The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-11-23
THE PYRAMIDS.

Thousands of years before there were
any dwellings on the sites since occu-
pied by Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens,
at the very dawn of human history,
when all the rest of the world was
still wrapped in the thick gloom of
prehistoric barbarism, vast town of
huge buildings rose not far from the
present city, on the other side of the
Nile. which was dotted with the boats
of the ancient inhabitants. A forest
of venerable date-trees casts its shad-
ows upon the black soil, beneath
which lie buried the builders of this
city of a world gone by, of which moth
ing remains but the vast cemeteries,
their position marked by an avenue OF
monuments. The famous pyramids of
Gizeh, opposite Cairo, on the borders
of the desert, form the last of these
necropoli.
Every one is familiar with the ap-
pearance of these strange pyramids,
these huge paradoxes of strictly geo.
metrical form, so vast and so lofty
that it was not until after fifty-eight
centuries of development that the hui
man race succeeded in erecting a
| building of greater height, whilst the
loftiest pinnacle of the most aspiring
Gothic belfrv. however light and airy
it be, did not soar higher than the
point of the pyramid of Cheops before
it was blunted by time. Nothing
could be more confusing to the eye
than the general appearance of these
heaps of stones, in which no artistic
conception plays the slightest part.
] The effects of perspective in these
rs to,, 1or rIf a
most bizarre-huge bare triangles,
/ the outlines shortened or heightened,
marked out like diagram by the sun
into fiat bands of light and shade, the
reflections in the sand of the four
mighty angles varying according to
the time of day. The sloping sides
plain, are. when approached more
nearly, discovered TO be broken up in
to series of projecting stones, like 1
huge staircase worn with age. 1t i!
somewhat difficult to judge at frs
/ sight of the size OF the pyramid, ant
the best way is to measure the heigh
by climbing! 1t is at corner where
the stages, which seem to have beer
made for race of giants, are divided
into smaller steps, either for the SAKE
of mortals of lesser statu or by tn
action of time, that the ascent of tn
great pyramid of Cheops is made
We start, pushed from behind by on
Arab guide, and dragged from abov
by another, with our eyes fully occu
pied with the danger of the climb
Completely exhausted, altogether ou
of breath, and with knees too stiff t
move, we pause at last. feeling as
we had scaled all three pyramids a
once. But looking round, we find W
are scarcely one-third of the distanc
up, and see our fellow-clim mbers lookini
like scattered ants upon the huge trl
angular mass. 1t is not until the plat
form at the top is reached, and tn
lungs are filed with the pure air c
the heights, that any real idea is OF
tanned of the monument of Cheops.
And what does the huge ediiice cor
tainp We must go down again to tin
out.
The entrance, which was walled uE
is at a considerable height from tn
ground, in one of the faces of the pyI
amid, and looks like the porch of
cave cut in the living rock. A dar
gloomy-looking door opens on to To-
narrow passage, with floor, walls, an
ceiling all lined with granite. polishe
till it is like ice. An Arab guide, wit
a candle in his hand, hoists you on
) his shoulders and plunges with you il
, 60 the slippery corridor, which de-
CENTS rapidly to hole in the rock
a level with the soil, going up agai
at the same angle. This opening giy'
access to 8 bare room, in which is
, square hole. once the resting-place {
the mummy of one of the Pharaoh
The rest OF the interior consists
3 two or three narrow passages, resem
ling ca titles made in oak timber by ii
l tela5lo. with two ether chamber sin
/ lar to that known as the Kings, &
faced with granite, without a moul
9 ing or ornament of any kind; airle
enclosures, where no chink admits
/ ray of light or sunshine; huge mass
e of compact limestone, wrapt in utt
night and silence. Such is the strani
g monument to build up which Chico
: caused mountains of stone to be /
It moved by whole nations of peopl
n who perished at their task beneath t
whips of the convict guards.-Hd
Der,s WeekLu.