On the top stands the head of a woman of an extraordinary bigness and height. The Arabians call it Abul-hon, or Abul-houl.

Pliny saith, that it was the tomb of King Amasis. I imagine that this Sphynx was a sepulchre, but we cannot understand that it belonged to Amasis; for all the records and traditions of this Sphynx are lost.

That it is a tomb may appear, first by it’s situation, which is in a place that was in former ages a burying place; and near the Pyramids and mortuary caves. Secondly, it is to be imagined that it was a sepulchre from it’s building. In the hinder part is a cave under ground, of a bigness answerable to that of the head, into which I have look’d by an entrance that leads into it, so that it could serve to no other purpose, but to keep a dead corps.

Some Franks have, out of an excess of curiosity, climb’d up by the means of rope-ladders, to see whether this head was hollow, or massy, and they have found it to be hollow, but filled at present with sand.

The neck is worn out round about, which causeth men to imagine that it will not be able to support the weight of that great head.

Of the wells where the Mummies are.

When we had fully view’d this Sphynx, we took the road that leads to Saccara, a village, at four hours travelling from the Pyramids, and about eight from Cairo towards the south. The burying-place of the Mummies is near adjoining to this village.

And because it was very late, and that we were to agree with the Arabians of the village about the price, the number and quality of the wells that they were to open for us, we stopt there all night, and the next morning we took with us twelve horsemen, to guard us, of the Arabians; with them we went to this burying place, where the Mummies are in caves under ground.

The first well that we saw was that of birds embalm’d; when we had caused the sand that stops the well’s mouth to be removed, through which we were to go down, and from thence to enter into the cave, we caused ourselves to be let down one after another, by tying a double rope about our middles. As soon as we were at the bottom, and that every one had lighted his taper, and several matches that we had brought, we went into the cave creeping upon our bellies. The cave is an alley in the rock, about the height of a man, and about the breadth of a perch, and of an extraordinary length. We found there many other allies on both hands, cut in the rock, where were many large stores full of earthen pots, covered over with coverings of the same substance. In these pots were embalm’d birds of all kinds, every bird in it’s own pot. And as I thought that the remembrance of a custom so ancient and superstitious was worthy of our notice, I brought about half a dozen with me, some I have sent to the King’s library. We found also some hens-eggs empty, but entire, without any ill smell or crack.

When we had view’d sufficiently this cave, we returned up in the same manner that we went down, and found another open’d, called the Virgin, which is that was never opened before. According to our orders to the Arabians, Monsieur Tiger and the others went down in the same manner as into the former, I alone could not follow them, because of a quartan fever, which had troubled me fourteen months, and took me at that very moment; but I lost nothing by that; for these gentlemen told me at their return, that they found an horrid stench and a close air, that put out their candles and their matches also, every time that they endeavour’d to light them, which caused them to get up again without entring farther. They told me that this well was much deeper than the former.

We caused another to be opened, which was not a Virgin-well, as the former, because it was not so deep. I ventured into that, notwithstanding my indisposition.

We found there two Mummies, a great one and a little one of a child, both in coffins; the greatest was of marble, upon the covering it had the likeness of the person for whom it was made. We caused these biers or coffins to be open’d, but found nothing extraordinary, therefore we made no account of them, and left them where we found them.

We went down next into a cave, call’d The Church, which was not so deep as the former. It was nothing but a long alley under ground, well plaistered, and painted all over with hieroglyphic figures round about the sides. It was almost all full of sand, which caused us to creep along upon our knees.

If the reader desires a prospect, and a description of this ancient burying-place, let him think upon a boundless champain, even and covered over with sand, where neither trees, nor grass, nor houses, nor any such thing is to be seen; let him represent to himself the superficies of this large field full of dry bones of arms, legs, feet, and heads; full of scattered pieces of wood of coffins, of little idols, some of wood, others of plaister embolish’d with green, and mark’d before and behind with hieroglyphic letters. These idols the Arabians have taken from the broken Mummies, which they have cast away. In some places you may see great tomb-stones, full of cyphers and enigmatical figures, that represent something of chymistry, and of other sciences and mysteries, and full of strange characters that are no Hieroglyphics. Whilst I was looking upon this spectacle, the Arabians brought me two, whereof I caused the copies to be drawn as soon as I was returned to Cairo.

You have here a description of some relicts of the grandeur and vanity of the ancient Egyptians, and the mournful signs of man’s mortality. The first sight is able to dash a person newly arrived out of countenance, and to affright him; I mean the sight of so many bones all scattered up and down, one would think that here hath been a grievous fight.

In this champain or field here are fifteen Pyramids; three are of an extraordinary bigness, which seem to have been favoured by time; for they appear entire without much decay. Here is also an entrance into every one, that shews a long alley which leads to a chamber; Monsieur de Tiger went into that which is farthest from the village, commonly named The Pyramid of Rodope, where he found nothing in the chamber.

This Pyramid is built as a pavillion. The Franks say, that Rodope, a famous strumpet, caused it to be built with the money that she had gotten with the loss of her honour. But this is doubtless an error, if it be true what Pliny saith, that the Pyramid of Rodope was but small, though very beautiful; therefore this, which is one of the greatest in all Egypt, cannot be that of Rodope. These are the words of Pliny: Supremumque illud ne quis Regum opes miretur, minimam extitisse laudatissimam à Rodope meretricula factam. Æsopi fabularum Philosophi conserva quondam, & contubirnalis hæc fuit, majore miraculo tantas opes meretricio esse conquisitas quæstu.

For the others that are in the same field, time hath almost worn them out; for they are but so many heaps of sand, which have scarce the shape and shadow of what they have been heretofore.

Here is also a square heap of very great hewn stones. The Arabians name it Mastabet Faraoun; for they say, that when the Pharaohs, Kings of Egypt, were to declare and give a new law to the people, they stood on the top of this heap. But these are the traditions of the poor Arabians that have nothing of certainty.

To return to the wells of the Mummies; as soon as the Franks have visited any, the wind, or the Arabians fill the entry again full of sand, to get a little money at the second opening: This is the greatest gain of these wretches. The least they take for to open a Virgin-well is thirty piasters, because they that cause the well to be opened, have the liberty to carry away all the curiosities and Mummies that he finds there.

A description of an entire body of a Mummy.

This was a long and large body, in a very thick coffin of wood, shut close on all sides; the timber was not at all rotten, and we found it to be Sycamore-wood, which in Egypt they call Pharaoh’s fig-tree, that does not rot so soon as other wood. Upon the coffin the face of him that was within it was cut in embossed work. Some coffins there are also of stone, with the face of the person within, cut in boss, and Hieroglyphics all along the length of it. There are two of these stones in the house of Monsieur Fouquet at St Mande, and I had two of them also, of which one was broken at Alexandria, and the other, I brought home with me very whole, which weighs betwixt seven and eight hundred weight. Some of these coffins are made of several pieces of cloth pasted together, which are as strong as the wooden ones. I have one of this kind in my closet, made of above forty cloths glew’d or pasted together in thickness, which are not in the least rotten; it is cover’d all over with Idols and Hieroglyphics, painted on a very thin plaister, with which the outside cloth is daub’d over, but it is a little spoil’d, the plaister in some places being rubbed off. Among these figures there is a compartment at the lower end, two inches broad, and a foot long, being painted cross-ways over the coffin, wherein may be seen the manner how the ancient Egyptians embalm’d dead bodies. In the middle of this compartment there is a long table shaped like a lion, on the back of which the body that is to be embalm’d is laid at length, and hard by there is a man with a knife in his hand opening the body; this man hath on a vizard mask, shaped like the beak of a sparrow-hawk, which without doubt was the custom of their embalmers, who made use of that kind of mask, that they might not breathe in the corruption that might evaporate from the death bodies, as the Physicians of Italy do at present, who in time of a plague never stir abroad without a mask of this kind, in the long nose of which they put perfumes; though I make no doubt, but the mask I speak of is the head of Osiris, which the Egyptians represented with the head of a sparrow-hawk, as they did Anubis with the head of a dog, the Nile with a lion’s head, &c. But as a surer mark that it is an embalming, there are four vessels without handles upon the aforesaid table, which could be nothing else but the vessels wherein the necessary drugs were kept not only for embalming, as Balm, Cedria, &c. but also for the wrapping up and incrustation of the body, as Bitumen and others; by the sides of the table there are several persons standing and sitting in divers postures. Within this coffin is the figure of a naked maid with her arms stretched out.

But to return to my first discourse. This wooden coffin I mention’d being broken to pieces with hatchets, we found an entire body in it, which lay in this manner: The face was cover’d, as commonly all the rest are, with a kind of head-piece of cloth fitted with plaister, on which the countenance of that person was represented in gold, and when we took off the helmet, we found nothing of the face remaining, which is commonly reduced to ashes; I believe it is, because it will not admit of gumming so well as the other parts of the body. However, I brought to Paris the head of a Mummy whole and entire, but it is all covered with fillets of cloth, so neatly fitted, that they hinder not, but one may see the shape of the eyes, nose, and mouth. The rest of the body was swathed with little bands of cloth very neatly made, but wrapped about with so many casts and turnings, that I believe there were a thousand ells in it; and certainly it is so rare a way of swathing and binding, that I think it cannot be imitated at present, as many Chirurgions have acknowledged to me. Along the brest and belly there was a band of cloth three good fingers broad, and a large foot and an half long, it was fastened to the other bands, and upon it were several Hieroglyphics done in gold. I took this writing and folded it up, that I might the more conveniently carry it up with me. I hoped to have found idols in that coffin, knowing that they interred many with their dead, either of stone, copper, or green earth, as I have several that have been found in these bodies, but finding none, I thought there might be some within his body; for after they had embowel’d them, they often enclosed idols within their bellies; for that end I had it broken up, but we could find nothing. I considered then that balm which is now quite lost, it is black, hard, and shines like pitch, having much such a smell, but more pleasant, that kept bodies entire, and, I believe, the sand contributed not a little thereto, for even in the greatest desarts of Arabia, sometimes the dead bodies of men and dogs, are found entire, who falling asleep, and staying behind the caravans, are covered over with an ocean of sand driven by the high winds in which the bodies being bury’d, are by the dryness and salt that is in the sand, which dries up all the humidity of them, preserved entire, and are afterwards found, when another wind blowing, carries off the sand again. Many think that the bodies so dry’d are the true Mummy; it is a mistake, and that which Merchants bring into Christendom, to be used in medicine, is the Mummy we first described. Near the room I went into there were several other full of bodies, but seeing the entries into them were full of sand, I call’d to them above to pull me up again by the same rope, with which I was let down, being much dissatisfy’d with my Moors, who had open’d so sorry a pit for me. When I was got up I look’d upon my cloth, whereon were characters of gold, but was much vex’d to see that all the letters disappeared, and that by my own fault, because I had folded it together when it was very humid, and so all the gold and paint stuck to the opposite sides; whereas I should have brought it up open and dry’d it in the sun. But I have others that are finer, which are only a little spoiled in the bringing. I brought with me also some hands of Mummies, which are as entire at present as ever they were. I had also the good fortune to buy upon the place some idols of the Moors, who come and sell them to the Franks in the city. These idols are of several sorts, and in many postures, there are of them of copper, of several sorts of stone, and several sorts of earth also; at least I have some of all these kinds, all which I am very sure have been taken out of Mummies, and cannot be said to be counterfeit, for besides that they have not the art to do it, they sell them at so easy a rate, that the very materials are worth more. This is all I could observe of the Pyramids and Mummies; and hence it appears, that the ancient Egyptians spent more in their tombs than during their whole lives; and one reason they gave for that was, that their houses were only for living a short time in, and their tombs the palaces that were to be inhabited by their souls for many ages. Not far from these Mummies, towards the Nile, are some remains of a large town, which was Memphis, the inhabitants whereof were buried there, the ancients never burying their dead within towns, for fear of infecting the air, none but Christians, who mind not that, bury their dead any where. Now, to prove that these great ruins are the remains of Memphis, Pliny affirms it, when he says, that the Pyramids are betwixt the Delta of Egypt and the city of Memphis on the side of Africa. At length we returned by old Cairo, and saw all that is curious, or worth being seen in it.

A Letter from Dublin, concerning the Porphyry Pillars in Egypt. By Dr Huntingdon.

SIR,

You engage me after a very undeniable manner, as I perceive by the minutes of your philosophical society, to send you some account of the porphyry pillars in Egypt; and though I could have satisfied your curiosity much better in this matter, had you thought of it when I was amongst my papers in Oxford, yet rather than hazard your good opinion, or give the least pretence of disrespect to your worthy company, for whose persons and designs I have so just an esteem and veneration: I here send not what’s fit for me to write, or you to read, but what I can remember upon this subject.

Nor do I intend to speak concerning the nature or composition of stones in general, or of porphyry more particularly, but meerly as to matter of fact, so far chiefly as it fell under my own cognizance, i. e. if you please, rather like an Historian than a Philosopher.

In the first place then, I think it may be taken for granted, that there is no such quarry, or rock of stone rather, in all the lower parts of Egypt; for so far as the Nile overflows is perfect soil. A sample whereof I hope you still retain, and let me entreat you to be very exact in weighing it this year, that you may be sure whether it be heavier in the time of the inundation, as is generally believed, than before or after: And when, and in what proportion it increases.

The boundaries of this overflow, which are never ten miles from the channel, that I saw, generally scarce half of it, and in some places but a mile or two (the Delta still excepted, which is universally covered, all but the north side to the sea, and a little to the east for some miles above Damiata) are rising hills of sand, beyond which is perfect desart, upon the Afric side, the Lybian. [Higher south I have been told, there are rocks nearer the river, and in some places straiten it.] But under those sands is a yielding stone, not much harder than chalk, though not so white, and very easily managed, as at the Mummies deep spacious vaults, which were the old repositories for the dead. And the like also may be said of those cells or sepulchres which are hewn purely out of the rocky earth three quarters of a mile on the south of Alexandria. Albeit nearer the sea there are stones of a harder kind, and with which they build; but by their mouldering away, as appears by the remains of houses within the walls of the city, ’tis plain they can’t endure the weather, which is sufficiently corroding there. The iron which once plated their thick wooden gates being mostly eaten away, and the deep characters upon the sides of these very porphyry pillars exceedingly defaced. Indeed about Memphis, i. e. by the Pyramids, they have a milder air, and the hieroglyphics cut in those stones will last well enough, till they shall be removed into a rougher: But then they’ll crizle and scale, as I found by sad experience. For having procured four stones, the best marked with those figures of antiquity I could meet with, and sent them down to Alexandria, in order to their transportation for England, I found them, upon my second voyage into Egypt, very much injured, being put into the custom-house-yard (where they lie still embargo’d) by the Aga, who demanded an intolerable sum for liberty to ship them, as you may remember I told you the story.