A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages, Volume 2 · Observations 2 · Section 3
A Deſcription of the ſecond Pyramid.
FROM this Pyramid we went to the ſecond, being ſcarce diſtant the flight of an Arrow from it; where by the way I obſerved, on the Weſt ſide of the firſt, the Ruines of a pile of Building, all of ſquare and poliſhed Stone; ſuch as Pliny calls Baſaltes, and deſcribes to be ferrei coloris, & duritiae, of an Iron colour and hardneſs. Formerly it may be ſome Habitation of the Prieſts, or ſome Monument of the Dead. To the right hand of this, tending to the South, ſtands this ſecond Pyramid, of which beſides the Miracle, the Ancient and modern Writers, have delivered little. Herodotus relates, that Cephren, in imitation of his Brother Cheops, built this, but that he fell ſhort in reſpect of the magnitude: For (ſaith he) we have meaſured them. It were to be wiſhed, for fuller ſatisfaction of the Reader, he had expreſſed the quantity, and alſo the manner how he took his meaſure. He adds, It hath no ſubterraneous Structures, neither is the Nilus by a Channel derived into it, as in the former. Diodorus ſomewhat more particularly deſcribes it thus: That for the Architecture, it is like unto the former, but much inferiour to it in reſpect of magnitude: Each ſide of the Baſis contains a ſtadium in length. That is, to comment on his words, of Graecian feet ſix hundred, of Roman ſix hundred twenty five. So that by this computation, each ſide ſhould want an hundred Graecian feet of the former Pyramid. Pliny makes the difference to be greater, for aſſigning eight hundred eighty three feet to the former, he allows to the ſide of the Baſis of this, but ſeven hundred thirty ſeven. By my obſervation, the Stones are of colour white, nothing ſo great, and vaſt, as thoſe of the firſt and faireſt Pyramid; the ſides riſe not with degrees like that, but are ſmooth and equal, the whole Fabrick (except where it is oppoſed to the South) ſeeming very entire, free from any deformed Ruptures or Breaches. The height of it, taken by as deliberate a conjecture as I could make, (which it was eaſie to do, by reaſon of the nearneſs of this and the former, being both upon the ſame Plain) is not inferiour to it; and therefore Strabo hath rightly judged them to be equal. The ſides alſo of the Baſis of both are alike, as, beſides the authority of Strabo, the Venetian Doctor aſſured me, who meaſured it with a line. There is no Entry leading into it, and therefore what may be within, whither ſuch ſpaces and compartiments, as I obſerv'd in the former, or whether different, or none, I muſt leave to every mans private conjecture, and to the diſcovery of after-times.
This is bounded on the North and Weſt ſides, with two very ſtately and elaborate pieces, which I do not ſo much admire, as that by all Writers they have been pretermitted. About thirty feet in depth, and more than a thouſand and four hundred in length, out of the hard Rock theſe Buildings have been cut in a perpendicular, and ſquared by the Cheſſel, as I ſuppoſe, for Lodgings of the Prieſts. They run along at a convenient diſtance, parallel to the two ſides we mentioned of this Pyramid, meeting in a right angle, and making a very fair and graceful Proſpect. The entrance into them is by ſquare openings, hewn out of the Rock, much of the ſame bigneſs with thoſe I deſcribed in the firſt Pyramid. Whether theſe were ſymbolical (as the Theology of the Aegyptians conſiſted much in myſterious figures) and the depreſſure and lowns of theſe were to teach the Prieſts humility, and the ſquareneſs and evenneſs of them an uniform and regular deportment in their actions, I leave to ſuch as have written of their Hieroglyphicks to determine. The hollow ſpace within of them all, is ſomewhat like to a ſquare and well-proportion'd Chamber, covered and arched above with the natural Rock: In moſt of which, (as I remember) there was a paſſage opening into ſome other compartiment, which the rubbage and darkneſs hindered me from viewing. On the North ſide without I obſerved a line, and only one, engraven with ſacred and Aegyptian Characters, ſuch as are mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus, to have been uſed by the Prieſts, and were different from the vulgar characters in civil Affairs: In which former kind Juſtin Martyr makes Moſes to have been skilful, as the Scripture makes him to have been learned in all the wiſdom of the Aegyptians. Theſe ran not downwards, as the Chineſe in our times write, but were continued in a ſtreight line, as we uſe to write: And are to be read (if any underſtand thoſe myſterious Sculptures) by proceeding from the right hand to the left, and as it were imitating the motion and courſe of the Planets: For ſo Herodotus expreſly informs us, That the Graecians write and caſt account, going from the left hand to the right, the Aegyptians from the right hand to the left. And this is that which in an obſcure expreſſion is alſo intimated by Pomponius Mela: Aegyptii] ſuis literis perverſe utuntur. A manner practiſed by the Hebrews, Chaldaeans, and Syrians, to this day, and not unlikely to have been borrowed by them from the Aegyptians, to whom the Chaldaeans alſo owed their firſt Skill in Aſtrology, as the Graecians did their knowledge in Geometry, the former being atteſted by Diodorus, and the latter confeſſed by Proclus, and other Graecians. And ſurely in imitation of theſe, or of the Jews, the Arabians neighbouring upon both, have taken up this manner of writing, and continued it to our times, communicating it alſo by their Conqueſts, to the Perſians and Turks.