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



pieces of wood, when the idea occurred to me that they might 

 have been so raised by some such system as the following 

 process : — 



Each block of stone, shaped and prepared for use before it 

 left the quarry, was conveyed across the Nile (advantage being 

 taken of the periodical inundations) on rafts, or other appro- 

 priate vessels, to the causeway described by Herodotus ; along 

 which it was dragged on rollers, or on sledges if the stone was 

 smoothed or polished, by the labour of men (or of cattle), to a 

 convenient locality adjoining the Pyramid, where it remained 

 till wanted ; thence it was conducted to the first step of the 

 Pyramid on rollers. To get the rollers underneath wedges 

 were used, if it lay on the hard rock ; otherwise the earth was 

 removed from beneath one half of the stone, the director or 

 superintendent having placed himself upon the further end to 

 prevent it from tilting over too soon. 



Next, the director having walked on the top to the other 

 end, the stone (overbalanced by the leverage of his weight) 



tilted into the hollow in the ground, when rollers were placed 

 under the other half of it. 



