Surely if they did, these are none of those. For they would have been built at Alexandria, which was then the regal feat, and not at Memphis, the which, as (q) Diodorus affures us, began to decay after the building of Alexandria; like as the ancient Thebes (as the (r) Græcians ftyled it, or the city of the Sun, as the Egyptians, according to (s) Diodorus, called it, or Diofpolis, as Diodorus and Strabo (t, alfo name it) did after the building of Memphis. Those who imagine the monument or fepulchre, mention'd by (u) Plutarch at Alexandria, into which Cleopatra fled for fear of Auguftus, to have been a Pyramid, are much deceived. For in the life of Mark Antony, where he informs us, that there were fepulchres near the temple of Ifis, of exquifite workmanship, and very high, into which the conveyed the richeft of her treasures, he describes one of them, wherein fhe hid herself, to have had a window above the entrance, by which the drew up with cords the body of Antony, and by which afterwards Proculeius entered, and furprized her. This window is not in any of those Pyramids which I have seen; neither can I apprehend, if these were of as folid and maffy ftones, and of the same shape as those

(9) Diodor. lib. 1 (r) Plato, & alii. (s) Diodor. 1. 1. (1) Strab. lib. 17. (u) Plutarch. in Antonio. d

at

at Memphis, and the chambers within, as remote from the outward fuperficies, of what ufe it could be, either in refpect of light or ornament; and therefore I conjecture, these monuments of the Ptolemies to have been of a different structure from those of the Pyramids.

In all other claffical authors, I find no mention of the founders of the reft in the Libyan defert: and after fuch a distance of time we must be content to be filent with them.

Of

Of the TIME in which the PYRAMIDS were built.

O define the precife Time, in which thefe Pyramids were erected, as it is an inquiry of much difficulty, fo of much importance, in regulating the various and uncertain traditions of the ancients concerning the Egyptian chronology. For if we shall perufe thofe fragments of Manethos, an Egyptian Prieft, preferved by (a) Jofephus; or those relations of (b) Herodotus, of 330 kings to Maris, from Menes, the first that reigned in Ægypt, (who probably is (c) Mizraim, the fecond fon of Cham, and (d) father of the Ægyptians ;) or that computation of (e) Diodorus, borrowed from their facred Commentaries, that to the 180th Olympiad, or to the time in which he travelled thither, there had been a fucceffion in the royal throne for 15000 years; or that

(a) Jofeph. lib. 1. contra Apionem. (b) Herodot. lib. 2.

(c) Gen. 10. 6.

(á) Jofeph. lib. 1. Antiq. cap. 7.

(e) Diodor. lib. 1.

d 2

calcu→

calculation of (f) Pomponius Mela, of 330 kings to the time of Amafis, continuing above thirteen thousand years; or laftly those Dynafties mentioned by Africanus and Eufebius, but pretermitted by Herodotus and Diodorus, the first of which (g) Jofeph Scaliger places in the feven thoufand and ninth year of that Julian period, which by him is called Periodus Juliana poftulatitia, and the time Tempus prolepticum, preceding the creation by 1336 years, we fhall find our felves intangled in a labyrinth, and maze of times, out of which we cannot, without much perplexity, unwind ourselves. And if we farther confider, that amongst those many names delivered by Manethos, and preferved by Jofephus, Africanus, Eufebius, and Syncellus, how few there are that concur with thofe of Herodotus and Diodorus, or with thofe in Plato, Strabo, Pliny, Plutarch, Cenforinus, and fome others: and that which is of greater confequence, how difficult it is to reconcile thefe names and times to the Egyptian kings recorded in the Scriptures, we fhall find ourfelves befet, and as it were environed on every fide, with great and inextricable doubts. What therefore, in inqui

(f) Trecentos & triginta reges ante Amafim, & fupra tredecim millium annorum ætates, certis annalibus referunt. Pompon. Mela, lib. 1. cap.9.

(g) Scalig. in Eufebií Chronic.

ries of this nature, is approved as the most, folid and rational foundation, that is, to find out fome common and received Epocha, in which either all or moft agree, that shall be our guide in matters of fo great antiquity. Now of all the ancient Epocha's, which may conduce to our purpose, there is none that we may fafelier rely upon, than that of the migration of the Ifraelites out of Egypt; which had the fame hand faithfully to pen it, that was the most active and miraculous inftrument of their departure. And though profane hiftorians differ much in the manner of this action, either as they were tainted with malice against the Hebrews, or mifled with the calumnies and falfe reports of their enemies, the Ægyptians; of whom (b) Jofephus may feem to have given a true cenfure, That all the Egyptians in general are ill-affected to the Jews; yet all agree in this, that Mofes was the chief author and conductor of this expedition. If therefore we shall discover the time in which Mofes flourished, and in which this great enterprize was performed by him, it will follow by way of confequence, that knowing what Pharaoh or king in Egypt was coetaneous and concur

(b) φαίνονται τ8 κ δὴ μάλισα πρὸς ἡμᾶς δυσμενῶς διατιθέντες κοινῇ μὲν ἅπαντες Αἰγύπτιοι. Jofeph. 1. 1. contra Apionem.