Histories

​They said that until the reign of King Rhampsinitus there was complete good order in Egypt, and that Egypt flourished greatly; but that Cheops, who became king after him, drove them into every kind of wickedness. For he closed all the temples, first of all barring them from these sacrifices, and after that commanding all the Egyptians to work for him.

​To some indeed, it was assigned to drag stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountain as far as the Nile; and when the stones had been ferried across the river in boats, he ordered others to receive them and drag them to the mountain called Libyan.

​They worked in shifts of a hundred thousand men at a time, each shift for three months. And for the people who were thus worn down, ten years were spent on the road along which they dragged the stones, which road they built, a work which is, as it seems to me, not much less than the pyramid itself.

​For its length is five stades, its width ten fathoms, and its height, where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of polished stone with figures carved upon it. For this road, then, the ten years were spent, and also for the underground chambers on the hill whereon the pyramids stand, which chambers he caused to be made as tombs for himself on an island, having conducted thither a canal from the Nile.

​And for the pyramid itself twenty years were spent in the making; of this, which is square, each face is eight plethra, and its height is equal to this; and it is built of polished stone, fitted together with the utmost care; none of the stones is less than thirty feet.