The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-01-09
EGYP7'S MIGHTY WONDERS.
Glowing Pen Pictures Of the
Monarchs of the Desert.
A GREAT DAY AT THE PYRAMIDS.

convey to the readers of the
Woman's Edition the remotest ides
of that marvel of creation, the Pyr-
amid of Cheops, and of the match
less view we had from its side:
and crown. Egypt has most fit.
tingly been called the monumen-
tai land of the earth, and the
Egyptians the monumental people
of history. With such a mann.
moth subject it would prove futile
to attempt to accurately describe
these imposing and colossal mon.
uments of the Land of the Phara-
obs, which have ever been classed
first among the Seven Wonders OF
the world.
A delightful morning was that
when the freshness, quiet and genial
warmth of the very early dawn
made it pleasant to take drive
thitherward. In driving to the
Pyramids, ten miles from Cairo
one crosses the Nile on magnifi-
cent iron bridge, as beautiful as
the London bridge, and much
longer. For two miles the SPLEEN
did driveway parallels and leads
up the Nile river, then west for
eight miles to the Pyramids. The
entire distance is smooth macad-
amized road, forty feet wide, COM
pletely shaded by rows of trees on
either side, which interlace over
head. These trees were planted by
the order of the grandfather of the
present young Khedive.
The radiant morning, the con-
cert of the merry song-birds-"the
street musicians of the heavenly
city," as Longfellow so tenderly
speaks of them-the innumerable
canals, the palm groves, the marble
palaces of royalty, built and fash
Toned in pure Egyptian architec-
ture, professions of men and beasts
on their way to day of toil-all
constitute a beautiful order which
repetition never stales-a lowell
ness whose very monotony is still
its chiefest charm. All the while the
noble forms of Pyramids, accentu-
ated by their comparative isola-
ton in this translucent air stands
boldly out before us as if the genii
of Light were using these rock
tombs, one after the other, to dis
play their bewildering succession
of variegated color, for rarely else
where, save under Eastern skies, is
such a play of color, such chang
ing draperies of pink, gold, purple
and violet.
AS you draw near this stipend
Gus erection thrill of rapture per-
vades your being, not only at the
sight of the magnitude, but at the
thought of their antiquity and as
sociations. Abraham had seen
them when he pitched his tents in
Egypt. They had met the gaze Of
Moses when he returned from Jeth-
ro's land to set Gods people free.
jeremiah saw them through his
tears when he was led to the val
ley of the Nile against his will.
These same towering piles had
been looked upon by the mother
of Jesus, when, as a refugee, she
bore her precious charge to that
very vicinity, far away from the
rage of those who plotted against
the Lord and his Amounted F" And
10! their gray SUBMITS rise before
you-a sight in itself sufficient to
reward so long journey.
1t was in the shadows of these
gray Pyramids, on the eve of the
Battle of the Pyramids" that Ma
poleon l. showed that he knew how
to give the watchword against the
cavalry 'of the Mamelukes, when
he said: SOLDIERS, the memories
of forty centuries look down upon
you." We wonder not that Abdel-
latif, the eminent physician of
Bagdad, said as far back as the
twelfth century, Everything fears
time, but time fears the Pyramids. !"
Wonderful they we're, wonderful
they are, when we contemplate the
fact that they are supposed to have
been built 2, All years before Christ,
or $50 years before the exodus of
the Israelites.
Each member of our party Sc
cured three Bedouin Arabs to assist
us in inspecting the interior of
Cheops. Two were to personally
conduct us by the hand, while the
third carefully went in advance,
holding the candles. The en-
trance is on the north~side of the
structure, at perpendicular height
of forty-eight feet from the ground.
The long passage which we were
about to enter was only three feet
and four inches high and four feet
in width, descends in a straight
direction at an angle of twenty
six degrees, and is 106 yards in
length. Necessarily we enter in a
STOPPING posture, and had there
not been rudely cut notches at
very irregular intervals, it would
have been impossible to make the
descent unless there had been some
arrangements made to tie a rope
around our bodies and thus be low
cred to the bottom. Measuring
from the beginning of the marble
floor, we descended lightweight
feet to a pile of sand which had
been blown in by the simeon winds.
Below this driftof sand the passage
continues in the same direction as
before, until it reaches chamber
101 feet below the natural surface
of the rock on which the Pyramid
stands. At this pile of debris we
climb through hole up to pas
sage leading to the Queens Cham
Der. By this time our muscles
we're strained, our throats parched,
the air oppressive and filed with
the odor of bats, and becoming
n -