Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-07-27
MYSTERY OF PYRAMIDS
SOLVED BY AMERICAN
From the New York World.

From the New York World.
1t siumbered for 81 centuries before
the coming of Christine great pyra-
mid OF Cheops, Or Khufu. 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. Egyptologists worked at it:
Napoleon fought one of his splendid
battles ia it's shadow. And an Ameri-
can, Dow C%ovington, has brought out
the iatcs, wo"d from its mysterious
depths: he has almost solved it's sec
ret.
Mr.. C~ovington has cleared every pas
sage that can be found. He has discov-
cred that certain winds make musical
sounds ia The passages. which he has
rid OF the debris of nearly 81 centuries.
He hopes yet to find another northern
passage pas : which will make quite a musi-
cai erect when the winds blow right.
He has permanently reduced the inter
lor temperature of the great pile from
~ to q degrees. He has made it pos
sibie for visitors to reach the myster-
lous sublerranean chamber With it's
smart. which goes as far Town as the
level of the Nile in 2l7O b. c..
Best of all. he has cleared the single
remaining course just above the sands
OF the desert n revealed to the world
that it's outer sheath was of white lime
stone. which nobody knew before, be
cause the great mass of stone had been
used as a common quarry for thous-
ands OF years. The limestone sheath
ing makes many a mosque in Egypt
today. When the tomb of Cheops was
first reared it vas as White as a marble
mansion OF our times. But it is not
so now.
Few OF us can realize what 81 CEN
turtles before Christ really means. That
is Soil years ago. The technical work
OF those days was marvellous. The ma
sonny is absolutely Observation-Disclosures is
nothing better in all the world today.
Monuments M palaces nave come and
gone a hundred times since the Great
Pyramid was built. They have per-
ished: it remains.
For 20 years 10O, 900 men toiled at
the stones They built their great pile
facing exactly north and south. They
chose g q s of nearly "a seventh OF Il
mile. 76l feet to be exact. This was a plot
covering nearly - acres. There We're
2lO perfect courses OF stone. almost in
Nisiply joined, of Mokartem limestone
blocks. At an angle of u little more
than 81 degrees, it's four sides swept
up, tapering to the pointed apex. ISL
feet above the ground.
In it were S5. OOO,O 900 cubic feet of
stone. put up by people who had no
modern machinery. There are about
1900. 900 Individual blocks. Treated for
centuries as a public quarry, all its
outer stones and facings nave beer
X to Cairo and elsewhere. chiefly
for mosque construction. The anti
Quaries never knew about this outside
sheath until Mr.. C%ovington. of Ameri-
ca. came there with permission from
the British government to make his
explorations.
Perhaps it was luck. perhaps it was
skill. Anyway, he found the single UNI
touched covering at the northern base
which had honn hilHon nv, tho kinll,-
hand of time. The debris removed. he
unearthed marvellous relics. They had
been left there almost before modern
time began-objects of bronze and ter
Ia Gotta, two mason's levels, bread
plates and wine TASKS used by the
workmen OF other days. There We're
the bones of a sacred bird which flew
its last flight at least $500 years ago.
Mi. C%ovington began his work nine
years ago. making his camp in the
shadow of the great pyramid. He
started where the Caliph Mamoun left
1t was Mamoun who forced the first
passage into the stern depths of the
monster of stone, but after he found
1t nothing more was don for centuries.
Whole generations came and went be-
fore anything more was learned of the
mystery.
First of all the American searcher
cleared away all the debris. Then he
started ut the descending of entrance
passage. just below its granite plugs,
and ound 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 35(
feet long and through the natural rock
slopes down not half an inch out OF
plumb. You must go OF your hands
and knees because it is but four feet
high and Il little more than three feet
wide.
When he got to the bottom of this
chamber Mr.. Covington realized tina,
there was more to do. He found d
welt shaft, 1872 feet long. piled up with
20 feet Of debris. When this was
cleared, away. there started a curren,
of strong, fresh air. 1t swept down
the S~2trance passage. up the Well shaft
thence down the descending passage
and out by the forced passage made by
dropped 12 degrees. When Mr.. Gov
ington cleared the debris from the low-
er end of the kings chamber south ali
channel, ia feet long, he reduced tn.
temperature again.
The ordinary ia may but visit the
great pyramid-or any of the others
for that matter. Unless he have au.
.!lority from the British government
who has Sir CASTOR Maspero a.. it;
is allowed to touch a single pebble
much less to explore. But Mr.. Coving.
ton did such good work at the begin.
ming that he has been authorized Il
clear away the So feet of debris which
obstructs the upper or outer end o