The Great Pyramid of Giza

History and Speculation

James Bonwick

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486169927
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

Classic exploration of the Great Pyramid's construction and objectives combines imagination, erudition. Physical form; when it was built, and by whom; roles as an astronomical observatory, source of inspiration for religious teachings, scientific and mystic implications. Unabridged republication of the classic 1877 edition.

WHY WAS THE PYRAMID BUILT?

SIR Walter Scott, commonly supposed a man of taste and cultured imagination, spoke of the pyramid as “disagreeable in form, and senseless in utility.” A certain writer once remarked of these monuments, “They are nothing at all but heaps of stones.” A prosaic Yankee thus recorded his sentiments: “A pyramid is nothing but dollars.—We have got the pyramids in our pockets, and can set them up any day we please.”

On the other hand, we have Mr. Gliddon saying, “What monuments on earth have given rise to more fables, speculations, errors, and misconceptions?” This, at any rate, proves the interest they have excited in the minds of men. It is only in our own day that literature and science, not less than poetry and religion, have been directed thither with perfect enthusiasm. To no one man are we so much indebted for the popular feeling in favour of the Great Pyramid, as to Prof. Piazzi Smyth. By making it truly holy ground, by demonstrating, to the satisfaction of many, the divine authorship of the institution, he has surrounded it with a halo it never wore before.

The views entertained as to the object of the erection will now be mentioned.

1. BARRIERS AGAINST THE DESERT SANDS.

This opinion was expressed by M. Fialin de Persigny in 1845, who spoke of “the destination and permanent utility of the pyramids of Egypt and Nubia against the sandy irruptions of the desert.”

2. SATAN’S SEAT.

Sir Thomas Browne, who flourished in the Elizabethan age, declares that “these dark caves and mummy repositories are Satan’s abodes.”

3. IMITATION OF NOAH’S ARK OR TOWER OF BABEL.

Mr. Thomas Yeates, in 1833, wrote, “The Great Pyramid soon followed the Tower of Babel, and had the same common origin.” Again, “Whether it was not a copy of the original Tower of Babel? And, moreover, whether the dimensions of these structures were not originally taken from the Ark of Noah?” Elsewhere he has it: “The measures of the Great Pyramid at the base do so approximate to the measures of the Ark of Noah in ancient cubit measure, that I cannot scruple, however novel the idea, to draw a comparison. The form of the Ark was quadrangular, and consisted of equal sides or parallelograms, of which the measures of one is given in three numbers, 300, 50, and 30 cubits.” He assures us that it was made for floating only; and that its four sides were each of three stories to accommodate the large number of persons required to look after so many animals for a whole year.

4. FILTERING RESERVOIRS.

A Swedish philosopher gave it as his opinion that pyramids were simply contrivances for purifying the water of the muddy Nile, which would pass through their passages.

5. TO PLEASE THE WOMEN.

Mr. Gable informs his readers that, as pyramids have no access, “it appears not that the founders of them had any such laudable design of transmitting to posterity scientific specimens,” as some had supposed; “hence they appear to have been erected for no geometrical purpose.” Having, however, ascertained (how, he says not) that they were raised by those, “who, after their intermarriages with the daughters of men, became, not only degenerate despisers of useful knowledge, but altogether abandoned to luxury,”—it is not surprising that he should have found out that it was to please these women, who requested the sons of God to employ their leisure after that fashion.

6. THE QUEEN OF SHEBA’S GIFTS.

Orientals may be excused telling romantic tales of this romantic lady traveller; but Mr. Wathen, in 1842, said that “the offerings of the Queen of Sheba are now beheld in the indestructible masses of the pyramids.”

7. JOSEPH’S GRANARIES.

Benjamin of Toledo, the travelled Jew of the Middle Ages, advanced this opinion, which he had gathered in the East. Vossius heard somehow that the Pharaoh had “magazined” a great quantity of wheat there. The Monk Fidelis says the same. An American writer, in 1876, must have astonished and shocked some folks, by his bold assertion, learnt somewhere or somehow, that “according to the hypothesis of Prof. Piazza Smyth, the object of the Great Pyramid was to convert it into a granary in time of famine” (!).

Maundeville, about 1330, got the complete story. “The Gernares of Joseph,” says he, “that he lete make, for to kepe the greynes for the peril of the dere zeres. Thei ben (are) made of ston, full welle made of masonnes craft, of the whiche two ben merveyllouse grete and hye, and to these ne ben not so gret ; and every Gerner hath a zate (gate) for to entre withinne, a lytille highe fro the Erthe, for the lond is wasted and fallen sithe the Gerners were made. And withinne thei ben alle fulle of serpentes. And aboven the Gerners withouten ben many Scriptures of dyverse languages. And sum men seyn (say) that thei ben sepultures of grete lordes that weren sometyme ; but that is not ; for alle the comoun rymour and speche is of alle the peple there, both fer and nere, that thei ben the Gerners of Joseph. And so fynden thei in here Scriptures and in here cronycles. On that other partie, zif thei weren sepultures thei sholden not ben voyd withinne. For yee may well knowe that tombes and sepultures ne ben not made of such gretnesse, ne of such highnesse.”

8. DISPLAY OF ROYAL DESPOTISM.

Aristotle, while admitting this motive, considered the priests had persuaded the king to undertake the work, in order to find employment for the idle. Pliny deemed it proper for a great conqueror to keep his captives busy. Greaves, the Oxford Professor, 250 years ago, goes into the question. “But why,” he says, “the Egyptian kings should have been at so vast an expense in the building of these pyramids is an enquiry of a higher nature. Aristotle makes them to have been the workes of tyranny; and Pliny conjectures that they built them partly out of ostentation, and partly out of state policy, by keeping the people in employment, to divert them from mutinies and rebellions.” Sandys thought it was “for feare lest such infinite wealth should corrupt their successors, and dangerous idlenesse beget in the subject a desire for innovation.” He gives a rude translation from Lucian :—

“When high pyramides do grace
The ghosts of Ptolomies lewd race.”

Mariette Bey is indignant at this supposition, exclaiming, “They are not monuments of the vain ostentation of kings.” Hekekyan Bey shrewdly remarks: “It is well known that a tyrant scarcely ever completes a work left unfinished by his predecessor. It is evident that these pyramids were national under- takings ; their plan and execution were decided after mature deliberation; laws were passed, and revenues provided, to carry out the public decision by the executive authorities.” M. Dufeu adds his affirmation, that, “far from being the works of the pride and despotism of Pharaohic kings, they are, on the contrary, testimonies of their exalted wisdom, and of the profound knowledge of their colleges of priests.”

The Rev. E. B. Zincke has a practical suggestion. “In those days,” says he, “labour could not be bottled up.” Egypt was so fertile, and men’s wants were then so few, that surplus labour was available, and much food, from taxes in kind, accumulated in royal hands. Although the pyramid was of no earthly use, “still,” thought he, “it was of as much benefit to the man who built it as leaving the surplus labour and food he had at his disposal, and the valuables he had in his treasury unused would be.”

9. PRESERVATION OF LEARNING FROM THE EXPECTED DELUGE.

It having been revealed by the antediluvian astrologers that a great flood was coming, the pyramid was built to preserve the memory of then-existing learning. We are indebted to Arabian authors for this interesting tradition, which has several variations. Firouzabadi was not very clear upon the subject. He speaks of the erection “by Edris, to preserve there the sciences, and prevent their destruction by the Deluge ; or by Sinan ben-almo-schalshal, or by the first men, when informed by observation of the stars of the coming Deluge; or to preserve medicines, magic, and talismans.”

Murtadi is another authority. He wrote in 992, at Tihe in Arabia, or in the year of our Lord 1584, says one. The work was translated in 1672. This is the story :—

“There was a king named Saurid, the son of Sahaloc, 300 years before the Deluge, who dreamed one night that he saw the earth overturned with its inhabitants, the men cast down on their faces, the stars falling out of the heavens, and striking one against the other, and making horrid and dreadful cries as they fell. He thereupon awoke much troubled, and related not his dream to anybody, and was satisfied in himself that some great accident would happen in the world. A year after he dreamed again that he saw the fixed stars come down to the earth in the form of white birds, which carried men away, and cast them between two great mountains, which almost joined together and covered them; and then the bright, shining stars became dark and were eclipsed. He thereupon awaked, and extremely astonished, and entered into the Temple of the Sun, and beset himself to bathe his cheeks and to weep. Next morning he ordered all the princes of the priests, and magicians of all the provinces of Egypt, to meet together; which they did to the number of 130 priests and soothsayers, with whom he went and related to them his dream, which they found very important and of great consequence, and the interpretation they gave of it was that some very great accident would happen in the world.

“Among others, the priest Aclimon, who was the greatest of all, and resided chiefly in the king’s Court, said thus to him :— ‘Sir, your dream is admirable, and I myself saw another about a year since which frightened me very much, and which I have not revealed to any one.’ ‘Tell me what it was,’ said the king. ‘I dreamt,’ said the priest, ‘that I was with your Majesty on the top of the mountain of fire, which is in the midst of Emsos, and that I saw the heaven sink down below its ordinary situation, so that it was near the crown of our heads, covering and surrounding us, like a great basin turned upside down; that the stars were intermingled among men in diverse figures; that the people implored your Majesty’s succour, and ran to you in multitudes as their refuge; that you lifted up your hands above your head, and endeavoured to thrust back the heaven, and keep it from coming down so low; and that I, seeing what your Majesty did, did also the same. While we were in that posture, extremely affrighted, methought we saw a certain part of heaven opening, and a bright light coming out of it; that afterwards the sun rose out of the same place, and we began to implore his assistance; whereupon he said thus to us : “The heaven will return to its ordinary situation when I shall have performed three hundred courses.” I thereupon awaked extremely affrighted.’

“The priest having thus spoken, the king commanded them to take the height of the stars, and to consider what accident they portended. Whereupon they declared that they promised first the Deluge, and after that fire. Then he commanded pyramids should be built, that they might remove and secure in them what was of most esteem in their treasuries, with the bodies of the kings, and their wealth, and the aromatic roots which served them, and that they should write their wisdom upon them, that the violence of the water might not destroy it.”

This is a version of the story of Shem engraving the learning of the old world upon two pillars—Jachin and Boaz, Pillars of Hercules.

Ibn Abd Alhokm is the chronicler of a tradition, also, of a like import with that retailed by Murtadi. The translation is an old one. The Arabian historian thus discourses :—

“The greatest part of chronologers agree that he which built the pyramids was Saurid Ibn Salhouk, King of Egypt, who lived 300 years before the Flood. The occasion of this was because he saw in his sleep that the whole earth was turned over, with the inhabitants of it, the men lying upon their faces, and the stars falling down and striking one another with a terrible noise; and being troubled with this, he concealed it. Then, after this, he saw the fixed stars falling to the earth, in the similitude of white fowl, and they snatched up men and carried them between two great mountains, and these mountains closed upon them, and the shining stars were made dark. And he awoke with great fear, and assembled the chief priests of all the provinces of Egypt, 130 priests, the chief of them being Almamon. He related the whole matter to them, and they took the altitude of the stars, and made their prognostications, and they foretold a deluge. The king said, ‘Will it come to our country?’ They answered, ‘Yes, and will destroy it.’ And there remained a certain number of years to come, and he commanded in the mean space to build the pyramids, and that a vault (or cistern) should be made, into which the river Nile should enter, whence it should run into the countries of the west, and into the land Al-Said.

“And he filled them (the pyramids) with talismans, and with strange things, and with riches and treasures, and the like. He engraved in them all things that were told him by wise men, as, also, all profound sciences. The names of alakakirs, the uses and hurts of them, the science of astrology and of arithmetic, of geometry and physic. All these may be interpreted by him who knows their characters and language. After he had given orders for this building, they cut out great columns and wonderful stones. They fetched massy stones from the Ethiopians, and made with them the foundations of the three pyramids, fastening them together with lead and iron. (?) They built the gates of them 40 cubits under-ground, and they made the height of the pyramids 100 royal cubits, which are 500 of ours in these times. ...