diameter is 116.26. This amount multiplied by 3.14159, the proportion of circumference and diameter, brings out the days 365.24.

The King's Chamber is 412.132 pyramid inches long. With that as a diameter, the circle would equal a square whose side was 365-242; and this, in sacred cubits, is the length of the socket side of the pyramid.

Professor Smyth takes the 26 holes in the ramps of the gallery for days, and the 14 roof over-lappings for months, to get 364 days to the year. He then leads us to the Ante-chamber and the four grooves, one of which only holds the portcullis. Excepting, therefore, one year in four, we have to add but one day to 364; in leap year, two days must be added. He observes, too, that the groove filled by the portcullis is of less width than the other grooves; and so concludes that less than one day in four must be added, as the year is not quite 365 days in length. Another curious coincidence is pointed out by him.

There is

a great step by the upper end of the gallery, which is 90 inches. That, says he, "which increased for the ruling angle of the place, goes close to 366 times into the circumference of the pyramid, eminently reminding, therefore, of the days contained in a year."

But Mr. Petrie discovered that the base of the pyramid divided by 365-242 would equal the ten-millionth part of the earth's radius. Sir Henry James got the base 764 from 360 derahs, or cubits, of 25-488 inches for days. Mr. Wild, C. E., determines that the relation of the Second and Third Pyramids brings out similar results.

20. THE LAW OF GRAVITATION.

The author of the Solar System of the Ancients, informs us that "the pyramid, like the obelisk, still points to the heavens as an enduring record of the laws of gravitation, though it has ceased to be intelligible for countless ages." He remarks, in another place," The Pyramid represents the variation of the time, and the pagoda the variation of the velocity."

As the Great Pyramid is the present subject of enquiry, the obelisk teaching must be deferred for another publication. It will then be satisfactorily seen that the obelisk is one of the most perfect mathematical puzzles ever constructed. It stands the test of modern scale of descent by gravitating force, and elucidates the principle exactly. It is a masonified lecture on conic sections. It illustrates the fact that the most recondite theories of geometry and natural science were practically made use of in Egypt 5000 or 6000 years ago.

The pyramid, not less than the obelisk, which it resembles, can thus answer the enigma of gravitation, generally supposed to have been discovered by Sir Isaac Newton through the accident of an apple falling from a tree.

21. TIME OF DESCENT TO THE MOON AND SUN.

The number of steps to the pyramid, calculated at 219, has served Mr. Wilson with another curious astronomical coincidence, or teaching.

"The Pyramid of Cheops," says he, "will represent the time of descent from the earth to the moon through 219 semi-diameters of the moon, as well as the time of descent from the earth to

the sun, through 219 semi-diameters of the sun. The bases of the pyramids will in both cases be in the centre or orbit of the earth; but, in the descent to the sun, the apex of the external pyramid will be in the centre of the sun, and in the descent to the moon the apex of the external pyramid will be in the centre of the moon. The axis of the external pyramid is supposed to be divided into 219 equal parts, or 219 semi-diameters."

Again, he writes,-"We suppose the Pyramid of Cheops might have been dedicated to the sun, because it represented the semidiameter of the sun and the semi-diameter of the earth's orbit, as well as the time of descent from the earth to the sun; but now it appears that this pyramid will also represent the semidiameter of the moon, and the semi-diameter of the earth's orbit, as well as the time of descent from the earth to the moon. So the Pyramid of Cheops might have been dedicated to both the sun and moon."

He also writes:- "The Pyramid of Cheops indicates the halfcircumference of the earth and the half-diameter of the earth's orbit. Its towering summit may be supposed to reach the heavens, and the pyramid itself to represent the law at the time of a body gravitating from the earth to the sun. The solid hyperbolic temple of Shoemadoo of Pegu represents the law of velocity corresponding to this law of the time."

22. PLANETARY DISTANCES.

Mr. John Wilson also reads the distances of planets in the pyramids. His calculation is by what he calls units; thus, the side of the pyramid, 760 feet, he calls 648 units; and the height, 405 units. Each unit is about 14.074 inches.

The distance of the moon, he explains, will be thus obtained. Twenty times the cube of the side will be five times the distance of the moon. Of course, the amounts must be reduced into units. The cube of the side of the base (6483) would give a quarter the moon's distance. Four times the cube of the pyramid, or the cubes of the four sides, gives the distance of the moon. Ten times sixty cubes, or 600 cubes of the pyramid, gives the distance of Mercury; that of Saturn will be twenty-five times as much, or 15,000 cubes. The cube of twice the side (12963) will be the diameter of the moon's orbit. Twenty-five cubes of the perimeter yields the distance of the earth from the sun; which is as many cubes of the side of the base as the side contains Babylonian feet. This is 1600, the number of talents Herodotus says he saw recorded outside.

The sarcophagus is, according to Mr. Wilson, very suggestive. Ten times the breadth raised to the ninth power gives the distance of Neptune; and the depth raised to the ninth power, the distance of Jupiter. Half the square of the length to the ninth power gives that of Mars. Five cubes of 300 multiplied by the length is the diameter of Mercury's orbit. Two cubes of 200 multiplied by the contents of the inside gives 280 times the distance of the moon, i.e. the distance of Venus.

The Grand Gallery he regards as of the hyperbolic order. If these coincidences appear to be far-fetched, others are open to the same charge.

23. THE RISE OF A POLAR STAR.

Among the interesting discoveries in connection with the pyramid is that by looking through the passage to the northern

heavens, 2170 B.C., an observer would there distinguish the then Polar star, Alpha Draconis, crossing the meridian below the Pole, and by Pleiades crossing it above.

Prof. Smyth thus puts the case :-"At that precise moment, when the Pole star, with the temporary distance of 3° 42′ from the pole, was crossing the meridian below the pole, at the same moment, or in that one year alone of all known years, the bright central star of the Pleiades cluster, separately symbolised in the Grand Gallery, was also on the meridian, but above the pole; and not only near the equator, but on the very same meridian as Precession then assigned to the Equinox." He adds," The combination of all these several events, or phenomena, could only have occurred, according to the precessional calculations of modern astronomy, at or close to the year 2170 B.C."

All must admit this a singular coincidence, like that of the conjunction of planets at the birth of the Saviour. "But what of that?" the reader may ask. It is inferred that the Divine skill, which ordered the arrangements of the King's Chamber, dictated the angle of that passage by which, at the epoch of construction, such a remarkable astronomical occurrence could be observed.

Our own Polar star was then, by the Precession of the Equinoxes, far distant from the North Pole of the heavens, as a Draconis now is. The latter was at its nearest station 2800 B.C. Mr. Smyth admits that "there was a former epoch, viz., 3400 B.C., when the Polar star was also at that foundation distance of 3° 42' from the pole, but with totally opposite accompaniments."

Sir John Herschel declared: "A passage may be said to have

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