A collection of curious travels & voyages in two tomes ... / by John Ray ...

In what manner the Pyramids were built.

WE had ended our Discourse of the Pyra∣mids, but that I find one scruple toucht upon by Herodotus, Diodorus, and Pliny, which is worth the discussion, as a point of some concern∣ment in Architecture; and that is, in what man∣ner these Pyramids were built, and with what Art and Contrivance the Stones, especially those vast ones in the first were conveyed up. Hero∣dotus, who first raised the Doubt, gives this solu∣tion:

They carried up the rest of the Stones with little Engines made of Wood, raising them from the ground upon the first row: When the Stone was lodged upon this row, it was put into another Engine, standing upon the first step, from thence it was conveyed to the second row by another: For so many rows and orders of Steps as there were, so many Engines were there; or else they removed the Engine, which was one, and easie to be carried, to eve∣ry particular row, as often as they moved a Stone. We will relate that which is spoken of either part; therefore those in the Pyramid were first made, which were the highest, then by degrees the rest, last of all, those which are nearest to the Ground, and are the lowest.

The first part of this Solution of Herodotus is full of difficulty. How in the erecting and placing of so many machinae, charged with such massy Stones, and those continually passing over the lower degrees, could it be avoided, but that they must either unsettle them, or endanger the

breaking of some Portions of them; which mu∣tilations would have been like Scars in the Face of so magnificent a Building? His second An∣swer is the sounder; but I conceive the Text to be imperfect. Diodorus hath another Fancy:

The Stones (saith he) at a great distance off were prepared in Arabia, and they report, that by the help of Aggeres (Engines not being then invented) the Work was erected. And that which begets the greatest admiration is, that so vast a Structure was perfected in that place, which is all about replenished with Sand, where there appears not any Relicks ei∣ther of the Aggeres, or of the hewing and po∣lishing of the Stones: So that it seems not piecemeal by the Industry of Men, but altoge∣ther, and at once, the whole pile, as it were by some God, was erected in the midst of the Sands. Some of the Aegyptians relate Wonders of it, and endeavour to obtrude I know not what Fables, namely, That these Aggeres con∣sisting of Salt and Nitre, were dissolved by let∣ting in the River, which wholly consumed them without the labour of Hands, leaving this Structure (entire.) But the truth of the busi∣ness is not so, but that those multitudes of men which were employed in raising the Aggeres, carried them away unto their former places: For as they report three hundred and sixty thousand men were employed in these Offices, and the whole Work was scarce finished in the space of twenty years.

Pliny partly agrees with him, and partly gives another Answer: The que∣stion is, by what means the Cement is conveyed up to such a height (he rather might have question'd how those vast Stones were conveyed up) some say, that banks of Nitre and Salt were made up as

the Work rose, which being finished, they were washed away by the River (Nilus.) Others imagine that Bridges were made with Brick; which, the Work being ended, were distributed into private Houses: for they conceive that the Nilus being much lower, could not come to wash them (away.) If I may assume the liberty of a Traveller, I imagine that they were erected, neither as Herodotus describes, nor as Diodorus reports, nor as Pliny relates, but that first they made a large and spacious Tower in the midst reaching to the top; to the sides of this Tower, I conceive, the rest of the Building to have been applied, piece after piece, like so many Buttresses or Supporters, still lessening in height, till at last they came to the lowermost degree. A difficult piece of building taken in the best, and easiest projection; and therefore it is no wonder, if it were not often imitated by the Ancients, and no where expressed or com∣mended by the great Master of Architecture Vi∣truvius. Yet surely if we judge of things by the events, and if we reflect upon the intention of Monuments, which are raised by the Living, to perpetuate the Memory of the Dead, then is this as commendable a way as any. And there∣fore we see at Rome, that though by the revo∣lution of so many Ages the Mausoleum of Augustus be almost decayed, and the Septizonium of Seve∣rus be utterly lost, both intended for lasting and stately Sepulchres, yet the Pyramid of C. Caestius stands fair and almost entire; which is no more to be compared, either for the vastness of the Stones or the whole bulk and fabrick of it, with these, than are the limbs and body of a Dwarf to the dimensions of a Gyant, or some large Colossus.

I have done with the Work, but the Artizans deserve not to be pretermitted; concerning whom the observation of Diodorus is as true, as it is boldly delivered by him.

It is confessed, that these Works (speaking of the Pyramids) far excel the rest in Aegypt, not only in the massiness of the Structures, and in the Ex∣pences, but also in the Industry (and Skill) of the Artificers. The Aegyptians think the Archi∣tects are more to be admired than the Kings, who were at the expence; for they by their abilities and study, these by their Wealth re∣ceived by Inheritance, and by the labours of others erected them.