Histories

This pyramid was made like stairs, which some call steps and others, tiers.

When this, its first form, was completed, the workmen used short wooden logs as levers to raise the rest of the stones[*](That is, the stones which were to fill up the angles of the steps, and make the side of the pyramid a smooth inclined plane. The Pyramids built by Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus respectively are the pyramids of +Giza [31.216,30.16] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Gizeh, near +Cairo [31.25,30.5] (inhabited place), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Cairo.) ; they heaved up the blocks from the ground onto the first tier of steps;

when the stone had been raised, it was set on another lever that stood on the first tier, and the lever again used to lift it from this tier to the next.

It may be that there was a new lever on each tier of steps, or perhaps there was only one lever, quite portable, which they carried up to each tier in turn; I leave this uncertain, as both possibilities were mentioned.

But this is certain, that the upper part of the pyramid was finished off first, then the next below it, and last of all the base and the lowest part.

There are writings on[*](Or, “in.”) the pyramid in Egyptian characters indicating how much was spent on radishes and onions and garlic for the workmen; and I am sure that, when he read me the writing, the interpreter said that sixteen hundred talents of silver had been paid.

Now if that is so, how much must have been spent on the iron with which they worked, and the workmen's food and clothing, considering that the time aforesaid was spent in building, while hewing and carrying the stone and digging out the underground parts was, as I suppose, a business of long duration.