Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/282

 192 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. do the precautions which the Egyptians took elsewhere to guard their tombs against intrusion ; but direct proof of the fact is not w^anting. When in the ninth century the KaHph Al-Mamoun wished to penetrate into the Great Pyramid he was only enabled to do so by breaking into it violently, near the centre of its northern face, and thus stumbling accidentally upon the descending passage at some distance from its mouth. That he was reduced to employ this method at the risk of meetings with nothing^ but the solid masonry shows that no external indication had been left of the opening through which the mummy had been carried in. The casing seems to have been then complete and consequently the four sides of the Pyramid must have been free from debris and generally uniform. That the Arabs should have chosen the right side for their attack was perhaps owing to the survival of some ancient tradition indicating the northern side to be that of the entrance, which, as a fact, it has been found to be in all the pyramids as yet explored. Perhaps too the Arabs may have been guided by the traces of previous attempts made either in the time of the Persians or in that of the Romans.^ However this may be it is very certain that had they perceived any signs of an original doorway, they would have directed their attentions to it. Those who seek for treasure do not, like archaeologists, strike out lines of exploration in all directions for the satisfaction of their curiosity, they go straight to their point. The pyramid includes two of those four parts into which we have divided the typical Egyptian tomb ; it contains the well and the mummy chamber. As for the funerary chapel, there were obvious difficulties in the way of including it in the thickness of the monu- ment itself. It would have been difficult to preserve it from being crushed by the immense weight above it, and as it would have had to be lighted from the door alone, it must always have been of the most restricted dimensions. A different arrangement had therefore to be devised from that adopted in the case of the mastaba. The open part of the monument was separated from that which was destined to be sealed up from the outer world. The chapel or temple, in which the successors of the prince buried in the pyramid ^ The existence of the passage leading to the mummy chamber was not unknown to Strabo. He says : " Very nearly at the middle of their sides, as to height, the pyramids had a stone which could be moved away when this is done, a winding passage appears, which leads to the coffin" (xvii. p. 1161, c).