Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1911-09-30

1 SluuDtfeQ LOT Dc-
fore the coming of Christ-the
Great Pyramid OF Cheops, or Khu-
fu. 1t still stands there, eight
miles from Cairo. defying time,
the elements and the vandals, all
working together. barely able to
stretch it's skin. Psychologists worked
at it: Napoleon fought one of his
splendid battles in it's shadow. And
an American, Dow Covington. has
brought out the latest word from its
mysterious depths; he has almost
solved its secret.
Mr.. CovingtoI has cleared every
passage that can be found. He has
made it possible for visitors to reach
the mysterious subterranean chamber
within it's shaft, which goes as far
down as the level of the Nile In 2l7O
B. c.
Best of all, he has cleared the SIN
gle remaining course just above the
sands of the desert and revealed to
the world that it's outer sheath
was of pure white limestone,
which nobody knew before, be-
cause the great mass of stone had
been used as a common quarry for
thousands of years. The limestone
sheathing makes a mosque In Egypt
today When the tomb of Cheops was
first reared 1t was as white as a mar
BILE mansion of our times. But 1t IL not
so now.
Few of us can realize what thirty
seven centuries before Christ really
means. That is 5,611 years ago. The
technical work of those days was mar
velous The masonry is absolutely
unrivaled-there is nothing better in
all the world today. Monuments and
palaces have CONF and have gone a
hundred times since the great pyra-
mid was built They have persisted;
1t remains.
For twenty years 100000 men toiled
at the stones. They built their great
pile facing exactly north and south.
They chose a base of nearly a sew
enth of mile, 761 feet, to be exact.
This was a plot covering nearly ID
acres. There were 210 perfect courses
of stone, almost invisibly joined, Of
Mokattem limestone blocks. At an
angle of little more than fifty-one de-
grees its four sides swept up, tapering
to the pointed apex, 431 feet above the
ground
In 1t were 100000 cubic feet Of
stone, put up by people who had no
modern machinery. There are about
$780, 900 individual blocks. Treated
for centuries as public quarry, all its
outer stones and facings have been
taken to Cairo and elsewhere, chiefly
for mosque construction. The anti
quaries never knew about this outside
sheath until Mr. Covington of America
came there with permission from the
British government to make his ex-
plorations.
Mr.. Covington began his work nine
years ago. making his camp in the
shadow of the great pyramid. He
started where the Caliph Mamoun left
off in s18 A. D., nearly LOO years ago.
II was Mamoun who forced the first
passage into the stern depths of the
monster of stone, but after he found
1t nothing more was done for cen
turtles. Whole generations came and
went before anything was learned OF
the mystery.
First of all the American searcher
cleared away all the debris. Then he
started at the descending or entrance
passage, Just below it's granite plugs,
and found the mysterious chamber be-
low the ground-burrowed out OF the
living rock beneath the mighty pile
above-"The stones of darkness and
the shadow of death" What this
chamber was for is not yet known.
The passage leading to It may now be
used by cautious visitors. 1t is $50
feet long and through the natural rock
slopes down not half an inch out OF
plumb.
When he got to the bottom OF this
chamber Mr.. Covington realized that
there was more to do. He found q
we'll shaft, 1872 feet long. piled up with
twenty feet Of debris. When this was
cleared away there started current
of strong, fresh air. 1t swept down
the entrance passage, up the well
shaft, thence down the descending
passage out by the forced passage
made by Mr.. Mamoun. Immediately
the temperature dropped degrees
When Mr. Covington cleared the de
bris from the lower end OF the kings
chamber south air channel. TIA feet
long, he reduced the temperature
again.
The ordinary man may but visit the
great pyramid-or any Of the others
for that matter. Unless he have au
thority from the British government