
Excerpt from On Some Points in Certain Theories Concerning the Purpose and Primal Condition of the Great Pyramid of Jeezeh: Being a Paper Read to the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, February, 1868, by St. John Vincent Day, C. E., Etc., And in Chief Part a Reply to a Lecture Delivered to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, January 20, 1868, by Sir J. Y. Simpson, Bart., M.D But greater proof than what we have yet given shows absolutely the entire dissimilarity of the two structures. We had occasion to consider the character of the internal structure - that is to say, the present-exterior of the Great Pyramid. Let us now look at that of the second; and what do We find it to be, but a poor, disorderly, altogether inferior mass of masons' work? It is described by Colonel Howard Vyse as being only a kind of gigantic rubble work, so irregularly built, that since the removal of the casing, the desert sand and rain have penetrated in several places to a considerable distance; and it is owing to this looseness of construction that Signor Belzoni was unable to work his way through the stones, which had collapsed in the forced entrance, supposed to have been made by the Khalipha; and that in 1837 the Arabs could not be employed in another part of it. But it is worthy of remark that this inferior class of work extends to only a little above one-half in height of the whole structure, the upper part to which the casing stones still adhere being of a higher order, equal (i gather from the accounts of Piazzi Smyth, who appears to be the only observer of this distinction) to the inner structure - that is, the present external surface of the Great Pyramid. It is most probable that he would not have discovered this more so than others, but for the recent falling ofi' of a part of the interstitial coating of stonework, which exposed to view the inner structure. What greater architectural blunder, then, could have been committed than the placing of a thoroughly-tied-together breakjoint
Page Count:
72
Publication Date:
2017-07-15
Publisher:
1kg Limited
ISBN-10:
0282167331
ISBN-13:
9780282167332
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