Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-11-11
PHOENIX BRATTLEBORO, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER u, 1892
The Pyramids.



Monuments Of Pre-IIistOric Age.
Thousands of years before there were
any dwellings on the sites since occupied
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, a
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 shadows up
on the black soil, beneath which lie buried
the builders of this city of a world gone
by, of which nothing remains but the vast
cemeteries, their position marked by an
avenue of monuments. The famous pyra-
mids of Gizeh, opposite Cairo, on the Dor
ders of the desert, form the last of these
necropol
Every one is familiar with the appear
ance of these strange pyramids, these huge
paradoXes of strictly geOmetrcal form, so
vast and so lofty that it was not until after
IS centuries of development that the hui
man race succeeded in erecting a building
of greater height, whilst the Hottest pin
nacle of the most aspiring Gothic belfry,
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 con-
ceptiOn plays the slightest part. The eff
fects of perspective in these lines of math-
ematical regularity are 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, which at
a distance appear absolutely plain, are,
when approached more nearly, discovered
to be broken up into a series of projecting
stones like a huge staircase worn with age.
1t is somewhat difficult to judge at first
sight of the size of the pyramid, and the
best way is to measure the height by climb
ing it! 1t is at a corner where the stages,
which seem to have been made for a race
of giants, are divided into smaller steps,
either for the sake of mortals of lesser
stature or by the action of time, that the
ascent of the great pyramid of Chcops is
made. We start, pushed from behind by
one Arab guide, and dragged from above
by another, with our eyes fully occupied
with the dangers of the climb Complete
~ exhausted, altogether out of breath, and
with knees too stiff to move, we pause al
last, feeling as if we had scaled all tire,
pyramids at once. But looking round We
find we are scarcely one-third Of the dis
lance up, and see our fellow-climbers look
ing like scattered ants upon the huge tri
angular mass. 1t Is not until the platform
at the top is reached, and the lungs are fill
ed with the pure air of the heights, tina
any real idea is obtained of the monument
of Cheops.
And what does this huge edifice contain,
We must go down again to find out. The
entrance which was walled up, is at q
considerable height from the ground, in
one of the faces of the pyramid, and look,
like the porch of a cave cut in the living
rock A dark, acknowledging door opens
on 20 low, narrow passage, with floor
walls, and ceiling all lined with granite
polished till it is like ice. An Arab guide
with a candle in his hand, hoists you on tC
his shoulders and plunges with you into
the slippery corridor, which descends rap
idly to a hole in the rock on a level with
the soil, going up again at the same angle.
This opening gives access to bare room
in which is a square hole, once the resting
place of the mummy of one of the Pha
raohs. The rest of the interior consists OF
two or three narrow passages, resembling
cavities made in oak timber by the teredo
with two other chambers similar to that
known as the kings, all faced with gran,
lite, without a moulding or ornament OF
any kind; airless enclosures, where NJ
chnk admits ray of light or sunshine;
huge masses of compact limestone wrap
in utter night and silence. Such is the
strange monument to build up which
Cheops caused mountains of stone to b,
removed by whole nations of people, whC
persisted at their task beneath the whips o
the convict guards. Hdrper's IVeekiH.-