2.--THE PYRAMIDS.

[For the following translation of this section of Professor Maspero's book
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, whose work on
_The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, published with the assistance of a
grant from the Royal Society in 1883, constitutes our standard authority on
the construction of these Pyramids.--A.B.E.]

The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the
equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled
over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times (Note 14). The same
ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the
plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba,
--the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault.

The chapel is always separate. At Sakkarah no trace of it has been found;
it was probably, as later on at Thebes, in a quarter nearer to the town. At
Medûm, Gizeh, Abûsîr, and Dahshûr, these temples stood at the east or north
fronts of the pyramids. They were true temples, with chambers, courts, and
passages. The fragments of bas-reliefs hitherto found show scenes of
sacrifice, and prove that the decoration was the same as in the public
halls of the mastabas. The pyramid, properly speaking, contained only the
passages and sepulchral vault. The oldest of which the texts show the
existence, north of Abydos, is that of Sneferû; the latest belong to the
princes of the Twelfth Dynasty. The construction of these monuments was,
therefore, a continuous work, lasting for thirteen or fourteen centuries,