Vyse II · p. 79

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              OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH .                         79

ber , containing the portcullis , had been cut into , in order ,
as it would appear , to avoid the necessity                of breaking
down the slabs          of granite forming the portcullis , which
might reasonably have been supposed to have concealed
a tomb ; but , as this did not prove to be the case , the
excavation had been turned to the right , so as to enter
the eastern side of the chamber containing the portcullis ,
as shewn by the dotted line              D ( Plate II . Fig . 1 ) .     A
passage , almost horizontal         (as it had   only four degrees of
declination ) , proceeded from the portcullis            to the south ,
and entered the northern             side   of the large apartment .
Immediately       above it , another passage , at first horizontal ,
and afterwards inclining upwards ( see Plates              I. and III . ) ,
returned towards the north , and ended where the masonry

of the pyramid          commenced .         This passage had been
worked      by the chisel from the exterior             or north , the
other    passages      from the interior or south .           It must ,
therefore , have been formed before the other passages
and chambers , as the large apartment probably was also .
At the end of it , in the masonry , at C ( Plate I. Fig. 2 ) ,
various excavations had been made in different directions

into the superstructure in search of a chamber , to which
it might have been imagined to conduct , for it had been
filled up with solid masonry- fragments of which yet
remain , and also part of the plaster upon the sides of it .
The mouth of this passage in the large apartment " ( see
Plates I. and III . ) was worn into grooves , apparently by

    6This passage , like that discovered by M. Caviglia in the Second
Pyramid , was probably formed for the sake of supplying air to the people
employed in the subterraneous chambers ; or it may have been originally

intended for the regular    entrance , and the plan may , for some reason
or other , have been altered .