The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1845-02-20
From the Boston Evening Transcript.
ASTONISHING FACTS IN RELATION
TO THE EGYPTION PYRAMIDS.

The materials of which The pyramids are con-
structcd. afford scope for long dissertation, be-
cause, independently of all The science and skill
requisite for their adaptation, the distance from
which most of them were brought proves that
each monarch's sway extended all over Egypt
and Lower Nubia, if not beyond; and in rela-
ton to this subject we gather the following
facts from the second Letters Of Mr.. Giddon's
new course:
GeolOgicalIy considered, Egypt is a very pecu-
liar country, the quarries Of different kinds of
stone lying at great distances from each other
in Distinctly marked localities. If you see a piece
of hasalt on the beach OF the Mediterranean, you
know that there is no basaltic quarry nearerthan
between the LIST and I'd cataract, and, when you
find a block of granite at Memphis you know
that no granite exists but at the first cataract-
nearer than the peninsula Of Mount Sinai. Ear
ly civilization and extended dominion is indi
Gated in these facts, and when we reflect upon
them, we almost think we witness the work Of
transportation going on; that we see the builders
anu the building themselves in process of erec-
lion. The blocks of Arabian limestone used in
the interior of the pyramids, were brought from
the ancient quaries Of Toorah, on the opposite
side Of the Nile, distant about Is or 90 miles
from each pyramid. These very quarries are
vast halls as it were excavated in the living
Rock, VIII erein entire armies might encamp, are
adorned with now mutilated tablets recording
the age of their respective opening by different
Pharaohs, not only show The very beds whence
the stupe ndons blocks OF some of the pyramids
were taken; bst are in themselves, works d:
won drous and sublime as the Memphite Pyram'
ids! nav, at the very foot of these quarries
lie the countless tombs and Sarcophagi of nun
here d generations OF aneien, q~uarrymen? These
ouarTi es are of intense archaeological interest, be
cause the ablets in them record that stone wal
: cut in them for Memphis on such a day such 1
: month, such a year Of the reign OF such a king
and these kings begin from the remote timeI
] before the 10Th dynasty. and, at different inter
r walls come down through the Pharaonic periot
r with many Of the others, till we reach the Ptole
maic epoch-and end with Latin inscription:
similar TO others in Egypt astesting that "thes'
quarries were uorked' in the propitious era o
our Lords and EmperOrs Severus and Antoninus
thus enabling US to descend almost stop by steE
a from the remore antiquity of 2200 years B. C
; down TO 200 years after the christian era. Th'
" hand OF modern barbarism, prompted by the de
,, structiveness of Mohammed Ali has since 1873
u done more to delace these lablets-to blow u
many of these halls in sheer wontonness tina
:, has been effected by Time in 1000 years!
Every atom of the hundred thousand tons c
!, granite used in the pyramids was cut at Syen'
the LIST cataract, distant 64omiles. The blocks
some OF which are 40 feet long had TO be CT
I. out of their beds with wooden wedges and col
D. per chisels; then polished with emery Till the.
were as smoth as looking glass, and then carrie
by land half a mile TO the river-placed on raj
Ell and aoated down $40 miles TO Memphis-brougl
by canals to the foot of the Lybian chain-con
veyed by land over gigantic causeways from OF
mile to three in length 10 the pyramids fer whiC
thew were intended, and then elevated by ma
chinery and placed in their present position
with a skill, and a masonic precision that hi
I'd COMPOUNDED the most scientific European engi
IS eer with amazement. The very basalt ssrco
We hagi that once hled the mummy of the Pharoah
in the inmost recesses OF these pyramidal mau
, oIea. 81 feet long by 81 broad and 3 deep @e
- all brought from Lower Nubia, from the bast
40 tic quarries of the 81 cataract not nearer hi
~ $50 mi les up the river! Looking into the ini
~ rior of the pyramids, there is still much to sta
:. ser beiief-to excite our admiration. In the pl
oh amid Of FIVE steps, the upper beams that supp
h;s The roof OF the chamberare Of a OAK, larch, u
10 cedar, not one OF which trees grow in EgyI
~ and establish the fact of the timber trade W
tn ulyria. Asia Minor and Mount Lebanon in az
, ~allong before Abraham: In the fragments 0