The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1858-01-14
For What Purpose Were the Pyramids of Egypt
Erected

This question has become much controverted
One opinion ia, that the Pyramids were the
granaries OF Joseph, which may be confuted by
the smalnexs of the rooms, aud the timu re.
quired in building.
The Arabans generally think they were built
by King Saurid, beiore the Deluge, as a refuge
for himself and the public records from the food.
JosephuS, the Jewish historian, who wrote A.
ID. n, ascrbes them to his countrymen during
their captivity in Egypt.
Shaw and Bryant beIieyc them to be temples,
and the stone-chest a tank for holding water for
purlicatlo Pa1Iw, cutemporary with Shaw
aud Bryant considers the Great Pyramid as the
tomb of Osiris.
Others suppose the Pyramids to have been as
sociaed with worship; III conjunction with
which it may be mentioned, that in the Sa d.
witch Islands, Ellis, the missionary, saw a solid
pyramilicol structure, in front of which the
images were kept, aud the alters fixed.
But the greater number oil writers, ancient
and modern, believe the Great Pyramid to be the
tomb of Cneops, the alleged builder. Mdiilrt
in 1860, added, that the chambers were built loi
shutting up the friends of the deceased king
with the dead body aud through the holes on
each side OF the central chamber they were to
be supplied with food, &c., yet more absur1ly
an old Moulsh, in 1879, told Bonaparte when
in Egypt, that the object was to keep the buried
body undecayed. by scaling up all access to the
outward air.
Another ingenious theory ascribes the Pyra
mids to the Shepherd Kings, foreign pastoral
nation which oppressed Egypt in the early times
of the Pharoahs. Wilkinson snys
g do not pretend to explain or decide the
real object for which these slupendous mouu
menls were constructed, but feel psrsuaded tha
they have served for tombs, and have also beer
intended for astronomic cal purposes. For thougt
! il is vain to look for the polar star at the bot
tom of a passage descending ot an angle o
twenty y-seyen degrees, or to imagine that closed
passage, or pyramid covered with a smooth
aud inaccessible casing, was intended for oil ob
ssrvatory, yet the form OF the exterior NIGH
lead to many useful calculations. They stanc
exactly due north and south and while the d
recton of the faces TO the east and west Nigh
serve to fix the return of q certain period OF ih,
year, the shadow cast by the sun, or the tins o
its conciding with the slope, might be observed
for sinilar purpose"
Aristotle's opinion, now generally adopted
(POL W ill., is that the Pyramids were built L
keep the people we'll employed and poor !" be
cause ii suits tyranny TO reduce its subjects I,
poverty, that they may not be able to compos
a guard; aud that being employed in procuring
their daily bread, they may have no leisure t
conspire against their tyrants."
Baron Dupn calculates that the combined nc
tion of the steam engines at work in Britain
some twenty years since, could raise from tn
quarrles, and place as they now are, all tn
stones of the Great Pyramid in eighteen hours
limbs CUriositie8 of History
There are nearly three thousand mus
ieles in the common grasshopper.