ed, on his behalf, the offerings,
and also on the northern face of the pyramid, where it was still shown
to the curious towards the first century of our era. The arrangement of
the interior of the pyramid is somewhat complicated, and bears witness
to changes brought unexpectedly about in the course of construction. The
original central mass probably did not exceed 180 feet in breadth at the
base, with a vertical height of 154 feet. It contained a sloping passage
cut into the hill itself, and an oblong low-roofed cell devoid of
ornament. The main bulk of the work had been already completed, and the
casing not yet begun, when it was decided to alter the proportions of
the whole.

[Illustration: 194.jpg THE COFFIN OF MYKERINOS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The coffin is in the British Museum.
The drawing of it was published by Vyse, by Birch-Lenormant,
and by Lepsius. Herr Sethe has recently revived an ancient
hypothesis, according to which it had been reworked in the
Saite period, and he has added to archaeological
considerations, up to that time alone brought to bear upon
the question, new philological facts.

Mykerinos was not, it appears, the eldest son and appointed heir of
Khephren; while still a mere prince he was preparing for himself a
pyramid similar to those which lie near the "Horizon," when the deaths
of his father and brother called him to the throne. What was sufficient
for him as a child, was no longer suitable for him as a Pharaoh; the
mass of the structure was increased to its present dimensions, and a new
inclined passage was effected in it, at the end of which a hall
panelled with granite gave access to a kind of antechamber.* The latter
communicated by a horizontal corridor with the first vault, which was
deepened for the occasion; the old entrance, now no longer of use, was
roughly filled up.**

* Vyse discovered here fragments of a granite sarcophagus,
perhaps that of the queen; the legends which Herodotus (ii.
134, 135), and several Greek authors after him, tell
concerning this, show clearly that an ancient tradition
assumed the existence of a female mummy in the third pyramid
alongside of that of the founder Mykerinos.

** Vyse has noticed, in regard to the details of the
structure, that the passage now filled up is the only one
driven from the outside to the interior; all the others were
made from the inside to