1. Pyramidal Structures in Egypt and elsewhere; and the Objects of their Erection

Abstract

After considering the many proposed derivations of the word Pyramid, it was pointed out that the origin of the name suggested by the distinguished Egyptologist, Mr Birch, from two Coptic words, “pouro” “the king,” and “emahau” or “maha,” “tomb,”—the two in combination signifying “the king's tomb,”—was probably correct. “Men,” in Coptic, signifies “monument,” “memorial;” and “pouro-men” or “king's monument” may possibly also be the original form of the word. Various authors, as Pope, Pownall, Daniel Wilson, Burton, had long applied the term pyramid to the larger forms of conical and round sepulchral mounds, cairns, or barrows—such as are found in Ireland, Brittany, Orkney, &c., and in numerous districts of the New World as well as the Old; and which are all characterised by containing in their interior, chambers or cells, constructed usually of large stones, and with megalithic galleries leading into them.