ANTIQUARIAN REMAINS. Pyramids of Egypt. The Logan Rock. St. Swithun's Day. London Hospitals. Conway Castle. Caerphilly Castle. Conversion of King Edwin. Oath of William Rufus. THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. two ancient historians, who wrote about these buildings, agree in stating that not less than three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed in erecting the Great Pyramid; and it is added that twenty years were expended in the work. It may be proper to remark, with regard to the size of the Pyramids, that engravings of them have rather tended to mislead; for as it is impossible to represent their real bulk on paper, drawings made to give an idea of their form naturally tend to diminish the idea of their size, in the imagination of the observer. THERE are few subjects which have These mysterious buildings are called the PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH, from a village of that name on the banks of the river Nile, from which they are distant about eleven miles, forming almost a line to the westward of the city of Cairo. The platform or high rocky ground on which they stand, rises out of a strip of sandy plain about thirty miles long, extending by the side of the Nile, and sloping upwards to about eighty feet above the level of the river. The two largest pyramids are named after two kings, Cheops and Cephrenes, whose tombs they are supposed to be. The larger of the two-that of Cheops -may well have been considered as one of the Wonders of the World, the north side being 693 feet in length, and the whole building covering something more than eleven English acres a size sufficiently monstrous to stagger belief, if the fact were not established beyond dispute. Pliny and Diodorus Siculus, The four sides of all pyramids large and small, exactly face the These Pyramids, with several smaller ones in a greater or less state of preservation, occupy the plain of Gizeh. More to the south, within a limit of twenty or thirty miles, on the same western bank of the Nile, and at about the same distance from the bed of the river, there are other groupes, as at Saccara, Dashour, and Ramlie. Of these, the first place is connected with Gizeh by a chain of sepulchres and ruined buildings; but there are numerous others, not so connected, in different places, even so far southward as Nubia. The Third Pyramid of Gizeh is that of Mycerinus; it has three smaller pyramids ranged along its south face. The Great Pyramid has six, and three of a larger size, but much decayed on its eastern face. Besides these, an extensive region of tombs, arranged in streets crossing each other, and occupying the same extent of ground as the base of the Pyramid of Cheops, runs along its western side. The Second Pyramid has a line of chambers cut in the rock, and on its eastern side are the ruins of a temple. The third has a similar temple and avenue; and indeed, the eastern face of the Great Pyramid bears traces, though more indistinct, of a similar structure; but the second temple, that of Cephrenes, is distinguished by having the SPHYNX ranged in front of the centre of its eastern face, bearing all the marks of having been connected with it by communications cut through the rock under ground. Between the paws of the Sphynx a perfect temple was discovered, a few years ago, by the intrepid traveller Belzoni, on clearing away the sand by which it had been choked up for ages. The magnificent prospect from the top of this pyramid, has been described by the French traveller Savary, who visited Egypt in 1770, in glowing terms. After Occupying seven hours in ascending to its summit, "the morning light," says he, "discovered to us every moment new beauties: the tops of gilded minarets, and of date trees and citron groves, planted round the villages and hills; anon the herds left the hamlets; the boats spread their light sails, and our eyes followed them along the vast windings of the Nile. On the north appeared sterile hills and barren sands; on the south the river and waving fields, vast as the ocean: to the west the plain of Fayum, famous for its roses: to the east the picturesque town of Gizeh, and the towers of Fostat, the minarets of Cairo, and the castle of Saladdin, terminated the prospect. Seated on the most wonderful of the works of man, as upon a throne, our eyes beheld by turns a dreadful desert; rich plains in which the Elysian fields had been imagined; villages; a majestic river; and edifices which seemed the work of giants. The universe contains no landscape more variegated, more magnificent, or more awful." The ancients knew little of the interior structure of these giant piles. Herodotus, who lived 445 years before Christ, merely speaks of an entrance leading to the interior, by hearsay from the priests, who informed him that there were seeret vaults beneath, hewn out of the natural rock. Strabo, who lived after the Christian æra, only describes a single slanting passage which led to a chamber in which was a stone tomb. Diodorus Siculus, who lived forty-four years before Christ, agrees with this; and Pliny, who lived A.D. 66, adds that there was a well in the Great Pyramid, eighty cubits deep. This is all the ancients have said about the interior. The Egyptian priests, indeed, assured Aristides, a Greek traveller, about two centuries before Christ, that "the excavations beneath were as great as the height above." And Ebn Abd Alhokim, an Arabic writer of the ninth century, says, that the builders" constructed numerous excavated chambers, with gates to them, forty cubits under ground.” Other Arabian writers say that these chambers contain chests of black stone, in which were deposited the sacred archives of King Saurid, who built the pyramid. Many discoveries (perhaps a burial-place under ground) obviously remain to be made. The same Arab historian, Alhokim, gives an account of the opening of this building under the Caliphate, from which time it has remained in the condition seen and described by all modern travellers, to the time of the Italian traveller, Caviglia, who made a discovery of a new chamber and passages, about ten years ago. "After that Almamon the Caliph (A.D. 820) entered Egypt, and saw the Pyramids; he desired to know what was within, and therefore would have them opened. He was told it could not possibly be done. He replied, I will have it |