of the Pyramide which is at the sixteenth step as you go up looking towards the North it is not exactly in the middle there being Three hundred and ten Foot of the side below to the East of it which being substracted from Six hundred eighty two there remain Three hundred seventy two Foot to the West side so that this side surpasses the other by Sixty two Foot. Caire lies Northward from it Now to come to this Door you must go up a little Hill A little Hill joyned to the Pyramide joyned to the Pyramide on that side which as I said before hath in my opinion been made by the Sand which the Wind hath brought there and so risen up to a heap A very great Stone over the Door of the Pyramide because it could go no further by reason of the Pyramide The Lintel over this Door is very considerable being one Stone eleven Foot long and eight Foot thick Before any go in they make the Janizary fire two or three Musquet-shot into it to frighten away as they say the Serpents that are there but I never heard of any that had been found in it The entry is square and all along of a like Dimension being three Foot six Inches High and three Foot three Inches Wide This passage or rather sink-hole as being very steep and shelving continuing in the same heighth and breadth goes sloaping down Seventy six Foot five Inches and two Barley Corns in length At the bottom of that Descent you find an Ascent of the same wideness and shelving in the same manner as the former by which one goes up some three Foot and the greatest difficulty of the Pyramide is at this place For fancy to your self that this Descent butting in the Ascent makes with it a sharp Ridg over which there is a great Stone which is the lowermost Stone of the Roof of the Descent and is perpendicular to it betwixt which and the Sand there is not above a good Foots-space to pass through so that one must slide upon his Belly close upon the Ground and for all that you rub and grate your Back against the aforesaid Stone unless you be a very slender Man and besides you must advance with your feet up in the Descent your Belly low betwixt the Descent and next Ascent and your Head rising up in the beginning of the same Ascent In short in this narrow pass one must crawl like a Serpent and therefore it is very painful so that a thick Man would be stiffled in the Sand unless he were speedily pulled out by the Feet for the Head must go first it being utterly impossible that the Feet should This passage however might be made easie and passable enough if the Moors would take the pains to clear the Hole well I mean take out the Sand For I went thither another time when we were told some of the Basha's Servants had been there three days before being curious to see what it was that obliged the Franks to go into it because none but Franks go there and we fonnd the passage so clean and easie that we passed it without putting either Belly or Knee to the Ground And I make no doubt but it is as high there as at the entry into the Pyramide but the Wind driving in much Sand it heaps up in this place and the Moors who are naturally Lazie after they have removed two or three Load carry out no more unless they be very well pay'd and threatned with a good Cudgel besides which Christians dare not do nor yet desire that their Janizary should for fear of an Avanie Having past this streight every one takes a lighted Candle and for that end you must not forget to bring several with you and a Steel and Tinder-box also because of a great many Bats that are there which sometimes put out your Candles which may go out also by many other accidents There you find a sultry stiffling Air which nevertheless you 'll be soon accustomed to before you go up the inner Ascent You 'll find an ugly Hole on your Right hand which reaches a pretty way it hath not in all probability been purposely made but only by the decayings of Time and is as narrow at the end as at the mouth Having then gone about an Hundred and eleven Foot in the aforesaid Ascent you find as it were two Passages or Galleries Two other passages in the Pyramide one low and parallel to the Horizon and the other high sloaping upwards like the former There is a Well or pit at the entry of the first passage of which I shall speak hereafter This low passage is three Foot and three Inches square and leads to a Room not far distant with a sharp-ridged Seeling or Roof and near to this or at least pretty high A Window which many alledg several affirm that there is a Window which gives a passage into other places but that one must have a Ladder to get up to it For my part I maintain that there is no such Window with respect still to those who say there is and they must have taken a kind of dampness which is in that place for a Window for three times I assayed to find it out and every time carried a Rope-Ladder which I had made with Hooks to get up with but having carefully searched about with several Torches neither I nor any that were with me could find it From the first passage you go up to the other seven or eight Foot high putting youc Feet in holes that are made in the Wall. This other passage that mounts upwards is six Foot four Inches wide and reaches in that manner an Hundred threescore and two Foot having on each side as it were two little Benches two Foot and a half high to lean upon and Holes in the Ground at every step to rest ones Feet in At the end of this passage is the Hall A Hall in the Pyramide being thirty two Foot in length nineteen in heighth and sixteen in breadth the Roof of it is flat consisting of Nine Stones the seven in the middle being sixteen Foot long and four Foot broad a piece the other two at each end appear not to be above two Foot broad a piece but the reason is because the other half of them is built into the Wall they are of the same length as the other seven all seven reaching a cross the breadth of the Hall with their ends resting upon the walls on each side At the end of that Hall there is an empty Tomb all of one stone that sounds like a great Bell it is three foot and an Inch wide three foot and four Inches high and seven foot two inches long this stone is very hard looks like a kind of Porphyrie and is very neat when polished which makes many break off pieces of it to make Seals of but it requires a strong Arm and good Hammer to knock off a bit
The Beauty of the walls of the hall of the Pyramid The Walls of the Hall are faced with stones of the same sort though to some they seem not so fine but they are the very same It is the common opinion of all that this Tomb was made for the same Pharao who by the permission of God was Drowned in the Red-Sea he and his whole Army who were in pursuit of the Jews at that time the chosen People of God. As to the doubt that many people make whether this Tomb was placed there before the Pyramide was Built I think it is not at all to be doubted but that it was set there before the Pyramide was finished for though the entry be wide enough for the Tomb yet the ascent that immediately succeeds to the descent must have hindred the conveyance of it As to the Pit which I mentioned before into which no man ever descended for ought we knew before the Month of September 1652. That the Reverend father Elzear a Capuchin with some others went down finding what danger there was in descending I would not attempt it though I had brought Ropes purposely with me especially since I knew from the relation of Father Elzear that there was nothing Curious therein but a Scotish Gentleman with whom I was fastened himself to Ropes and having taken in his hand a little Wax-candle lighted our Moors let him down and that was the second time that any had descended into it This Gentleman being come up again gave me a relation wholly conform to that of Father Elzear and since that I have got others to go down who told me the same things As you go then from the first passage or Gallery we mentioned before on the right hand that is like a Door you find this Well which goes down in a perpendicular line that nevertheless crooks a little and makes in a manner the figure of a Spit or of a Hebrew Lamed so that sixty seven foot down from the top there is a square Window that enters into a little Cave hallowed in the Hill which in that place is not a Rock but like Gravel or well compacted peble-stones and this Grott or Cave reaches East and West fifteen foot from thence A hole in the pit of the Pyramide and eighty two in all from the top or mouth thither there is a very steep shelving and almost perpendicular hole or descent cut in the Rock about two foot and a third part of a foot wide and two foot and a half high reaching downwards an hundred twenty three foot and then it is full of Sand and the dung of Batts which so swarm there that the Scot told me he was afraid he should have been ate up by them and that he was forced to guard his Candle with both hands lest they should have put it out there are some stones in it also which have been thrown down from the top or have fallen of themselves as it happened while my Scot was below for setting a foot against the Rock on each side as he was comeing up again a Stone fell which had brained him if it had fallen upon his Head but it fell upon the Candle put it out and beat it down to the bottom In all probability this Pit hath only been made to let down the Bodies which were laid in the Caves that are under the Pyramide When the Scotish Gentleman was come up I made a man hold a Candle at the top of the second passage and going down to the bottom near the streight turning I looked up to the Candle which was a pretty pleasant Object appearing then no bigger than a little Star. At length when we were got out of this Pyramide we were made sensible of an errour we had committed for our Janizary that had never been within before entred with us and by good luck going out again a little after with some of our company Arabs rob those that go to see the Pyramids they espied six Arabs on Horse-back making up to the Pyramide but he having presented his Musquet and our Men their Fowling-pieces at them they went back as they came if they had come a moment sooner they had taken all our Provisions and stripped us stark naked as fast as we came out To prevent such a danger the best way is to leave the Janizary and some of the company without to keep guard Having reflected a little on the danger which we had escaped we viewed the second Pyramide Second Pyramide that is shut and nothing of it to be seen but the out-side which is six hundred thirty one foot square Third Pyramide The third is but little and not very considerable In all probability it hath been heretofore faced with Stones like that of Pharaoh's Tomb which are tumbled down as may be seen by many pieces lying about the said Pyramide some of them being very great Pliny speaking of these Pyramides says That that which was open 370000 workmen in building the first Pyramide Twenty years spent in the work and one thousand eight hundred Talents laid out in Turnips and Onions was twenty years in building by three hundred and seventy thousand Men and that one thousand eight hundred Talents were laid out during that time only in Turnips and Onions a thing not hard to be believed by those who have seen these wonderful Structures wherein there are such prodigiously great Stones and raised so high that they must have had extraordinary Engines for that purpose and all men know that the ancient Aegyptians were great Eaters of Onions nay and that the Jews longed for them in the Wilderness and at this hour they retain much of their Fore-fathers temper for they are great lovers of Turnips and Pulse Really these Pyramides are Wonders worthy of the ancient Kings of Aegypt who for magnificence in Buildings exceeded all others of their time and I believe without disparagement to any that no Prince in the World is able to raise such Works aswel for the difficulty of piling up so many huge Stones one over another as for the tediousness of the labour Many think it very strange whence they could have such large Stones and in so great a quantity seeing the Countrey all about is nothing but Sand but they have not minded that under that Sand there are Rocks out of which they had the Stones besides several neighbouring Mountains that abound in Stone though some say that they were brought from Saide upon the Nile It is the Opinion of many that these Pyramides were heretofore higher above ground than they are at present but that the Sand hath covered a good part of their Bases and it is not unlikely seeing the North-side is covered up so to the very door and the three other sides are not which makes men think that it blowing more violently from the North than from any other corner the wind hath driven more Sand on that side than other Winds hath
on the other sides The marks of Buildings near the Pyramides Before each of the three Pyramides the marks of certain square Buildings are still to be seen which seem to have been so many Temples and there is a hole at the end of the pretended Temple of the second Pyramide by which some think there was a way down within the Temple to go to the Idol which is a few steps distant from that hole The Arabs call this Idol Abou el haoun Abou el haoun Sphynx King Amasis that is to say Father of the Pillar which Pliny calls Sphynx saying that the People of the Countrey believe King Amasis was buried in it I am sure they believe no such thing at present nor so much as know the Name of Amasis and indeed it is an erroneous belief Others say that a King of Aegypt caused this Figure to be made in memory of a certain Rhodope Rhodope a Corinthian Woman with whom he was much in love It is said that this Sphynx so soon as the Sun was up gave responses to any thing it was consulted about and hence it is that all who go into the Pyramides fail not to say that a Priest conveyed himself into that Idol by the Pit or Well in the Pyramide which we just now described But to shew how groundless an Opinion that is we must know how the Idol is made It is the Bust of a Body at some steps distance from the open Pyramide cut out of the natural Rock from which it hath never been separated though it seem to be of five Stones pieced together one upon another but having very attentively considered it we observed that that which at first seemed to be seams or joynings of the Stones are only veins in the Rock The Figure of the Idol or Sphynx The height of the Sphynx This Burst represents the face and breast of a Woman but it is prodigiously high being twenty six foot in height fifteen foot from the ear to the chin and yet all the proportions exactly observed Now what probability is there to believe that every day a man would take the pains and venture the breaking of his neck by descending into that Pit that being at the bottom he might only have the labour of coming up again for there is no passage there as they who have gone down have observed a passage must have been cut in the Rock then which would have cost a great deal of Money and been known of every Body It were more probable to think that they entered it by the Hole which as I said is in the pretended Temple of the second Pyramide or rather by another which is at the side of that Idol and very near it These two Holes are very narrow and almost choaked up with Sand wherefore we entred not into them not knowing besides but that we might meet with Vipers or other Venemous Beasts in them But though there had been a way through the Rocks into that Idol how could the Voice of that feigned Oracle have come out since there is no hole neither at the Mouth Nose Eyes nor Ears of it It may be said perhaps that the Voice was uttered by the Crown of the Head where there is a Hole into which we endeavoured to have cast some Hooks fastened to Ropes that I had brought purposely with me that we might get up but we could not compass that because of the height of it only when we threw up Stones they rested there And a Venetian assured me that he and some others having got up by means of little Hooks and a Pole which they brought with them they found a Hole in the Crown of the Head of it and having entred therein perceived that it drew narrower and narrower proportionably as it approached to the Breast where it ended The Voice of him that entred then by the above-mentioned Holes did not come out that way and therefore it must be concluded that if any entred it it must have been by a Ladder in the Night-time and that he put himself into the hole that is in the Head out of which his Voice came CHAP. VI. Of the Mummies HAving viewed the Pyramides and Idol Sakara the Village of the Mummies we went and Lodged in the Village of the Mummies called Sakara three good Leagues from the Pyramides we spoke to a Moor of the Village who is the Master of the Mummies that he would take care to have a Mummie-Pit opened for us against next Morning He carried us to a House How People sleep at Sakara where we Supped on what we had brought along with us and then went to rest upon a little Rising in the Court When we were about to go out next Morning they asked Money for Watching us as they said all Night and it was to no purpose for us to tell them that we wanted none of their Watching and that we had care enough to Guard our selves for all our Huffing was in vain and there they shut us in till we gave a Piastre to be let out They who would not be so imposed upon ought to lie abroad in the Fields but that 's not safe for they are very greedy of Money and spare not to do any thing so they may come by it And as they fancy that the Franks carry always a good deal about them when they have them in their Clutches they squeese from them all they can Wherefore when any one goes there he ought to be well Accompanied well Armed and have a good stout Janizary and with all that one must not venture to beat them for if he did he would soon have all the Rabble about his Ears We parted then from that Village early in the Morning with the Master of the Mummies and went to the Plain where the Mummie-Pits are a little way from the Village Memphis The Field of Mummies A lovely Pyramide towards the place of the Mummies and I think it would be very convenient to set out two Hours before day to avoid the heat of the Sun for there is no shelter there This Plain begins near the place where the stately City of Memphis heretofore stood of which some marks are still to be seen near the Nile There are several Pyramides in this Plain and that for several Miles together but not being very considerable I shall only speak of a very fair one which is four or five Miles from the Place where they opened a Mummis-Pit for us Having then agreed with the Master of the Mummies that for eight Piastres he would open me a Pit Mummie-Pits that had never been opened before and paid him down the Money for otherwise they would not work he with two Moors fell to the Business Whilst they were at work we went to see the Pyramide I mentioned before which would be nothing short of the beauty of the first if it had been finished We went up to the top before we