Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/124

92 brought from Syene—a distance of 500 miles—polished like glass, and so fitted that the joints can hardly be detected. Nothing can be more wonderful than the extraordinary amount of knowledge displayed in the construction of the discharging chambers over the roof of the principal apartment, in the alignment of the sloping galleries, in the provision of ventilating shafts, and in all the wonderful contrivances of the structure. All these, too, are carried out with such precision that, notwithstanding the immense superincumbent weight, no settlement in any part can he detected to the extent of an appreciable fraction of an inch. Nothing more perfect, mechanically, has ever been erected since that time; and we ask ourselves in vain, how long it must have taken before men acquired such experience and such skill, or were so perfectly organized, as to contemplate and complete such undertakings.

Around the base of the pyramid are found numerous structural tombs, whose walls bear the cartouche of the same king—Suphis—whose name was found by Colonel Howard Vyse in one of the previously unopened chambers of the Great Pyramid. These are adorned with paintings so numerous and so complete, as to enable us to realize with singular completeness the state of Egyptian society at that early period.

On their walls the owner of the tomb is usually represented seated, offering first fruits on a simple table-altar to an unseen god. He is generally accompanied by his wife, and surrounded by his stewards and servants, who enumerate his wealth in horned cattle, in asses, in sheep and goats, in geese and ducks. In other pictures some are ploughing and sowing, some reaping or thrashing out the corn, while others are tending his tame monkeys or cranes, and other domesticated pets. Music and dancing add to the circle of domestic enjoyments, and fowling and fishing occupy his days of leisure. No sign of soldiers or of warlike strife appears in any of these pictures; no arms, no chariots or horses. No camels suggest foreign travel. Everything there represented speaks of peace at home and abroad, of agricultural wealth and consequent content. In all these pictures the men are represented with an ethnic and artistic truth that enables us easily to recognize their race and station. The animals are not only easily distinguishable, but the characteristic peculiarities of each species are seized with a power of generalization seldom if ever surpassed; and the hieroglyphic system which forms the legend and explains the whole, was as complete and perfect as at any future period.

More striking than even the paintings are the portrait-statues