CHAP. 16. (12.)—MARVELLOUS WORKS IN EGYPT. THE PYRAMIDS.
We must make some mention, too, however cursorily, of the Pyramids of Egypt, so many idle2565 and frivolous pieces of ostentation of their resources, on the part of the monarchs of that country. Indeed, it is asserted by most persons, that the only motive for constructing them, was either a determination not to leave their treasures to their successors or to rivals that might be plotting to supplant them, or to prevent the lower classes from remaining unoccupied. There was great vanity displayed by these men in constructions of this description, and there are still the remains of many of them in an unfinished state. There is one to be seen in the Nome of Arsinoïtes;2566 two in that of Memphites, not far from the Labyrinth, of which we shall shortly have to speak;2567 and two in the place where Lake Mœris2568 was excavated, an immense artificial piece of water, cited by the Egyptians among their wondrous and memorable works: the summits of the pyramids, it is said, are to be seen above the water.
The other three pyramids, the renown of which has filled the whole earth, and which are conspicuous from every quarter to persons navigating the river, are situate on the African2569 side of it, upon a rocky sterile elevation. They lie between the city of Memphis and what we have mentioned2570 as the Delta, within four miles of the river, and seven miles and a-half from Memphis, near a village known as Busiris, the people of which are in the habit of ascending them.