[Footnote 242: The Mexican Pyramid of Cholula has a base of more than 1420 feet, and is hence about twice the length of the basis of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. See Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_, book iii. chap. i., and book v. chap. iv.] [Footnote 243: Herodotus states that the Egyptians detested the memories of the kings who built the two larger Pyramids, viz., Cheops and Cephren; and hence, he adds, "they commonly call the Pyramids after Philition, a shepherd, who at that time fed his flocks about the place." They thus called the Second, as well as the Great Pyramid, after him (iii. Sec. 128); but, according to Professor Smyth, the Second Pyramid, though architecturally similar to the first, and almost equal in size, has nothing about it of the "superhuman" character of the Great Pyramid.] [Footnote 244: The extracts within inverted commas, here, and in other parts, are from--(1.) Mr. John Taylor's work, entitled _The Great Pyramid--Why was it Built, and Who Built it?_ London, 1859; and (2.) Professor Smyth's work, _Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid_, Edinburgh, 1864; (3.) his later three-volume work, _Life and Work at the Great Pyramid_, Edinburgh, 1867; and (4.) _Recent Measures at the Great Pyramid_, in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for 1865-66.] [Footnote 245: Professor Smyth has omitted to state--what, after all, it was perhaps unnecessary to state--that one set of these measurements, which he has tabulated and published, viz., that given by Dr. Whitman, was taken for him "by a British officer of engineers;" as, when Dr. Whitman visited Gizeh, he did not himself examine the interior of the Great Pyramid.--See Colonel Vyse's work, vol. ii. p. 286.] [Footnote 246: "Its contents," says Mr. Taylor (p. 299), "are equal in cubic inches to the cube of 41,472 inches--the cubit of Karnak--viz., to 71,328 cubic inches." Elsewhere (p. 304) he states--"The Pyramid coffer contains 256 gallons of wheat;"--"It also contains 256 gallons of water, etc."] [Footnote 247: At a later meeting of the Royal Society, on 20th April, Professor Smyth explained that, among the numerous instruments he carried out, he was not provided with calipers fit for this measurement.] [Footnote 248: See plate iii. Fig. 1, in his great folio work on the _Pyramids of Gizeh from Actual Survey and Admeasurement_, Lond. 1839. "The sarcophagus is," he remarks, "of granite, not particularly well polished; at present it is chipped and broken at the edges. There are not any remains of the lid, _which was however_, fitted on in the same manner as those of the other pyramids."]