been removed and has been used in building the mosques of Cairo, and
to-day its exterior is a series of steps, each 4 to 6 feet in height,
formed by the enormous blocks of limestone of which it is built.

Designed as a tomb, it has various interior chambers and passages, but
it was long ago ransacked by the Persians, and later by the Romans and
Arabs, so that of whatever treasure it may once have contained,
nothing now remains but the huge stone sarcophagus or coffin of the
King.

The second pyramid, built by Chephron 3666 B.C., is little
less in size, and still has a little of the outer covering at its
apex. All around these two great pyramids are grouped a number of
others, while the rock is honeycombed with tombs, and practically from
here to the first cataract the belt of rocky hills which rise so
abruptly from the Nile Valley is one continuous cemetery, only a small
portion of which has so far been explored.

Close by is the sphinx, the oldest of known monuments. Hewn out of the
solid rock, its enormous head and shoulders rise above the sand which
periodically buries it, and, battered though it has been by Mohammed
Ali's artillery, the expression of its face, as it gazes across the
fertile plain towards the sunrise, is one of calm inscrutability,
difficult to describe, but which fascinates the beholder.

From the plateau on which these pyramids are built may be seen
successively the pyramids of Abousīr, Sakkara, and Darshūr, and
far in the distance the curious and lonely pyramid of Medūn. These
are all built on the edge of the desert, which impinges on the
cultivated land so abruptly that it is almost possible to stand with