The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1845-09-03
MISCELLANEOUS.
From The Boston Transcript.
Astonishing Facts i'm Relation to the
Egyptian Pyramids.

From, The Boston Transcript.
Astonishing Facts i'm Relation to the
Egyptian Pyramids.
The materials of which the pyramids are con-
sructed, afford scope for long dsse rtation, be-
cause independent of the science and skill requi-
site for their erection, the distances from which
most of them were brought prove that each mo-
narch's sway extended all over Egypt and lower
Nubia, if not beyond; and in relation to this sub
ject we gather the following facts from Mr. Gid
don'S new course:
Geoogcally considered, Egypt is very Pc
culiar country, the quarres of different kind of
stone lying at great distances from each other,
in distinctly marked localities. If you see piece
Of basalt ON the beach of the Mediterranean, you
know that there is no basaltic quarry nearer than
between the first and second cataracts and when
you find block of granite at Memphis, you
know that no granite exists but at the first cata-
ract nearer than the peninsula of Mount Sinai.
Every civilization and extended dominion is in
dlcated in these facts, and when we reflect up
on them we almost think we witness the work Of
transportation going on; that we see the builders;
and the buildings themselves ia process of erec-
] ton.
The blocks of Arabian limestone used in the
interior of the pyramids were brought from the
ancient quarries of Toorah, on the opposite side
Of the Nile, distant about Is or 90 miles from
each pyramid. These very quarries are vast
hills as it were excavaled in the solid rock, where
in entire armies nigh; encamp, are adorned with
now mutilated tablets recording the ages of their
respective openings by different Pharaohs, not
only show the uery beds whence the stupcndous
blocks of some Of the pyramids were taken; but
are in themselves works as wondrous and sub
lime as the Memphis Pyramids! Nay, at the
very foot of these quarries are the countless
tombs and Sarcophag of unnumbered genera
tons of ancient quarrymen!
These quarries are of intense archaeological
interest, because the tablets on them recorded
that stone was cut in them for Memphis, on such
a day, such month, such year, of such a
king, and these kings begin from remote times
before the 10th dynasty, and at different inter
walls come down with many of the others, till we
reach the Ptolemaic epoch; and end with Latin
inscriptions similar to others in Egypt, attestng
that "these quarries we're worked" in the propi-
tious era of our Lords and Emperors Severus and
Autonius, thus enabling us 10 descend almost
step by step from the remote antiquity of 220O
years B. c., down TO 200 years after the Chris
tian era. The hand of modern barbarlsm, prompt
ed by the destructveness of Mehemet Ali, has,
since 1880, done more to deiace these tablets, TO
blow up many of these halls in sheer wanton-
ness, than has been effected by time in 1000
years.
Every atom of the hundred thousand tons of
granite used in Pyramids was cut at Syene, the
first cataract, distant $40 miles. The blocks of
6 hoI toh ho ant
of their beds with wooden wedges and copper
chiscls; then polished with emery till they were
as smooth as glass, and then carried by land half
a mile TO the river--placed on rafts and floated
down $40 miles to mphis-brought by canal
to the foot of the Lybian chain-conveyed by
land over gigantic cuuseways from one mile TO
three in length 10 the pyramids for which they
were intended, and then elevated by machinery
and placed in their present position, with skill
and masonic precision that has conlounded the
most scientific European engineer with amaze
ment
The bdsaH sarcophagi that once held the
mummy of the Pharaobs, in the inmost recesses
of these pyramidal mausolcums, "a feet long by
81 broad, and three deep, we're all brought from
Lower Nubia, and from the basatic quarres of
the second cataract, not nearer than $50 miles
up the river! Looking into the interior of the
pyramids there is much TO stagger belief-tO ex-
cite our admiration.
In the pyramid of three steps, the upper
beams that support the roof Of the chamber are
Of oak, larch and cedar, not one of which trees
grow in Egypt and establish the fact of the tim
Der trade with IlIyria, Asia Minor and Lebanon in
ages long before Abraham. In the fragments of
a mummy the cloth is found to be saturated with
l"Pissasphaltum pitch or bitumen Judia-
cum, compounded of vegetable pitch from the
Archipelago, and of asphaum of the Dead Sea
in Palestine; we find Gum Arabic that does not
grow less than 1900 miles from the Pyramid, at
testing the commerce with Upper Nubia.
The gold leaf came from the mines of Soakim
ON the Red Sea, or from remote Fazogia. The
liquor which cleaned out the body of the num-
my was codria, the fluid rosin of the pinus ce-
drus--that grows not nearer than Syria. The
spices send us TO the Indian Ocean--the aloes
10 Succatra--the cinnamon TO Ceylon, the an
cient Taphrone--and then the arts and sciences
brought to bear upon the pyramids that must
have arrived at perfection long before that day,
are not only themes for endless reflection, but
oblige us to confess that in chronology we are
but children.
Among his novel and strange assertions in re-
lation TO the science of the Egyptians, Mr.. Gid
don maintained that from the very nature of their
country and the vast fossil remains in their quar-
res, the Egyptian priests must have been geolo-
gists and referred TO his chapters for the ramarks
Of the Priest of Soen. "You mentioned one
deluge only, whereas many happened"-
other evidences, that the Egyptians recognized