. A history of art in ancient Egypt . n to have formed part of it. Journal des Savants, August, 1841. The Tomb under the Ancient Empire. ^33 which we have already shown to have characterized the forms ofthe pyramids, their internal arrangements, and the materials ofwhich they were composed. Thus some triangular prisms of granite have been found at thefoot of the pyramid of Chephren, which seem to have formed partof its lower casing.^ Such a section seems, upon paper, thesimplest that could be adopted for the filling in of the anglebetween two of the steps, but it is far inferior in solidity to
. A history of art in ancient Egypt . n to have formed part of it. Journal des Savants, August, 1841. The Tomb under the Ancient Empire. ^33 which we have already shown to have characterized the forms ofthe pyramids, their internal arrangements, and the materials ofwhich they were composed. Thus some triangular prisms of granite have been found at thefoot of the pyramid of Chephren, which seem to have formed partof its lower casing.^ Such a section seems, upon paper, thesimplest that could be adopted for the filling in of the anglebetween two of the steps, but it is far inferior in solidity to thetrapezoidal section. The prisms had no alliance one with another ;they had to depend for their security entirely upon their adherenceto the faces of the graded core, so that they could easily be carriedoff, or become dislocated from natural causes. This system, unlikethe first described, did not give a homogeneous envelope with athickness of its own, and partly independent of the monumentwhich it protected.^ i^sS^SCas^ iL^ Fig. 155.—The casing of the pyramids ; drawn in perspective from the elevation of Perring. The casing of the Second Pyramid, moreover, does not seem tohave been carried out on the same principle from top to bottom. * B.^DEKER, Egypt, part i. p. 338 (ed. of 1S78). Herodotus (ii. 127) says thatthe first course of the Great Pyramid was built of a parti-coloured Ethiopian stone({iTroSet/Aa? tov ivpitiTov So/xor XlOov AWcottlkov ttolklXov). By Ethiopian stone we mustunderstand, as several illustrations prove, the granite of Sytne. The Greekhistorian seems to have thought that the whole of the first course, throughout thethickness of the pyramid, was of this stone. His mistake was a natural one. Inhis time the pyramid was in a good state of preservation, and he never thought ofasking whether or no the core was of the same material as the outer case. 2 On the other hand, tliese awkwardly shaped prisms offered less inducement tothose who looked upon the
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