Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-05-11
RIDDLE OF SPHINX MAY
BE SOLVED AT LAST;

iod ] mean they invented copper work
ing and the Weighted stone borer,
ounde a strong centralized monarchy.
progressed to great prosperity through
their agricultural advantages, and Gre
ated an art in the service of their ORR
entail kings which was, as regards
architecture, painting, sculpture. on the
high road towards perfect eXps sssion.
A this period ruled the dynasty Of
kings who built the pyramids of Gizeh.
Cheops built the First, his son Cephren
the Second. The successor of Cephren,
Dedef-Ra, proved of AN exclusive ma
ture and built his monument far away
Mycsrinus, perhaps a grandson of Che
ops, who built the Third Pyramid at
Gizeh. The last of these rulers of the
fourth dynasty was but a boy, Shepses-
KAT by name, who was troubled by
sedition and war. n came to an I'M
happy END. probably. soon after he had
finished his fathers tomb, and when
ms pyramid was only half begun.
If the paths of glory lead but to the
grave, The kings of Egypt were deter
mined upon no unimpOsing burial place.
THESE pyramids are their tombs, built
TO reflect their pomp and power. The
names given to the pyramids show us
the purpose of the builders-for they
are The Glory of Cheops,' Great Is
Cephren,' n 'Mycerinus Is Divine
understand u excavations at
Glzeh 1T is necessary to know that
every Egyptian grave serves two pur-
poses n consists of two essential
parts. The body lies i'm a chamber UNI
der ground. walled up against decay,
ana Win 1t are the pots and pans, the
adornments. and garments
tnat the deceased needed in life. Above
ground was a mound OF \brick or ma
sonry where the living might visit the
dead with offerings and prayers.
Thus it happened that the pyramids
contained mo- only the burial place of
a KING, but also had on the side nearest
the valley a chapel for offerings and
rites. Now, the pyramids with their
temples are high up on rock ~plateaus.
SO II may have been for convenience
mat still Il second temple was built
down below. on the edge of the valley.
and connected with the upper temple
by a causeWay.
sixty years ago h existence of wall
ley temples was unknown. In 1853 Ma
flette found Il wonderful granite tenn
pie close beside the Sphinx. He chris
Tened 1t the Temple of the Sphinx, took
from iro !. nine statues of cephren. includ-
ing the famous diorite statue in the
Calfo museum-and the work stopped
there. For SO years the pyramid field
lay untouched.
in 1901, the director of the
Egyptian department of antiquities UNI
,expectedly granted to private individ-
uals the right to explore at Gizeh, and
in 1903. when these concessions ex-
PRED. he acted %favorably on the appli-
cations of Professor Steindorff, of Leip-
zig: Professor S~chiaprelli, of Turin.
and myself. The Italians took the First
Pyramid. the Germans the Second. and
was satisfied with the Third.
II turned my attention first. how
ever, to the great cemetery west of the
First Pyramid. This had been divided
into three strips. and we had drawn the
northern one. 1t proved the most inn
portant. We found the tombs of MANY
royal sons and daughters of Cheops.
and ~unearthed the wonderful Itinerary
STEELE of Wep-em-nofrit. We also found
the burial places of the priests of The
City of the Pyramid to whom we're in
trusted the rites and offerings. Later
we easily identified the great royal
cemetry of Cephren. near the Second
Pyramid.
w We're able to show also that both
these cemeteries had fallen into decay
and had been cover with sand by the
n of the sixth dynasty. That is, the
first lines for the royal cemetery were
laid out about 1900 b. c., and by $500
B.. Goo years later-the last offering