So Some
Were Appointed To Draw Stones From The Stone-Quarries In The Arabian
Mountains To The Nile, And Others
He ordered to receive the stones
after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them
To those which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a
hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of
this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by
which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a
work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the
length of it is five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the
height, where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone
smoothed and with figures carved upon it. For this they said, the ten
years were spent, and for the underground he caused to be made as
sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither
a channel from the Nile. For the making of the pyramid itself there
passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid is square, each side
measuring eight hundred feet, and the height of it is the same. It is
built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect
manner, not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length.
This pyramid was made after the manner of steps which some called
"rows" and others "bases": and when they had first made it thus, they
raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of
timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the
steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another
machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to
the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of
the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they
transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried,
to each stage successively, in order that they might take up the
stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it is reported.
However that may be the highest parts of it were finished first, and
afterwards they proceeded to finish that which came next to them, and
lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and the lowest
ranges. On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how much was
spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if I
rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this
inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was
spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been
expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and
clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for
the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time
besides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and
in working at the excavation under the ground? Cheops moreover came,
they said, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money
he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to
obtain from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was
they did not tell me): and she not only obtained the sum appointed by
her father, but also she formed a design for herself privately to
leave behind her a memorial, and she requested each man who came in to
give her one stone upon her building: and of these stones, they told
me, the pyramid was built which stands in front of the great pyramid
in the middle of the three, each side being one hundred and fifty feet
in length.
This Cheops, the Egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after he was
dead his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom. This king followed
the same manner of dealing as the other, both in all the rest and also
in that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of
that which was built by the former (this I know, having myself also
measured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath
nor does a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the
other, in which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows
round an island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid:
but for a basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of
divers colours; and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the
other as regards size, building it close to the great pyramid. These
stand both upon the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. And
Chephren they said reigned fifty and six years. Here then they reckon
one hundred and six years, during which they say that there was
nothing but evil for the Egyptians, and the temples were kept closed
and not opened during all that time. These kings the Egyptians by
reason of their hatred of them are not very willing to name; nay, they
even call the pyramids after the name of Philitis the shepherd, who at
that time pastured flocks in those regions. After him, they said,
Mykerinos became king over Egypt, who was the son of Cheops; and to
him his father's deeds were displeasing, and he both opened the
temples and gave liberty to the people, who were ground down to the
last extremity of evil, to return to their own business and to their
sacrifices: also he gave decisions of their causes juster than those
of all the other kings besides. In regard to this then they commend
this king more than all the other kings who had arisen in Egypt before
him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also when a man
complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his own goods
and thus satisfied his desire.
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