Gabb, Thomas: Finis pyramidis or Disquisitions concerning the antiquity and scientific end of the great pyramid of Giza, or ancient Memphis, in Egypt, and of the first standard of linear measure (Retford, 1806)

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requisities, the one, a measure of some known established
quantity, decimally or otherwise divided; the othfer
requisite is, access to the objects, whereof the dimensions
are recorded in denominations of measures different, in
value or quantity, from the established measure we
assume ; and by actual measurement of the same object,
we shall know, by comparison, the value of the measure,
by which those authors calculated. When I say access to
the objects, I mean such objects as are still in existence,
or at least were so, when measured by those who used
our established foot such as the pyramid, by Mr. Greaves;
the broken remains of the Ephesian Diana's columns,
recorded by Barlow; the Parthenon and Olympian at
Athens, by Mr. Stuart, &c. All these I call accessible ;
they have been all measured by our foot, and those
measures recorded.

Therefore when Herodotus says the side'of the base
of the pyramid of Giza is 800 feet long : when Pliny
relates that the front of the Ephesian temple was 290
feet ; and the reclining side of the pyramid was id.
altitude 883 feet and 25 more wanted to reach an apex;
(a part of the top being demolished). When Vitruvius
teaches that a flight of steps up to a temple, in order to
have an easy ascent, should have the riser of a step not
more than ten twelfths of a foot, and the tread not more
than two feet ; what can we know of the size of the
foot these authors used, but by recourse to the objects,
either by ourselves, or by those on whom we rely who
have measured them by our foot

We have, then, the dimensions of the following
objects, in English measure. The base of the pyramid
ft.729 in.7f : the granite Chest ft.7 in.3,559 long, just
one hundredth part of the length of the base, and con-
taining