Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

14 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. ASSYRIAN WORKMEN HAULING A STONE BULL. {From a bas-relief in the British Museum.) the “Arabian Mountain.” He also mentions that ten years were spent in making this Herodotus on the Building of the Pyramids. road, which, in his opinion, was a hardly less notable work than the building of the Pyramid itself. As to the manner of raising the stones to their places in the structure, opinion is divided between the lever and the inclined plane. Herodotus’ account of the building is as follows : “ This pyramid was built in the form of' steps..........When they had first built it—that is, the base— 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 wood, 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, there- fore, were first finished [as regards the smooth casing], and afterwards they completed the parts next following; but last of all they finished the parts on the ground, and that Was an Inclined Plane used ? base breadth angle of were lowest.” This description, on which is based the first of our coloured plates, is quite understandable, and seems to render un- necessary the theory of a huge inclined ramp of earth and sand, extending from the Nile to the Pyramid, raised gradually to keep pace with the growing height of the stonework. The construction and demolition of a ramp 480 feet high, most of a mile in length, and having a sufficient to give the necessary stability ” for the sides, would have been an enterprise far more arduous than the actual building of the Pyramid, which, according to Herodotus, occupied 100,000 men for twenty years. It is not a great assumption to sup- pose that men who were able to embark enor- mous stones on barges, float them down the Nile, and land them again, possessed the tackle needed for raising them up the succes- sive steps of the Pyramids. STONEHENGE as it probably appeared originally. Useful Engineering Feats. Turning to engineering feats of an essentially useful character, we may instance the canal dug about 1450 b.c. to connect the Nile with the Red Sea. A much greater, but less authentic, work was the deflection of the Nile by means of a dam near Memphis in 5000 b.c. — “a work of appalling magnitude,” as it has been described. The ancient Chaldeans were skilled irrigators, who intersected their country with numerous canals from 20 to 30 feet wide and several feet deep. During an expedition in 330 B.c.