A full and just account of the present state of the Ottoman Empire in all its branches; with the government, and policy, religion, customs, and way of living of the Turks in general ... from a serious observation, taken in many years travesl thro' those countries / [Aaron Hill].
- Aaron Hill
- Date:
- 1710
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A full and just account of the present state of the Ottoman Empire in all its branches; with the government, and policy, religion, customs, and way of living of the Turks in general ... from a serious observation, taken in many years travesl thro' those countries / [Aaron Hill]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![GOD only knows, how thefe vaft heaps of Dirt and Ruins came Origi- Several Opi- nally there, and what remains unfeen behind them ; poffibly there may be found in future Times, fome wonderful Conveyances for Water, as the com- verns were mon Notion feems inclin’d to credit, or perhaps thefe Chambers were de- ddl&n’;] ior fign’d of old for Tombs ; or probably they were the Habitations of a kind of ancient Priefis, who liv’d the Life of a Jecluded Votary, or melancholy Hermit, in or near the doleful Monument of fome Great Prince,®r Man of Honour, and had all the Neceffaries ol their Life provided daily by the Legacies of the Deceas'd. INDEED I am the moft inclinable to a Belief of this lafr Guefs, for The Aut&or’s inany Reafons; two efpeci ally, the fir If, becaufe the numerous Hieroglyphics, own°Pjnion* carv’d upon the Rocks, have been fucli, as leem to ’em fanfy’d for the Con¬ templation of Religious Perfons, and becaufe, had all thofe Places been defign’d for the conveying Water from the River Nilus, Hieroglyphic had been cer¬ tainly a very odd, and needlefs Ornament. AND fecondly, becaufe without the Pyramids in many Places, ffill remain Its Re,f0ns the rows of Caves, hewn deeply in the Rocks, where formerly the fuperJHtious Priefis of Egypt us’d to dwell, employ’d in feveral different Services in the Romantic Offices of their Religion. WHAT E’E R they be, we found the utmoft of our Labour vainly fpent in hopes of gaining further Knowledge, fo return’d again the way, we had defcended, till we came to the beforenam’d rugged Place, which brought us to the brink of the deep Well, I have been fpeaking of. ASCENDED from the Well, we went direCtly forward, and exactly a paffige in a Line with the before-nam’d Jecond Gallery, we entred a frnall Neck or leading ro a Paffage, fcarce five Yards in length, and very narrow ; this admitted us to a SthePyra* large Square, a little finer than tilt former, but in Magnitude not far exceeding mid. it ; thq Stones whereof ’tis built, are fo extreamly large, and yet fo wonder¬ fully clofely Jointed, that the niceft: Eye can fcarce diffinguifh, whereabouts they join together ; and it is the mighty Size of thofe prodigious Stones, and the Politenels of their Worhmanfhip, that yields fuch caufefor Travellers A- mazement, when they fee the Eabrick of thofe tow ring Pyramids. W E found this Square no lefs than near an hundred Foot, and thence dimenfi proceeded to a vaulted Chamber, ffxteen Foot in height, near twenty long, on^of the ' and eighteen broad or thereabouts ; the Stones, which flagg the angled Square. Roof of this large Chamber, are of admirable fmoothnefs and jurprizing mag¬ nitude ; but all the Walls are plaifter’d over with a Limy Subfiance, wonder¬ fully firm, and not inferior even to Stone it felf, for its appearance or dura¬ tion. 'JUST equidifiant from the Eafiern Angles of this Room, and on that A Niche in fide thereof, we found a kind of hollow Niche, which feem’d at frfi torheWalL have been made to hold fome Statue, as an Ornament or Idol, but upon a nice lnfpeclion, we imagin’d, it was poffible, there might be fomething of a Paffage into other undifeover'd Chambers of the Pyramid, whereupon the Men had Orders to endeavour by their Infiruments, to find it out. B Y Thrufting in their Iron Betties, where they thought the Joints a a new Def- little of the Widefi, they found means to force out a large Stone, which centdif-, ftop’d a Hole, near three Foot Square, and open’d to the view of all the Com-cover pany a narrow Jhelving Paffage, leading downwards with a difmal Gloomi- nefs.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30450895_0311.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
