The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-07-23
CLIMBING UP CHEOPS.
AN AMERICAN DESCRIBES A VISIT TO
THE PYRAMIDS.

4 Feat fhat Requires Good Nerve and
Cool Head-Three Natives Assist Each
Climbsr-Graphic Description Of Noun
tain Ride on Camel.
The Troy IN. " Times prints let
ter written at Cairo, Egypt, by Rev. DR..
L. M. s. Haynes, pastor Of the First
Baptist church Of that city, to H. D.
Sweet, parishioner. in which he says:
''Our conductor called us to an early
breakfast at $50. Our party of five
were promptly on hand. Our carriage
was an ordinary American hack. We
soon reached the bridge over the Nile
and entered the avenue of acacia trees
skirting the elevated pike which the
government has built clear to the pyra-
mids, distance of about eight miles.
The road was literally crowded with
farmers 'fellahee, coming into market.
We passed hundreds of camels and dom
keys loaded down with every conceiva-
BILE thing, especially fresh white clover,
great quaint les of which are sold in the
city. Each camel carries about 400
pounds With all the animals there
were men, women and children, most of
then. walking, but they will ride back.
The men and boys seemed to be having
q good time; but, as usual, the women
and girls looked sad and miserable. The
donkeys were looking down to the
ground, but the camels looked up in the
air, as they always do. They are very
high minded. Their backs are also high,
as can testify, Tor had my first camel
ride today. In about an hour we rode
up to the very base Of the great pile of
stone and alighted from our carriage in
the sand, with the sun three hours high
and blazing hot. 1t was about 8 o'clock
We were Immediately surrounded by
the usual crowd Of clamorous Arabs,
anxious to help us up the great climb
| But our conductor, Mr.. Solomon, and
, our superb dragoman, Abraham, who
had been with us up the Nile, cleared
them all away, and we selected three
men each, fine looking men in white.
"We went right away over a pile of
sand along the base and stood upon the
first tier of stone Then I formally
looked up for the first time. We had
seen the three pyramids. SO familiar in
picture, for more than an hour, but they
did not seem to be so very large, be-
cause there is nothing to compare them
with. But it is three-fourths of mile
around Cheops, and $50 feet to the top.
The stones are about six feet square, and
project one beyond the other, just like
going up many stairs. The place for
your feet is about four feet, a very good
standing if you reached the floor or
were not going up $50 feet right up in
the air nearly three times as high as our
church steeple.
Eve walked easily along one course
Of stone on the west side, which were
worn smooth with passing feet, and
came to the northwest corner, where
the ascent is made. Two men took me
by the hand, and one pushed behind,
and l began going up stairs four feet at
a step. After about 200 steps conclud-
ed to stop. We must have been about so
feet up at that corner. was not dizzy
nor very lame, but felt very peculiar,
and felt more peculiar every minute
afterward until got back on to solid
and capacious footing. But up we
went, hop, skip and jump, going all the
time and going up on the ragged corner
Of nothing. The stones were smooth,
irregular and sometimes broken, but
none less than four feet. Heaven was
above you and both sides of you, and
everlasting smashation beneath you if
you should fall Just then one Of the
Arabs tumbled a little and gave me a
shock like an electric battery.
"Now we come to the half way place
where they have thrown off few rocks,
and where you can brace yourself
against the breast stones of Cheops and
look of little We were 240 feet up
in the desert air, standing or leaning on
the ragged corner and trying to behave
and say it was fun. But it was not.
There was too much risk and danger.
Some people have to be blindfolded to
get them down, and many faint, and
not long since an English soldier fell.
But on we go little farther, and, think.
ing the matter all over, called a halt
and deliberately decided that wal
enough. The view was something grand
suppose, and if I could have done the
climbing when l was 30 years old
might have seen the grandeur. Going
down, as was not dizzy, was easier
But any step might have been my last
and did not enjoy it as much as die
my splendid reception, though that EN-
barrassed me somewhat
.'Once at the bottom we mounted
camels to 60 to the sphinx A very
large, white fellow fell to my lot HI
was fat on the ground as I mounted
When he began to get up, ! thought hi
was going all to pieces He rose in sec
tions, with four distinct motions, ant
rs each section assumed the horizonta
] was jerked backward and forward
Cut foot log into four parts, joint then
together. get astride and have that loi
begin to assume the shape Of a saw
horse, with you on top, and you hav'
the idea However, held on, and ava.
, ve went I estimated that from m,