The Storehouses of the King; Or, the Pyramids of Egypt: What They Are and Who Built Them — John Shaqi
The Storehouses of the King; Or, the Pyramids of Egypt: What They Are and Who Built ThemGelder, Jane (Trill) van
History
The Storehouses of the King; Or, the Pyramids of Egypt: What They Are and Who Built Them
Gelder, Jane (Trill) van
Pyramids
Solomon must have referred to the discovery that he had made regarding
these buildings (the Pyramids) and to the builder of them, when he
said: “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king,
who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign;
whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor” (Eccl. iv.
13, 14).
Joseph built these storehouses near the fields of every city, according
to the size of the city and the number of its inhabitants. In the
north, near the Delta, he built many and large, according to the amount
of corn the fields there yielded. He was occupied seven years in
building them, and during the time thus occupied, he must often have
recalled the fond memories of home, and of his aged father, and his
youngest brother, the son of his deceased mother; and doubtless the
three largest Pyramids of Jeezeh he dedicated to the memory of his
ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So Joseph laid the foundations of each storehouse very deep in the rock
on which it was built, and the materials were strong stones, such as
would resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the
rock, and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure
which was to be erected over it. They were to be so strong in order to
sustain with ease those vast superstructures whose own weight was to be
not less than the weight of the casing stones which he designed to be
used. He erected its entire body, quite up to the roof, of stone. Its
base was square, the sides rising up slantwise, till there was only a
small square aperture left unfinished; these sides were in steps, so
that the labourers could ascend to the aperture.
The interior had chambers for the officers to reckon the quantity of
corn stored, and for the measure a stone coffer or box to measure the
corn with. There were vast chasms and receptacles with passages like
tubes leading to them, all the length from the walls, with their mouths
outside the walls, which Egyptologists call air passages, so that the
men could get to them from the exterior by the steps. The corn was
thrown into these vast spaces from outside, from the apertures in the
sides, and the aperture at the summit. When the whole receptacle was
well filled with the corn, which was as plentiful as the sand of the
sea, then all the apertures were stopped with stones, like stoppers of
bottles, made for the purpose. The side steps were then encased, from
the base to the summit, with large casing stones, so that the sides
became level, and, with the coatings of cement, the entire building
outside became level and smooth, and the top in a peak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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