258 THE PYRAMIDS. 
hundred thousand persons bemg employed at the 
same time in making bricks, affords of itself a 
proof that the building for which these mate- 
rials were required could be of no ordinary 
magnitude \ This happened, too, after the death 
of one of the kings of Egj/pt'^, at which time, it 
is said, they began " to sigh, by reason of their 
bondage." It is therefore very probable that 
the pyramid at which they laboured was the 
sepulchre of this king: this is matter of conjec- 
ture; although it may be added, that one of the 
Pyramids near Saccdra is built of bricks, coyitaining 
chopped straw \ The fact for present attention 
(l) " Quid vero taiito temporis intervallo tot millia hominum per- 
fecerint, non reperimus, nisi munitionem duarum vel triuni urbium, 
quae ab iis intra paueissimos annos facillime perfici potuit. Debuerunt 
etiam aliud quid maximae molis, laboris, temporis, praestitisse, quodque 
conveniens esset aliquot centenis millibus hominum longissimo et 
continuu tempore ad opus adactis. Nihil autem majus et operosius ia 
iEgypto. atque ejus Historia invenimus exstructione Pyramidum, quas 
ab aliis, aut alio tempore exstructas minime constat." Perizon. Orig. 
Mgypt. 0. 21. i».388. L.Bat. 1711. 
, (2) Exnd. ii. 23. 
(3) See Pococke'sDescript. of the East, vol. I.p.bS. Lond. ] 743. It stands 
about three miles and a half to the south of the Pyramids oi Saccara, 
near the village of Mcnshieh Dashour, and is called Ktoube-el-Menslieh, 
the bricks of Metishieh. It is mentioned by Herodotlis (Euterpe, c. 136). 
Greaves, whi), though an accurate writer, was not always an accurate 
observer, alfer two visits made tu the Pt/i a }}i ids, and haviuo^, as he 
says, {Pre/. loPyramidog. Lond. 1646.) examined t«'.°7i the iicighhovring 
desert, knew not the existence of this pyramid. And he urges 
this as a reason for not subscribing to the opinions ©f those modern 
writers 
