338 plint's natural HISTOET. [Book XXXVI. 



and the face between the four corners is three hundred and 

 sixty-three feet in extent. In the vicinity of these erections, 

 there are no vestiges of any buildings left. Far and wide 

 there is nothing but sand to be seen, of a grain somewhat like 

 a lentil in appearance, similar to that of the greater part of 

 Africa, in fact. 



The most difficult problem is, to know how the materials 

 for construction could possibly be carried to so vast a height. 

 According to some authorities, as the building gradually ad- 

 vanced, they heaped up against it vast mounds of nitre^^ and 

 salt ; which piles were melted after its completion, by intro- 

 ducing beneath them the waters of the river. Others, again, 

 maintain, that bridges were constructed, of bricks of clay, and 

 that, when the pyramid was completed, these bricks were dis- 

 tributed for erecting the houses of private individuals. For^ 

 the level of the river, they say, being so much lower, water 

 could never by any possibility have been brought there by the 

 medium of canals. In the interior of the largest Pyramid 

 there is a well, eighty-six cubits deep, which communicates 

 with the river, it is thought. The method of ascertaining the 

 height of the Pyramids and aU similar edifices was discovered^* 

 by Thales of Miletus ; he measuring the shadow at the hour of 

 the day at which it is equal in length to the body projecting it. 



Such are the marvellous Pyramids ; but the crowning marvel 

 of all is, that the smallest, but most admired of them — that we 

 may feel no surprise at the opulence of the kings — was built by 

 Rhodopis,^^ a courtesan ! This woman was once the fellow- 

 slave of JEsopus the philosopher and fabulist, and the sharer 



is a fourth pyramid, but of such small dimensions that some of the Egyp- 

 tian obelisks exceed it in height. 



33 <'Nitrum," See B. xxxi. c, 46. 



3* From this reason being given, it would almost appear that these 

 " bridges" in reality were aqueducts, for conveying the water, in order to 

 melt the mounds of salt and nitre. 



35 A very improbable story, as Ajasson remarks ; as if the method of 

 ascertaining the heights of edifices was unknown to the sages of Egypt, 

 and the constructors of the Pyramids ! 



36 Herodotus, B. ii. cc. 134, 5, takes great pains to prove the absurdity 

 of this story ; and there is little doubt that the beautiful courtesan has been 

 confounded with the equally beautiful Egyptian Queen, Nitocris, who is 

 said by Julius Africanus and Eusebius to have built the third pyramid. 

 As to the courtesan having been a fellow-slave of the fabuhst, .^sop, it is 

 extremely doubtful. 



