statement is not correct, and that there is an element of truth in
Lepsius's hypothesis. He has shown that several of the pyramids, notably
the First and Second at Giza, show unmistakable signs of a modified,
altered, and enlarged plan; in fact, long-lived kings like Khufu seem
to have added considerably to their pyramids and even to have entirely
remodelled them on a larger scale. This has certainly been the case with
the Great Pyramid. We can, then, accept Lepsius's theory as modified by
Dr. Borchardt.

Another interesting point has arisen in connection with the Great
Pyramid. Considerable difference of opinion has always existed between
Egyptologists and the professors of European archaeology with regard
to the antiquity of the knowledge of iron in Egypt. The majority of
the Egyptologists have always maintained, on the authority of the
inscriptions, that iron was known to the ancient Egyptians from the
earliest period. They argued that the word for a certain metal in old
Egyptian was the same as the Coptic word for "iron." They stated that in
the most ancient religious texts the Egyptians spoke of the firmament
of heaven as made of this metal, and they came to the conclusion that it
was because this metal was blue in colour, the hue of iron or steel; and
they further pointed out that some of the weapons in the tomb-paintings
were painted blue and others red, some being of iron, that is to
say, others of copper or bronze. Finally they brought forward as
incontrovertible evidence an actual fragment of worked iron, which had
been found between two of the inner blocks, down one of the air-shafts,
in the Great Pyramid. Here was an actual piece of iron of the time of
the IVth Dynasty, about 3500 B.C.

This conclusion was never accepted by the students of the development of
the use of metal in prehistoric Europe, when they came to know of it.