he temple.

Did the Ptolemies admit the claims which the local priests attempted to
deduce from this romantic tale? and did the god regain possession of the
domains and dues which they declared had been his right? The stele shows
us with what ease the scribes could forge official documents when the
exigencies of daily life forced the necessity upon them; it teaches us
at the same time how that fabulous chronicle was elaborated, whose
remains have been preserved for us by classical writers. Every prodigy,
every fact related by Manetho, was taken from some document analogous to
the supposed inscription of Zosiri.

The real history of the early centuries, therefore, eludes our
researches, and no contemporary record traces for us those vicissitudes
which Egypt passed through before being consolidated into a single
kingdom, under the rule of one man. Many names, apparently of powerful
and illustrious princes, had survived in the memory of the people; these
were collected, classified, and grouped in a regular manner into
dynasties, but the people were ignorant of any exact facts connected
with the names, and the historians, on their own account, were reduced
to collect apocryphal traditions for their sacred archives.

The monuments of these remote ages, however, cannot have entirely
disappeared: they existed in places where we have not as yet thought of
applying the pick, and chance excavations will some day most certainly
bring them to light. The few which we do possess barely go back beyond
the III dynasty: namely, the hypogeum of Shiri, priest of Sondi and
Pirsenu; possibly the tomb of Khuithotpu at Saqqara; the Great Sphinx of
Gizeh; a short inscription on the rocks of Wady Maghara, which
represents Zosiri (the same king of whom the priests of Khnumu in the
Greek period made a precedent) working the turquoise or copper mines of
Sinai; and finally the step pyramid where this Pharaoh rests. It forms a
rectangular mass, incorrectly oriented, with a variation from the true
north of 4 deg. 35', 393 ft., 8 in. long from east to west, and 352 ft.
deep, with a height of 159 ft. 9 in. It is composed of six cubes, with
sloping sides, each being about 13 ft. less in width than the one below
it; that nearest to the ground measures 37 ft. 8 in. in height, and the
uppermost one 29 ft. 2 in.

It was entirely constructed of limestone from neighboring mountains. The
blocks are small and badly cut, the stone courses being concave, to
o