Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/295

 The ToMi; under the Ancient Empire. 20: has four entrances and a series of internal passages, horizontal galleries, staircases and cells, which make it little else than a subterranean labyrinth. It is singular also in having, upon its central axis and at the point upon which, at various heights, all its galleries converge, a sort of large well, a chamber about twenty feet square and eighty feet high, in the pavement of which a huge block of granite cut into the shape of a cork or plug was so placed as to open at will ^ and leave a free passage for the descent into a second chamber, the purpose of which is more than obscure, as it is too small even to have contained a sarcophagus.- The end of >C^-^3-^ — ;^-^j Fig. 131. — The pyramid of Illahoun, horizontal section in perspective; from the plan of Perripe, the long passage which leads to the thirty chambers which have been counted beneath this pyramid has been found in the neighbouring sands (Fig. 134). Another point of difference : most of the pyramids are built round a core of living rock, which is embraced by the lower courses of their masonry. But the pyramid of M^'cerinus is just the reverse of this. It is built over a hollow in the rock which is filled up with masonry. The inequalities of the surface were usually taken advantage of so as to economize material, and make ' The weight of this stopper is about four tons, and it lias long been a puzzle to egyptologists how it, and others like it, could be raised and lowered. M. Perrot's words must not, therefore, be taken too literally. — Ed. - Arthur Rhonk, L Egypte a pe'ites Journces, p. 259.