Les pyramides de Guizeh qualifiées, par un ouvrage de vulgarisation du XIXe s., de “très mauvaises applications” des forces du travail et des moyens financiers

L’auteur de Egypt : a familiar description of the land, people and produce, 1839, dont j’ai extrait le texte qui suit, n’a pas donné son nom.
Quel qu’il soit, il a démontré qu’il avait étudié son sujet, en prenant appui sur des références majeures, dont Hérodote bien sûr, mais aussi Richardson, Belzoni, Caviglia... Par contre, c’est vraiment à très grands traits qu’il décrit à la fois l’extérieur et l’intérieur des pyramides, ainsi que leur environnement et la technique de leur construction. Sous sa plume, c’est bien d’un ouvrage de vulgarisation pour le moins sommaire qu’il s’agit. Les connaisseurs resteront sur leur faim.
J’ai toutefois retenu ce texte pour ses derniers développements, où l’auteur s’est livré à une comparaison risquée entre la démesure et la relative inutilité des pyramides et quelques constructions modernes. Pourquoi les pharaons ont-ils vu si grand, qui plus est sans prendre en considération le bonheur de leur peuple, alors que des édifices plus petits que les imposantes pyramides auraient répondu aux mêmes fonctions ? Comparer la construction des pyramides à celle du métro et des égouts londoniens : on reconnaît bien là le célèbre pragmatisme britannique !

 

“The pyramids of Gizeh are the largest and most curious. They stand upon a bed of rock some hundred and fifty feet above the desert, and may, consequently, be seen at immense distances. Approaching them from Upper Egypt, the author of "Scenes and Impressions" (*) was continually deceived, by believing himself within a field's length of these stupendous monuments ; when, before reaching their base, he had to ride four miles. So extremely clear is the air in this country, that such objects, though at a distance, are seen with the distinctness of close approximation.
Why these stupendous piles were raised, or for what purpose intended, has never been discovered. Of the innumerable conjectures this mystery has given rise to, the belief that they were designed as monuments for the dead, seems the most probable. (1)
These edifices are believed to be the most ancient amongst the peculiar structures of the kind in Egypt. The dimensions of the principal one (that of Cheops) are seven hundred and fifty-two feet at the base, which, being nearly square, would give about three thousand feet for its four sides ; its altitude is four hundred and sixty feet (2) ; higher than St. Peter's at Rome by twenty-three feet, and higher than St. Paul's at London by one hundred and sixteen. The exterior of the pyramids is built in steps, of which there are in the largest, two hundred and six.
An adequate idea of the vast magnitude of this stupendous work (which covers eleven acres of ground) may be conceived, by supposing the whole of Lincoln's Inn Fields filled up with masonry towering to the sky, the base of the great pyramid nearly coinciding in dimension with that area. (...)
The summit consists of six stone blocks, and is about thirty feet square.
The quantity of stone used to build this pyramid has been recorded as six millions of tons ; or more than three times the quantity employed for that vast undertaking, the Breakwater, thrown across Plymouth Sound. Its solid contents being more than 85,000,000 cubic feet, or above 3,148,147 cubic yards.
We have the authority of Herodotus (Bibl. Hist. ii. 125) for stating that the pyramid was originally cased or plastered over. "For, he says, the sums expended in radishes, onions, and garlic, for the workmen, were marked in Egyptian characters on this pyramid, and amounted - for I well remember what the interpreter who explained those pyramids said - to 1600 talents of silver" (345,600 l.). A hundred thousand men were employed for twenty years in raising this enormous pile.
It has been argued, not without show of probability, that the children of Israel assisted in the construction of these pyramids during the captivity, made so "bitter with hard bondage".  It is certain that afterwards, during their sufferings in the desert while flying from Egypt, they speak with desire of the "onions and garlic" freely afforded them by their task-masters, and so particularly mentioned by Herodotus as a portion of the food supplied to the builders of the pyramids.
In continuation of the same passage in Herodotus, we are told that the great pyramid was made in the form of steps, for the convenience of building. One tier having been laid, stones for the next were raised upon it by "machines contrived of short pieces of wood", and so on till the summit was gained. The structure was then finished by a facing of polished stones ; this work commencing at the top, and ending at the base. The cement which was used was composed of thin lime and a very little sand, and has held the stones together so firmly for succeeding ages, "that, says Dr. Richardson, it stands with the security of a mountain, the most indestructible pile that human ingenuity ever reared".
The outer casing has been removed, the ascent being now by no means regular or easy. "It is a mistake to suppose there are steps, the passage is performed over blocks of stone and granite, some broken off, others crumbling away, and others, which having dropped out altogether, have left an angle in the masonry ; but all these are very irregular. Occasionally the width and height of the stones are equal, but generally the height greatly exceeds the width ; in many parts the blocks are four feet high." (3) The first tier of stones is even with a man's chest.
Admittance to the interior of the great pyramid is gained upon the sixteenth step, on the side towards the north. After traversing several passages the traveller arrives at one on an inclined plane, which leads to a sort of landing-place, where, in a small recess, is the orifice of what has been named "the well." This celebrated excavation consists of two shafts, connected, about mid-way, by a low narrow gallery. (...) A continuation of the same passage leads to the “queen's chamber" ; above is " the king's", in which stands an empty sarcophagus ; immediately over which is "Davidson's chamber”, so named in honour of its discoverer.
The second, or pyramid of Cephrenes, standing close to the great pyramid, is not so large. The secret of its entrance defied all efforts at discovery, till the enterprise and perseverance of Belzoni explored the opening. A chamber was found in the interior that contained a sarcophagus, in which were the bones of a bull, an object of degrading worship amongst the ancient Egyptians.
About three hundred paces from the second pyramid is the gigantic statue of the Sphynx, a fabulous monster which the Egyptians took such delight in delineating. This enormous statue had been overthrown ; and, till lately, only the head, neck, and a portion of the back were visible above the sand ; which, having been cleared away by M. Belzoni, two temples were found; one between its legs, the other, hollowed out in one of its paws. The circuit of this monster's head round the forehead was, we are informed by Pliny, one hundred and two feet, the whole length of the figure one hundred and forty-three, the height from the belly to the top of the head, sixty-two feet.
Besides the pyramids of Gizeh, those of Abousir, Sakkarah, and Dashour, are placed at various distances from each other over a space of twenty leagues, on declivities that slope towards the river. A French (**) gentleman (M. Caviglia) who resides near the pyramids of Gizeh, and to whom the world is indebted for much valuable information regarding them, has confidently stated his belief, that there is a subterranean communication between the pyramids of Gizeh and those of Sakkarah.

In contemplating these immense results of human labour, time, and wealth ; their immensity, and the various uncertainties and mysteries in which their history is shrouded, may impress us with notions and feelings concerning them considerably to the disadvantage of modern edifices and national works of later date ; but their utter uselessness (so far as regards their size) ought to check this kind of veneration ; for, even supposing them to have been designed for any of the various purposes conjecture has assigned to them, a greater number of smaller buildings would have answered the same uses : hence one must only look upon them as great misapplications of labour and capital. A comparison with the works of any modern city will make this the more evident. London, for example, is paved to the very outskirts with stone brought from Scotland. Imagine the same time, material, and labour, to have been employed in raising pyramids, would they not have equalled the stupendous piles of Egypt ? The subways of London, the sewers, water and gas-pipes, &c., also present an amount of labour and ingenuity immeasurably superior to the most wonderful monuments of ancient industry ; besides adding to the comforts and consequently the happiness of mankind, which is more than can be attributed to the temples, pyramids, or sphynxes of Egypt.”

(1) In "A Dissertation on the Pyramids of Egypt" (1833), the following conjectures are collected from various authors : granaries for storing corn ; retreats of safety in the event of another flood, or too great a rise of the Nile ; monuments to memorialize great events ; temples for consulting oracles ; observatories for astronomical purposes ; altars devoted to gods ; and, afterwards, the tombs and depositories of kings. To these we must add the fanciful theory of Dr. Clarke, who contends that the pyramids were built in honour of the patriarch Joseph.
(2) According to the calculations given in the Description de I'Égypte, published by the French Government. The Greek historian Herodotus gives seven hundred and forty-six feet for the base, and four hundred and sixty-one feet for the height.
(3) Narrative of a Journey from Calcutta to Europe by way of Egypt, by Mrs. C. Lushington.

(*) Sans doute s’agit-il de Moyle Sherer.
(**) Erreur manifeste de l’auteur : Caviglia était bien Italien.

Sur cet auteur, deux autres "morceaux choisis" dans l'Égypte entre guillemets :

"On ne peut se former qu’une idée bien imparfaite de l’étendue immense des ruines de Thèbes" (Giovanni Battista Belzoni)

Premières impressions de Giovanni Battista Belzoni, lors de son arrivée à Thèbes

 

“Les pierres des pyramides ont été prises sur place” (Thomas Dudley Fosbroke - XVIIIe-XIXe s.)

Le Révérend Thomas Dudley Fosbroke (1770-1842) fut admis, en 1799, comme membre de la société anglaise des Antiquaires. Il est auteur de nombreuses publications, dont une Encyclopédie des Antiquités (1824) et un ouvrage sur la topographie des pays étrangers (Foreign Topography), édité en 1828, dans lequel plusieurs pages sont consacrées aux pyramides égyptiennes.
Aucune théorie ou conjecture personnelle n’est à attendre de cette lecture : Th.D. Fosbroke se limite à un survol très global des opinions d’auteurs plus ou moins anciens, avec toutefois une attention particulière aux observations et conclusions de Belzoni, notamment pour l’origine des matériaux ayant été utilisés dans la construction des pyramides et la destination de ces monuments.
Deux points méritent une attention particulière : la date de l’ouverture (forcée) de la Grande Pyramide (bien antérieure à l’époque des califes arabes) et - dixit une fois encore Belzoni - la relation temporelle entre le Sphinx, la (Grande) Pyramide et le temple à l’est de cette pyramide.

“Pyramids of Ghize. These are the only wonders of the world, which have survived to our aera, a preservation owing to the amazing quantity and size of the blocks, which could not be broken or removed without an expense far over-balancing the advantage. According to the calculation of Constanstine Manasses, the kingdom of Egypt lasted 1663 years from its beginning under Misraim, the son of Ham, 2188 before Christ, to the conquest of Cambyses, 525 before Christ. The traditions of China are justly exploded, those of India are beginning to be developed, but Egypt possesses monuments, which, in reference to the tower of Babel, prove the very earliest affirmations of Holy Writ. 


Défilé d’auteurs ayant écrit sur les pyramides, d’Hérodote aux écrivains modernes
The oldest authors are recent. Herodotus says that Cleopis or Cheops, successor to Rhampsinitus, shut all the temples, forbad the Egyptians to sacrifice to the gods, and obliged them to labour at these works ; 100.000 men continually worked at them, 10.000 relieving each other, from three months to three months. The first pyramid cost the labour of twenty years. Diodorus Siculus ascribes the erection to Chemmis. The Orientalists say that one was built by Schar, son of Schavalcac, before the deluge ; the other by Hermes, who is the Hebrew Enoch, who had foreseen the universal inundation, and lodged there his books. The Sabeans believe that Agathemon, i. e. Seth, was buried in one of these pyramids, and Hermes in another, which is nearly what Kircher says. That the present is not the antediluvian surface of the world is evident, and the pyramids, if then erected, would have been, upon the resuscitation of the globe, deeply buried in so sandy a soil. And it is sufficient to state, in the sportsman's expressive phrase, that so far as the testimony of authors is attended to, Herodotus is the favourite.
Martial has the following line :" Barbara pyramidum sileat moracula Memphis" ; and it is presumed by Denon, Shaw, and others, that the pyramids of Saccarah and Gizeh formed the northern and southern extremities of Memphis. Savary disputes this, because Pliny says that Memphis was six leagues to the south of the pyramids, but the objection is not valid, that distance not being too great for the situation of tombs. Dr. Clarke supposed absurdly, that the pyramids were the works of the Hebrews during their captivity. Belzoni says that at Toske are several rocks on the plain towards the east, which resemble so many pyramids, and thinks that that they may have suggested to the Egyptians the idea of the pyramids, for some of these rocks are above 200 feet high. Some writers (see Paw, De Tott, Dupuis, &c.) have taken the pyramids for gnomons of dials, for determination of equinoxes and solstices, monuments, like obelisks, in honour of the sun, mausolea of sovereigns, built by the removal of stones from the catacombs at every new reign, tomb of Osiris, &c. All this appears to be fanciful, for they were plainly mausolea, and may be considered as in the original intention, magnificent barrows of architectural construction. They have the interior form of Tartar barrows. In some critical discussions concerning them, they are supposed to contain in the interior a large quantity of sepulchral chambers. But they were not limited to human beings, the bones of a sacred ox, or Apis of his day, having been discovered.
It is well known, that the great pyramid contained chambers, passages, a sarcophagus, and well, and was accessible by a forced entrance at some height from the ground. It was justly suspected by Belzoni and others, that the true entrance, as in barrows, was at the base, and so it proved to be upon trial. All the preceding accounts have been superseded by the spirited labours of modern travellers, especially the one named, and therefore his account shall be first given.

Photo Marc Chartier

Origine des pierres ayant été utilisées dans la construction des pyramides
The stones of the Pyramids were taken from the spot. Belzoni observed the rock surrounding them, on the north and west sides, to be on a level with the upper part of the chamber, and as the rock is evidently cut all round the pyramid, the stones taken from that rock must have been applied to the erection of the fabrick, and blocks of an enormous size have been cut out. If any traveller, he says, will go within less than half a mile of the pyramids, particularly on the east and south sides, he may see many places where the rock has been formerly quarried to a great length, and he will find that there is stone enough to build many other pyramids, if required.
It is true that Herodotus says the stones to erect the pyramids were brought from quarries on the other side of the Nile ; but Belzoni firmly believes, that he (Herodotus) was mis-informed, unless he alluded to the granite alone. As to the causeways in front of the pyramids, said to have been made to convey the stones for the erection of these masses, he thinks that they were intended for the accommodation of visitors, particularly at the time of high Nile, and if they were only to convey stones, the labour of making them must have been nearly equal to the erection of the pyramids.


Les pyramides ont été édifiées comme des sépulcres
The circumstance of having chambers and a sarcophagus, which undoubtedly contained the remains of some great personage, so uniform with those in the other pyramid, leaves, Belzoni thinks, very little doubt, but that they were erected for sepulchres, and he wonders that any doubt has ever existed, considering what could be learned from the first pyramid, which has been so long open. This contains a spacious chamber with a sarcophagus ; the passages are of such dimensions as to admit nothing larger than the sarcophagus. They had been closely shut up by large blocks of granite from within, evidently to prevent the removal of this relick. Ancient authors have pretty well agreed in asserting that these monuments were erected to contain the remains of two brothers Cheops and Cephren, Kings of Egypt. They are surrounded by other smaller pyramids, intermixed with mausolea, or burial grounds. Many mummy-pits have been found.


Dimensions de la Grande Pyramide
Mr. Davison's admeasurement of the great pyramid of Gizeh is of the square 746 feet. The perpendicular height 460 feet 11 inches. It consists of stories regularly disposed. Two hundred and six tiers compose the whole height. As the square of every tier is less than the one below it, the space of two or three feet, which is left on all sides by each of them, as they diminish towards the top, forms what is generally called the steps. They are of different dimensions. The entrance [the forced one] is upon the 16th step facing the north. It is not in the middle as is generally imagined, but only 350 feet distant from the north-east corner, whereas it is 396 feet from the north-west corner. According to the French admeasurement, the base of the three pyramids; of Cheops (the largest), Cephren (the second), and Mycerinus (the smallest), is, to their perpendicular height, nearly in the ratio of 8 to 5. Cheops 448 feet high, 728 length of base ; Cephren 398 high, 655 length of base ; Mycerinus 162 high, 280 length of base. According to Belzoni, the base is 684 feet, the apotome or central line down the front from the top to the base 568 feet, the perpendicular 456 feet ; the coating from the top to the place where it ends 140 feet. The perpendicular height is considerably more than the French made , but it may be doubted, whether any one before him worked down to the foundation.


Intérieur des pyramides
Entrance and interior of the pyramids : from a plan in the Quarterly Review, it appears that there were various true passages, which are easily delineated by the following diagram :

From this, it is not only probable that the pyramids contain, as suspected, numerous chambers, but that beneath, and around the base, are catacombs to a considerable extent.
As to the forced passage, it is not modern, nor was made by the Arabs in search of treasure in the eighth century. Strabo says that towards the middle of the height of one of the sides, was a stone that might be lifted, and that it shut up an oblique passage, which led to a coffin, placed in the centre of the pyramid. The passage, now open, is only 100 feet from the base. So that there was no primary violation, as pretended, by the caliphs Mahmoud, or Haroun Al-Raschid. Belzoni thus describes his mode of detecting the real entrances. Three marks on the north side suggested it. The other hints were spots where the stony matters were not so compact as the surrounding masses, and secondly, the concavity of the pyramid over the place where the entrance might have been expected, according to the distance of the entrance into the first pyramid from its centre.
The pyramid consists, so far as has been discovered, of sepulchral chambers and passages leading to them. As to the pretended well, Capt. Cabillia [Caviglia] found that it was only a communication with a lower passage, leading into an interior chamber, which chamber is cut out of the rock, under the centre of the pyramid. Mr. Walpole says that the discovery of the room in the great pyramid of Giza, over the chamber which contains the sarcophagus, is solely due to Mr. Davison, British Consul at Algiers.  (...)

Photo Marc Chartier

Sphinx, temple et pyramide(s) : le point de vue de Belzoni
On the east side of the pyramid, says Belzoni, were found the lower part of a large temple, connected with a portico, and reaching within fifty feet of the base of the pyramid. Its exterior walls were formed of enormous blocks of stone. Some of the blocks in the porticoes are 24 feet high. The interior part of this temple was built with calcareous stones of various size, but many finely cut at the angles, and is probably much older than the exterior wall, which bears the appearance of as great antiquity as the pyramids. There were evidently a spacious pavement from the temple to the pyramids, and Belzoni doubted not, but the same pavement went round the pyramid. It seemed to him, that the Sphinx, the temple, and the pyramid, were all three erected at the same time, as they all appear to be in one line, and of equal antiquity. (...)


“Hieroglyphicks” or not “hieroglyphicks” ?
Hieroglyphicks on the Pyramids : Savary, before quoted, has mentioned the hieroglyphicks of the great pyramid, and the disappearance of them with the casing. Mr. Davison says the greater part of the outer stones, or coverings of the two large pyramids, have been destroyed or carried away. According to Abdullatif's account, they had a prodigious number of hieroglyphical inscriptions, but Mr. Davison could find no traces of them. Belzoni observes that no hieroglyphicks are found in the pyramids, but that nothing can be inferred from this circumstance, respecting their aera ; for in one of the Mausolea, which stands on the west of the first pyramid, and is fallen in and ruinous, may be observed hieroglyphicks and figures reversed on one of the blocks, which formed this mausoleum, and the hieroglyphicks so preserved within, as if they were to be hidden from view. These hieroglyphicks were known previous to the erection of these mausolea, though they were without any of those ornaments or inscriptions.”

Une synthèse, à la fin du XIXe siècle, des travaux de fouilles effectués sur le site de Guizeh

De M. A. Matthey, on ne sait rien sinon qu’il était conférencier et archéologue... ce qui représente déjà une bonne référence. Au cours des “séances” qu’il donna à Genève et Lausanne, sans doute peu avant 1869, sur le thème des explorations modernes en Égypte, il résuma le résultat des fouilles opérées sur le sol égyptien par les Vyse, Caviglia, Belzoni et Mariette.
De ces leçons, mémorisées dans l’ouvrage Explorations modernes en Égypte - Huit séances données à Genève et à Lausanne, 1869, je n’ai pas repris, pour éviter des doublons avec ce qui a déjà été publié dans ce blog, le détail des découvertes réalisées par les égyptologues cités ci-dessus. J’ai simplement retenu quelques considérations plus générales ou conclusions où l’auteur se contente de s’abriter derrière l’autorité scientifique des découvreurs. Sage précaution...

“L'époque monumentale la plus ancienne de l'Égypte est celle des pyramides, ouvrage de la IVme dynastie ; trop d'éléments manquent encore à la science égyptologique actuelle, pour qu'il soit possible d'assigner une date certaine à la construction de ces œuvres immenses. Tout ce qu'on peut dire aujourd'hui c'est que les savants les plus autorisés et en même temps les plus réservés, affirment qu'ils restent au-dessous de la vérité, en assignant aux grandes pyramides, une durée de 25 ou 30 siècles avant J.-C. (...)
Les pyramides sont des tombeaux, c'est un point aujourd'hui parfaitement établi. D'après les croyances égyptiennes, l'âme devait un jour rejoindre la momie et ressusciter le corps ; il fallait donc mettre à l'abri de toute profanation cette précieuse dépouille. Aussi la chambre du sarcophage ne fut rendue accessible que par des couloirs étroits, difficiles, obstrués par des pierres énormes ; et toutefois, en dépit de toutes ces précautions, ces tombes si bien cachées, furent violées et pillées par les Arabes ; on n'a retrouvé aucune trace des corps des rois Chéops et Chéphren.
On voit en face de la seconde pyramide une énorme tête saillir hors du sol : les Arabes l'appellent le père de la terreur. Cette tête appartient à un gigantesque Sphinx dont le corps est enseveli sous les sables. Ce colossal monument n'était qu'un rocher naturel, dont la forme générale rappelait vaguement celle d'un Sphinx ; les Égyptiens complétèrent l'œuvre de la nature, bouchèrent les vides, et, au moyen d'un revêtement de maçonnerie, composé de petites pierres, ils donnèrent à cet informe noyau une grandeur, une grâce vraiment étonnante. (...)
Qu'était, aux yeux des Égyptiens, cette statue colossale ? Grâce aux découvertes de M. Mariette, on peut aujourd'hui répondre à cette question. Les sculptures et les inscriptions attestent que le Sphinx était un dieu. M. Mariette retrouva son nom Hor-emKhu, c'est-à-dire Horus à l'horizon ; il est facile d'identifier ce nom avec celui d'Armachis qui se lit sur une des inscriptions grecques dans le temple ; le colosse était donc l'image du soleil personnifiée sous la forme d'un Sphinx.
De tous les monuments de l'antiquité, le grand Sphinx, malgré les mutilations qu'il a subies, est peut-être celui qui a le plus généralement excité l'admiration. Quelques voyageurs, tout en admirant la tête, ont cru y reconnaître un caractère africain, cette erreur est due à la mutilation d'une partie du nez.

Photo Marc Chartier

Cette tête est un chef-d'œuvre ; son regard contemplatif, la douce expression de sa bouche, modelée avec une finesse d'exécution étonnante, la simplicité des diverses parties, donnent à l'ensemble une grandeur saisissante. (...)
M. Ampère prend le grand Sphinx pour un portrait colossal du roi Toutmès IV (XVIIIme dynastie) ; c'est une erreur : le Sphinx était un animal imaginaire, composé d'un corps de lion et d'une tête d'homme ; c'était suivant les Grecs le symbole de la force unie à l'intelligence.
Mais cette explication ne donne pas le sens vrai du symbole. Ce qui est certain, d'après M. Mariette, c'est que le Sphinx représente toujours, sous la forme d'un lion androcéphale (corps de lion et tête d'homme) le roi qui l'a fait exécuter. On connaît, nous dit le même archéologue, une seule exception à cette règle: c'est le grand Sphinx des pyramides. Qu'originairement cette statue ait représenté le roi Chéphren (IVme dynastie), son constructeur, c'est ce qui est possible ; mais sous la XVlIIme dynastie, elle est l'image d'Armachis (une des formes du dieu Soleil). M. Mariette a trouvé dans le sable, près du monument, deux fragments d'un proscynème (acte d'adoration) adressé au Sphinx. Il y est représenté sur un autel, et la tête ornée d'un large disque solaire. Or, il existe sur la tête du colosse des traces d'usure, semblables à celles que ferait le frottement d'une corde ; cet indice suffit à M. Mariette pour comprendre l'usage de ce trou, profond de plus d'un mètre, qui se voit sur le sommet de la tête. Chaque année, à certaines fêtes, les décorateurs officiels hissaient sur la tête du Sphinx un disque à ailes et le fixaient dans le trou en question. (...)
Dans une des chambres de cet édifice, M. Mariette retira d'un puits, qui devait servir aux ablutions sacrées, neuf statues en brèche verte, qui y furent probablement précipitées dans un jour de révolution. De ces neuf statues, sept sont mutilées, les deux autres sont dans un état parfait de conservation ; elles représentent un roi assis dans la pose traditionnelle ; la tête est ombragée de l'épervier aux ailes déployées ; deux lions debout forment les bras du fauteuil. Quelle fut la joie de M. Mariette quand il déchiffra le cartouche royal gravé sur le socle de ces statues et qu'il lut le nom de Chafra, le fondateur de la seconde pyramide ! (...)
L'architecture de cette époque produit les pyramides, c'est-à-dire des merveilles.
Quand on considère la conception grandiose des plans, l'énormité des blocs de granit, amenés des extrémités de l'Égypte, la coupe des pierres si précise et si savante, l'excellence étonnante de l'appareillage de ces masses gigantesques, et l'exacte orientation des faces pyramidales, on se demande comment dans une si haute antiquité se trouve un avancement si parfait dans l'art de construire, et l'on est forcé de reconnaître que de longues générations ont dû s'écouler avant l'époque qui a vu s'élever les pyramides. (...)
Messieurs, j'insiste sur ces découvertes, elles méritent toute notre attention ; quand on creuse dans le sol des pyramides, on touche pour ainsi dire aux couches géologiques de l'histoire de l'humanité. Eh bien ! loin de trouver un état de barbarie on découvre, non sans surprise, une civilisation et un développement des arts qu'on était bien loin de soupçonner.”

Selon Henry Salt (XIXe s.), la chambre souterraine de la Grande Pyramide devait être “richement ornée et peut-être utilisée pour le déroulement de quelques mystères secrets”

L’artiste et voyageur britannique Henry Salt (1780-1827) eut une carrière de diplomate en Égypte, comme consul général de son pays. Durant son séjour sur les rives du Nil, il s’ingénia à (faire) collecter de nombreux objets d’art pour alimenter le département des antiquités égyptiennes au British Museum.

Son intérêt pour l’égyptologie se manifesta également par le soutien qu’il apporta aux travaux de fouilles entrepris par Belzoni et Caviglia.
Accompagnant ce dernier, qui explorait alors les entrailles de la Grande Pyramide, il put ainsi effectuer une visite approfondie de la chambre souterraine, sur laquelle il donna le commentaire suivant, que j’ai extrait de l’ouvrage The life and correspondence of Henry Salt, par J.J. Halls, vol. 2, 1834 :

“Before I quit this chamber, I must observe that though it now bears so rude and unfinished an appearance, yet, after comparing it very carefully with many other subterranean chambers that have been disfigured by the effects of time and the rude hands of curious inquirers, I cannot help entertaining an opinion that it was once highly ornamented, and perhaps used for carrying on some secret mysteries. I confess that I had flattered myself, before it was cleared out, that it would be found to correspond with the one described by Herodotus as containing the tomb of Cheops, and into which, according to the usual interpretation of the passage, was introduced a canal from the Nile ; but after the necessary examination, I was reluctantly compelled to relinquish the idea from there being no inlet for the water to enter, and from finding that the Nile, according to the late French observations, does not rise to within thirty feet of its level when the river stands at its highest elevation. From an expression, however, in Strabo, that the entrance leads directly down to the chamber in which stood the ' thua,' there seems some reason to believe that the new chamber was the only one open in his day : a circumstance confirmed by Pliny's making mention only of what he calls a 'well' at eighty-six cubits below the surface, which also very nearly agrees with the actual depth of this chamber.
It was left for a Mussulman to discover the real sanctuary and to despoil the tombs of their contents. Al Hamoun, the son of Haroun al Raschid, prompted by the treasure-searching spirit of the age, effected this laborious undertaking, and though the difficulties could not have amounted to what the prosing genius of Maillet has supposed, yet they might well have defied any efforts except those of a sovereign enthusiastic in the pursuit. The Arab authors of best repute have recounted the details of this discovery, and every circumstance, in the present aspect of the pyramid, serves to confirm their veracity.”


À ce texte, l’éditeur de l’ouvrage apporte le commentaire suivant :
“It seems difficult to conjecture on what grounds Mr. Salt entertained the above opinion, as the details of his description certainly appear to favour the supposition of this chamber being merely an unfinished excavation. The commencement of a well in its central compartment, the long passage literally "leading to nothing", and the fact of no vestige of ornamental remains being found among the rubbish with which it was filled, all tend to confirm the notion that the apartment must have been left originally in an incomplete state.”

Les bâtisseurs égyptiens ont construit les pyramides “avec une grande attention à l’exactitude des proportions” (J.L. Stephens - XIXe s.)

Avant de se spécialiser dans la civilisation maya, au cours de voyages qui le menèrent en Amérique centrale et au Mexique, l’explorateur, écrivain et archéologue américain John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852) prit la direction du Moyen-Orient, avec une halte en Égypte et plus particulièrement à Guizeh et Saqqarah. Il relata ce périple dans Incidents of travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea and the Holy Land (1837). Le texte qui suit est extrait du vol. 1 de cet ouvrage.

Le récit de Stephens est sobre. Les visites qu’il a effectuées à la découverte des pyramides ont apparemment été rapides, mais non expéditives. Preuve en est que l’auteur s’attarde sur certains détails, particulièrement importants à ses yeux : mise en place du sarcophage de la chambre du Roi dans la Grande Pyramide, implantation de cette chambre, caractéristiques du “puits”... Il s’ingénia également à prolonger son programme de visites par un détour vers le site de Saqqarah, ce qui, semble-t-il, n’était pas courant à son époque, alors que les pyramides qui s’y trouvent “méritent à elles seules un pèlerinage en Égypte”.
Je relève finalement cette ligne de conduite que l’auteur a fait sienne dans sa lecture des monuments : “Je me suis toujours efforcé de prendre moi-même mes décisions, à partir des travaux, des spéculations et des opinions contradictoires des autres.” Peut-on y voir un exemple de probité intellectuelle ?

John Lloyd Stephens

“The base of the great pyramid is about eight hundred feet square, covering a surface of about eleven acres, according to the best measurement, and four hundred and sixty-one feet high ; or, to give a clearer idea, starting from a base as large as Washington Parade Ground, it rises to a tapering point nearly three times as high as Trinity Church steeple. Even as I walked around it, and looked up at it from the base, I did not feel its immensity until I commenced ascending; then, having climbed some distance up, when I stopped to breathe and look down upon my friend below, who was dwindled to insect size, and up at the great distance between me and the summit, then I realized in all their force the huge dimensions of this giant work. (...) There are two hundred and six tiers of stone, from one to four feet in height, each two or three feet smaller than the one below, making what are called the steps. Very often the steps were so high that I could not reach them with my feet. Indeed, for the most part, I was obliged to climb with my knees, deriving great assistance from the step which one Arab made for me with his knee, and the helping hand of another above. (...)

The great pyramid is supposed to contain six millions of cubic feet of stone, and a hundred thousand men are said to have been employed twenty years in building it. The four angles stand exactly in the four points of the compass, inducing the belief that it was intended for other purposes than those of a sepulchre. The entrance is on the north side. The sands of the desert have encroached upon it, and, with the fallen stones and rubbish, have buried it to the sixteenth step.
Climbing over this rubbish the entrance is reached, a narrow passage three and a half feet square, lined with broad blocks of polished granite, descending in the interior at an angle of twenty-seven degrees for about ninety-two feet ; then the passage turns to the right, and winds upward to a steep ascent of eight or nine feet, and then falls into the natural passage, which is five feet high and one hundred feet long, forming a continued ascent to a sort of landing-place ; in a small recess of this is the orifice or shaft called the well. Moving onward through a long passage, the explorer comes to what is called the Queen's Chamber, seventeen feet long, fourteen wide, and twelve high. I entered a hole opening from this crypt, and crawling on my hands and knees, came to a larger opening, not a regular chamber, and now cumbered with fallen stones. Immediately above this, ascending by an inclined plane lined with highly polished granite, and about one hundred and twenty feet in length, and mounting a short space by means of holes cut in the sides, I entered the King's Chamber, about thirty-seven feet long, seventeen feet wide, and twenty feet high. The walls of the chamber are of red granite, highly polished, each stone reaching from the floor to the ceiling ; and the ceiling is formed of nine large slabs of polished granite, extending from wall to wall. It is not the least interesting part of a visit to the interior of the pyramids, as you are groping your way after your Arab guide, to feel your hand running along the sides of an enormous shaft, smooth and polished as the finest marble, and to see by the light of the flaring torch chambers of red granite from the Cataracts of the Nile, the immense blocks standing around and above you, smooth and beautifully polished in places, where, if our notions of the pyramids be true, they were intended but for few mortal eyes.
At one end of the chamber stands a sarcophagus, also of red granite ; its length is seven feet six inches, depth three and a half, breadth three feet three inches. Here is supposed to have slept one of the great rulers of the earth, the king of the then greatest kingdom of the world, the proud mortal for whom this mighty structure was raised. Where is he now ? Even his dry bones are gone, torn away by rude hands, and scattered by the winds of heaven.
There is something curious about this sarcophagus too. It is exactly the size of the orifice which forms the entrance of the pyramid, and could not have been conveyed to its place by any of the now known passages ; consequently, must have been deposited during the building, or before the passage was finished in its present state.
The interior of the pyramid is excessively hot, particularly when surrounded by a number of Arabs and flaring torches. Leaving the King's Chamber, I descended the inclined plane, and prepared to descend the well referred to by Pliny. The shaft is small; merely large enough to permit one to descend with the legs astride, the feet resting in little niches, and hands clinging to the same. (...) Moreover, it was very hot and smothering; and as there was nothing particular to see, nor any discovery to make, I concluded to give it up ; and calling my guides to return, in a few moments escaped from the hot and confined air of the pyramid. (...)
This pyramid [Cephrenes] was opened at great labour and expense by the indefatigable Belzoni, and a chamber discovered containing a sarcophagus, as in that of Cheops. The passage, however, has now become choked up and hardly accessible. Though not so high, it is much more difficult to mount than the other, the outside being covered with a coat of hard and polished cement, at the top almost perfectly smooth and unbroken. (...)
A new attempt is now making to explore the interior of this pyramid. Colonel Vyse, an English gentleman of fortune, has devoted the last six months to this most interesting work. He has for an associate in his labours the veteran Caviglia, who returns to the pyramids rich with the experience of twenty years in exploring the temples and tombs of Upper Egypt. By a detailed report and drawing received by Mr. Gliddon (now in this country) from Caviglia himself, and by private letters of later date, it appears that they have already discovered a new passage and another chamber, containing on one of the walls a single hieroglyphic. This hieroglyphic was then under the consideration of the savants and pupils of the Champollion school in Egypt ; and, whether they succeed in reading it or not, we cannot help promising ourselves the most interesting results from the enterprise and labours of Colonel Vyse and Caviglia.
The pyramids, like all the other works of the ancient Egyptians, are built with great regard to accuracy of proportion. The sepulchral chamber is not in the centre, but in an irregular and out-of-the-way position in the vast pile ; and some idea may be formed of the great ignorance which must exist in regard to the whole structure and its uses, from the fact that by computation, allowing an equal solid bulk for partition walls, there is sufficient space in the great pyramid for three thousand seven hundred chambers as large as that containing the sarcophagus.
Next to the pyramids, probably as old, and hardly inferior in interest, is the celebrated Sphinx. Notwithstanding the great labours of Caviglia, it is now so covered with sand that it is difficult to realize the bulk of this gigantic monument. Its head, neck, shoulders, and breast are still uncovered ; its face, though worn and broken, is mild, amiable, and intelligent, seeming, among the tombs around it, like a divinity guarding the dead.(...)
My movements in Egypt were too hurried, my means of observation and my stock of knowledge too limited, to enable me to speculate advisedly upon the mystery which overhangs the history of her ruined cities ; but I always endeavoured to come to some decision of my own, from the labours, the speculations, and the conflicting opinions of others. An expression which I had seen referred to in one of the books, as being the only one in the Bible in which Memphis was mentioned by name, was uppermost in my mind while I was wandering over its site. " And Memphis shall bury them." There must be, I thought, some special meaning in this expression; some allusion to the manner in which the dead were buried at Memphis, or to a cemetery or tombs different from those which existed in other cities of its day. It seems almost impossible to believe that a city, having for its burying-place the immense tombs and pyramids which even yet for many miles skirt the borders of the desert, can ever have stood upon the site of this miserable village ; but the evidence is irresistible.
The plain on which this ancient city stood is one of the richest on the Nile, and herds of cattle are still seen grazing upon it, as in the days of the Pharaohs.
The pyramids of Sacchara stand on the edge of the desert, a little south of the site of Memphis. If it was not for their mightier neighbours, these pyramids, which are comparatively seldom honoured with a visit, would alone be deemed worthy of a pilgrimage to Egypt. The first to which we came is about three hundred and fifty feet high, and seven hundred feet square at its base. The door is on the north side, one hundred and eighty feet from the base. The entrance is by a beautifully-polished shaft, two hundred feet long (...). We descended till we found the passage choked up with huge stones. I was very anxious to see the interior, as there is a chamber within said to resemble the tomb of Agamemnon at Mycene : and having once made an interesting visit to that tomb of the king of kings, I wished to compare them ; but it was excessively close, the sweat was pouring from us in streams, and we were suffocating with heat and dust. We came out and attempted to clamber up the side from the door to the top, but found it so difficult that we abandoned the effort, although Paul afterward mounted, with great ease, by one of the corners. (...)
There are several pyramids in this vicinity ; among others, one which is called the brick pyramid, and which has crumbled so gradually and uniformly that it now appears only a huge misshapen mass of brick, somewhat resembling a beehive. Its ruins speak a moral lesson. Herodotus says that this fallen pyramid was built by King Asychis, and contained on a piece of marble the vainglorious inscription : « Do not disparage my worth by comparing me to those pyramids composed of stone ; I am as much superior to them as Jove is to the rest of the deities."