PYRAMIDS AND MONUMENTS OF EGYPT. 9001 357 bato neod

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The whole of this interesting country is crowded with monuments of the gigantic architecture of former times and of different ages, among the most ancient, and by far the most stupendous of which are the Pyramids. These colossal erections, to which there is no parallel in other countries, are situated on a rocky tract at the foot of those mountains which form the western boundary of the valley of the Nile. They are about thirty in number, and are scattered along a tract of nearly seventy miles in length commencing with those of Gizeh, near Cairo, and ending with a small group a little below Feshu. The principal group a distant view of which is given in the cut preceding this article-occurs near the place where stood the ancient city of Memphis, and consists of four pretty entire, with a number of smaller ones in a state of dilapidation. The four faces exactly correspond to the four cardinal points. The most northern, commonly known as the "Great Pyramid," is the largest; its perpendicular height being little short of 500 feet, and its base covering more than eleven acres of land. The base forms a square, whose side is 733 feet; and as the length of the sloping side upwards is equal to that of the base, each face presents an equilateral triangle. It must not be supposed, however, that these structures are smooth-sided, sharp-pointed, mathematical pyramids; for the summits are not now entire, and the sides, whatever may have been their original condition, consist in reality of a number of steps formed by the successive layers of stone. The number of steps in the Great Pyramid are from 207 to 212, each step or layer being from two and a half to four feet high, and broad in proportion to its height-the length of some of the blocks being not less than thirty feet. The size of the blocks is unequal, but they have all the figure of a prism, that they may fit closely together. These external layers have neither mortar nor cramps; but in the body of the Pyramid a kind of cement is used, composed of lime, earth, and clay. The only foundation is the surface of the subjacent rock, which is about eighty feet above the level of the ground annually overflowed by the Nile.

Respecting the purpose of these erections numerous conjectures have been offered; but the opinion now generally entertained is, that they were erected by the ancient kings of Egypt as their private mausoleums or tombs. This idea is so far supported by the fact, that the larger pyramid, near Memphis, has interior chambers, in one of which is a marble sarcophagus, supposed to have contained the ashes of the monarch who completed the structure. The passages and chambers of this pyramid, which are walled and covered with polished marble and granite, are of a curious and intricate kind. They have been entered and explored

by various travellers, who have described the hazardous nature of the undertaking, and who are unanimous in their belief that other passages and chambers-perhaps the chief recesses—are yet to be discovered. None of the others of this group have been opened, nor have they been so frequently ascended as the Great Pyramid, in consequence of their offering a less extensive prospect of the surrounding country. The summits of the second and third are coated with polished granite, and that of the fourth, though destitute of such coating, is nevertheless terminated by a single block of stone. All this group, indeed, seem to have been originally coated, so as to make their sides one uniform slope, and also to have had their summits sharp and pointed; but time has destroyed their finish, and left it in accumulations of stone and mortar at their bases. It must not be supposed, however, that all the pyramids are equally magnificent in their structure; for many of those farther up the country are built of unburned bricks, or are mere accumulations of earth, faced with these materials.

The Egyptian pyramids, as has been stated, are of different ages; but those we have described are considered by Mr Wilkinson to be the most ancient, and to have been built by Suphis, and his brother Sensuphis, about 2120 years before the Christian era. But whatever was the time of their erection, or by whom erected, there can be no doubt of their being amongst the earliest, as they are unquestionably the most stupendous, monuments of human architecture. Diodorus Siculus asserts that the building of the Great Pyramid occupied about twenty years, and that three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed in its construction; and when its vastitude, its finish externally and internally, and the then comparatively rude state of mechanical power are taken into account, one cannot consider his statement as in any degree exaggerated.

The other architectural monuments of Egypt which have attracted the attention of after-ages are the Great Sphinx, the labyrinth of Arsinoe, the reputed musical statues of Memnon, the hieroglyphical obelisks of Luxor, the catacombs of Thebes, the obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles, and the Pillar of Pompey. The Great Sphinx, though sadly mutilated, is still to be seen about sixty yards to the south-east of the Great Pyramid already described. This enormous figure-which is intended to represent the body of a lion with the breasts and head of a woman-is cut out of the solid rock, and seems to have been formed as a monument in connexion with the inundation of the Nile, which takes place when the sun passes from Leo to Virgo. Its huge recumbent body, about sixty feet in length, and its outstretched fore-legs, are almost entirely buried in sand and rubbish; but the neck and head rise above the wreck-the latter being twenty feet high-and, though much mutilated, still possessing a considerable degree of feminine beauty.

y Of all the labyrinths of antiquity, that of Arsinoe was the largest and most costly those of Crete and Lemnos being mere imitations, and not one-hundredth part of its dimensions. It was so extraordinary that Herodotus, who partly explored bits chambers, declares it to be even more wonderful than the Pyra mids. It was situated near the city of Crocodiles, or Arsinde, a little above the lake Moeris, and is reputed to have been the con joint work of the twelve kings among whom Egypt was at that time divided. It seems to have been designed as a pantheon, of universal temple of all the Egyptian deities which were sepal rately worshipped in the provinces. It was also the place of the general assembly of the magistracy of the whole nation for those of all the provinces met here to feast and sacrifice, and to judge causes of great consequence. For this reason every province had a hall or palace appropriated to it the whole edifice being thus divided, according to Herodotus, into twelve, though Ply makes the number sixteen, and Strabo even so many as twenty-seven. The former authority tells us that the balls were vaulted, and had an equal number of doors opposite to

one another, six opening to the north and welthall

encompassed by the same wall; that there

chambers in this edifice 1500 in the upper part, and as many under ground; and that heed every room in the upper part, but was not permitted by who kept the palace to go into the subterranean part, because the sepulchres of the holy crocodiles, and that of the kings who built the labyrinths, were there. Hẻ reports that what he saw seemed to surpass the work of man, so many exits by various passages, and infinite returns afforded a thousand occasions of wonder. He passed from a spacious hall to a chamber, and from thence to a private cabinet; then again into other passages out of the cabinets, and out of the chamber into the more spacious and adorned with hieroglyphic sculpture. rooms. All the roofs an and walls within were lined with marble, The halls were surrounded with pillars of white stone, finely polished and at the angle, where the labyrinth ended, stood a pyramid, which Strabo asserts to be the sepulchre of the prince who completed the labyrinth; the whole country, according to this historian, having been merged into one kingdom before th the completion of this vast structure, who sm The 2012 7197 98t Of the other monuments already alluded to, we can only shortly adverts to the so-called "Pillar of Pompey" situated about a quarter of a league from the southern gate of Alexandria. It is composed of red granite, apparently brought from t the quarries of Upper Egypt. What renders it particularly wonderful is that the shaft and the upper member of the base are of one piece, 90 feet long, and 9 feet in diameter! The base, which is a square block of marble, rests on two layers of stone, bound together with dead. The whole column is 114 feet high, beautifully polished,Land only a little weathered on the eastern

has been rather damaged by theivorq edt at herow vlster instruments of travellers, who were ergom odt to anxious to possess a relic of this sed tem aso antiquity; and one of the volutes of 99mpg to agarso the capital was immaturely brought boteinqorque down, in 1781, by some English bore Hot go captains, who reached the summit mostzia od by a rope-ladder, carried thither 1910 by the ingenious device of flying ape kite, to the string of which ther ropes were attached." Notwithstanding the common appellation of this pillar, it is agreed that it could not have been raised to the memory of Pompey, as neither Strabo nor Diodorus Siculus havend

spoken of it. Abulfeda, in his de-m99a wsa od JW JE scription of Egypt, calls it the Pillar of Severus; but an inscription on the west side, now nearly effaced, seems to prove that it was erected in honour of the Emperor Dioclesian by the then prefect of Egypt. o: hus atonides edt to tuo 29gsees to otat nitiw all STRUCTURES OF SYRIA AND PERSIA. amoor apologa som et otsi

In the region comprehended by these names-a region which is universally considered as the cradle of mankind arose some of the most magnificent cities, temples, and monuments which the world has yet beheld. The wasting hand of time, and the devastations of war, have long since laid most of them in ruins; the very sites of some of the most renowned is even matter of doubt; their history, mingled with not a little of fable, is all that remains. Among these, Babylon holds a prominent place its walls, towers, and hanging gardens having been considered as the noblest of the seven ancient wonders of the world. "This city" we quote Time's Storehouse, published in 1619-" was surrounded, like a quadrangle, with walls 87 feet thick, 360 feet high, and about 60 English miles in circumference. These were built with lime and cement made into large bricks, which boundi together like pitch, and grew so solid by time, that six chariots might easily drive abreast on the top. This wall was encom

passed with a vast ditch filled with water, and lined with bricks on both sides; and as the earth dug out made the bricks, we may judge of the size by the height and thickness of the walls. There were one hundred gates round the wall, twenty-five on each side, all of solid brass; between every two of these gates were three towers, and four more at the four corners, and each of these towers was ten feet higher than the walls: in all, there were 250 towers. The Euphrates flowed through the middle of the city from north to south, over which there was a bridge 1100 yards long, and 30 feet wide; on each end of the bridge was a palace of vast magnificence, which communicated with each other by a tunnel under a channel of the river. Added to this, ancient historians tell us of the hanging gardens built in Babylon upon arches and towers, wherein grew trees of great height. There are said to have been five of these, each containing about four English acres, consisting of terraces one above another, as high as the wall of the city. The ascent from terrace to terrace was by steps ten feet wide, and was strengthened by a wall surrounding it on every side twentytwo feet thick; and the floors on each of them were laid in this order: first, on the tops of the arches, a bed or pavement of stones, sixteen feet long and four feet broad; over this a layer of reed, mixed with earth, and over this two courses of brick, and over these thick sheets of lead, and on these the earth or mould, which was so deep, as to give root to the largest trees. Upon the uppermost of these terraces was a reservoir, supplied by an engine with water from the river Euphrates." The celebrated Tower of Babel, originally built in the plains of Shinar, but afterwards enclosed as a part of Babylon, was carried on, according to Scriptural chronology, 2247 years before Christ. Its altitude is said to have been about 843 feet (being 343 feet higher than the loftiest of the Pyramids of Egypt), and its circumference at the base 8430 feet-admeasurements generally repeated, but for which there is no authentic record.

Ecbatane, the capital of Media, was also of immense magnificence-being eight leagues in circumference, and surrounded with seven walls, in form of an amphitheatre, the battlements of which were painted of various colours, and gilded. Nineveh, according to Diodorus, was sixty miles in circuit; the walls, which were defended by 1500 towers, were 100 feet high, and so broad, that three chariots could go abreast on them. Persepolis was another city, of which all historians speak as being one of the most ancient and noble of Asia. There remain the ruins of one of its palaces, which measured 600 paces in front, and still displays the relics of its ancient grandeur. Tyre, Balbec, and Palmyra, were likewise famous cities of antiquity-the temple of the sun in the latter being regarded, in its day, as one of the most gorgeous of Oriental erections. Every child must have heard of the famous towers and walls of Troy; and few readers