Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-06-14
X.--The
Pyramids

objects and places around Cairo. and in
Egypt, there is nothing more interest
/ ing, more fascinating. more wonderful
s than the pyramids. There are five
I groups OF these pyramids, extending
about 20 miles along the edge Of the
/ Libyan desert, those OF Aou Roash, Zaw-
vet ell Aryan and Abusir, Saklxara, Dah-
! shun and Gizeh. But the largest and
the most noted of all the pyramids are
4 what are known as the pyramids of Gil
zeh. Of which the pyramid of Cheops is
/ the most famous. Situated at what was
| then the upper part of Memphis, which
was a fiourishing city when they were
built, and directly opposite the present
| Cairo, only about six miles away; tow
| ering high above everything around,
hills, trees, houses, everything; visible
| on the level landscape for miles and
/ miles away; embodying IN themselves
ancient Egypt and forming a concrete
connecting link between the past and
the present: standing for 5000 years,
! solid. unchanged. amid all the changes
OF those years; silent sentinels OF a
dead past watching the march Of the
centuries along the fields of time, with
an air of awe and of mystery about
them which everyone who comes with
in the radius of their presence must
strongly feel; these pyramids absolute
" dominate everything around Carlo
and in all Egypt. Grand, gloomy and
peculiar, there they stand and have
stood through the ages, the most con-
spicuous objects on the horizon and the
most striking in all the land, IL we may
not say in all the world. 1t is not sur
prising that the ancients should have
regarded them as one of the seven won
dersof the worldly the way, who can
name the other six? They are still
among the greatest wonders of the
world. A visit to Egypt without see
ing the pyramids would be like the play
of Hamlet with the Prince Of Denmark
left out.
The pyramids of Gizeh, as 1 said. are
only about six miles from Cairo. The
road leading to them is well paved,
smooth. and runs through an avenue of
trees most of the way, thus forming
beautiful drive. or they may be reach
ed by electric cars. Think of taking an
electric car TO the pyramids! What
queer incongruity, a strange anachron-
ISM AS we drove to them the pyramids
doomed large in the distance long be-
fore we reached them. Due to their i'm
mense size and the clear Egyptian at
mosphere, it seemed that we were right
at them, when. as a matter Of fact. we
THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS.
I cannot undertake 20 describe all
the pyramids of Egypt. or even those of
Gizeh. 1 can only speak of the most
prominent and most important of all, the
pyramid Of Cheops. 1t was erected by
Cheops, or Khufu, king of Egypt-oh,
somewhere about 5000 years ago. No
body knows exactly when, and a varia-
ton of a few hundred or even thou
sand years makes little difference in
such amatter AS he stood within the
shadow of the pyramid, Napoleon in
1899 said to his soldiers. to inspire them
to battle: Forty centuries look down
upon you" But he wis mistaken by
some 1000 years. Instead of 40, about
so centuries looked down on them, &C
cording to recent estimates. We Ameri-
cans are accustomed TO think of any
thing a hundred years or more as an
cient. We show with pride such build
ings as Independence Hall, Philadel-
pfIfa; the Old South Church, Boston. or
St. Johns Church. Richmond, as be-
longing to a dim and distant. as well as
glorious past. But these buildings are
only new born infants compared 10
this Methuselah Of history. If II would
not seem sacrilegious IL might say, Be
fore Abraham was, 1 am" Moses, Jo-
seph, Jacob. Abraham all walked in its
shadow, and probably climbed to it's
summit. Some 1000 or 1000 years old
then. IT seemed as old 10 them as II
does to us now, and perhaps seemed
even stranger to them, because we I'M
derstand more about it's history and
character than they, in all likelihood.
The present dimensions of the pyramid
are 80 feet square at the bottom, 451 feet
in perpendicular height, while the sloping
sides are 56S feet. The dimensions were
formerly 76s feet square at the bottom, 4S2
feet in perpendicular height and 610 feet
slope. Herodotus, who visited Egypt
about $50 B. c., gave the dimensions as
$50 feet square and the same in height.
But 1 presume Herodotus must have de-
pended either upon tradition or upon
Imagination for his figures, rather than
upon accurate measurements. The diff
ference between the former and the pres
ent dimensions OF the pyramid may be
accounted for by the removal OF some
of the stones on the outside to build
the mosque of Sultan Hassan and the
removal Of the apex, in order, I suppose,
TO enable tourists TO climb to the top and
stand upon II. The cubic content of the
masonry In the pyramid is 3,057. 900 cubic
yards. 1t thus covers an area of nearly
Is acres. The Washington monument,
lne Only IN America 10 which the
pyramid can be compared, is higher, be-
ing, 1 believe, 555 feet high, as against 451
feet. the present height of the pyramid.
But it is only So feet square at its base.
as against 100 feet. The Washington
monument thus rises almost perpendicu-
larry, while the pyramid rises at an angle
OF 81 degrees and 90 minutes. The Wash
ington monument is assembled from the
inside, either by elevator or by steps. But
the pyramid must be climbed from the
outside. The material out OF which the
pyramid is constructed is of yellowish
limestone. Quarried in the vicinity The
outer covering was OF blocks of a finer
white limestone brought from the Mo-
kattam hills across the river. Herodotus
said that in the construction OF this py-
ramid 10000 men were employed for 30
years. that they labored ten years to pre-
pare the road by which the stones might
be transported and 20 years in the erec-
ton OF the pyramid itself. Solomon-I
mean our guide, Solomon Moses-adds
upon what authority 1 do not know, that
the king did not pay these men any
thing for their services. and that he fur
nished them only the scantiest food,
bread, fruit and water.
HOW WERE THE STONES TRANS
PORTED7
Several questions in connection with the