The Pyramids of Giza
The group of Gizeh, in the neighborhood of the ancient Memphis, is the most remarkable. It consists of nine pyramids, and comprises the three most celebrated monuments of the kind in existence, namely, the pyramid of Cheops, called the Great Pyramid; that of Cephren, and that of Mycerinus — the last much smaller than either of the two first.
Herodotus relates that Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus are historical personages of the fourth Egyptian dynasty, in correct order, who built the three pyramids attributed to them. According to Herodotus, following on a period of good rule and prosperity under Rhampsinitus, Cheops closed the temples, abolished the sacrifices and made all the Egyptians labour for his monument, working in relays of 100,000 men every three months (see Pyramid). Proceeding from bad to worse, he sacrificed the honour of his daughter in order to obtain the money to complete his pyramid; and the princess built herself besides a small pyramid of the stones given to her by her lovers. Cheops reigned 50 years and was succeeded by his brother, Chephren, who reigned 56 years and built the second pyramid. During these two reigns the Egyptians suffered every kind of misery and the temples remained closed. Herodotus continues that in his own day the Egyptians were unwilling to name these oppressors and preferred to call the pyramids after a shepherd named Philition, who pastured his flocks in their neighbourhood. At length Mycerinus, son of Cheops-and successor of Chephren, reopened the temples and, although he built the Third Pyramid, allowed the oppressed people to return to their proper occupations.
Manetho correctly places the great Pyramid kings in Dynasty IV. In Egyptian the name of Cheops (Chemmisor Chembisin Diodorus Siculus, Suphis in Manetho) is spelt Hwfw (Khufu), but the pronunciation, in late times perhaps Khoouf, is uncertain. The Greeks and Romans generally accepted the view that Herodotus supplies of his character, and moralized on the uselessness of his stupendous work; but there is nothing else to prove that the Egyptians themselves execrated his memory.
Between the Great Pyramid Khufu (Cheops) and the slightly smaller pyramid of Khafre (Chephren) & Sphinx, work was started on the much smaller pyramid at Abou-Roash of Re-Djedef (or: Djedefre) (c. 2566-2558), which remained unfinished and appears to have been deliberately damaged. And it seems that another pyramid on the scale of that of Kafre was started at Zawiyet el-Aryan, but it remained unfinished, and work then began on the much smaller pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus) at Giza.
Cephren’s [aka Khafre] pyramid is the central of the three great ones at Giza, and appears in most photographs to be larger than Khufu’s because it stands on bedrock some ten meters higher than Khufu’s, while the pyramid itself is less than three meters shorter. The second pyramid, built by Suphis II or Cephren, encased the lowest two courses in granite. Its original dimensions were 707 feet 9 inches square, and 454 feet 3 inches high; but these now stand 690 feet 9 inches and 447 feet 6 inches respectively, with an angle for its slope of 52" 20'. Part of the outer casing of the pyramid is still preserved. This pyramid has two entrances, and the passages to which they respectively give access lead to the same sepulchral chamber, in which is deposited a granite sarcophagus. It was reached with great difficulty by Belzoni in 1818. Belzoni found in it a Cufic inscription recording the visit of the Calif Alaziz Othman Ben-Yusuf, and the opening by him of the pyramid in 1196 AD. The only remains met with were those of a bull.
The third pyramid, built by Menkare' or Mycerinus, is only 354 feet 6 inches square and 203 feet high. It also was explored by Colonel Vyse in 1837. He discovered several chambers, one of which contained a sarcophagus and a mummy cose bearing the name of King Menkare', and also a body, supposed to be that of an Arab. The two latter are now in the British Museum, but unfortunately the sarcophagus was lost by the sinking of the vessel in which it was being transported to this country. This pyramid is the best constructed of the three; it was originally cased half-way up with black granite.
The six smaller pyramids which complete the Gizeh group are supposed to form the tombs of some of the relatives of the kings who constructed the larger ones, and are of much inferior interest to the largest three. There are four of them that deserve the greatest attention of the curious, though there are seven or eight others in the neighborhood. Most of the smaller ones are eastward of the Great Pyramid. Before each of the pyramids are the marks of certain buildings, which to some seem to have been so many temples. They were, however, but small pyramids. Doubtless some pyramids have totally disappeared. Before each, as is believed, a temple formerly stood, in which religious rites were performed for the deceased king.
The Ninth Pyramid is supposed to have once stood 101 feet in height, though now but 80. The length is 160. It possesses a subterranean chamber 12 feet long, 9 wide, and 8 high. The Eighth Pyramid, to the east of the great one, which it resembles in its work, has been thought the tomb of Cheops' daughter. Its height, once 111, is now 55 feet. The original length was 172J feet. The funeral chamber is 12f by 101 feet. The Seventh Pyramid, according to Mr. F. S. Perring, C.E., had the area of the eighth. It is now but a mound of sand 45 feet high. The chamber is declared llf by 9f, with an anteroom, 13 feet 10 inches, by 5 feet 10. The Sixth is south of the third. It had formerly a base of 102§ feet, and height of 69J. There is a passage 47 feet long, leading to a chamber 26 feet long by 11 feet 4 inches broad. The Fifth is cased with Mokattam marble. It was opened in 1837. The fourth pyramid is still one hundred feet lower than the third. It is also‘ without coating, and is closed, but there are no vestiges of a temple connected with it. Its chief singularity is, that its summit is terminated by a single large stone, which originally appears to have been a pedestal.
There was orientation practiced in connection with the pyramids. It was, however, an orientation which appeared only at the earliest period, an east and west orientation, proving that the worship was in all probability equinoctial, proving also that the erection of the pyramid had something to do with the rising of the Nile and the sowing time, and the harvest time, the inundation of the Nile being the source of life and prosperity to the people. The erecting of the sphinx near the pyramids was also suggestive of the religious belief of the people. It is not known what king erected the sphinx, but as it is situated east of the middle pyramid and in the immediate foreground, and was sculptured from the solid rock so as to look toward the rising sun, it is supposed that it was wrought out at the time when the equinoctial worship was prevalent and before the solstitial worship came into vogue.
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