zantium, that the facing was formed of
polychromatic zones of granite, of green breccia and other
different kinds of stone, renounced this view owing to the
evidence of Vyse. Perrot and Chipiez have revived it, with
some hesitation.

** Herodotus, ii. 125, the word "point" should not be taken
literally. The Great Pyramid terminated, like its neighbour,
in a platform, of which each side measured nine English feet
(six cubits, according to Diodorus Siculus, i. 63), and
which has become larger in the process of time, especially
since the destruction of the facing. The summit viewed from
below must have appeared as a sharp point. "Having regard
to the size of the monument, a platform of three metres
square would have been a more pointed extremity than that
which terminates the obelisks" (Letronne).

In the interior every device had been employed to conceal the exact
position of the sarcophagus, and to discourage the excavators whom
chance or persistent search might have put upon the right track. Their
first difficulty would be to discover the entrance under the limestone
casing. It lay hidden almost in the middle of the northern face, on
the level of the eighteenth course, at about forty-five feet above the
ground. A movable flagstone, working on a stone pivot, disguised it so
effectively that no one except the priests and custodians could have
distinguished this stone from its neighbours. When it was tilted up, a
yawning passage was revealed,* three and a half feet in height, with a
breadth of four feet.

* Strabo expressly states that in his time the subterranean
parts of the Great Pyramid were accessible: "It has on its
side, at a moderate elevation, a stone which can be moved,
[--Greek phrase--]". "When it has been lifted up, a tortuous
passage is seen which leads to the tomb." The meaning of
Strabo's statement had not been mastered until Mr. Petrie
showed, what we may still see, at the entrance of one of the
pyramids of Dahshur, arrangements which bore witness to the
existence of a movable stone mounted on a pivot to serve as
a door. It was a method of closing of the same kind as that
described by Strabo, perhaps after he had seen it himself,
or had heard of it from the guides, and like that which Mr.
Petrie had reinstated, with much probability, at the
entrance of the Great P