Year: 1879

Prof. Proctor Maintains that it Does Not


and Explains His Views of Its Purpose


and AIeaning-PIazzi SmytIl's Measure.


ments.


From the New York SUM-


Prof. Richard A Proctor's lecture on
The Great Pyramid: Its Purpose and
Meaning" in Chickering Hall yester-
day afternoon, was attended by a very
large and intelligent audience. A very
lively interest has of late been excited
in the great pyramid by the close ap-
proach of the year 1882. According to
Prof. Plazzi Smyth, the famous Scotch
astronomer, and those who interpret its
meaning as he does, the pyramid con-
tains certain secret signs which indicate
that in 1882 something is to happen Sc
riOusly involving the destiny of the hu-
man race; perhaps the end of the world
This theory supposes that the great
pyramid was erected by divine aid, and
that it was intended to preserve these
prophecies through ages, until men,
rightly instructed, should unravel then
meaning. Prof. Proctor has no sym
pathy, it might almost be said no pa
tience, with this theory. He began by
saying that he did not propose to adj
vance any special theory to account for
the great pyramid, although he had de-
cided opinions about it. 1t has been
supposed that the pyramids were in
tended as protection against floods OF
sand storms; that they were built for
tOmbs; that they served as vast treas
ure houses; that they were intended for
temples, and that they were astronOm-
ical observatOries The notion that the
great pyramid, or, as it is sometimes
called, the Pyramid of CheOps, after
the name of the king who built it,
was a vast treasure house, led Al Ma
noun to break into it, at great cost
and labor, but he got nothing for his
pains.


As to its being a tomb, the lecturer
said, it does not seem reasonable to sup
pose that kings would spend large part
of their lives and q vast amount of treas
Ure merely in preparing tombs for them
selves. As to the pyramid having been
either a temple or an observatory, it
must be said that the present condition
of the work can not be taken as an in
dicatiOn of what purposes it may have
subserVed before it was finished in the
form in which we see it. The great
pyramid was once covered on all its
faces with smOothed stone fitted so close
that not crack was to be seen; but
modern Egyptians have stripped off
these facing stones and used them in
constructing their buildings, so that the
huge flanks of the pyramid have a rough
and unfinished look, and its apex is
gone.


The second pyramid, built by the
brother of CheOps, is nearly as large as
the other, but it is not constructed in the
same way, and was not as fine a work.


1t is absolutely certain, Prof. Proctor
said, that none but astronomers were
the builders of the great pyramid, be-
cause the plan of it is so nearly perfect
astronomically. If modern astronO-
mer had no telescope, but had unlimited
command of money and labor, he would
desire to erect Just such a structure as
the great pyramid is, to supply the
place of the telescope. 1t would give
him what he would especially desire, a
perfectly firm structure, and definite
lines along which to look in particular
direction at the heavenly bodies. Sup
posing that such was the object of the
pyramid of CheOps, the astrOno-
mers who had it constructed, be-
ing, probably, unacquainteds with
logarithmic tables such as we possess,
would wish to deal with the simplest
possible angles in their calculations.
This would lead them to select a lati-
tude for their observatory that would
not involve any difficult angles in obser-
vations depending on the elevation of
the pole and the equator of the heavens.
| Theoretically the very best latitude that
they could select would be the parallel
of thirty degrees north; and that is just
what they did select. The position ot
the great pyramid is so close to that
parallel that it seems almost certain that
! the astronomers, its builders, obtained
the latitude by observations of both the
/ pole star and the sun, the former being
elevated One-third of the distance from
the horizon to the point overhead, and
/ the latter twO-thirds of that distance. Il
is very probable that they knew nothing
of the apparent displacement of the
| heavenly bodies, caused by the retrac
| ton of the atmosphere, and if they die
not, the discrepancies that they would
find between the result of their observa
tions upon the sun and those upon the
pole star would lead them to strike
fair mean between the results, giving
as a modern astronomer would do
greater weight to the pole star method


and so they would be led to place tn,
pyramid just where they did place it
| The belief that the pyramid builder
I
fore beginning it is supported by tn


fact that the plateau of rock on which tn


great pyramid stands ends abruptly a
that point, and the parallel of 80 de


grees north latitude, as the pyramit


builders calculated it, is so close to tn


edge of the rock that they had to banl


up the edge with cobble stones befor


beginning their building.


They would require a perfectly fla


surface of considerable extent, and thi


was furnished in the base of the pyra


mid. This base was about 762 fee


square, but so well did they level it that


in the lecturers opinion, as they had II,


telescopes, they must have obtained tn


level by flooding the whole space wit


water. Next they would have the diff


cult task of setting their building four


square to the points of the compass, an


in this they succeeded admirably. L


obtain the north point they would nat


urally make observations on the pol


star as it passed beneath the true pol


in its diurnal circle. At that time ii


direction would be true north. To d


this they would tunnel into the rock


base OF their proposed pyramid, maxim


a passage pointing to the pole star at il


lower elimination, and continuing tn


tunnel deep enough to render the sta


visible by day Exactly such a tunnel e1


lists in the rocky base of the grea
pyramid, and is continued to the Ell
trance point in the side. This tunnt
leads deep down into the heart of tn
vast rock on which the pyramid stand:
and ends in a rough, unfinished chan
ber, which some have viewed as syn
bolical Of the BOttOmleSs Pit In Ordt


to mark the place of this undergroun
/ passage at the surface above it, the


would want to drop line down to
! from that sIrfacn- and 90 thn1r ,unr1l