The two largest of the pyramids are at about the distance of two hours and a half from Jizé, and are well known to all who have visited Egypt. The dimensions of that which has been opened I found to be as follow: Feet. Inches. Great chamber 34 5 Breadth 17 2 Sarcophagus 7 8 Breadth 3 2 Depth within 2 10½ Thickness 0 6 The galleries and great chamber are situated due North and South, allowing for the variation of the needle. Feet. Inches. The first passage descending 105 1 Small chamber, length 18 9 -------------- breadth 17 1 Antichamber, length 7 5 Main gallery, upper part 150 0 ------------- lower part 148 0 Passage to inferior chamber 109 1 An absurd opinion has recently been stated, that the pyramids are hewn out of the rock on which they stand; but the first ocular inspection would set this aside, the joinings of the stones being everywhere marked with cement. But it is unnecessary to dwell on a conjecture so futile. In the open pyramid, the chamber is lined with granite, and the sarcophagus also formed of that stone. But the materials used in the general fabrication of these edifices is free-stone, of a soft kind and white hue; it is replete with shells. The rock on which they stand is of the same soft stone. Returned to Kahira. On another occasion I visited the pleasant site of the antient Memphis, on the left bank of the Nile, about two hours to the South of Kahira, in a plain above three miles broad, between the river and the mountains. The land is now laid down in corn, with date trees toward the mountains. Nothing remains except heaps of rubbish, in which are found pieces of sculptured stone. The spot has been surrounded with a canal, and seems every way a more eligible situation than that of Kahira[31]. Its extent might be marked by that of the ground where remains are dug up, and which is always overgrown with a kind of thistle that seems to thrive among ruins. It is most conveniently visited from the Coptic convent called _Abu-Nemrûs_. None of the fine marbles that are scattered so profusely at Alexandria are discoverable here; whether it be that they were never used, or carried away to adorn other places. Of the several capitals of Egypt in successive ages, Thebes, or Diospolis, seems the most antient. Next was Memphis, itself a city of the most remote antiquity. Babylon seems to have been only the capital of a part retained by the Persians, after Cambyses had subdued Egypt, and was, by all accounts, founded by the Persians. Alexandria succeeded Memphis, and remained the chief city, till the Saracens founded _Misr-el-Kahira_. CHAP. XIV. JOURNEY TO SINAI.