Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/135

Rh PYRAMID 123 once on one uniform plan, as certainly was the case for the largest pyramids. The third view has some support in the absence of any datable pyramids before the largest and the second largest that ever existed, and in the steady deterioration of work that is known to have taken place. Remembering also what bold steps architecture has taken occasionally in later times (as in the Pantheon and St Sophia) without a series of graduated examples, we should not condemn this view too readily by a priori reasoning. It is certain that the pyramids were each begun with a definite design of their size and arrangement ; at least this is plainly seen in the two largest, where continuous accretion (such as Xepsius and his followers propound) would be most likely to be met with. On looking at any section of these buildings it will be seen how impossible it would have been for the passages to have belonged to a smaller structure (Petrie, 165). The supposition that the designs were enlarged so long as the builder's life permitted was drawn from the compound mastabas of Sakkara and Medum ; these are, however, quite distinct architecturally from true pyramids, and appear to have been enlarged at long intervals, being elaborately finished with fine casing at the close of each addition. Around many of the pyramids peribolus walls may be seen, and it is probable that some enclosure originally ex- isted around each of them. At the pyramids of Gizeh the temples attached to these mausolea may be still seen. As in the private tomb, the false door which represented the exit of the deceased person from this world, and to- wards which the offerings were made, was always on the west wall in the chamber, so the pyramid was placed on the west of the temple in which the deceased king was worshipped. The temple being entered from the east (as in the Jewish temples), the worshippers faced the west, looking toward the pyramid in which the king was buried. Priests of the various pyramids are continually mentioned during the old kingdom, and the religious endowments of many of the priesthoods of the early kings were revived under the Egyptian renaissance of the XXVIth Dynasty and continued during Ptolemaic times. A list of the hieroglyphic names of nineteen of the pyramids which have been found mentioned on monuments (mostly in tombs of the priests) is given in Lieblein's Chronology, p. 32. The pyramid was never a family monument, but be- longed like all other Egyptian tombs to one person, members of the royal family having sometimes lesser pyramids adjoining the king's (as at Khufu's) ; the essen- tial idea of the sole use of a tomb was so strong that the hill of Gizeh is riddled with deep tomb-shafts for separate burials, often running side by side 60 or 80 feet deep with only a thin wall of rock between ; and in one place a previous shaft has been partially blocked with masonry, so that a later shaft could be cut partly into it, macled with it like a twin-crystal. Turning now to the architecture of the buildings, their usual construction is a mass of masonry composed of horizontal layers of rough -hewn blocks, with a small amount of mortar ; and this mass in the later forms became more and more rubbly, until in the Vlth Dynasty it was merely a cellular system of retaining walls of rough stones and mud, filled up with loose chips, and in the Xllth Dynasty the bulk was of mud bricks. Whatever was the hidden material, however, there was always on the outside a casing of fine stone, elaborately finished, and very well jointed ; and the inner chambers were of simi- larly good work. Indeed the construction was in all cases so far sound that, had it not been for the spite of enemies and the greed of later builders, it is probable that every pyramid would have been standing in good order at this day. The casings were not a mere " veneer " or " film," as they have been called, but were of massive blocks, usually greater in thickness than in height, and in some cases (as at South Dahshur) reminding the observer of horizontal leaves with sloping edges. Inside of each pyramid, always low down, and usually below the ground level, was built a sepulchral chamber ; this was reached in all cases by a passage from the north, sometimes beginning in the pyramid face, sometimes de- scending into the rock on which the pyramid was built in front of the north side. This chamber, if not cut in the rock altogether (as in Menkaura's), or a pit in the rock roofed with stone (as in Khafra's), was built between two immense walls which served for the east and west sides, and between which the north and south sides and roofing stood merely in contact, but unbonded. The gable roofing of the chambers was formed by great sloping cantilevers of stone, projecting from the north and south walls, on which they rested without pressing on each other along the central ridge ; thus there was no thrust, nor were there any forces to disturb the building ; and it was only after the most brutal treatment, by which these great masses of stone were cracked asunder, that the principle of thrust came into play, though it had been provided for in the sloping form of the roof, so as to delay as long as possible the collapse of the chamber. This is best seen in the pyramid of Pepi (Petrie), opened from the top right through the roof. See also the Abusir pyramids (Howard Vyse) and the king's and queen's chambers of the great pyramid (Howard Vyse, Piazzi Smyth, Petrie). The roof- ing is sometimes, perhaps usually, of more than one layer ; in Pepi's pyramid it is of three layers of stone beams, each deeper than their breadth, resting one on another, the thirty stones weighing more than 30 tons each. In the king's chamber (Gizeh) successive horizontal roofs were in- terposed between the chamber and the final gable roof, and such may have been the case at Abu Roash (Howard Vyse). The passages which led into the central chambers have usually some lesser chamber in their course, and are blocked once or oftener with massive stone portcullises. In all cases some part, and generally the greater part, of the passages slopes downwards, usually at an angle of about 26, or 1 on 2. These passages appear to have been closed externally with stone doors turning on a horizontal pivot, as may be seen at South Dahshur, and as is de- scribed by Strabo and others (Petrie). This suggests that the interiors of the pyramids were accessible to the priests, probably for making offerings ; the fact of many of them having been forcibly entered otherwise does not show that no practicable entrance existed, but merely that it was unknown, as, for instance, in the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra, both of which were regularly entered in classical times, but were forced by the ignorant Arabs. The pyramids of nearly all the kings of the IVth, Vth, and Vlth Dynasties are mentioned in inscriptions, and also a few of later times. The first which can be definitely attributed is that of Khufu (or Cheops), called "the glorious," the great pyramid of Gizeh. Ratatef, who appears next to Khufu in the lists, is unknown in other monuments ; he is perhaps the same as Khnumu-Khufu, apparently a co-regent of Khufu, who may have been buried in the so-called queen's chamber of the great pyramid. Khafra rested in the great pyramid, now known as the second pyramid of Gizeh. Menkaura's pyramid was called "the upper," being at the highest level on the hill of Gizeh. The lesser pyramids of Gizeh, near the great and third pyramids, belong respectively to the families of Khufu and Khafra (Howard Vyse). The pyramid of a Men(ka?)ra at Abu Roash is probably also of this period. The pyramid of Aseskaf, called " the cool," is unknown, so also is that of Userkaf of the Vth Dynasty, called the "holiest of buildings." Sahura's pyramid, the north one of Abusir, was named "the rising soul," much as Neferkara's (of unknown site) was named " of the soul. " Raenuser's pyramid, " the firmest of buildings," is the middle pyra- mid of Abusir. The pyramid 'of Menkauhor, called "the most divine building," is somewhere at Sakkara. Assa's pyramid is unidentified; it was "the beautiful." Unas not only built the