I can give you no adequate conception of the scene I beheld. First, the valley of the Nile was visible, extending for many leagues to the right and left, and resembling a green belt a few miles wide, through which the river flowed like a silver band--while upon its borders countless cities were set like precious stones. It was a gorgeous and magnificent assemblage of cities, temples, palaces, obelisks, villas, gardens, monuments, avenues of trees and sphinxes, sepulchres, aqueducts, statue-lined causeways, galleys and pleasure barges, chariots, horses, and multitudes of people. Nor should I omit what now became visible in one field of view, to the north and south. I mean not less than one hundred pyramids, all much smaller than the mighty triad, but each, had not the others been up-builded, would have been a marvel of grandeur. "Those are all tombs of kings, but of a later age than this one," said the hierarch, looking towards them. "Each monarch, at the commencement of his reign, laid the foundation of a pyramid. He built first a small one, containing his sarcophagus and sepulchral chamber. Then every year he added to the outside a complete layer of stones, which, after many years, extended its base, and increased its elevation in like proportions. Therefore the size of the pyramids marks the age to which the king lived." "Then," said I, "the kings who built the multitude of lesser pyramids, which we behold in the distance, must have had much shorter lives than the builders of these vast piles." "You are right, O prince," he said. "When the pyramid, on which we now stand, and its companions were builded, men's lives were of the duration of a thousand years." "That was before the traditional deluge?" I replied, with surprise and interest.