to be a composition of the second century, may rather allude to the Serapeum at Memphis, than to the temple at Alexandria, by the situation he assigns to Serapis3.

Immediately beneath our view, upon the eastern and western side, we saw so many tombs, that we were unable to count them; some being half buried in the sand, others rising considerably above it. All these are of an oblong form, with sides sloping, like the roofs of European houses. A plan of their situation and appearance is given in Pococke's Travels*. The second pyramid, standing to the southwest, has the remains of a covering near its vertex, as of a plating of stone which had once invested all its four sides. Some persons, deceived by the external hue of this covering, have believed it to be of marble; but its white appearance is owing to a partial decomposition, affecting the surface only. Not a single fragment of marble' can be found anywhere near

СНАР.

IV.

(3) Καὶ σὺ Σέραπι, λίθοις ἐπικείμενε. Sibyllina Oracula, hb. v. ad fin.

Tuque Serapi sedens in saxis."

(4) Description of the East, vol. I. Plate xvi. p. 41. Lond. 1743. (5) Marble was not used for buildings in very antient times. "It does not appear," says Shaw, that marble was used by the Grecian artists, either in sculpture or building, before the 15th Olympiad,

IV.

CHAP. this pyramid. It is surrounded by a paved court, having walls on the outside, and places as for doors, or portals, in the walls; also an advanced work, or portico. A third pyramid, of much smaller dimensions than the second, appears beyond the Sphinx, to the south-west; and there are three others, one of which is nearly buried in sand, between the large pyramid and this statue, to the south-east'.

Limestone used in construct

ing the greater Pyramid.

Having thus surveyed the principal objects, as they appeared from the summit of the greater pyramid, we proceeded to the examination of the substances which composed its exterior surface.

The stones of the platform upon the top, as well as most of the others used in constructing the decreasing ranges from the base upwards,

B. C. 720. Dædalus's statues of Hercules and Venus were of wood; of which, or of rough stone, were likewise their idols and temples, till that time. The antient Temple of Delphi was built about the 65th Olympiad, B. C. 520, or 513 years after the Temple of Solomon." See Shaw's Trav. p. 368. Note 5. Lond. 1757.

(1) In mentioning these particulars, the author may possibly repeat what other travellers have said before, without being conscious of so doing: indeed, it is hardly possible to avoid repetition, upon a subject which has been discussed by thousands, although the utmost vigilance be used.

IV.

are of soft limestone; a little harder, and more CHAP. compact, than what some of our English masons vulgarly call clunch; whereof King's College Chapel at Cambridge, and great part of Ely Cathedral, is built. It is of a greyish white colour; and has this remarkable property, that, when broken by a smart blow with a hammer, it exhales the fetid odour common to the dark limestone of the Dead Sea, and of many other places; owing to the disengagement of a gaseous sulphureted hydrogen. This character is very uncommon in white limestone, although it may be frequently observed in the darker varieties. It is now very generally admitted, that the stones, of which the Pyramids consist, are of the same nature as the calcareous rock whereon they stand, and that this was cut away in order to form them: Herodotus says they were brought from the Arabian side of the Nile'. Another more compact variety of limestone is found in detached masses at the base of these structures, exactly as it is described by Strabo; seeming to consist entirely of mineralized exuvia, derived from some animal now unknown. We did not observe this variety among the constituents of the Pyramids themselves, but in loose fragments

(2) Euterpe, c. 8.

CHAP.

IV.

upon the sand'. The forms of the petrifaction are lenticular. We noticed an extraneous fossil of the same nature in the Crimea, which has also been described by Pallas'. Strabo's description of this substance corresponds, in so striking a manner, with its present appearance, that his account of it may be noticed as affording internal evidence of his visit to the spot. Extraneous ❝ Among the wonders," says he', "which we scribed by saw at the Pyramids, there is one which ought

Fossil de

Strabo.

on no account to pass without notice. There are heaps of stones, lying among the ruins before the Pyramids, in which are found little petrifactions, in form and size exactly resembling the natural appearance of lentils. The tradition is, that these lentils are the petrified remains of the food given to the workmen." Notwithstanding the throng of travellers, particularly of late years, who have resorted to the Pyramids,

(1) The author has since been informed that it has been observed among the stones of which the principal pyramid is built.

(2) It has received the appellation of Lapis Nummularius, from the resemblance of these lenticular forms to small coins. See Vol. II. Chap. V. p. 228. Octavo Edition.

(5) Εν δέ τι τῶν ὁραθέντων ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν ἐν ταῖς Πυραμίσι παραδόξων οὐκ ἄξιον παραλιπεῖν. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς λατύπης σωροί τινες πρὸ τῶν Πυραμίδων κεῖνται· ἐν τούτοις δ' εὑρίσκεται ψήγματα καὶ τύπῳ καὶ μεγέθει φακοειδῆ· ἐνίοις δὲ, καὶ ὡς ἂν πτίσμα οἷον ἡμιλεπίστων ὑποτρέχει. Φασὶ δ ̓ ἀπολιθωθῆναι λείψανα τῆς τῶν ięgalopśvwv reopñs. Strabon. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1146. Ed. Oxon.

almost all of whom have borne away some memorial of their visit to the place, not a single specimen of this very curious variety of limestone has yet been observed in any collection of minerals, public or private. Shaw mentions the mortar used in the construction of the Pyramids'; although a very erroneous notion be still prevalent, that the most antient buildings were erected without the use of cement. A reference to this kind of test has been frequently made, with a view to ascertain. the age of antient architecture. All that can be asserted, however, upon this subject, with any degree of certainty, is, that if the most antient architecture of Greece sometimes exhibit examples of masonry without mortar, that of Egypt is very differently characterized. As we descended from the summit, we found mortar in all the seams of the different layers upon the outside of the pyramid; but no such appearance could be discerned in the more perfect masonry of the interior. Of this mortar we detached and brought away several specimens.

(4) Greaves was almost disposed to doubt the truth of Strabo's de scription, because he did not observe these petrifactions. Were not Strabo a writer of much gravity, I should suspect these petrified graines." Pyramidog. p. 119. Lond. 1646.

(5) Travels in the Levant, p.368. Lond. 1757.

CHAP.

IV.