hich it is built.

Designed as a tomb, it has various interior chambers and passages, but
it was long ago ransacked by the Persians, and later by the Romans and
Arabs, so that of whatever treasure it may once have contained,
nothing now remains but the huge stone sarcophagus or coffin of the
King.

The second pyramid, built by Chephron 3666 B.C., is little
less in size, and still has a little of the outer covering at its
apex. All around these two great pyramids are grouped a number of
others, while the rock is honeycombed with tombs, and practically from
here to the first cataract the belt of rocky hills which rise so
abruptly from the Nile Valley is one continuous cemetery, only a small
portion of which has so far been explored.

Close by is the sphinx, the oldest of known monuments. Hewn out of the
solid rock, its enormous head and shoulders rise above the sand which
periodically buries it, and, battered though it has been by Mohammed
Ali's artillery, the expression of its face, as it gazes across the
fertile plain towards the sunrise, is one of calm inscrutability,
difficult to describe, but which fascinates the beholder.

From the plateau on which these pyramids are built may be seen
successively the pyramids of Abousir, Sakkara, and Darshur, and
far in the distance the curious and lonely pyramid of Medun. These
are all built on the edge of the desert, which impinges on the
cultivated land so abruptly that it is almost possible to stand with
one foot in the desert and the other in the fields.

In addition to the pyramids, Sakkara has many tombs of the greatest
interest, two of which I will describe.

One is called the "Serapeum," or tomb of the bulls. Here, each in its
huge granite coffin, the mummies of the sacred bulls, for so long
worshipped at Memphis, have been buried.

The tomb consists of a long gallery excavated in the rock below
ground, on either side of which are recesses just large enough to
contain the coffins, each of which is composed of a single block of
stone 13 feet by 11 by 8, and which, with their contents, must have
been of enormous weight, and yet they have been lowered into position
in the vaults without damage. The tomb, however, was rifled long ago,
and all the sarcophagi are now empty. There is one very curious fact
about this tomb which I must mention, for though below ground it is
so intensely hot that the heat and glare of the desert as you emerge
appears relatively cool.

Whi