History knows nothing either of this judicious sovereign or of many other Pharaohs of the same type, which the dragomans of the Greek period assiduously enforced upon the respectful attention of travellers.  It merely affirms that the example given by Kheops, Khephren, and Mykerinos were by no means lost in later times.  From the beginning of the IVth to the end of the XIVth dynasty—­during more than fifteen hundred years—­the construction of pyramids was a common State affair, provided for by the administration, secured by special services.  Not only did the Pharaohs build them for themselves, but the princes and princesses belonging to the family of the Pharaohs constructed theirs, each one according to his resources; three of these secondary mausoleums are ranged opposite the eastern side of “the Horizon,” three opposite the southern face of “the Supreme,” and everywhere else—­near Abousir, at Saqqara, at Dahshur or in the Fayum—­the majority of the royal pyramids attracted around them a more or less numerous cortege of pyramids of princely foundation often debased in shape and faulty in proportion.  The materials for them were brought from the Arabian chain.  A spur of the latter, projecting in a straight line towards the Nile, as far as the village of Troiu, is nothing but a mass of the finest and whitest limestone.  The Egyptians had quarries here from the earliest times.  By cutting off the stone in every direction, they lowered the point of this spur for a depth of some hundreds of metres.  The appearance of these quarries is almost as astonishing as that of the monuments made out of their material.  The extraction of the stone was carried on with a skill and regularity which denoted ages of experience.  The tunnels were so made as to exhaust the finest and whitest seams without waste, and the chambers were of an enormous extent; the walls were dressed, the pillars and roofs neatly finished, the passages and doorways made of a regular width, so that the whole presented more the appearance of a subterranean temple than of a place for the extraction of building materials.*

* The description of the quarries of Turah, as they were at the beginning of the century, was somewhat briefly given by Jomard, afterwards more completely by Perring.  During the last thirty years the Cairo masons have destroyed the greater part of the ancient remains formerly existing in this district, and have completely changed the appearance of the place.

Hastily written graffiti, in red and black ink, preserve the names of workmen, overseers, and engineers, who had laboured here at certain dates, calculations of pay or rations, diagrams of interesting details, as well as capitals and shafts of columns, which were shaped out on the spot to reduce their weight for transport.  Here and there true official stelas are to be found set apart in a suitable place, recording that after a long interruption such or such an illustrious sovereign had resumed the excavations, and opened