Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1891-10-24

n kodak had pictured the group we
descended. The descent was more
trying than the ascent, for climbing you
need not see the depths beneath, but
coming down it was impossible not to
see the abysms below. But two Arabs
ahead to help us down and two Arabs
to hold us back. we were lowered hand
below hand until the ground was i'll
willingly near, and amid the i:lrgoa OF
the Arabs we were safely landed. Then
came one of the most wonderful feats
of daring and agility. One of the Arabs
solicitedsa dollar, saying he would run
up and down the pyramid in seven
minutes. Wewonld rather have given
him dollar not to go; but this ascent
and descent III seven minutes lie was
deteYnined on and SO by the watchEin
seven minutes lie went to the top ]. and
was back again at the base. 1T was q
blood curdling pectacle. 5 SSs;s
/ said the dominant olor Of, the pyra-
mid was gray, but Sins certain fights it
seems to shake off the gray Of centuries
and become o. blond and the silver
turns to the golden. 1t covers thirteen
acres Of ground. What an antiquity
1t was at least two thousand years old
when tie baby Christ was carried with
in sight of it by his fugitive parents,
Joseph and Mary. The storms of forty
centuries have drenched it, bombarded
it, Swallowed it, flashed upon it, but
there it stands ready to take another
forty centuries OF atmospheric attack if
the world should continue to exist.
The Oldest buildings of the earth are
juniors to this great senior of the CEN
turtles. Herodotus says that for ten
years preparations were being made
for the building of this pyramid. 1t
has eighty-two million one hundred
and eleven thousand cnbic feet Of ma
sorry. One hundred thousand work
men at one time toiled in its erection.
To bring the stone from the quarries u
causeway sixty feet wide was built.
The top stones were lifted by lnachin-
cry such as the world Knows nothing
of today. 1t is seven hundred and
forty-six feet each side of the square
base. The structure is four hundred
and fifty feet hgh higher than the
cathcdrals of Cologne, Strasburg,
Rouen. st. Peters and st. Paul's.
No surprise to ME that it was put ut
the head of the Seven Wonders of the
World. 1t has subterraneous; room Of
rcd granite called tho kings chamber, !"
and another room called the queens
chamber, and the probability is that
there are other rooms yet unexplored.
The evident design of the architect
was to make these rooms us inacces-
sible as possible After all the work of
exploration and all the digging and
blasting, if you would enter these sub
terraneous ROOMS you must go through
passage only three feet eleven inches
high and less than four feet wide.
THE GREAT KING TURNED TO DUST.
a sarcophagus of red granite stands
down under this mountain OF masonry.
The sarcophagus could not have, been
carried in after the pyramid was built.
1t must have been put there before the
structure was reared. Probably in that
sarcopllagus once lay a wooden coffin
containing n dead king, but time has
destroyed the coffin and destroyed the
last vestige of human remains.
For three thousand years this sepul-
chral room was unopened, and would
have been until today probably I'M
opened had not superstitious impress
sion got abroad that the heart of the
pyramid was filed with silver and gold
and diamonds, and under Al Mamoun
an excavating party went to work, and
having bored aud blasted through u
hundred feet of rock they found no
opening ahead, and were about to give
up the attempt when the worklncn
heard q stone roll down into seeming
ly hollow place. and encouraged by
that they resumed their work and came
into the underground ROOMS.
The disappointment Of the worknen
in finding the sarcophagus empty OF all
silver and gold and precious stones was
SO great that they would have assas-
sinated AL Mamoun, who employed
them, had he not hid in another part
of the pyramid as much silver and gold
us would pay them for their work at
ordinary rate Of wages and induced
them there to dig till they, to their sur
prise, came upon adequate colnpensa-
ton.
l wonder not that this mountain of
limestone and red granite has been the
fascination of scholars, of scientists, OF
intelligent Christians in all ages. Sir
John Herschel, the astronomer, said he
thought it had astronomical signiti-
canoe. The wise men who accolnpa-
MED Napolecn's army into Egypt went
into profound study OF the pyramid.
In 1865, Professor Smyth and his wife
lived in the empty tombs near by the
pyramid that they might be as contin-
uously as possible close to the pyramid,
which they were investigating.
The pyramid built more than four
thousand years ago, being a complete
geometrical figure, wise men. have con-
cluded it must have been divinely con-
structed. Man came through thou
sands of years to fine architecture, to
music, to painting, but this was perfect
at the worlds start. and God must
have directed it. All astronomers and
geometricians and scientists say that it
was scientifically and mechanically
constructed before science and mathe-
.,matics were born. From the inrcrip
,>stions on the pyramid, from its proper
tions, from the points of the compass
recognized in its structure, from the
direction in which its tunnels run, from
the relative position of the blocks that
compose it, scientists, Christians and. in.
fdels have demonstrated that the be-.