The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1892-12-31
THE PYRAMIDS.
Ancient Monuments That Are Still In q
Good State of Preservation.

THE PYRAMIDS.
Ancient Monuments That Are stnl In .
Good State of Preservation.
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 prehis-
toric 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 an
cient inhabitants. A forest of venera-
BILE date trees casts it's shadows upon
the black soil, beneath which lie buried
the builders of this city of world gone
by, of which nothing 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 CEN
trries of development that the human
race succeeded in erecting building of
greater height, whilst the loftiest pin
nacle of the most aspiring Gothic bel
fry. 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 lines of mathematical regularity
are most bizarre-huge bare triangles,
the outlines shortened or heightened,
marked out like a 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. TIE sloping sides, which
at distance appear absolutely plain,
are, when approached more nearly, dis
covered to be broken up into series of
projecting stones, like huge staircase
worn with age. It is somewhat diff
cult to judge at first sight of the size of
the pyramid, and the best way is to
measure the height by climbing it! 1t
is at corner where the stages, which
seem to have been made for race of
o'"n+s, are divided into smaller steps,
for the sake of mortals of lesser
e or by the action of time, that
scent of the great pyramid of
IS is made. We start, pushed from
d by one Arab guide, and dragged
above by another, with our eyes
occupied with the dangers of the
Completely exhausted, alto
rout of breath, and with knees
iff to move, we pause at last, feel
I ing DIS If we had scaled all three pyra-
mids at once. But looking round, we
find we are scarcely one-third of the
! distance up, and see our fellow-climbers
looking like scattered ants upon the
huge triangular mass 1t is not until
the platform at the top is reached, and
the lungs are filled with the pure air of
the heights that any real idea is OBJ
tanned of the monument of Cheops.
And what does this huge edifce con-
tain? We must go down again to find
| out
The entrance, which was walled up,
Is at considerable height from the
ground, and looks like the porch of a
cave cut in the living rock. A dark,
gloomy-loolxing door opens on to a low,
narrow passage, with floor, walls and
ceiling all lined with granite, polished
till it is like ice. An Arab guide, with
q candle in his hand, hoists you on to
his shoulders and plunges with you into
the slippery corridor, which descends
rapidly to q hole in the rock on level
with the soil, going up again at the
same angle. This opening gives access
to bare room, in which is square
hole, once the resting place of the mum
my of one the Pharaohs The rest of
the interior consists of two or three
narrow passages, resembling cavities
made in oak timber by the tercdo, with
two. other chambers similar to that
known as the kings all faced with
granite, without molding or orna-
ment Of any Kind; airless Enclosures
| where no chink admits ray of light or
sunshine; huge masses of compact lime
stone. wrapt in utter night and silence.
Such is the strange monument to build
up which Cheops caused mountains of
stone, to be removed by whole nations
sof people, who perished at their task
beneath the whips of the convict guards.
I-Harper's Weekly.
HISTORY or HYPNOTlSM.
rlotr in r,,I 70 Il "a.