Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/291

 The Tomb under the Ancient Empire. 20I the study of those monuments and from a comparison of the con- structive processes made use of by the architects of the pyramids.^ The author of Baedeker's Guide has not been content with beheving, hke Perring, Lepsius, and Mariette, that the pyramid grew by the appHcation of successive envelopes of stone round the central mass, either in horizontal courses or in courses sloping towards the axis of the buildino^. He has brouo^ht forward an elaborate theory of construction, which, though very ingenious, encounters several grave objections. We shall point out those objections while we endeavour to explain the system itself by the help of special illustrations drawn for us by the author of the Guide in question.^ Fig. 1 30. — The three great pyramids ; from the south. When Cheops first began to think about building his tomb, he could not have counted upon giving it the colossal dimensions which it presents even in its actual injured condition. The area of the great pyramid is more than double that of Saint Peter's at Rome. If we deduct from its total volume the core of rock which it incloses ^ and the openings v/hich it contains, the masonry 1 Lepsius, Briefe aus Aigypten, pp. 41, 42 (in speaking of the Pyramid of Meidoum, from which he received the first hint of this explanation). See also his paper entitled Ueber den Ban der Fyramiden, in the Monatsbericht of the Berlin Academy, 1843, pp. 177-203. ^ /Egypt en., First part, 1878, p. 341. ^ It has been suggested by Mr. Cope Whitehouse that the nucleus of rock under the great pyramids was originally much more important than is commonly supposed. During his expedition in March, 1882, he ascertained that a profile from the Mokattam across the Nile valley into the western desert would present the contours VOL. I. D D