[227] The causeway which led to the Pyramid of Cheops still exists for some 400 yards of its length; here and there it rises as much as eighty-six feet above the surface of the plateau. A similar causeway is to be distinguished on the eastern side of the Third Pyramid. At Abou-Roash, at Abousir, and elsewhere, similar remains are to be found. [Illustration: FIG. 156.--Plan of the Pyramids of Gizeh and of that part of the necropolis which immediately surrounds them.] [Illustration: FIG. 157.--The Sphinx.] The soil around each pyramid was carefully levelled and paved with dressed limestone slabs. Upon this pavement rested the foundations of the stylobate surrounding the pyramid. Both stylobate and pavement are now in almost every case concealed by sand and _débris_, but at the pyramid of Chephren, which is less banked up than the others, traces of them have been proved to exist. They added somewhat to the imposing effect of those monuments upon the eye, and gave additional definition to their bases.[228] The area thus paved was inclosed with a wall, which had an opening towards the east, in front of which the temple, or funerary chapel of the pyramid, was raised. The latter, no doubt, was magnificently decorated. At the foot of the mountains of stone under which reposed the ashes of the Pharaohs themselves, smaller pyramids were raised for their wives and children. Of these some half dozen still exist upon the plateau of Gizeh. One of them has been recognized as the tomb of that daughter of Cheops, about whom Herodotus tells one of those absurd stories invented by the Egyptians of the decadence, with which his dragomans took such delight in imposing upon his simple faith.[229] Around the space which was thus consecrated to the adoration of the dead monarch, the long rows of mastabas stretched away for miles through the vast necropolis. [228] _Description de l'Égypte_, vol. v. p. 643. See also in the plates, _Antiquités_, vol. v. Pl. xvi. Fig. 2. According to Jomard, the surbase of the second pyramid was in two parts--a stylobate, 10 feet high and 5 feet thick, and a plinth about 3 feet high. [229] HERODOTUS, ii. 126. [Illustration: FIG. 158.--Pyramid with its inclosure, Abousir; from Perring.]