Chap. II.

EGYPTIAN.

SI

anfl that in all probability the Egyptians derived their knowledge of this kind of con-struction from the Ethiopians . Diodorus Siculus informs us that it was from them theEgyptians learned to honour their kings as gods, to bury their dead with so much pomp,and also that from them they received their instruction in sculpture as well as in hierogly-pliical representations; that the Egyptians were a colony drawn out by Osiris , after Egypt was formed by the deposit of the Nile ; that the Egyptian laws were the same as thoseof Ethiopia , &c. —Lib. iii. cap. 1.

At Gibel el Bcrkd, three and a half miles east of the small town of Meroe , and about5200 feet from the Nile , are several remains, among which arc those of a fine temple,said to have been built by Tirhakah, who was the Ethiopian king that assisted Hezekiah

Fig. 43.

GIBEL EL milKEL.

w'hen he was at war with Sennacherib , king of Assyria. These several temples are of con-siderable dimensions, and agree in their architecture and sculpture with what is found inKgypt.

On the western side of the mountain, from whence the stone was taken for the buildingof these several temples, remain seventeen pyramids, which were the burial-places of adynasty of unknowm kings: they resemble those of Meroe . They vary in height from 35to 60 feet, and usually consist of from 30 to 60 steps, which recede about 6 inches, so thatthey form convenient means to mount to the top.

Fig.44.

GIBEL EL BIRKEL.

Pyramids of Nouri. There are traces of thirty-five, fifteen of which are in tolerablepreservation. They vary in dimension from 20 to 110 feet square. Eight of them are 80feet square, and four 70; their height is usually as much as the length of their side.The largest is built up in three stages, and the interior of most of them seem composed ofa conglomerate, or puddingstone, and the casing generally of soft sandstone.

The pyramidal form seems to have been generally adopted by the Egyptians and Ethio­ pians , who considered their palaces only as inns where they tarried for a day, but madetheir sepulchres habitations of rest for ages: there are no such remains in Greece ; yet wefind them in Etruria . According to Pliny , the Etruscans built the tomb of Porsenna inthis form, or rather it had five small pyramids. At Home, the monument of Caius Cestius is pyramidal, and constructed of marble: its base measures 96 feet, and height 121 feet.Caius Cestius , who is supposed to have died when Agrippa was consul , was descended froma noble family, and appointed one of the epulones to prepare the banquets for the gods, at