l Chamber, B, is
reached. The walls of these chambers and passages are lined with
masonry executed in the hardest stone (granite), and with an accuracy
of fitting and a truth of surface that can hardly be surpassed.
Extreme care seems to have been taken to prevent the great weight
overhead from crushing in the galleries and the chamber. The gallery
from C upwards is of the form shown in Fig. 9, where each layer of
stones projects slightly beyond the one underneath it. Fig. 11 is a
section of the chamber itself, and the succession of small chambers
shown one above the other was evidently formed for the purpose of
distributing the weight of the superincumbent mass. From the point C a
narrow well leads almost perpendicularly downwards to a point nearly
at the bottom of the first-mentioned gallery; and the purpose to be
served by this well was long a subject of debate. The probability is
that, after the corpse had been placed in its chamber, the workmen
completely blocked up the passage from A to C by allowing large blocks
of granite to slide down it, these blocks having been previously
prepared and deposited in the larger gallery; the men then let
themselves down the well, and by means of the lower gallery made their
exit from the pyramid. The entrances to the chamber and to the pyramid
itself were formed by huge blocks of stone which exactly fitted into
grooves prepared for them with the most beautiful mathematical
accuracy. The chief interest attaching to the pyramids lies in their
extreme antiquity, and the scientific method of their construction;
for their effect upon the spectator is by no means proportionate to
their immense mass and the labour bestowed upon them.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--ASCENDING GALLERY IN THE GREAT PYRAMID.]

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE SEPULCHRAL CHAMBER IN THE PYRAMID OF
CEPHREN AT GIZEH.]

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE KING'S CHAMBER IN
THE GREAT PYRAMID.]

In the neighbourhood of the pyramids are found a large number of tombs
which are supposed to be those of private persons. Their form is
generally that of a _mastaba_ or truncated pyramid with sloping walls,
and their construction is evidently copied from a fashion of wooden
architecture previously existing. The same idea of making an
everlasting habitation for the body prevailed as in the case of the
pyramids, and stone was therefore the material employed; but the
builders seem to have desired to i