length the party reached a door at the centre of a large chamber.
"Here," says Belzoni, "I walked slowly two or three paces, and then stood still to contemplate the place where I was. Whatever it might be, I certainly considered myself in the centre of that pyramid, which, from time immemorial, had been the subject of the obscure conjectures of many hundred travellers, both ancient and modern. My torch, formed of a few wax candles, gave but a faint light; I could, however, clearly distinguish the principal objects. I naturally turned my eyes to the west end of the chamber, looking for the sarcophagus, which I strongly expected to see in the same situation as that in the first pyramid; but I was disappointed when I saw nothing there. The chamber has a pointed or sloping ceiling, and many of the stones bad been removed from their places, evidently by some one in search of treasure. On my advancing toward the west end, I was agreeably surprised to find that there was a sarcophagus buried on a level with the floor."
Belzoni's researches left no doubt that the pyramids had been a place of sepulture, but his discoveries were somewhat disappointing. The inscriptions on the walls were chiefly in an unknown character, and it was conjectured belonged to a period of remote antiquity, before the invention of hieroglyphic writing; but one inscription, in rudely-formed Arabic characters, was decipherable. It told how "the Master Mohammed Ahmed, lapicide," had opened the great pyramid; and how the "Master Othman and the King Alij Mohammed" had been present at this opening, and had the entrance closed up again. This proved that the pyramid had
