Another point of difference: most of the pyramids are built round a
core of living rock, which is embraced by the lower courses of their
masonry. But the pyramid of Mycerinus is just the reverse of this. It is
built over a hollow in the rock which is filled up with masonry. The
inequalities of the surface were usually taken advantage of so as to
economize material, and make
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a greater show with less labour. Mycerinus, however, did not fear to
increase his task by rearing his pyramid over a depression in the
plateau.
Fig. 132.—Section of the pyramid of Cheops; from Perring.
There is no less diversity in the external aspects of the pyramids. We
are most familiar with the shapes of the great pyramids at Gizeh (Fig.
130 and Pl. 1, 2); their images have been multiplied to infinity by engraving and photography, but we make a great mistake when we
imagine all the royal tombs at Memphis to be built upon this one
model. They do not all present the same simplicity of form, the same
regular slope from summit to base, or the smooth and polished
casing which distinguished those great monuments when they were
in complete preservation. The southern pyramid of Dashour offers us
one of the most curious variations upon the original theme (Fig. 133).
Its angle-ridges are not unbroken straight lines from base to summit.
The slope of its faces becomes less steep at about half their height.
The lower part of its sides make angles of 54° 41' with the horizon,
while above they suddenly fall back to an angle of 42° 59'. This latter
slope does not greatly differ from the 43° 36' of the other pyramid in
the same neighbourhood. No indication has yet been discovered as
to the builder of this pyramid.
A second variation, still more unlike the Gizeh type, is to be
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found in the great pyramid of Sakkarah, the Stepped Pyramid, which
was considered by Mariette as the oldest of them all. Taking a
passage from Manetho as his authority, he thought himself justified in
attributing it to the fourth king of the first dynasty, Ouenephes or Ata,
and he was inclined to see in it the Serapeum, or Apis tomb, of the
Ancient Empire. Its present elevation is about 190 feet. Each of its
sides is divided horizontally into six large steps with inclined faces.
The height of these steps decreases progressively, from the base to
the summit, from 38 feet 2 inches to 29 feet 6 inches. The width of
each step is nearly 7 feet. It will be seen, therefore, that this building
rather tends to the pyramidal form than achieves it; it is a rough
sketch for a pyramid.
Fig. 133.—The southern pyramid of Dashour; from the
measurements of Perring.
Fig. 134.—Section of the Stepped Pyramid; from Perring.
Does this want of completion result from accidental causes,
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or must it be referred to ignorance of the full beauties of the pyramidal
form on the part of its builders? If the conjecture of Mariette is well
founded, the Stepped Pyramid is not only the most ancient building in
Egypt but in the whole world; and in the remote century which
witnessed its construction men may not yet have learnt to fill up the
angles left in their masonry, they may have been quite satisfied to
leave their work in a condition which to us seems imperfect.
Fig. 135.—The Stepped Pyramid; restored from the
measurements of Perring.
The Germans have evolved a complicated system of construction
from notes made by Lepsius upon the details of the masonry in
different pyramids. In order that this system may be more easily
understood, we give, on the opposite page, a series of
representations of such a pyramid in different stages of completion
(Figs. 136 to 142). A commencement was made by erecting a very narrow and perpendicular pyramid crowned by a pyramidion, like a
stumpy obelisk (Fig. 136). This finished, sloping masses were erected against it so as to form, with the pyramidion of the first mass, a
second pyramid. The apex of this pyramid, a pyramidion of a single
stone, might be put in place and the work considered finished (Fig.
137); or, if the builder were sanguine as to time, he might seek to push on still farther. Then, at the line where the slopes of the pyramid
left the earth, four perpendicular walls were erected to the height of
the pyramidion. The space between the sides of the pyramid and the
inner faces
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of these walls was filled in, and thus a kind of terrace, or huge
rectangular block, was obtained (Fig. 138), which served as the core for a new pyramid (Fig. 139). This again disappeared under a pyramid of larger section and gentler slope (Fig. 140), whose sides reached the ground far beyond the foundations of the terrace. In the
case of a long reign this operation might be repeated over and over
again (Figs. 140 and 142). A large pyramid would thus be composed of a series of pyramidal envelopes placed one upon another. The
mummy-chamber was either cut in the rock before the laying of the
first course of stone, or it was contrived in the thickness of the
masonry itself; as the casing of stone went on increasing in thickness,
galleries were left for ventilation and
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for the introduction of the sarcophagus and the mummy. The
mummy-chamber is always found either upon the axis of the pyramid,
or in its immediate neighbourhood, and always nearer the base than
the summit.
Figs. 136-142.—Successive states of a pyramid, according to
the system advocated in Bædeker's Guide.
We are told that the system of construction here set forth is rendered
almost certain by the fact that "the deeper we penetrate into the
pyramid the more careful do we find the construction, which becomes
more and more careless as the exterior is approached. In fact, as
each new envelope was commenced, the chances of its being
completed became less." The mass of stone to be worked and placed
was greater, while the king, upon whose life the whole operation
depended, was older and nearer his death. The builders became less
sure of the morrow; they pressed on so as to increase, at all hazards,
the size of the monument, and trusted to the final casing to conceal
all defects of workmanship.
This system of pyramid building would explain the curious shapes
which we have noticed in the Stepped Pyramid and the southern
pyramid of Dashour.[193] Both of those erections would thus be unfinished pyramids. At Sakkarah, the angles left by the successive
stages would be waiting for their filling in; at Dashour, the upper part
of a pyramid of gentle slope would have been constructed upon the
nucleus which was first erected, but the continuation of the slope to
the ground would have been prevented by the stoppage of the works
at the point of intersection of the upper pyramid and its provisional
substructure. Hence the broken slope which has such a strange
effect, an effect which could not have entered into the original
calculations of the architect.
But although this theory seems satisfactorily to explain some puzzling
appearances, it also, when tested by facts, encounters some very
grave objections. The explorers of the pyramids have more than
once, in their search for lost galleries and hidden chambers, cut for
themselves a passage through the masonry, but neither in these
breaches made by violence, nor in the ancient and
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carefully constructed passages to which they were the means of
giving access, have any signs been, discovered, or at least, reported,
of the junctions of different surfaces and slopes which must have
existed according to the theory which we are noticing. We should
expect, at least, to find the nearly upright sides of the cubic mass with
which the pyramid began, contrasting with the comparatively gentle
slopes which were built against it. These different parts of the
pyramid, we are told, were built and finished separately, a proceeding
which, if the later parts were to be properly fitted to the earlier and the
final stability of the monument assured, would have demanded a
minute and scrupulous care which was not common with Egyptian
workmen. How, without numerous through bonding-stones, could
those slides and settlements be prevented to which the want of
homogeneity in the structure would otherwise be sure to lead? But we
are not told that any such junctions of old and new work are to be
found even in those points where they would be most conspicuous,
namely, in the galleries leading to the internal chambers, where a
practised eye could hardly fail to note the transition. We do not say
that there are no such transitions, but we think the advocates of the
new theory should have begun by pointing them out if they exist.
There is another difficulty in their way. How is their system to explain
the position of the mummy-chamber in certain pyramids? Let us take
that of Cheops as an example. If its internal arrangements had been
fixed from the beginning, if the intention had been from the first to
place the mummy-chamber where we now find it, at about one-third
of the whole height, why should the builders have complicated their
task by imposing upon themselves these ever difficult junctions?
Would it not have been far better to build the pyramid at once to the
required height, leaving in its thickness the necessary galleries? The
same observation applies to the discharging chambers above the
mummy-chamber. The whole of these arrangements, the high
vestibule with its wonderful masonry, the chambers and the structural
voids above them, appear to have been conceived and carried out at
one time, and by the same brains and hands. Not a sign is to be
found of those more or less well-veiled transitions which are never
absent when the work of one time and one set of hands has to be
united with that of another. Or are we to believe that they commenced
by building a hill of stone composed of those different pyramids one
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within another, and that they afterwards carved the necessary
chambers and corridors out of its mass? One of the heroes of
Hoffmann, the fantastic Crespel, made use indeed of some such
method in giving doors and windows to his newly-built house, but we
may be sure that no architect, either in Egypt or elsewhere, ever
thought of employing it. The disintegration to which it would lead may
easily be imagined.
We may here call attention to a circumstance which justifies all our
reserves. There is but one pyramid which seems to have been built
upon a system which, though much less complicated, resembled that
which we are noticing in some degree, we mean the Stepped
Pyramid of Sakkarah. Now we find that the whole of the complicated
net-work of chambers and passages in that pyramid is cut out of the
living rock beneath its base, and that they are approached from
without by subterranean passages. The difficulty of deciding upon the
position of the chambers in advance, and of constructing the galleries
through the various slopes of the concentric masses which were to
form the pyramid, was thus avoided, and the builder was able to
devote all his attention to increasing the size of the monument, by
multiplying those parallel wedges disposed around a central core of
which it is composed.
The observations made by Lepsius in the Stepped Pyramid and in
one at Abousir seem to prove that some pyramids were constructed
in this manner. In both of those buildings all necessary precautions
were taken to guard against the weaknesses of such a system. It is
difficult to understand how separate slices of masonry, placed one
upon the other in the fashion shown by the section which we have
borrowed from Perring's work (Fig. 134), could have had sufficient adherence one to another. Lepsius made a breach in the southern
face of this pyramid, and the examination which he was thus enabled
to institute led him to suggest a rather more probable system of
construction. Upon the external sloping face of each step he found
two casing-walls, but these did not extend from the ground to the
apex of the monument, they reached no higher than the single step,
so that they found a true resisting base in the flat mass (see Fig. 143)
upon which they rested. Moreover, the architect provided for the
lateral tying of the different sections of his work, as Lepsius proves to
us by a partial section of the pyramid of Abousir.
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Two walls of fine limestone blocks inclose a filling in of rubble, to
which they are bound by perpend stones which penetrate its
substance. This method of construction has its faults, but it is so rapid
that its employment is not to be wondered at.
Fig. 143.—Section of the Stepped Pyramid at Sakkarah; from
Lepsius.[194]
Fig. 144.—Construction of the Pyramid of Abousir in parallel
layers; transverse section in perspective from the geometrical
section of Lepsius.[195]
Do these parallel walls reach from top to bottom? A detail discovered
by Minutoli would seem to indicate that a base was first constructed
of sufficient extent for the whole monument. In the lower part of the
Stepped Pyramid Minutoli[196] shows concave courses of stone laid out to the segment of a circle. These courses formed a kind of inverted
vault, abutting, at its edges, upon
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the rock. This curious arrangement should be studied upon the spot
by some competent observer. As we do not know whether these
curves exist upon each face or not, or whether they meet each other
and penetrate deeply into the structure or not, we cannot say what
their purpose may have been. But however this may be, they afford
another argument against the notion that all the great pyramids were
built round such a pyramidoid core as that represented by our Fig.
136. We fear that this system must be regarded merely as an intellectual plaything. The views of Lepsius as to the enlargement of
the pyramid by the addition of parallel slices are worthy of more
respect, and their truth seems to be demonstrated in the case of
some pyramids. But these all belong to that category of monuments
which have subterranean chambers only. We have yet to learn that
they were ever made use of in those pyramids which inclose the
mummy-chamber and its avenues in their own substance. Variety is
universal in that Egypt which has so often been described as the land
of uniformity and immobility—no two of the pyramids resemble each
other exactly.
Fig. 145.—Partial section of the Stepped Pyramid; from Minutoli.
We have yet to speak of two ancient monuments in which some
would recognize unfinished pyramids, namely, the Pyramid of
Meidoum and the Mastabat-el-Faraoun. We do not agree with this
opinion, which has, however, been lately put forward, so far, at least,
as the former monument is concerned.[197] These two 215
sepulchres seem to us to represent a different type of funerary
architecture, a type created by the ancient empire, and meriting
special notice at our hands.
The monument which rises so conspicuously from the plain near the
village of Meidoum on the road to the Fayoum, is called by Arabs the
Haram-el-Kabbab, or "the false pyramid." It is, in fact, not so much a
pyramid, strictly speaking, as a mass formed of three square towers
with slightly inclined sides superimposed one upon the other, the
second being less in area than the first, and the third than the
second. The remains of a fourth story may be distinguished on the
summit of the third; some see in them the remains of a small pyramid;
others those of a cone. Judging from the names found in the
neighbouring mastabas, which were opened and examined by
Mariette, this is the tomb of Snefrou I., one of the greatest kings of
the third dynasty.[198]
Fig. 146.—The Pyramid of Meidoum; from Perring.
The Mastabat-el-Faraoun or "Seat of Pharaoh," as the Arabs call it, is
a huge rectangular mass with sloping sides; it is about 66 feet high,
340 long, and 240 deep. It is oriented like the pyramids. It is a royal
tomb with internal arrangements which resemble those in the pyramid
of Mycerinus; the same sloping galleries, the same chambers, the
same great lateral niches. Upon a block lying at the foot of the
structure of which it had once formed a part, Mariette found a quarry-
mark traced in red ochre which seemed to him to form part of the
name of Ounas, one of the last kings of the fifth dynasty (Figs. 109
216
Fig. 147.—The Mastabat-el-Faraoun; from Lepsius.
Upon the platform of the Mastabat-el-Faraoun certain blocks are to
be found which, from their position, must have been bonding-stones.
They seem to hint, therefore, either that the structure was never
finished, or that it has lost its former crown. The latter hypothesis is
the more probable. Among the titles of people buried in the necropolis
at Sakkarah, we often come upon those of priests attached to the
service of some monument with a form similar to that represented by
our Fig. 148. Who can say asks Mariette, that it is not the Mastabat-el-Faraoun itself?[199]
Fig. 148.—Funerary monument represented in the inscriptions.
M. Mariette cites, in support of this conjecture, certain other
structures of a similar character, such as the large tomb situated near
the south-eastern angle of the second pyramid at Gizeh, and the little
monument which is called the Pyramid of Righa. From these he
concludes that the principles of the mastaba and the pyramid were
sometimes combined under the ancient empire. The royal tombs in
the Memphite region were not always pyramids, they were
sometimes composed of a mastaba and of one or more high square
tower-like erections upon it, the whole ending in one of those small
pyramids which we call pyramidions. This
217
type allowed of numerous combinations, many of which are to be
discovered in the monuments of a later period.
The pyramid was employed as a terminal form throughout the whole
of Egyptian history. Both Thebes and Abydos offer us many examples
of its use, either in those sepulchral edifices which are still extant, or
in the representations of them upon bas-reliefs. But the pyramid
properly speaking was confined to the Memphite period. The princes
of the twelfth dynasty seem to have constructed some in the Fayoum.
The pyramids of Hawara and Illahoon correspond to those which, we
are told, were built in connection with the labyrinth and upon the
islands of Lake Mœris respectively. These, so far as we can judge,
were the last of the pyramids. There are, indeed, in the necropolis of
Thebes, upon the rocks of Drah-abou'l-neggah, a few pyramids of
crude brick, some of which seem to belong to Entefs of the eleventh
dynasty; but they are small and carelessly constructed.[200] When the art of Egypt had arrived at its full development, such purely
geometrical forms would seem unworthy of its powers, as they did not
allow of those varied beauties of construction and decoration which
its architects had gradually mastered.
The pyramids have never failed to impress the imaginations of those
foreign travellers who have visited Egypt. Their venerable antiquity;
the memories, partly fable, partly history, which were attached to
them by popular tradition; their colossal mass and the vast space of
ground which they covered, at the very gates of the capital and upon
the boundary between the desert and the cultivated land, all
combined to heighten their effect. Those nations who came under the
living influence of Egypt could hardly, then, escape from the desire to
imitate her pyramids in their own manner. We shall find the pyramidal
form employed to crown buildings in Phœnicia, Judæa, and
elsewhere. But the kingdom of Ethiopia, the southern annexe of
Egypt and the copyist of her civilization, was the chief reproducer of
the Egyptian pyramid as it was created by the kings of the ancient
empire. Napata, Meroe, and other