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)

ί 50 )

It has been a very prevailing, not to say general
opinion, that the sands which environ the Pyramid and
hide a great part of it's reclining sides, next to the
foundation, have been drifted by the winds from other
parts of those regions, and lodged, in the circuitous
strata now seen, on every side of it. A strange property,
surely, must be imagined in those winds, thus invariably
to combine their efforts, to bury this stupendous moun-
tain of art, without ever taking back any part of their
deposite. Strange, however, as it appears to me, it has
been received by most writers and visitors of the py-
ramid, which opinion I now shall venture to combat.

At the time Herodotus reported the length of the
side of the base to be 800 feet, (proved above to be of
the standard Chest and equal to ft.583, in.8of ours), all
will agree that he dug not, like the French of late through
the sands, in search of the exact length of the founda-
tions of a pile, which he was led to believe to be a
sepulchral monument ; but only measured on the
adventitious surface, and that probably to no great
exactness, but thought a few feet of no such consequence
as to spoil the round number 800, by inserting them.

Now if the surface had continued to rise by the
incessant arrival of sand ; as, about 2000 years after
Herodotus, Mr. Greaves, professor of astronomy, most
accurately measured the side of the base also on the
adventitious surface, he must have necessarily found,
from 2000 years accumulation of sand against the acclin-
ing sides, a much less length of side, than Herodotus
records ; whereas he made the length 693 feet English,
which exceeds it by 110 feet. And the learned admit
that we may depend on the veracity of Herodotus in
such matters as fell under his cognizance ; and who can

deny