Vyse II · p. 87

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                 OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH .                                     87

    seem     that , as the sarcophagus                could       not be removed ,
    the wooden       case   containing           the body had been brought
    into the large apartment for examination .
        Whoever may have been the first explorers , it is
    clear that at one period this pyramid remained open for
    a considerable time , and was then much frequented by
    Mussulmen , and that              it was afterwards closed up for
    many years , otherwise some accounts respecting                           it , more
    circumstantial     than that in Edrisi , must have existed ,
    and recent traces            of bats and of reptiles would have
    been found in it .

        The great efforts , which had been made to get into the
    higher parts of the building , were very extraordinary , and
    the precautions , which had been taken to secure the tomb
    from violation , were no less remarkable                       ;   the ponderous
    masses of granite , and of calcareous stone , with which the
    whole of the entrance was filled up as far as the anteroom ,
    the blocks , which secured that apartment , the three port-
    cullises in the smaller chamber , the squared stones , with
    which the upper returning passage was built up , the con-
    cealment of the immediate entrance to the tomb by the
    pavement of the large apartment , and the manner in which
    that   passage    was closed              up with a portcullis            of great
    thickness , with ramps , and finally with solid                         masonry ,
    indicate the veneration in which the sepulchre was held ,
    and therefore the importance                   of the personage , to whom
    it belonged .
                                     August 2d.
                                Reis , 11 .         Men , 137 .
                            -
                                                                         Children , 83 .
                Pyramid .
                            -
        Third                   Clearing the Chambers and Passages .
        Eighth Pyramid .
                            -
                                Excavation      for Entrance .
        Ninth   Pyramid .       Clearing      out the Chamber .
        Excavating the lines westward of the Second Pyramid .




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