its basis, but that it will fall upon some part of the structure; whereas it is certain, that a good bow and a strong arm will send an arrow much farther. The story of these pyramids casting no shadow is of equal credit with the former; for though indeed they cast none at noon day for almost three quarters of the year, yet in winter at noon, and every morning and evening in the year, they certainly cast a shadow proportionable to their bulk: and we may remember that Thales of Miletus, above two thousand years ago, took the height of these pyramids by their shadows, as we are informed by Pliny and Laertius. We descended the same way we went up, till we came to the entrance of this pyramid, which is sixteen steps from the bottom. It is about three feet high, and as many wide, running downwards with a steep descent for ninety-two feet and a half. Having passed through this streight with lighted torches, the farther end whereof is so narrow that we were forced to creep upon our bellies, we came into a wider place, where we saw a great many bats of an uncommon size. From hence we got into another passage five feet in height, and a hundred and ten in length, through which we ascended to two galleries, one of them running horizontally, and the other rising upwards in the same direction with the passage. The ascending gallery is a very stately one, not inferior either in materials or workmanship to the most magnificent buildings. It is paved and lined with white polished marble, cut in vast squares or tables; and the joints are so close, that they are scarce discernible. The height of this gallery is twenty-six feet, and the breadth six, having benches on each

side of polished stone. Passing from hence through a square hole into some closets or little chambers, lined with Thebaic marble, we enter a very noble hall, standing in the centre of the pyramid, equally distant from all the sides, but somewhat nearer the basis than the top. The length of this hall is thirty. four feet, its breadth seventeen, and its height nineteen and a half. Its floor, sides, and roof are all of Thebaic marble; and the stones are of a vast size, especially those that form the roof, lying across the room like so many huge beams, and supporting the enormous weight of the pyramid above.

Within this glorious hall stands a tomb, supposed to be that of Cheops or Chemmis, king of Egypt, the founder of this pyramid. It is of one entire piece of marble, hollowed, and uncovered at the top, and sounds like a bell on being struck. Some say, that the corpse has been removed from hence, but probably it was never laid here; for Diodorus, above sixteen hundred years ago, writes, that Chemmis and Chephron, the builders of the next pyramid, notwithstanding they designed these structures for their sepulchres, were neither of them buried in them, the people being exasperated by the hardships they had undergone in erecting them, and threatening to tear their dead bodies in pieces; whereupon they commanded their friends to bury them privately in some obscure place. This tomb is of the same kind of stone with which the whole room is lined, being a streaked marble, with black, white, and red spots, which some call Thebaic marble, but others take it to be a sort of porphyry, the Leucostictos of Pliny, whereof there were, and still are, a vast number of columns in Egypt.

The figure of the tomb is like an altar, or two cubes finely set together; and the stone is smooth and plain, without any sculpture or ornament. The outward superficies is seven feet three inches and a half in length, three feet three inches and three quarters in depth, and much the same in breadth; but the hollow part within is little more than six feet long, two feet deep, and as many broad. It is not easy to conceive how the tomb was brought into the place where it now stands, it being impossible it should enter by the narrow passages above described; which makes most people conclude, that it was raised up thither from without, before the roof of the chamber was closed: but why may not we conjecture, with an ingenious modern writer, that there was some way left to come at this hall, which is not yet discovered? For it is scarcely credible that any prince should direct his dead corpse to be dragged to his sepulchre through such impracticable passages.

The position of the tomb is exactly North and South*, and equally distant from all sides of the

* One thing very remarkable in this first pyramid is, that the sides of it stand exactly facing the four quarters of the world, and consequently mark the true meridian of the place; which precise position could not well have been owing to chance, but was in all probability the effect of art and design: and that it really was so, seems confirmed by the same position of the tomb within: so that this ancient structure is a true and permanent proof of the early progress of the Egyptians in the science of astronomy. M. de Chazelles, an excellent mathematician, who took the dimensions of this pyramid in the year 1693, at the same time observed the exactness of its situation; which being designedly pitched upon (as we may reasonably suppose) by those who raised,

room except the East, from whence it is placed as far again as it is from the West. Under it there is a little hollow space dug away, and a large stone in the pavement removed at the angle next adjoining to it, which was probably done in hopes of finding some hidden treasure; it being a superstitious prodigality practised by the ancients, and continued to this day in the East-Indies, to conceal money in their sepulchres.

As to the horizontal passage above-mentioned, which is a hundred and ten feet in length, it leads us to an arched vault or chamber, standing due East and West, of a grave-like smell, and half full of rubbish. It is about seventeen feet long, and fifteen broad; the walls are entire, and plaistered over with lime; and the roof is covered with large smooth stones, not lying flat, but shelving, and meeting above in an angle. Near the entrance into this passage is the well mentioned by Pliny, which is circular, and three feet in diameter. It is lined all the way down with white marble, and the descent into it is by fixing ones hands and feet in little open spaces cut in the sides within, opposite and answering to one another in a perpendicular; which is the contrivance for descending into many of the wells and cisterns in Egypt.

This is all that is to be seen in the first pyramid;

this vast pile above three thousand years ago, it follows, that during so long a space of time there has been no alteration in the heavens in that respect, or (which amounts to the same thing) in the poles of the earth or the meridians; as M. Fontenelle has observed in his elogium of the above-mentioned gentleman.

but there is one thing more to be observed, which is a surprising echo, taken notice of by Plutarch, who says that it answers four or five times; wherein he does not exceed the truth. The long-continued noise which is heard on discharging a musquet at the entrance into the pyramid is very remarkable; but this effect may be accounted for by considering, that the sound being shut in, and carried in the smooth narrow passages already described, as in so many pipes or trunks, to the middle of the pyramid, finding no issue out, reflects upon itself, causing a circulation of the air and a confused noise, which by degrees dies away as the motion ceases.

- A very little to the South of the first pyramid stands the second, supposed to have been built by Chephron, the brother of Cheops. The stones thereof are white, but not near so large as those of the former; nor do the sides rise by degrees or steps, like the other, but are plain and smooth; and the whole structure, except on the South, seems very entire, and free from any considerable breaches. Its dimensions, both as to height and breath, are almost equal to those of the first, and its ascent appears to be somewhat steeper. A hole has been made some way up, on the North side of this pyramid, in order to find an entrance, as it is reasonable to conjecture; but none has been yet discovered, nor is it known whether there be any rooms or apartments within, though it is highly probable there are, this being designed for the sepulchre of an Egyptian king, as well as the former. On the North and West sides of the pyramid is a fosse, about ninety feet wide, and thirty deep; along which are a great number of