hundred and forty-six feet square at its
base.

"How many yards is that, Hugh?"

Hugh thought for a minute. "Two hundred and forty-nine yards all but a
foot," he answered.

"Right, so that if you were to build a straight piece of wall as long as
the four sides of the pyramid, it would stretch more than half a mile."

"How wonderful!" exclaimed Hugh, gazing in astonishment at the gigantic
pyramid. "May I ride round it?"

We rode round it, and then went on to the second pyramid. This is
sometimes called the Pyramid of Cephren. He was brother to Cheops. The
casing-stones are still left on the highest part of this pyramid. They
are of a delicately-grained white stone which comes from the Mokattan
Hills, and are highly polished. We saw great quantities of granite lying
scattered about.

This pyramid was opened by the celebrated traveller Belzoni, in the year
1816. Passages were found in it like those in the Great Pyramid. In a
granite room, with a pent roof, we saw a sarcophagus half-buried in the
floor.

The third pyramid, called the Pyramid of Mycerinus, was opened by
Colonel Howard Vyse. Mycerinus was the son of Cheops. He was a just
king, and treated his people with kindness. This pyramid now measures
three hundred and thirty-three feet at its base, and is two hundred and
three feet high. It was originally cased with granite, and some of the
casing is still left.

In it is a room with a painted roof; a space is left over it to prevent
its being crushed in by the weight above. A sarcophagus was found in
this room, in which was the coffin of King Mycerinus, and his name on
it. The coffin and the king's body were sent to England, and are now in
the British Museum. This pyramid is thought to have been the most
beautiful of the three.

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SARCOPHAGUS.]

As we stood in these solemn chambers of the dead, we thanked God, who
has given us a better hope than these mighty kings of old had. Death
must have had many terrors for them. But our blessed Saviour came to
make it the gate to eternal life for all who love him and serve him
truly.

We next went to look at the tombs around the pyramids. Some are very
much injured, others are in better preservation. One of the most curious
of these was opened by Colonel Vyse. We looked down into a deep well or
pit, about fifty feet deep, and there we saw a large black sarcophagus.
There were many other tombs on all sides, but we had not time to examine
them.