PYRAMIDS OF MERGE I a present in hard cash induced him to go at all. Next morning we were stirring betimes, but no donkey appeared, and just as the sun rose the shekh and myself set out for the pyramids on foot. The morning was comparatively cool, and we reached our destination in an hour, but the shekh sat down on the pebbles at the foot of the hill on which the pyramids stand, for he said he was afraid to go any further. When I reached the top of the hill, and had walked over the rocky ridge to the most easterly pyramid but VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS OF MEROE (WESTERN SIDES).

Showing the difference in the angles of orientation.

one, the scene I saw was one of singular interest. The pyramids were grouped on the highest points of the hill in a kind of semicircle, and the rays of the sun shone into the chapels in front of them, lighting up most of the chambers thoroughly. A little lower down the side of the hill was a second row of pyramids, and at its foot was a third row of pyramids, which were quite small. A little to the south-east, and across the valley, tops of another group of pyramids were just visible, and away to the west, on the flattest part of the plain was another group, and still further away, on the extreme edge of the plain, close to the belt VOL. I. 273 T