My dear Friend,

Although so many have written of the pyramids, and a new description cannot fail to have something of the character of an often repeated tale, I find much that I must say respecting these stupendous monuments, the greatest, perhaps, of the Wonders of the World, which have been objects of our curiosity and astonishment even in the age of childhood, and the sight of which forms an era in one’s life. I will, however, as much as possible, avoid troubling you with a repetition of what you have read, or may read, on this subject, in the works of various travellers.

Having arranged that, during our visit, we should spend our days in a sepulchral grotto, and our nights in a tent, we set out on this agreeable excursion with the most pleasing anticipations. The illusion so general in the East with regard to distance, occasioned by the extraordinary clearness of the atmosphere, is strikingly demonstrated in approaching the pyramids; it is very remarkable that the nearer we approached the objects of our destination, the less grand and imposing did they appear. From their aspect, as I first drew near to them, I should have formed a very inadequate idea of their dimensions. As soon as we had crossed the river they appeared within a mile of us; and after we had proceeded more than a league from El-Geezeh, I could scarcely believe that we were still a full league from the pyramids; for the distance to them from El-Geezeh, by the route which we took, is more than six miles, though it is just five miles in a direct line. When we arrived within a mile of the pyramids, the illusion became greater: the courses of stone were then plainly discernible, and it was easy to calculate that they were not more in number than the courses of brick in a house about fifty or sixty feet high. These presented a scale by which the eye was much deceived in estimating the altitude of the structure; being unaccustomed to the sight of stones of such enormous magnitude employed in building. But neither of these causes would be sufficient to produce such an illusion if there were any neighbouring object with which the pyramids might be contrasted. I was fully convinced of this when I arrived at the base of the great pyramid. It was then curious to observe how distant appeared those places where I had thought myself nearly at my journey’s end. The clearness of the air would have deceived me then, as before; but I was looking at objects less strange to me; such as palm-trees, villages, and the tents of Arabs.

A conspicuous object as we approached the pyramids was an old ruined causeway, most probably a part of that which was built by Kara-Koosh for the convenience of transporting stones from the pyramids to Cairo, when he constructed the citadel, and third wall of that city; and this portion may have been raised on the ruins of that which Herodotus describes, as the more ancient causeway was raised for the purpose of facilitating the conveyance of stones from the quarries on the eastern side of the Nile to the site of the Great Pyramid, to line the passages of that structure, and perhaps to case its exterior.

When we were at least a mile from our journey’s end, I remarked to my brother, “The pyramids do not appear so grand as I expected now we are almost close to them.” “Almost close to them!” replied he; “wait a little, and then tell me what you think.” Accordingly we rode on; the provoking appearance of nearness to the objects of our visit surprising me during our whole approach. At this season it occupies three hours to reach the pyramids from Cairo, and this month, on account of its coolness, is particularly agreeable for such an excursion. A kind friend, Mr. Bonomi, well known for the length of time he has spent in this country, and his extensive acquaintance with its monuments, was staying at the pyramids, and prepared for us a tent, and another comfortable place of abode, an ancient sepulchral grotto in a rock, which latter has served as the foundation of a pyramid, now for the most part destroyed. This excavation we found ample and airy, having three large square apertures, serving us as windows, besides the entrance. Our tent was pitched near it, our carpets spread, and our home in the desert had an air of comfort I had hardly anticipated. There is much that is homeish in carrying one’s own carpet: place it where you will, in the boat or in the desert, your eyes rest upon it while thinking, and its familiar patterns afford a sort of welcome. The habit of placing the seggÁdeh (a small carpet) on the saddle enables an Eastern lady to take it wherever she may wander. When she is disposed to rest, her attendants spread it; and nothing is more refreshing during a desert excursion than to rest upon it, and take a simple meal of bread and fruit, and a draught of delicious Nile water.

As soon as possible after our arrival, we mounted the rock on which the pyramids are built, and there observed the effect I have described with regard to the objects we had passed on our way. From the brightness of their colour, apparently little changed by the thousands of years that have passed since their erection, the pyramids do not appear venerable: there is an appearance of freshness about them which amazed me: but with regard to their wonderful magnitude, I found that I was no longer disappointed when I had ascended the rocky elevation on which they rest: when I was within a few yards of the base of the Great Pyramid, I was enabled to the full to comprehend its vastness.

We lingered late among the objects of our visit, and were interested in observing the enormous shadows of the two greater pyramids, stretching across the cultivated plain to the river, as the sun was setting. The general view from the rocky eminence on which they are built is the most imposing that can be conceived.

Returning to our grotto, we enjoyed our evening meal with the appetite of desert travellers, and went to rest with our minds impressed by reflections on what we had seen, and by the novelty of our situation.

We were not the only dwellers in tombs during our stay near the pyramids; for a row of sepulchral excavations, which Colonel Vyse and his party occupied in 1837, are now inhabited by a Nubian, who has taken possession of them to afford lodgings (for a small remuneration) to travellers. Also at a short distance from our grotto, an Arab had taken up his abode in a similar but better tomb. Living there as a hermit, he is esteemed a saint by the people of the neighbouring villages, and is supported entirely by casual charity. Very probably he has adopted the life of an anchorite because he is idle, and finds it easier to depend on others than to gain his own bread. It is common to see the Arabs on their way to leave a deposit of bread or other food, and sometimes money, with this recluse, more especially on Friday, when he receives numerous visitors.

My brother, during a long visit to the pyramids in 1825, occupied one of the tombs of which the Nubian has now taken possession. They are excavated in the eastern front of the rocky eminence on which stands the Great Pyramid. At that time a family consisting of a little old man (named ’Alee), his wife (who was not half his equal in age), and a little daughter, occupied a neighbouring grotto; guarding some antiquities deposited there by Caviglia. Besides these, my brother had no nearer neighbours than the inhabitants of a village about a mile distant. The Sheykh ’Alee made himself useful in bringing water from a well which Caviglia had dug in the sandy plain, just at the foot of the slope before the grottoes. He was a poor half-witted creature, but possessed strong feelings, as was exemplified by an occurrence which happened during my brother’s stay at the pyramids. One afternoon, his cook had sent old ’Alee’s little girl to the neighbouring village to purchase some tobacco. The child not having returned by sunset my brother became uneasy, and despatched a servant to search for her, and bring her back. ’Alee had also become anxious, and had sent his wife for the same purpose; but when the night had closed in, and he had received no tidings of the little girl, he became almost frantic: he beat his breast, stamped on the ground, and continued for some time incessantly screaming, “YÁ Mebrookeh! yÁ Mebrookeh!” (the name of the child, signifying blessed.) After my brother had endeavoured for a little while to pacify him, he set off towards the village. About five minutes more elapsed, and my brother was sitting before the grotto, wondering that no one had returned, and that not even his two Bedawee guards had come as usual, when he was alarmed by loud and piteous cries in the desert plain before him. Leaving a servant in the grotto—for a strange youth was there—my brother ran towards the spot whence the voice seemed to issue. As it was dark, he could see nothing; but after he had proceeded some distance, he heard the following words repeated very rapidly over and over again. “I testify that there is no deity but God, and I testify that Mohammad is God’s apostle;”—and soon he found poor old ’Alee lying on the ground. He told my brother that an ’efreet (or demon) had seized him by the throat, and thrown sand into his mouth, and that he was almost suffocated. (It seems that the Arabs are subject to a spasm in the throat, which they attribute to the above cause.) The two Bedawees, in the meantime, whom the servant and ’Alee’s wife had engaged to assist them in their search, had found the child, and were, like my brother, drawn to that spot by the old man’s cries. They helped him to walk back, but the poor creature had been so terrified and distressed, that for several days after he was quite idiotic.

On the second day after my brother had taken up his quarters at the pyramids, a young Bedawee—the stranger I have mentioned—claimed from him the rights of hospitality. He remained with him until he quitted his sepulchral abode, and, being a very clever and witty youth, amused him exceedingly, every evening while he was smoking his pipe, by reciting stories and verses from the popular romance of ’Aboo-Zeyd: but at the same time he gave much offence to my brother’s Egyptian servants, by his contempt of the fellÁheen (or peasants). He had deserted from the Pasha’s army of regular troops, as he frankly confessed; and was afraid to enter the villages, lest he should be recognised, and sent to the camp. When my brother was leaving the pyramids, he asked this young man what he would now do for provision, as he dared not enter the villages. He replied, “Who brought you here? God is bountiful.”

On the occasion of our visit to the pyramids, my brother inquired of our guards if they knew or remembered poor old ’Alee, to which one of them replied that he was his son, and that he had been dead for some years. He then inquired whether Mebrookeh was living—“Yes,” answered the man, “she is well and married, and the mother of two children.” He went on to assure my brother he remembered his former visits well, and there was something satisfactory in the prospect of being guarded by one man, at least, who, for old acquaintance sake, might be on the alert. This man, though especially remarkable for his honesty, is not distinguished for his social virtues—he has married ten wives, and says he would marry twenty if he could afford to do so; asserting that although he has divorced several, he has only done so because they deserved it, for that they failed in their duty to him, notwithstanding his kindness to them. According to his own account, he was always good to them; he never reviled, but only beat them! The facility of divorce is a prodigious evil; often productive of want and misery. It is sadly common to find wives rejected for some trifling offence; when a kind admonition would have shown them all that had been amiss in their conduct, and would have rendered them valuable helpmates. I grieve to say that wives here are generally divorced merely from caprice.

Our guards, three in number, were remarkably picturesque objects; more like Bedawees than like peasants; belonging to a tribe which, not many years ago, exchanged the life of desert-wanderers for that of agriculturists; and having retained the dress of their fathers, which consists chiefly of a loose shirt, and a kind of blanket, which envelopes the body, and gives to the wearer an appearance quite primeval. It was at first amusing but at last very tiresome, to hear these men calling to each other during the whole night, as though they feared their companions might be asleep; their constant repetition of, “Open your eyes! open your eyes well!” effectually kept us watching also. One guard lay outside the tent, close to my head, and amused himself by singing constantly. I should have been very happy if something more substantial than canvass had separated me from such a lively neighbour. We rose in the morning fatigued, but the invigorating desert-air soon revived us; and we set out on our adventures with becoming energy.

The bed of rock on which the Great Pyramid is situated is about one hundred and fifty feet above the sandy plain which intervenes between it and the cultivated land. It is a soft testaceous limestone, abounding particularly with those little petrifactions described by Strabo as found in great quantities around the pyramids, and supposed to be petrified lentils, the leavings of the workmen who built the pyramids! These abound in many parts of the chain of mountains by which the valley of the Nile is confined on this side. The stone, when newly cut, is of a whitish colour; but, by exposure to the air, it becomes darker, and assumes a yellowish tint. The level parts and slopes of the rock are covered with sand and pebbles and fragments of stone, among which are found pieces of granite and porphyry, rock crystal, agates, and abundance of petrified shells, &c.

The Great Pyramid is that which is described by Herodotus as the work of a Pharaoh named Cheops, whom Diodorus Siculus calls Chemmis. Diodorus adds, that some attributed this pyramid to a king named ArmÆus. According to Manetho (a better authority in that case), it was founded by Suphis, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty, which was the second dynasty of the Memphite kings.

Colonel Vyse’s most interesting discoveries of the hieroglyphic names of the royal founders of the first and third pyramids afford remarkable confirmations of the truth of the statements of Manetho and others respecting these monuments. The name of the founder of the Great Pyramid in hieroglyphics, according to the pronunciation of different dialects is Shofo, or Khofo; the former nearly agreeing with the Suphis of Manetho, the latter with the Cheops of Herodotus.

The height of the Great Pyramid is not much greater than that of the second; the former having lost several ranges at the top; while the upper part of the latter is nearly entire; but the base of the former is considerably larger, though the difference is not very remarkable to the eye, and in the solidity and regularity of its construction, it is vastly superior.

The pleasure which is felt by the modern traveller in surveying the pyramids is not a little increased by the consideration of their venerable antiquity, and the reflection that many philosophers and heroes of ancient times have in like manner stood before them, wrapt in admiration and amazement. The stupendous magnitude of the Great Pyramid is most clearly apparent when the observer places himself near one of its angles. The view of the pyramid from this point, though the best that can be obtained, cannot convey an adequate idea of its size; for a gap in the angle, which appears to be near the summit, is not much more than half-way up. Thus greatly is the eye deceived by this extraordinary object.

Each side of the base of the Great Pyramid is seven hundred and thirty-three feet square, and the perpendicular height is four hundred and fifty-six feet, according to my brother’s measurement. It consists of two hundred and three courses, or layers of stone; therefore the average height of a single course is about two feet and a quarter: but the courses vary in height from about four feet to one foot. The lower courses are higher than the rest; and the lowest is hewn out of the solid rock; as is also part of the second. Opposite the angle from which my brother’s view was taken, about twelve feet distant, is a square place, twelve feet in width, and between two and three inches in depth; apparently marking the place of the original corner-stone of the pyramid. About the middle of each side of the pyramid, the exterior stones have been much broken by the masses which have been rolled down from above; but at the angles they are more entire, and there, consequently, the ascent is not difficult. The upper and lower surfaces of the stones are smoothly cut; but the sides have been left very rough, and in many cases, not square: the interstices being filled up with a coarse cement, of a pinkish colour. This cement is, in some parts, almost as hard as the stone itself; and sometimes very difficult to detach. Among the dust and small fragments of stone which have crumbled away from the sides and yet rest upon the upper surfaces of the steps, or exterior stones, we find a great number of the small petrifactions in the form of lentils, which I have before mentioned.

Dr. Lipsius lately gave, at a meeting of the Egyptian Society in this city, a very interesting account of the mode in which the Great Pyramid, and similar monuments, appear to have been constructed, as suggested by Mr. Wild, an English architect, accompanying the Doctor. The following engraving will explain the description of the system which appears to have been adopted:—