The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-06-15
BY DR.. ROBERT MORRIS.

transport them out to "the pyramids"
have anv adequate idea of the progress
of modern discovery concerning those rare
masses, and especially the monster edifice
of all, the Pyramid of Cheops. News
paper notices of the pyramids are usually
in the terms employed a century ago, and
the public mind has not been kept at all
posted or this subject. Even popular
authors take little pains to read up
pyramid progress before rushing into
nrint. as witness the following passage
from a work only issued last year, under
the specious title of "WOnders OF
Architecture" IF all the "Wonders" des
cribed in that pretentious volume are as
enormously given as this, the book is
worse than worthless. But here is the
extract, and it contains six distinct
lies:
at is built wholly of perfectly adjusted
stones of the dimensions of thirty feet.
4 x 1t was formerly covered with
reddish coating. 1t is 4|O 1eet
high and $40 broad. * Il It's passages
are unexplored they would probably
guide US to the tomb of the founder"
And another authority runs into the
following errors: at has stood the
ravages of nearly 5000 years without
sustaining the smallest injury beyond the
mere decay ofits external covering, which,
proportionably, is far less than the mere
coating of cement over the bricks OF
modern house receives in fifty years"
Now, the Pyramid of Cheops, or, as
shall style it for convenience, the Great
Pyramid, while it has been the wonder
and admiration of generation after gene
ration of human beholders, on account of
its huge mass, has recently yielded to
scientific explorations series of astron-
omical and meteorological facts, startling
indeed to contemplate. In regard to its
gigantic character, it is certainly worthy
of all the notice it has ever received, for
its base covers nearly four times the area
of the Court House square at Chicago,
being 256 yards on o side, while the
apex scars to a height exceeding four
times that of the Court House itself In
deed, sixteen such buildings as the Court
House can be hidden-Judge, jury,
Sheriff, lawyers and criminals-in the
body of the great pyramid, and the casual
observer never suspect that anything had
been added to it since the days Of King
Shofo Having nearly se0e11 n1GLtlo21 tons
of stone in its monstrous girth, thousand
such Court Houses as ours could be con-
structed of it's materials without very
seriously affecting its magnitude As
one writer says, while staggering under
the weight of these figures, suppose q
block of solid stone, equal to the cubic
contents of parlor 90 by Is and 10 feet
high, it would take thirty thousand of
these to build the Pyramid of Cheops ;
and placed lengthways, they would cx-
tend over more than l07 miles !"
And, in another passage, he says: "To
view them merely as gigantic monuments,
is novelty productive of impressions Of
sublime grandeur, of which words fail to
convey any accurate conception" No
wonder then that the mere curiosity
hunter is satisfied with admlring the
dimensions of the giant fabric, and ex
hausts his inquisitiveness upon that feature
alone.
But, as remarked above,a high intellect
was displayed in the erection of this
edifce, and certain facts were wrought
into its stony substance which are only
lately, and that by the aid of advanced
science, coming to light. The Great
Pyramid is proved to be,as writer styles
it. "The heritage of gifts to man in primal
times" It's enormous pass corresponds
with the profound sand weighty fruits
embodied in it the unrlvalled mechanical
skill displayed in its construction
is paralleled by the exactness of geometry
that marks the location or its chambers
and entrance passages. In all "the long
drawn land of Egypt" there is nothing
that combines wisdom, strength and
beauty in so intimate a tie as this Pyramid
of Cheops, this mighty temple of the
South
A department Of pyramidology has
recently been added to the only society
we have in the United States devoted to
Oriental researches ;.and it is intended,
ere long, to bring the shrewdness and
practical character of the American mind
to bear upon the Great Pyramid with a
force that shall be productive Of some
thing useful and creditable A company
of well-read students, provided with the
necessary implements for surveying, aud
the necessary means for eXcavating,
encamping for half year at the base of
old Cheops, can scarcely fail to accomplish
something en- behalf of science and such
plan is now on foot. Adopting, in the
main, the views of Professor c. Piazzi
Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland,
their special objects of pursuit will be
those that have occupied his experienced
mind FOR several years past, and have led
to the discoveries limited at
In my visit to the Great Pyramid, IN
1868, | satisfied myself that there are nc
obstacles to researches like those propos
ed, either in the condition of the country
the climate, or the people. The pyramid
is but short six miles from the great
city OF Cairo, where all manner
nf SuDnlIaq and anv opoo,7nf ~