The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Flinders Petrie
covered over, on leaving them, by the parties who at that time opened them.”
Sockets are apparently quite uninjured.
“(3.) The said sockets must be proved to have been the sockets originally holding the corner stones of the casing; or showing how far they overlapped, and therefore and thereby not defining the ancient base of the Great Pyramid to the amount so overlapped. . . . . the ground should be cleared far and wide about each corner to see if there are any other sockets in the neighbourhood.”
By form of core, and by casing lines lying within the sockets, noothers are possible.
Notes of work 1880-2.
“(4.) Whether any more rival sockets claiming to be the true corner sockets of the ancient base are, or are not, then and in that manner, found,—the usually known or selected ones should further be tested, by being compared with any other remaining indications of where the line of each base-side stood in former days. Some particular and most positive indications of this kind we know were found by Col. Howard Vyse in the middle of the Northern side; and there is no reason why as good markings should not be discovered, if properly looked for, along the other three sides; and they are so vitally important to a due understanding of the case, that their ascertainment should precede any expense being incurred on the measurement of lengths from socket to socket.”
Casing now found on all sides, and completely fixed.
“(5.) Col. H. Vyse found those invaluable markings of the line of the North base-side, or part of the very base-side itself, by accomplishing the heavy work of digging down by a cross cut, through the middle of the heap of rubbish, near 50 feet high, on that side. But he has published no records of how those markings, or that actual portion of the base-side, agree, either in level or in azimuth with the sockets. Indeed, he left the ground in such a state of hillock and hole, that no measures can, or ever will, be taken with creditable accuracy until a longitudinal cut through the rubbish heap shall be driven from East to West and all along between the two N.E. and N.W. sockets.”
Measures having been taken by triangulation, no extensive cuttings were needed.
“(6.) The making of such a long and laborious cut, and then the ‘lining’ and ‘levelling’ of the bases of the Colonel’s casing stones in situ (or their remains, for they are said to have been mischievously broken up since then), and their comparison with the sockets or their joining lines by appropriate and powerful surveying instruments, should be the first operation of the new measurers, to whom, it is fervently to be hoped, an intelligent Government will grant the due means for effecting it satisfactorily.”
Casing-stones are not broken up, and the cutting is not necessary.
“(7.) A similar longitudinal cut, and similar comparisons are to be made in the other base-side hills of rubbish, together with a wider clearing away of the rubbish outside, in order to determine the form and proportion of the ‘pavement’ which is believed to have anciently surrounded the Pyramid; but of which the only positive information which we have, is based on the little bit of it which Col. H. Vyse cut down to near the middle of the North side.”
Sides now found by pits, and fixed by triangulation. Pavement traced on each side.
“This work might cost from £12,000 to £14,000; for the material to be cut through is not only extensive but so hard and concreted that it turns and bends the hoes or picks employed in Nile cultivation, and which are the only tools the Arabs know of. But besides the theoretical value of such an operation for distinguishing and identifying the base to be measured, it would certainly yield practically abundant fragments of casing stones, and perhaps settle the oft-mooted questions of ancient inscriptions on the outer surface of the Pyramid.”
Cuts, if wanted, might be made for a lenth of this sum.
Inscribed casing found, Greek.
“(8.) When the four sides of the base, and the corresponding sides of the pavement are exposed to view,—a new fixation of the exact original places of the precise outer corners of the now dilapidated and rather expanded corner sockets may be required; and then, from and between such newly fixed points, there must be
Notes of work, 1880-2.
Done.
A. Linear measures of distance taken with first-rate accuracy.
Done.
B. Levellings.
Done.
C. Horizontal angles, to test the squareness of the base.
Donc.
D. Astronomical measures to test the orientation of each of the base sides.
Doue.
E. Angular and linear measures combined to obtain both the vertical slope of the ancient Pyramid flanks, and the distance of certain of the present joints of the entrance passage from the ancient external surface of the Pyramid in the direction of that passage produced—a matter which is at present very doubtful, but a new and good determination of which is essential to utilize fully the numerous internal observations contained in this and other books.”
Done.
“(9.) When all the above works shall have been carefully accomplished, the men who have performed them will doubtless have become the most competent advisers as to what should be undertaken next; whether in search of the fourth chamber, concerning whose existence there is a growing feeling amongst those who have studied certain laws of area and cubic contents which prevail among the presently known chambers and passages; or for the more exact measurement of certain portions of the building which shall then be recognised by the theory as of fiducial character and importance.”
Much of the interior now remeasured, with higher exactitude.
“(10.) Should the next remeasurement unfortunately not be under sufficiently favourable auspices or powerful patronage enough to attempt all that has been sketched out above—I would suggest to those employed upon it the importance of endeavouring to operate in that manner on at least the north side of the Great Pyramid alone, where much of the work has been already performed, and where traces of the old base-side are known to exist, or did certainly exist 34 years ago.”
All results obtained with-out patronage.
“(11.) The levels as well as temperatures of water in the wells of the plain close to the Pyramid, and in the Nile in the distance, should also be measured through a full twelvemonth interval. A meteorological journal should likewise be kept for the same period at the base of the Pyramid, and the corrections ascertained to reduce it either to the summit or King’s chamber levels above, or to the plain level below; while no efforts should be spared to re-open the ventilating channels of the King’s chamber and to prevent the Arabs from filling them up again.”
Channels filled by wind, not by Arabs.
“(12.) An examination should be made of the apparent Pyramid in the desert almost west of the Great Pyramid; likewise of the northern coasts of Egypt, where they are cut by the Great Pyramid’s several meridian and diagonal lines produced; also of the fourth dynasty remains in the Sinaitic Peninsula; and of any monuments whatever, whether in Egypt or the neighbouring countries for which any older date than that of the Great Pyramid can reasonably be assigned; including also a fuller account than any yet published of King Shafre’s Tomb and its bearings with, or upon, the origin, education, labours and life of the first of the Pyramid builders.”
Done.
Notes of work, 1880-2.
N. W. diagonal done.
Done partly.
Done.
6. To carry out, therefore, the work sketched in the above outline, and to investigate several collateral points, I settled at Gizeh in December, 1880, and lived there till the end of May, 1881; I returned thither in the middle of October that year, and (excepting two months up the Nile, and a fortnight elsewhere), lived on there till the end of April, 1882;