Mr. Perigal on the Mode of Constructing the Pyramids. 407 



plethra* in length, and the same measure in height. All the 

 stones t are 30 feet long, well-polished, and joined together 

 with the greatest exactness. This Pyramid was built in suc- 

 cessive layers in the form of steps, like an altar. When they 

 had commenced in that manner they superposed other stones 

 by means of machines consisting of short pieces of wood, 

 I'aising them first from the ground to the first range ; when 

 the stone arrived there it was put on another machine, which 

 rested on the first step, from which it was raised to the second, 

 and so on, for the engines thus employed were equal in num- 

 ber to the several ranges of stones ; or perhaps there was but 

 one engine, which, being easily managed, might be removed 

 as often as they deposited a stone; for I must mention both 

 ways, as related to me. The summit was first completed^, and 

 the rest in succession, so that the last of all finished were the 

 lowermost parts nearest the ground." (Herodotus, b.ii. ch. 124} 

 and 125.) 



Although the stones of the great Pyramid are not all 30 

 feet long, as Herodotus asserts, yet some of them are more 

 than 40 feet long ; and in the middle Pyramid of Abouseir 

 the roof of one of the apartments is formed by three tiers of 

 blocks, each block 48| feet in length. In the ruins at Baalbec 

 are " three stones elevated nearly 20 feet from the ground, 

 each measuring 70 feet in length by 15 in width, while in the 

 quarries, about a mile from the city, there still remains one 

 enormous block, smoothed, planed, and reatly for removal ; it 

 measures 70 feet in length, 14 feet in height, and is 17 feet in 

 thickness at one end and 13f feet at the other, being the same 

 shape, but larger than those in the wall." Mr. Wood com- 

 puted its weight at 2,270,000 lbs., or 1135 tons ! 



There appears to be no evidence to prove that the archi- 

 tects of the Pyramids were acquainted with any contrivances 

 or combinations equivalent to what would be called machines 

 or engines, according to the modern acceptation of the words; 

 on the contrary, it seems much more probable that their gi- 

 gantic undertakings were accomplished by some very simple 

 means; which simplicit}' (leading to the notion that the means 

 were self-evident) was perhaps the very reason that no record 

 was kept, or transmitted to posterity, of their mode of opera- 

 tion. With this conviction, on the assumption that the state- 

 ment of Herodotus might be founded on fact, I endeavoured 

 to discover in what manner such prodigious blocks could have 

 been elevated, from step to step, merely by the aid of short 



* 808 feet. 



t Meaning, probably, the casjng-stones, or pplished stones with which it 

 was faced. 

 X Faced with polished stones. 



