THE GREAT PYRAMID

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 13

THE GREAT PYRAMID

AN OPENING MADE

No. 5.

(Contributed.)

It was not until the time of the medieval Caliph Al Mamounj. son-of Hafoun al Kascbid, somewhere about fifty years before Alfred the Great: occupied the throne of England, that an entrance was forced through into the Pyramid of Gizeh." This caliph, flattered and almost' worshipped; as .a god, had^ an" idea? that the pyramid was full of precious treasure. He imagined it contained all the riches, 'jewels, charms, medicines, •andsciences of- Sheddah Ben- Ad, a Mohammedan,, a great antediluvian. kingV . Ifc was not an easy matter to persuade tho hordes bf his subsequies followers to.undertake the task. They must have felt an uncanny feeling, ..incr.eascd.,b.y.6up.er- istitition, in breaking intq- a- vast-mass" of polished whiteness without a singly variation from its exact straight lines and. perfectly, levels '.'unbroken" surfaces." "As Strabo, a Greek traveller,'l9oo years ago said, "It looked actually like a buildinglet down from Heaven without 1 the aid of human",labour.". The outside presented actes.: of : smooth, ; polished^ \vrhiteli«ss. There'was an entrance/but where? so skilfully concealed with, such" an accurately fitting pivot working vstone;of. the same polished whiteness that it'was impassible to detect it. This carefully disguised entrance . was afterwards - discovered to be actually seventy-five feet high in the sloping side of■ thVpyramid. Tradition assumed that, the entrance was on the north side, so Al Mamoun set h:s workers to search, for it there.after overcoming their .fears by stories of fabulous treasures to be found.- •••It-vras no easy" task' to cut through that solid masonry., 'They. naturally;;.'th"ought.i.tha centre would be the place, but .the builders had.for an astronomical';reison placed the entrance twenty-four" feet to the east of the- centre! 'For one. h'undrebl feet the .workers toiled, and'still'allVwaa solid, and was pronounced by the' baffled labourers- as impossible of achievement. But one day; the spund of a falling stone.was heard, which incited them., to renewed vigour to dig and bore, until at last they broke, through into '.the-fqrk; of' two passages. The stone which ■'■ they had heard falling was one which.* hung in;.the top of Jlie entrance"passage" overhead, concealing the ascending passage", which was found to -"be closed with ■» heavy stone portcullis that fitted tight, like a corkj from above.. They found, tho passage filled, with great'stonesj and:as they removed one another- slipped 'irifco its place.' But 3t last the passage was free from' obstructions.. Imagine the workers' feelings; their thoughts, as they prepared- to ascend a- passage into-, the. unknown, an avenue untrodden by-tte foot.of man f0r,3000 years. What were they to .be told? , We, read that the bearded crew rushed up shouting the name of .Allah, for- they, believed -the promised ■ treasure was within their grasp. ■ The way was. no*,;easy;;itC was steep and slippery; only forty-seven, i" „« g ' forty-°ne inches wide, and for 110 feet they were obliged to move crouched, hands, .knees, and chin close together. Then t^ey entered the-grand gallery, still narrow and ascending but seven times' higher than'the.first parfc of the aßcendmg passage. -They reached a great granite, step, three feet high, and had to crawl. through. another-low-entrance into the ante-chamber." Here they could stand' upright; ' and ' found themselves beneath, a, low doorway bounded on all sides with blocks of frowning red granite. Through this they pushed their way into what is now called the King's. Chamber,; the first men: to enter it since the builders left. The King's Chamber was a noble one, clean and garnished, floor and ceiling, of polished red granite. But there was nc gold, no treasure, nothing but Wank and solemn emptiness, only a eolid aton* chest polished inside and out,' Boriorou* as a bell, without a lid, empty. What a disappointment after their davg' 3