ABSTRACT
HAVING discussed the methods by which the stones were brought to the pyramid plateau we finally come to the vexed problem of how they were placed in position. Every writer on the subject of Egypt has had something to say with regard to it; but among ancient writers the accounts are simply variations of what was written by Herodotus and Diodorus. They were the only ones who received their opinions at first hand from the Egyptian priests, the sole source of scientific knowledge until their religion was abolished in A.D. 379; and their statements are therefore worth repeating. Cary's literal translation of Herodotus from the text of Baehr is as follows: "This pyramid was built thus: in the form of steps which some call crossae, others born ides. When they had first built it in this manner, they raised the remaining stones by machines made of short pieces of wood: having lifted them from the ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived there, it was put on another machine that stood
ready on the first range: and from this it was drawn to the second range on another machine: for the machines were equal in number to the ranges of steps: or they removed the machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher: for I should relate it in both ways, as it is related. The highest parts of it, therefore, were first finished and afterwards they completed the parts next following: but last of all they finished the parts on the ground, and that were lowest." Diodorus says: "The stone is said to have been brought from Arabia (the east side of the Nile was in ancient days called the Arabian shore) a considerable distance and the building made by means of mounds (inclined planes) machines not having yet been invented." He then goes on to wonder what had become of these mounds. The Egyptians told him that they were composed of nitre and salt and dissolved by water when no longer required: but Diodorus does not believe this, and concludes that "The same number of hands that raised the mounds removed the whole to the original place whence they were brought." Wilkinson, who has written the most comprehensive existing work on the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians, 1831, and Colonel Howard Vyse, who, in 1837,
made the first accurate modern survey of the pyramids, are both of the opinion that the machine of Herodotus for raising the blocks was similar to the "Polyspaston" described by Vitruvius. Polyspaston, or many pulleys, is, according to Newton's translation, the term applied by Vitruvius to a species of two-legged sheers supporting tackles. Newton supplies an illustration drawn from Vitruvius's description, which is accurate in principle; but fig. x. is the exact representation, since it is from a sculpture on a tomb [probably that of an architect] of the early Roman Empire, B.c. 44 to 29, and now in the Lateran Museum in Rome. So far as I am aware it is the oldest contemporary illustration of a combination of tackles in existence. In support of his view Colonel Vyse says: "In blocks of each course where visible, are holes 8 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep, apparently to support the machinery described by Herodotus." I have never been able to find such holes; but I have never had his opportunities for making a thorough search. He also says: "In front of the northern face of Cheops are several rows of 4 or 5 feet apart of three or four circular holes in the level rock about 12 inches in diameter, and 8 to 10 inches deep, probably to support sheers or scaffolding for turning the blocks."
