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Till the death of Rhampsinitus, the priests said, Egypt was
excellently governed, and flourished greatly; but after him Cheops
succeeded to the throne, and plunged into all manner of wickedness.
He closed the temples, and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice,
compelling them instead to labour, one and all, in his service. Some
were required to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile from the
quarries in the Arabian range of hills; others received the blocks
after they had been conveyed in boats across the river, and drew them
to the range of hills called the Libyan. A hundred thousand men
laboured constantly, and were relieved every three months by a fresh
lot. It took ten years' oppression of the people to make the causeway
for the conveyance of the stones, a work not much inferior, in my
judgment, to the pyramid itself. This causeway is five furlongs in
length, ten fathoms wide, and in height, at the highest part, eight
fathoms. It is built of polished stone, and is covered with carvings
of animals. To make it took ten years, as I said - or rather to
make the causeway, the works on the mound where the pyramid stands,
and the underground chambers, which Cheops intended as vaults for his
own use: these last were built on a sort of island, surrounded by
water introduced from the Nile by a canal. The pyramid itself was
twenty years in building. It is a square, eight hundred feet each
way, and the height the same, built entirely of polished stone,
fitted together with the utmost care. The stones of which it is
composed are none of them less than thirty feet in length.
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