I took two Arabs with me, who gave me their hands, and pulled me up the very large stones.  Any one who is at all subject to dizziness would do very wrong in attempting this feat, for he might be lost without remedy.  Let the reader picture to himself a height of 500 feet, without a railing or a regular staircase by which to make the ascent.  At one angle only the immense blocks of stone have been hewn in such a manner that they form a flight of steps, but a very inconvenient one, as many of these stone blocks are above four feet in height, and offer no projection on which you can place your foot in mounting.  The two Arabs ascended first, and then stretched out their hands to pull me from one block to another.  I preferred climbing over the smaller blocks without assistance.  In three quarters of an hour’s time I had gained the summit of the pyramid.

For a long time I stood lost in thought, and could hardly realise the fact that I was really one of the favoured few who are happy enough to be able to contemplate the most stupendous and imperishable monument ever erected by human hands.  At the first moment I was scarcely able to gaze down from the dizzy height into the deep distance; I could only examine the pyramid itself, and seek to familiarise myself with the idea that I was not dreaming.  Gradually, however, I came to myself, and contemplated the landscape which lay extended beneath me.  From my elevated position I could form a better estimate of the gigantic structure, for here the fact that the base was buried in sand did not prejudice the general effect.  I saw the Nile flowing far beneath me, and a few Bedouins, whom curiosity had attracted to the spot, looked like very pigmies.  In ascending I had seen the immense blocks of stone singly, and ceased to marvel that these monuments are reckoned among the seven wonders of the world.

On the castle the view had been fine, but here, where the prospect was bounded only by the horizon and by the Mokattam mountains, it is grander by far.  I could follow the windings of the river, with its innumerable arms and canals, until it melted into the far horizon, which closed the picture on this side.  Many blooming gardens, and the large extensive town with its environs; the immense desert, with its plains and hills of sand, and the lengthened mountain-range of Mokattam,—­all lay spread before me; and for a long time I sat gazing around me, and wishing that the dear ones at home had been with me, to share in my wonder and delight.

But now the time came not only to look down, but to descend.  Most people find this even more difficult than the ascent; but with me the contrary was the case.  I never grow giddy, and so I advanced in the following manner, without the aid of the Arabs.  On the smaller blocks I sprang from one to the other; when a stone of three or four feet in height was to be encountered, I let myself glide gently down; and I accomplished my descent with so much grace and agility, that I reached the base of the pyramid long before my servant.  Even the Arabs expressed their pleasure at my fearlessness on this dangerous passage.