Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1906-04-14

go =, UHls 1dsG m6HGl0n00cO convey
ance is particularly adapted for
travel over the desert. Soon our
caravan al started, Mrs. Hill and Miss
Mason in the sand-cart, Mahomet on
the donkey and Ton the camel, "Prin-
cess" Mohomet tells me that she is
the pest camel among the pyramids.
snip of the Desert" is a good name
Tor tney have a motion quite plo-
ductlVe OF sea sick feelings. We rode
IN state through ancient Arabian or
Egyptian villages, all mud walled and
rooted. For miles we travelled what
was once Memphis, the most pros.
porous and greatest city of ancient
Egypt. Little is left now of all of it's
greatness. Whatever of stone was
used in its temples was long since
carried Off to build pyramids and
other temples across the Nile. We
soon reached palm grove where we
saw one of the colossal statues of
Rameses II. This dates from about
1900 B. G. and once stood at the
entrance of his temple. Farther on
we saw the other statue, forty two
feet in height and well preserved.
Soon after we came to the edge of
the Libyan desert and had our first
desert travel. The air was clear and
bracing, the sun not too hot, SO that
we enjoyed the journey. Our runners
were sociable beings and Mahonet
kept up a lively conversation. In
front of us we see many pyramids,
one, the so-called "Step pyramid" is
said to be the oldest on the Nile. We
now reach the Metropolis of Sakkara,
one of the famous places of the past
and here we are shown several tombs
OF former priests and kings. The
walls are covered with hierog ly-
phics WHICH are deciphered differ
emily by nearly every explorer but
which are simply curious speciments
of ancient writing to us. We have
lunch on the piazza of Marie ties house.
He was the great French explorer who
discovered several tombs. We visited
the ancient Apis tomb, Or the tombs
of the sacred bnlls. Here we found
long corridors hewn thru rock and far
below we were shown huge granite
sarcophagi once containing the mum
mics of sacred bulls. Some of these
sarcophagi were 20 feet long and
8x10 feet in breath and height.
On or over the desert we go-to the
right the Nile valley, rich in palms
and in fields of clover and grain and
sugar-cane To the left endless
reaches of sand and far ahead the
pyramids of Gizeh, our objective point.
We passed several caravans of
heavily laded camels. The Bedouin
drivers were dark and grim looking.
The children knew but one word and
that was 'bakhsheesh."
Toward four o'clock we arrived at
the foot of the Gizeh pyramids, three
in number, with the Sphinx reposing
quietly but vigilantly in front.
shall not attempt to describe all
the objects of interest about Gizeh
but in order to give you some idea
of the size of the greatest pyramid
viii tell something about it. The
largest one built probably by Kheops
is 483 feet in height and about the
same on each side of the base. It
is said to contain 100000 separate
blocks of stone each averaging 40
cubic feet. All this stone was brought
hundreds of miles down the Nile
and for it's transportation from the
Nile to the site, huge stone cause
way was built-this took ten years in
building. Originally the pyramid was
covered with polished granite covered
with hieroglyplics, most of this
covering has been removed by various