The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Flinders Petrie

      CHAPTER I.

      OBJECTS AND MEANS.

      4. THE small piece of desert plateau opposite the village of Gizeh, though less than a mile across, may well claim to be the most remarkable piece of ground in the world. There may be seen the very beginning of architecture, the most enormous piles of building ever raised, the most accurate constructions known, the finest masonry, and the employment of the most ingenious tools; whilst among all the sculpture that we know, the largest figure—the Sphinx—and also the finest example of technical skill with artistic expression—the Statue of Khafra—both belong to Gizeh. We shall look in vain for a more wonderful assemblage than the vast masses of the Pyramids, the ruddy walls and pillars of the granite temple, the titanic head of the Sphinx, the hundreds of tombs, and the shattered outlines of causeways, pavements, and walls, that cover this earliest field of man’s labours.

      But these remains have an additional, though passing, interest in the present day, owing to the many attempts that have been made to theorise on the motives of their origin and construction. The Great Pyramid has lent its name as a sort of by-word for paradoxes; and, as moths to a candle, so are theorisers attracted to it. The very fact that the subject was so generally familiar, and yet so little was accurately known about it, made it the more enticing; there were plenty of descriptions from which to choose, and yet most of them were so hazy that their support could be claimed for many varying theories.

      Here, then, was a field which called for the resources of the present time for its due investigation; a field in which measurement and research were greatly needed, and have now been largely rewarded by the disclosures of the skill of the ancients, and the mistakes of the moderns. The labours of the French Expedition, of Colonel Howard Vyse, of the Prussian Expedition, and of Professor Smyth, in this field are so well known that it is unnecessary to refer to them, except to explain how it happens that any further work was still needed. Though the French were active explorers, they were far from realising the accuracy of ancient work; and they had no idea of testing the errors of the ancients by outdoing them in precision. Hence they rather explored than investigated. Col. Vyse’s work, carried on by Mr, Perring, was of the same nature, and no accurate measurement or triangulation was attempted by these energetic blasters and borers; their discoveries were most valuable, but their researches were always of a rough-and-ready character. The Prussian Expedition sought with ardour for inscriptions, but did not advance our knowledge of technical skill, work, or accuracy, though we owe to it the best topographical map of Gizeh. When Professor Smyth went to Gizeh he introduced different and scientific methods of inquiry in his extensive measurements, afterwards receiving the gold medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in recognition of his labours. But he did not attempt the heaviest work of accurate triangulation. Mr. Waynman Dixon, CE., followed in his steps, in taking further measurements of the inside of the Great Pyramid. Mr. Gill—now Astronomer Royal at the Cape—when engaged in Egypt in the Transit Expedition of 1874, made the next step, by beginning a survey of the Great Pyramid base, in true geodetic style. This far surpassed all previous work in its accuracy, and was a noble result of the three days’ labour that he and Professor Watson were able to spare for it When I was engaged in reducing this triangulation for Mr. Gill in 1879, he impressed on me the need of completing it if I could, by continuing it round the whole pyramid, as two of the corners were only just reached by it without any check.

      When, after preparations extending over some years, I settled at Gizeh during 1880-2, I took with me, therefore, instruments of the fullest accuracy needed for the work; probably as fine as any private instruments of the kind. The triangulation was with these performed quite independently of previous work; it was of a larger extent, including the whole hill; and it comprised an abundance of checks. The necessary excavations were carried out to discover the fiducial points of the buildings, unseen for thousands of years. The measurements previously taken were nearly all checked, by repeating them with greater accuracy, and, in most cases, more frequency; and fresh and more refined methods of measurement were adopted. The tombs around the pyramids were all measured, where they had any regularity and were accessible. The methods of workmanship were investigated, and materials were found illustrating the tools employed and the modes of using them.

5. For a detailed statement of what was urgently wanted on these subjects, I cannot do better than quote from a paper by Professor Smyth,* entitled, “Of the Practical Work still necessary for the Recovery of the Great Pyramid’s ancient, from its modern, dimensions”; and add marginal notes of what has now been accomplished.

      “As my measures referred chiefly to the interior of the structure, and as there the original surfaces have not been much broken, the virtual restoration of that part has been by no means unsuccessful; and requires merely in certain places—places which can only be recognised from time to time as the theory of the building shall advance—still more minutely exact measures than any which I was able to make, but which will be comparatively easy to a scientific man going there in future with that one special object formally in view.”

      Notes of work, 1880-2.

      The Whole interior now re-examioed and much remeasured, more accurately.

      “The exterior, however, of the Great building, is exceedingly dilapidated, and I have few or no measures of my own to set forth for its elucidation. That subject is, therefore, still “to let”; and as it is too vast for any private individual to undertake at his own cost, I may as well explain here the state of the case, so that either Societies or Governments may see the propriety of their taking up the grand architectural and historical problem, and prosecuting it earnestly until a successful solution of all its parts shall have been arrived at.”

      Total cost of present work £300.

      “Size and Shape, then, of the ancient exterior of the Great Pyramid, are the first desiderata to be determined.”

      (A statement of the various measurements of the base here follows.)

      “As preparatory, then, to an efficient remeasurement of the length of the Base-sides of the Great Pyramid, itself an essential preliminary to almost all other Pyramidological researches, I beg to submit the following local particulars.”

      “(1.) The outer corners of four shallow sockets, cut in the levelled surface of the earth-fast rock outside the present dilapidated corners of the built Great Pyramid, are supposed to be the points to be measured between horizontally in order to obtain the original length of each external, finished, ‘casing-stone’ base-side.”

      Sockets are not corners of base-side.

      “(2.) Previous to any such measurement being commenced, the present outer corners of those sockets must be reduced to their ancient corners, as the sockets have suffered, it is feared, much