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The pyramid was built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called,
or, according to others, altar-wise. After laying the stones for
the base, they raised the remaining stones to their places by means of
machines formed of short wooden planks. The first machine raised them
from the ground to the top of the first step. On this there was
another machine, which received the stone upon its arrival, and
conveyed it to the second step, whence a third machine advanced it
still higher. Either they had as many machines as there were steps in
the pyramid, or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being
easily moved, was transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose -
both accounts are given, and therefore I mention both. The upper
portion of the pyramid was finished first, then the middle, and
finally the part which was lowest and nearest the ground. There is an
inscription in Egyptian characters on the pyramid which records the
quantity of radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the labourers who
constructed it; and I perfectly well remember that the interpreter who
read the writing to me said that the money expended in this way was
1600 talents of silver. If this then is a true record, what a
vast sum must have been spent on the iron tools used in the work, and
on the feeding and clothing of the labourers, considering the length of
time the work lasted, which has already been stated, and the
additional time - no small space, I imagine - which must have been
occupied by the quarrying of the stones, their conveyance, and the
formation of the underground apartments.
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