Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-11-16
 THE PYRAMIDS.
Ancient Monuments That Arc Stu i'm A
 Good state of Preservation.

Ancient Monuments That Arc Stu i'm a |
 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- | torlc 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 an clent inhabitants. A forest of venera- ble date trees casts its shadows upon 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 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 turies of development that the human race succeeded in erecting a 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 diagram by the sun into flat 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 distance appear absolutely plain, \ are, when approached more nearly, dis ! covered to be broken up into a series of projecting stones, like huge staircase worn with age. It is somewhat ditfi- cult to judge at first sight of the size of the pyramid, and the best way is to \ measure the height by climbing it! It | is at corner where the stages, which | seem to have been made for 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 Cheops 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. Completely exhausted, alto ! gether out of breath, and with knees too stiff to move, we pause at last, feel ing as if we had sealed 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. It 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 ob- tained of the monument of Cheops.
 And what does this huge edifice con tain? We must go down again to find out.
 The entrance, which was walled up,
 is at a considerable height from the ground, and looks like the porch of a cave cut in the living rock. A dark.
 gloomy-looking door opens on to d low.
 narrow passage, with floor, walls and
 ceiling all lined with granite, polished
 till 1t is like ice. An Arab guide, with
 a candle in his hand, hoists you on to ! HIS ShOulueTS tuo pluuSeS "lIlh you Au1o
 the slippery corridor, which descends
 rapidly to hole in the rock on a level
 with the soil, going up again at the
 same angle. This opening gives access
 to a bare room, In which is a 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 tcredo, witf
 two other chambers similar to that
 known as the kings all faced witt
 granite, without a molding or orna
 ment of any kind; airless inclosures, , where no chink admits a ray of light ol
 sunshine; huge masses of compact lime
 stone, wrapt in utter night and silence. Such Is the strange monument to builC
 up which Cheops caused mountains ol
 stone to be removed by whole nations
 of people, who perished at their tasl
 beneath the whips of the convict guards P -Harper's Weekly.