Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-05-02
Science and sgFE.
From the Boston Transcript.
ASTONISHING FACTS IN RELATION

ASTONISHING FACTS IN RELATION
TO THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS.
The materials of which the pyramids are con-
structed, afford scope for long dissertation, be-
cause independently Of the science and skill re-
quiste for their adoption, the distance from
which most Of them were brought, prove that
each monarchs sway extended all over Egypt
and lower Nubia, if not beyond and in relation
to this subject we gather the following facts
from the second lecture of Mr.. Gliddon's new
course:
Geologlcally considered, Egypt is a very Pc
culiar 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 basalt on the beach of the Mederrane-
an, you know that there is no basaltic quarry
nearer than between the first and second cater
act and, when you find block of granite at
Memphis, you know that no granite exists except
at the first cataract-nearer than the peninsula
of Mount Sinai, Every civilization and extern
ded dominion is indicated 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, and the buildings them
selves in process Of erection.
The blocks of Arabian limestone used in the in
terror of the pyramids were brought from the an
cient quarres Of Toorah, on the opposite side of
the Nile, distant about Is or 20 miles from each
pyramid. These very quarries are vast halls as
it were, eXcavated in the living rock, wherein
entire armies might encamp, are adorned with
now mutllated tablets recording the ages Of their
respective openings by different Pharaohs not
only show the Vcry beds whence the stupendous
blocks of some of the pyramids were taken, but
are in themselves works as wondrous and sublime
as the Memphis Pyramids! Nay, at the very
foot of these quarres are the countless tombs
and sarcophagi of unnumbered generations of an
cent quarrymen! These quarres are ofintense
archaeological interest, because the tablets or
them record that stone was cut in them for Mem
phis, on such day, such month"; such year
ofsuch king, and these kings begin from the
remote times before the 9th dynasty, e. at differ
ent intervals come down with many of the others
till we reach the Ptolemaic epoch; and end witt
Latin inscriptions similar to others in Egypt, at
testing that "these quarries were worked" in the
proptious era of our lords and emperors Serv err.
us and Antonius, thus enabling us to descend al
most step by step from the remote antiquity OFF,
300 years B. c., down to 200 years after the
Christian era. Modern barbarism, prompt
ed by the destructveness ofMahommed Ali, ha
since 1880, done more to deface these tablets
to blow up many of these halls in sheer wanton
ness, than has been effected by time in 400(
years.
Every atom of the hundred thousand tons o
granite used in the pyramids was cut at Sycne
the first Cataract distant GAO miles. The blocks
some of which are 40 feet long, had to be Gu
out of their beds with wooden wedges and cope
pchlsels; then polished with emery till they wer
as smooth as glass, and then carried by land hal
a mhe to the rver-placed on RATS and Aoate'
down GAO miles to phis-brought by cana
to the foot of the Lybian chain-conveyed b
land over gigantic causeway from one mile t.
three in length to the pyramids for which the
were intended, and then elevated by machiner
and placed in their present position, with skill
full and masonic precision that has confounde
the most scientific European engineer with q
mazement. The very basat sarcophagi tina
once held the mummy ofthe Pharaohs, in the il
f most recesses of these pyramdal mausoeums,
, l-2 long by 3 l2 broad, and 3 deep, were a
brought from Lower Nubia, and from the hasa
tic quarries of the second cataract, not neare
than $50 miles up the river! Looking into tn
interior of the pyramids there is much to Stage
, belief-to excite our admiration.
In the pyramid Of three steps, the upper bean
r that support the roof of the chamber are Of oal
larch and cedar, not one of which trees grow
Egypt, and establish the fact of the timber traC
o with Illyria, Asia Minor, and Lebanon in ag
h long before Abraham. In the fragments of nun
G my the cloth is found to be saturated with "Pi
Il sasphaltum" pitch or bitumen Judiacur
J. compounded of vegetable pitch from the ArcF
peago, and of asphaltum of the Dead Sea in P;
estine; we find gum arabic that does not gro
S. less than 1900 miles from the Pyramid, attcstr
e that commerce with Uper Nubia. The gold lie
II came from the mines of Suakim or the Red Sc
is or from remote Fazoga The liquor whic
IS cleaned out the body of the mummy was cedri
IN the fluid rosn of the pinus cedaus-that grow
lie not nearer than Syria The spices send us
d the Indian Ocean; the aloes to Succatra the ci
IL namon to Ceylon, the ancient Taprohane; al
" then the arts and sciences brought to bear upc
h the pyramids that must have arrived at perfe
e. ton long before that day, are not only themes
o. endless reflections, but oblige us to confess tn
le in chronology we are but children.
Mt THE QUAKERs REPRooF A few days ag