DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0238
APPENDIX.
199
extent, that a man from the top of it could not shoot an arrow
more than the half of its circumference. He says that the base
contained seven acres, and that each of its sides would have con-
tained six acres ; but that as they gradually diminished towards the
top, they only occupied five cubits.7 He also mentions that it was
built with very hard stones brought from Arabia, and, as the
adjacent plains were sandy, that the difficulty of conveying the
materials, and of carrying on the work, seemed to him to have
been almost above human power. He repeats the traditions that
3G0,000 men were employed on the Great Pyramid for twenty
years; but, notwithstanding their grandeur, that the kings who
built them were not buried in them, for fear of the resentment of
the people, and that they were interred in obscure places. He
says that the other two Pyramids were much dilapidated, but that
each of their sides formerly contained two acres.
SANDYS (1610).
Sandys says, the Pyramids stand on a rocky level; and that,
as they are built of stone, they could not have been (as Jose-
phus imagined) the work of the Jews, whose labours were in
brick : neither does he agree with Nazianzenus, that they were
granaries built by Joseph before the seven years of famine ; and
he adopts the general tradition, that they were sepulchres of the
Egyptian kings. The greatest of the three was one of the seven
Wonders of the world, and was supposed to stand on a square of
eight acres, each side being three hundred paces in length. The
summit, consisting of three stones only, was large enough for
three score of men to stand upon, and the ascent was by two hun-
dred and fifty-five steps, each step about three feet high, and of
a proportionable breadth. He observes, " that the stones were
too large to have been borne by our carriages; and that they
were cut, afar off in Arabia, from quarries in the Trojan Moun-
tains, so called from the captive Trojans brought by Menelaus
into Egypt, and there afterwards planted." The author proceeds
to quote from Herodotus the number of men and the length of
tune employed in its construction. He ascended at the north-
7 This is very obscure.
199
extent, that a man from the top of it could not shoot an arrow
more than the half of its circumference. He says that the base
contained seven acres, and that each of its sides would have con-
tained six acres ; but that as they gradually diminished towards the
top, they only occupied five cubits.7 He also mentions that it was
built with very hard stones brought from Arabia, and, as the
adjacent plains were sandy, that the difficulty of conveying the
materials, and of carrying on the work, seemed to him to have
been almost above human power. He repeats the traditions that
3G0,000 men were employed on the Great Pyramid for twenty
years; but, notwithstanding their grandeur, that the kings who
built them were not buried in them, for fear of the resentment of
the people, and that they were interred in obscure places. He
says that the other two Pyramids were much dilapidated, but that
each of their sides formerly contained two acres.
SANDYS (1610).
Sandys says, the Pyramids stand on a rocky level; and that,
as they are built of stone, they could not have been (as Jose-
phus imagined) the work of the Jews, whose labours were in
brick : neither does he agree with Nazianzenus, that they were
granaries built by Joseph before the seven years of famine ; and
he adopts the general tradition, that they were sepulchres of the
Egyptian kings. The greatest of the three was one of the seven
Wonders of the world, and was supposed to stand on a square of
eight acres, each side being three hundred paces in length. The
summit, consisting of three stones only, was large enough for
three score of men to stand upon, and the ascent was by two hun-
dred and fifty-five steps, each step about three feet high, and of
a proportionable breadth. He observes, " that the stones were
too large to have been borne by our carriages; and that they
were cut, afar off in Arabia, from quarries in the Trojan Moun-
tains, so called from the captive Trojans brought by Menelaus
into Egypt, and there afterwards planted." The author proceeds
to quote from Herodotus the number of men and the length of
tune employed in its construction. He ascended at the north-
7 This is very obscure.