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The Pyramid Builders.

There is no longer any need to trust to the scanty notices of these early times that occur in writings of later date. Egyptian inscriptions now tell their own story; the monuments begin to speak. In the valley of Wady Maghara, in the peninsula of Sinai, carved upon the rocky precipice, is to be seen King Senefru himself, in the act of striking down an enemy; the accompanying inscription gives the name and titles of the sovereign, and designates him the conqueror of the Mentu, the ‘foreigners of the East.’

In these rocky valleys rich mineral treasures had been discovered, valuable copper ore, besides the blue and green precious stones so much prized in Egypt. These mines were explored and worked by labourers sent from Egypt, and the district gradually passed into possession of its kings.

Fortresses were erected and soldiers stationed there to protect the workmen, and temples were erected that all might be carried on under the protection of the gods. This treasure-yielding district was jealously watched and guarded by the Egyptians, who were thus often brought into collision with neighbouring tribes. Nor is Senefru’s tablet by any means the sole record of battle and of conquest, for his successors left many such memorials there. It is not, however, by these alone, or by these principally, that their name and fame has been preserved to modern days.

THE SPHINX.

The rocky platform at the foot of the Libyan hills is of unequal breadth; at one spot, near Memphis, it widens considerably, and forms a sort of promontory jutting out into the plain. It was here that the pyramids of Ghizeh rose in their stupendous majesty. Not far off a huge block of limestone rock, bearing probably some accidental resemblance to an animal at rest,[11] was transformed by the skill of the royal architect into the colossal image of a mysterious being—a lion with the head of a man wearing the crown and insignia of an Egyptian monarch—symbol of strength, intellect, and royal dignity. He lay in solemn repose, gazing ever towards the east, where arose each morning Horus of the horizon (Hor-em-khu), the bright deity he represented. To the south of the Sphinx (as the Greeks afterwards called the mystic creature), Khufu, successor of Senefru, erected a temple to Isis, ‘Queen of the Pyramids,’ and to the north a temple to Osiris, ‘Lord of the unseen world,’—thus consecrating the whole of that vast city of the dead to the threefold guardianship of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, names so nearly associated in the Egyptian mind with death, the unseen world, and life triumphant and immortal.

Whilst the great image of Horus was being shaped, and the temples of Osiris and Isis were building, Khufu was by no means unmindful of his own sepulchral monument. The colossal pile,—which he named ‘Khut’ (Splendour of Light),—is known to us by the name of the ‘Great Pyramid.’

The building of these royal tombs, the pyramids, was the work of a lifetime. A square was first formed, the corners of which were exactly north, south, east, and west; course upon course was added as the years went by, but it could be finished off at any given moment. The angles were then filled in with granite or limestone, fitted with absolute exactness, and the whole sloping surface was beautifully polished. As King Khufu reigned for fifty-seven years, it is no wonder that his sepulchral monument should have attained such gigantic proportions. To form any idea of what the pyramids must once have been, we must restore these polished casing-stones which are now all but gone, and have probably been used in the building of Cairo. Now, ‘their stripped sides present a rude, disjointed appearance,’ but then, the first and second were of ‘brilliant white or yellow limestone, the third all glowing with the red granite from the First Cataract,’ five hundred miles away. ‘Then you must build up or uncover the massive tombs, now broken or choked up with sand, so as to restore the aspect of vast streets of tombs, out of which the Great Pyramid would arise like a cathedral above smaller churches. Lastly, you must enclose two other pyramids with stone precincts and gigantic doorways; and, above all, you must restore the Sphinx as he was in the days of his glory.’[12]

Narrow passages lead into the heart of the mighty mass of Khufu’s pyramid, which rises on a base of 764 feet to the height of 480 feet. When the traveller has climbed, or crept, to the centre he finds himself in a chamber, the walls of which are composed of polished red granite. Nothing is left there now to tell of the royal builder but his empty sarcophagus, and his name and titles, amongst other scrawls, written by the masons in red ochre on the walls.

Khafra, the successor of Khufu, is made very real to us by the wonderful statue of him which was found uninjured amongst a number of other broken ones of the same monarch, in a deep well near his burial-place. It is of a bright greenish stone, and admirably executed. The king’s features are life-like and benign. A hawk, symbol of Ra, not seen in our illustration, stands behind, and embraces his head with its wings, as if sheltering and protecting the sovereign, who was ‘Son of the Sun.’

Khafra’s pyramid, called by him Ur, or the Great, is second in size only to that of Khufu. On the upper part of it the original casing-stone still remains.

The third of the pyramids of Ghizeh, that of Menkaura, though only about half the size of the other two, exceeded them both in costliness and splendour; it was cased from top to bottom in brilliant red granite, exquisitely finished.

These ancient pyramids have long ago been rifled for the sake of anything they contained of value, but in the red pyramid a sarcophagus was discovered made of black basalt, beautifully wrought. It was shipped for England, but lost off Gibraltar. Only the wooden case reached London, and was deposited in the British Museum, together with the bones that had been gathered out of poor Menkaura’s resting-place, and which doubtless formed part of his skeleton.[13]

The Pyramids of Khufu and Khafra.

Of the monarchs of the succeeding dynasties there is little to be said. The names of many of them are found recorded in the valleys of Sinai as ‘conquerors of the Mentu,’ and they were each and all pyramid builders. The names of their pyramids are known, but only a few of them have been identified.

Recent investigation of the pyramids of Sakkara has brought to light the sepulchres of the last king of the fifth dynasty—Unas—and of Pepi and Merienra of the sixth dynasty, together with their shrivelled remains. From the corpse of the last-named king not only the ornaments, but the coverings and bandages, had been torn away.

Some rays of light are thrown upon the times of Pepi and Merienra by an inscription that was found at Abydos, in the tomb of one Una, who was Governor of the South. In the reign of Teta, first king of the sixth dynasty, Una, then a young man, had been already intrusted with important offices. He was crown-bearer, superintendent of the storehouse, and registrar of the docks. Under Pepi he rose to yet higher dignity and influence. ‘His Majesty gave me the rank of “King’s friend;” I was royal scribe and chief over the treasury, and priest of the royal pyramid. No secret was withheld from me; he allowed me to hear all that was said. By his orders I brought a white stone sarcophagus from the land of Ruau. It was embarked safely and brought, together with the doors, cover, and pedestal, in a great boat belonging to the palace.

‘But now His Majesty was summoned to drive back the Amu and the Herusha,[14] who were threatening the land. He levied soldiers from beyond the southern frontier, and recruited negroes from very many places. He placed me at the head of these troops. I summoned captains and rulers from every part that they might train and drill the negro forces. I was the representative of the king; everything fell upon me alone, for there was no man above me but Pharaoh himself. To the utmost of my power I laboured; I wore out my sandals in going hither and thither. Never was any army better officered or disciplined. It marched without let or hindrance until it arrived at the land of the Herusha. It laid waste the country, burning the villages, and cutting down vine and fig-trees; many thousands of the foe were taken prisoners.

‘Five times was I sent to subdue revolts among the Herusha until the land was completely conquered. King Merienra made me Governor of the South, and bestowed high dignity upon me in his household.

‘I was charged to bring the sarcophagus and statue for the pyramid of Merienra, and I transported them in boats. I also quarried a great slab of alabaster for the king in seventeen days. I constructed a boat of 100 feet in length, and 50 in breadth. But there was not water enough to tow it in safety. Therefore I excavated four docks in the land of the south, and next year at the time of the inundation I disembarked in safety both the alabaster slab and all the granite required for the pyramid Kha-nefer[15] of Merienra. Then for those docks I erected a building in which the spirits of the king might be invoked, even of the king Merienra, by whose command all had been done that was done.

‘The beloved of his father, the praised of his mother, the delight of his brethren, the chief, the Governor of the South, the truly devoted to Osiris—Una.’