THE GREAT PYRAMID.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9581, 29 June 1909, Page 2

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

THE COST OF CHEOPS

A painstaking compiler has just written a paper which gives the estimated cost of reproducing the Great Pyramid of • Cheops. The author assumes that the material should be equally as good as that of the original, and that all the chambers and passages should be reproduced. The length of the sides of the pyramid are at present 746 ft, the height 454 ft, and the area of the base 121 acres. Tb build it there would be required: 3,312,000 cubic yards of coarse limestone as backing stone, 140,000,000 cubic yards of fine limestone as facing stone, 2000 cubic yards of granite as facing stone, and 2000 cubic yards of polished facing granite. The total cost of the above would be at least £7,200,000, and the labour required would- be 24,000,000 days' work, which is equivalent to the work of 40,000 men for a period of two years. Assuming (says "Science Siftings " N that the labour required to re-, produce Egypt's wonderful pyramid would cost no more than an average of 6s per day for each workman, this item would reach a total for the two years of £7,200,000, which would make the total for material and labour £14,400,000. To this figure must be added at least £600,000 for transportation and smaller items, and, practically, wherever built, the cost of a suitable foundation t>f solid rock 120 ft deep, and if a foundation this depth were built, an additional 2,600,000 cubic yards of material would have to be used, bringing the total cost of the reproduction up to about £20,000,000. The Pyramid of Cheops consumed the labour of 100,000 men for thirty years, which is about 900,000,000 days' work.