The Cheyenne Daily Leader

Skill of Ancient Builders.

A personal inspection of the pyramids of Egypt, made by a quarry owner who spent some time recently on the Nile, has led him to the conclusion that the old Egyptians were better builders than those of the present day. He states that there are blocks of stone in the pyramids which weigh three or four times as much as the obelisk on the embankment. He saw a stone whose estimated weight was 880 tons. But then the builders of the pyramids counted human labor lightly. They had great masses of subjects upon whom to draw, and most of their work was done by sheer manual labor and force. There are stones in the pyramids thirty feet in length which fit so closely together that a penknife may be run over the surface without discovering the break between them. They are not laid with mortar, either. There is no machinery so perfect that it will make two surfaces thirty feet in length which will meet together in unison as these stones in the pyramids meet. It is supposed that they were rubbed backward and forward upon each other until the surfaces were assimilated.—London Iron.