Look at the record of Egyptian greatness as preserved in her works: The
pyramids, still in their ruins, are the marvel of mankind. The river
Nile was diverted from its course by monstrous embankments to make a
place for the city of Memphis. The artificial lake of Moeris was created
as a reservoir for the waters of the Nile: it was four hundred and fifty
miles in circumference and three hundred and fifty feet deep, with
subterranean channels, flood-gates, locks, and dams, by which the
wilderness was redeemed from sterility. Look at the magnificent
mason-work of this ancient people! Mr. Kenrick, speaking of the casing
of the Great Pyramid, says, "The joints are scarcely perceptible, and
not wider than the thickness of silver-paper, and the cement so
tenacious that fragments of the casing-stones still remain in their
original position, notwithstanding the lapse of so many centuries, and
the violence by which they were detached." Look at the ruins of the
Labyrinth, which aroused the astonishment of Herodotus; it had three
thousand chambers, half of them above ground and half below--a
combination of courts, chambers, colonnades, statues, and pyramids.
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