e was
roughly cut (fig. 136) and enclosed in the masonry, the rest being smoothed
and covered with large slabs, some of which still remain (Note 19). The
pyramid itself was 481 feet high and 755 feet wide, dimensions which the
injuries of time have reduced to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively. It
preserved, until the Arab conquest, a casing of stones of different colours
(Note 20), so skilfully joined as to appear like one block from base to
summit. The casing work was begun from the top, and the cap placed on
first, the steps being covered one after the other, until they reached the
bottom (Note 21). In the inside all was arranged so as to hide the exact
place of the sarcophagus, and to baffle any spoilers whom chance or
perseverance had led aright. The first point was to discover the entrance
under the casing, which masked it. It was nearly in the middle of the north
face (fig. 136), but at the level of the eighteenth course, at about forty-
five feet from the ground. When the block which closed it was displaced, an
inclined passage, 41.2 inches wide and 47.6 inches high, was revealed, the
lower part of which was cut in the rock. This descended for 317 feet,
passed through an unfinished chamber, and ended sixty feet farther in a
blind passage. This would be a first disappointment to the spoilers. If,
however, they were not discouraged, but examined the passage with care,
they would find in the roof, sixty-two feet distant from the door, a block
of granite (Note 22) among the surrounding limestone. It was so hard that
the seekers, after having vainly tried to break or remove it, took the
course of forcing a way through the softer stone around (Note 23). This
obstacle past, they came into an ascending passage which joins the first at
an angle of 120 deg. (Note 24), and is divided into two branches. One branch
runs horizontally into the centre of the pyramid, and ends in a limestone
chamber with pointed roof, which is called, without any good reason, "The
Queen's Chamber." The other, continuing upward, changes its form and
appearance. It becomes a gallery 148 feet long and 28 feet high, built of
Mokattam stone, so polished and finely wrought that it is difficult to put
a "needle or even a hair" into the joints (Note 25). The lower courses are
vertical; the seven others "corbel" forwards, until at the roof they are
only twenty-one inches apart. A fresh obstacle arose at the end of this
gallery. The passage which led to the