APPENDIX III.
An Extract from the Works of Herodotus[101]concerningthe Pyramids of Egypt.
An Extract from the Works of Herodotus[101]concerningthe Pyramids of Egypt.
An Extract from the Works of Herodotus[101]concerning
the Pyramids of Egypt.
The Egyptians say that this Cheops[102]reigned fifty years; and when he died, his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom; and he followed the same practices as the other, both in other respects, and in building a pyramid; which does not come up to the dimensions of his brother’s, for I myself measured them; nor has it subterraneous chambers; nor does a channel from the Nile flow to it, as to the other; but this flows through an artificial aqueduct round an island within, in which they say the body of Cheops is laid.
Having laid the first course of variegated Ethiopian stones, less in height than the other by forty feet, he built it near the large Pyramid. They both stand on the same hill,[103]which is about a hundred feet high. Chephren, they said, reigned fifty-six years.
Thus one hundred and six years are reckoned, during which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities,[104]and for this length of time the temples were closed and never opened. From the hatred they bear them, the Egyptians are not very willing to mention their names; but call the Pyramids after Philition,[105]a shepherd, who at that time kept his cattle in those parts.