Building The Pyramids

Building the Pyramids, 1844. Diagram showing the possible method of construction of the Egyptian Pyramids. 'Mr Perigal supposes the vast stones of which the pyramids were built to have been raised to their several positions by successive tiltings...The first "purchase" he concludes to have been obtained by removing the earth, beneath the stone to be raised, to the extent of one half, and then lowering the huge block into the space so formed, by the weight of a labourer placed on its unsupported end. After each tilt, he imagines the height gained, to have been secured by the insertion of a board of hard wood, or a slab of metal, of a size corresponding with that of the stone to be raised. When the stone had, in this way, attained the desired height, he considers it to have been forwarded to its destination on rollers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)