Chapter 4 (part 11)

See Golénischeff, Aeg. Zeitschrift , p. 110; Maspero, Mélanges d'Archéologie , t. iii., Paris, 1876, p. 71, 1. 2; Lepsius, Denkmäler , ii., 2a. 2 The building of the pyramid of Mêdûm has usually been attributed to Seneferu, but the excavations made there in 1882 did nothing to clear up the uncertainty which exists on this point; for recent excavations see Petrie, Medum, London, 1892, 40. 3 For the text see Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd. II., Bl. 99; Bd. I., Bl. 167.] predecessor by re-opening the temples and by letting every man celebrate his own sacrifices and discharge his own religious duties.[1] His pyramid is the one now known as the "third pyramid of Gizeh," under which he was buried in a chamber vertically below the apex and 60 feet below the level of the ground. Whether the pyramid was finished or not[2] when the king died, his body was certainly laid in it, and notwithstanding all the attempts made by the Muhammadan rulers of Egypt[3] to destroy it at the end of the 12th century of our era, it has survived to yield up important facts for the history of the Book of the Dead. Evidence of the Inscription on the coffin of Mycerinus. In 1837 Colonel Howard Vyse succeeded in forcing the entrance. On the 29th of July he commenced operations, and on the 1st of August he made his way into the sepulchral chamber, where, however, nothing was found but a rectangular stone sarcophagous[4] without the lid. The large stone slabs of the floor and the linings of the wall had been in many instances removed by thieves in search of treasure. In a lower chamber, connected by a passage with the sepulchral chamber, was found the greater part of the lid of the sarcophagus,[5] together with portions of a wooden coffin, and part of the body of a man, consisting of ribs and vertebrae and the bones of the legs and feet, enveloped [1. Herodotus, ii., 129, 1; Diodorus, i., 64, 9. 2. According to Diodorus, he died before it was completed (i., 64, 7). 3. According to 'Abd el-Latif the Khalif's name was Mâmûn, but M. de Sacy doubted that he was the first to attempt this work; the authorities on the subject are all given in his Relation de l'Égypte , Paris, 1810, p. 215-221. Tradition, as represented in the "Arabian Nights," says that Al-Mâmûn was minded to pull down the Pyramids, and that he expended a mint of money in the attempt; he succeeded, however, only in opening up a small tunnel in one of them, wherein it is said he found treasure to the exact amount of the moneys which he had spent in the work, and neither more nor less. The Arabic writer Idrîsî, who wrote about A.H. 623 (A.D. 1226), states that a few years ago the "Red Pyramid," i.e. , that of Mycerinus, was opened on the north side. After passing through various passages a room was reached wherein was found a long blue vessel, quite empty. The opening into this pyramid was effected by people who were in search of treasure; they worked at it with axes for six months, and they were in great numbers.