stones are generally of the same nature as the calcareous rock on which the pyramids stand; and, although Herodotus asserts that they were brought from the western side of the Nile, it is more probable that they were quarried in the immediate neighborhood. The pyramids are built, externally, with common mortar; but no appearance of any cement can be discovered in the more perfect masonry of the interior. The four sides of these masses are directed to the cardinal points, and their north face is said to be nearly in the plane of the earth's equaThis might be held as an additional argument in favor of their relation to the worship of the sun.

tor.

The Pyramids of Sakhara, extend five miles to the north and south of the village of that name. One of them is said to equal in dimensions that which has already been mentioned. The others are considerably inferior. There is one built of unburnt bricks, containing shells, gravel, and chopped straw, which is in a very mouldering state.

It would appear from the accounts of the ancients, that the Great Pyramid was originally covered from top to bottom with a coating of very hard marble. Mr. Savary is of opinion, that the ruins of the covering of the pyramid, and of the stones brought from within, buried by the sand, which is continually accumulating, have covered up the base to the depth of two hundred feet. It is certain, at least, that much of the height is lost by this means. The great Sphinx, which is placed near the second pyramid, and is itself of enormous bulk, was, in the time of Pliny, upwards of sixty-two feet above the surface of the ground. Its whole body is at present buried under the sand. Nothing more of the figure appears than the neck and head, which are twenty-seven feet high.*

* Captain Caviglia succeeded in laying the Sphinx bare to the foundation, for the distance of a hundred feet in front, and discovered some buildings and inscriptions. The whole body, as far as examined, was cut out of the live rock, except the paws, which were of masonry, and fifty feet long. The whole length of the figure is a hundred and fortythree feet, the height from the belly to the top of the head sixty-two feet.-Library of Entertaining Knowledge-Pyramids.

How deep and solemn are the reflections naturally arising from the consideration of these amazing relics of antiquity. Thousands of years have passed away since the living beings whose inventive powers conceived them, whose ambition decreed them, and whose laborious exertions constructed them, perished from this world. A hundred generations have since arisen, and been laid in the dust. The face of nature has itself changed. The Nile, indeed, has continued, with unvarying certainty, periodically to overflow its banks, and give luxuriance to the celebrated Delta, on which these wonderful productions of art are placed; yet even its uniform operations have contributed to alter the aspect of the region over which its fertilizing waters have yearly passed. another cause, of a very different nature, has been more actively at work. The sand of the desert has invaded the soil, which in those distant ages was rich and beautiful as a cultivated garden, and has buried deep beneath its dreary wastes, at once the bountiful vegetation of nature, and the useful and varied labors of industrious man. Yet these enormous erections still rear their heads amidst such changes, themselves almost unchanged, and promising to be coeval with Nature itself. Strange and

But

enduring monuments at once of human strength and weak-
ness, of human wisdom and folly! The very names of
those mighty and aspiring men who founded them, have,
for more than twenty centuries, passed away; or, if the
names of some of them have remained, it is but to tell that
such men wore out their earthly span, and then gave their
mouldering bodies to these undecaying tombs.
O empty
ambition! what a beacon hast thou erected to a thoughtless
and perishing world!

The Pyramids, those mountain heaps of stone,
The temples rear'd by human pride to Fame,
Remain to mock old dynasties o'erthrown,
And kings that built them, now without a name.
Unscathed by earthquake, thunder, flood, or flame,
And Time, that ruins all, each still uprears

Its tapering top to the bright heaven, the same
That has defied four thousand ruthless years:
But the builder vain, how feeble he appears

man,

1*

* [The Editor is induced to subjoin in this place a Sonnet on the

TENTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

ARCHITECTURE.-ITS ANCIENT HISTORY AND PRACTICE-INDIA, EXCAVATED TEMPLES.

BETWEEN the Egyptian and Indian architecture, there is a wonderful similarity, which seems to indicate a common origin; but the history of both, is so enveloped in the mist of remote antiquity, that no trace of this appears in their records. In both, they had their excavated dwellings, temples, and tombs; in both there were pyramids, and buildings of sculptured walls ornamented by pillars. In the extent of their ancient cities, too, there is a resemblance, indicating a similarity of man

ners.

If we are to give credit to ancient history, the city population of India, in very remote times, was immense. Oude, the capital of the province of that name, is said to have been the first regularly built city in India. Sir William Jones observes of it,-"This city extended, if we may believe the Brahmins, over a line of ten yojuus, or forty miles." Delhi, a city founded about 300 years

Pyramids, by Edward C. Pinkney, an American poet, who died young, and is known to but few to have lived. He was a son of that accomplished lawyer, statesman, and orator, William Pinkney of Baltimore. THE PYRAMIDS.

All former use outlived, or trust betrayed,
A marvel and a mystery ye stand

In grandeur on the old Egyptian sand;
And lapsing years your giant-forms have made
Temples of Time !-to which the homage paid
By thoughtful pilgrims from each younger band,
Is greater than a memory might command,
However in sublimity arrayed.

Whether the Macedonian victor slept

In some small nook within the walls of one,
Or your own humbler monarchs in you kept
Ancestral ashes from the loathing sun,
Or slaves for their wise relative here heaped
An unmeant tomb-to us is all unknown.]

before Christ, is said at one period to have contained two millions of inhabitants. It continued the capital of Hindostan till 1738, and, after experiencing many reverses, was finally destroyed in 1760. Besides these, there were two other imperial cities, Lahore and Agra, both of them remarkable, in ancient times, for their wealth and splendor, and especially for the magnificence of the palaces with which they were adorned. There were also many others remarkable for the extent of their population and riches; and of these may be mentioned Chundery, which is said to have contained three hundred and eight-four markets, and three hundred and sixty caravanserais; and Achmedabad, once so large as to require to be divided into three hundred and sixty districts.

These extensive and proud cities, were evidently the result of the peculiar policy of the Eastern potentates, and symbols of their power; and, along with that policy and power, they have passed away, and have left little more than heaps of mouldering ruins, as traces of their ancient magnificence.

It is not, however, from their palaces or private buildings, so much as from their temples, that we are enabled to judge of the peculiar character of Indian architecture. Of these, which, are called pagodas, we find accounts of five different forms; 1st, Excavations in the rocky mountains; 2d, Simple pyramids, constructed, as in Egypt, of large stones, diminished by regular recesses or steps; 3d, Square or oblong courts, of vast extent; 4th, Buildings in the form of a cross; 5th, Circular edifices. A short description of the first, perhaps the most ancient kind of these places of worship, must suffice.

These excavations are numerous and extensive. In some instances, they are perfectly plain; in others, they are highly and laboriously ornamented. We are told of a place so far north as the Subat of Cashmere, in the middle of the mountains, where twelve thousand apartments are cut out of the solid rock. This was well known to the Greeks, and was considered as a spot of peculiar sanctity. It was named Parapamis, from Para Vamithe pure city-commonly called Bamaiya. The figure

of the serpent is there found sculptured in seven hundred places.

Most of these remarkable excavations are too remote from common observation to be minutely described; but those which I am now about to mention, have attracted the notice and admiration of many scientific travellers. The three principal temples of this description, are those of Elephanta, Salsette, and Vellore, or Ellora.

Elephanta is situated near Bombay, in an island, so named from the gigantic figure of an elephant cut in the rocks on the south shore. The grand temple is one hundred and twenty feet square, and supported by four rows of pillars. Along the side of the cavern are forty or fifty colossal statues, from twelve to fifteen feet high, of good symmetry, and, though not quite detached from the rock, boldly relieved. Some have a helmet of pyramidal form; others a crown decorated with devices; and others, again, have only bushy ringlets of flowing hair. Many of them have four hands, some six, holding sceptres and shields, symbols of justice and religion, warlike weapons, and trophies of peace. Some inspire horror, others have aspects of benignity. There is a great bust, the face of which is five feet long, and the breadth, across the shoulders, twenty feet.

At

At the west end of this pagoda is a dark and unornamented recess, with an altar in the centre; and at each of the four doors by which it is entered, are two naked statues of good sculpture, and gigantic dimensions. the entry of the excavation, and round its body, are extensive verandas. Canara, in the island of Salsette, also near Bombay, is represented by Leuschotten, who visited it in 1759, as being like a town. He describes the front as hewn out of the rock, into four stories or galleries, in which there are three hundred apartments: These apartments have generally an interior recess. The grand pagoda is forty feet high to the soffet* of the arch or dome. It is eighty-four feet long, and forty-six broad. The portico has five columns, decorated with bases and

* [Or soffit. It is the interior sweep of an arch.-Aм. ED.]