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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conjectures. It is natural to conclude the heavier
particles of sand, when the waters became tranquil,
would sink first, and the lighter particles of course, both
on account of their texture, as well as their more exposed
situation, would easily pulverize, and be sooner conveyed
by the winds to distant places, than the ponderous
compressed layers, intermixed with shells and portions
of loam, which more immediately covered the sides
of the Pyramid, nearer to the rock. Öf course the
reduction of this consolidated mass, has been, by slow
degrees, and it's dispersion, by the winds, so impercép¿
tibie, as to defeat observation.

Hence it may have easily come to pass, that thé
visitors of this Pyramid, who became it's historians,
might judge, the sands which encompass the Pyramid
on every side and extend over the plain, were either thé
natural coat, or at most increased by an accession of
sand brought by the winds: and the deception,concealed
by these apparently natural effects, could only be
detected by some such experiment as I have herein
suggested, viz, the comparing of dimensions taken at
very distant periods.

In about 2000 years, viz, from the time of Herodotus
to the present, I calculate the height to have been
diminished about 95 of our feet, and at present only
about 30 of our feet remain, which the French dug
through at the corners of the Pyramid, and thus ascer-
tained the real length of the side of the base : and by
the calculation made, it appears, if the dimensions by
Herodotus and Greaves may be depended on, that the
winds have removed the sands, at the rate of about 47
feet perpendicular in a 1000 years : then by allowance
made for the more rapid progress in removal, from the

advantage