Bible -- Antiquities; Bible. Old Testament -- Evidences, authority, etc.
We have seen these mummies that came out of the Great Pyramid, have
poked our way into the treasure room and have seen some of these
recoveries which were made when the pyramid was entered.
To show something of the interest the kings of antiquity had in their
resting places, it is recorded on credible ancient authority that the
building of this Great Pyramid occupied twenty years, and that three
hundred thousand men were employed in the building. Ten years were
occupied in the one task of quarrying the stone. Another decade passed
by in the erection of the monument. Herodotus states that the men worked
in groups of ten thousand, laboring three months at a shift. The records
of Herodotus contain a description of the construction of earthen ramps
up which the stones were skidded by means of wooden machines.
The Cairo Museum contains a number of very valuable exhibits from this
greatest of all burial mounds. So also has the second pyramid of Gheza,
in turn, yielded its mummies, as have the others which have since been
breached.
We cannot ignore the great evidence given by the type of monument
composed of the obelisks, the erection of which delighted the ancient
conquerors. These consisted of enormous stone shafts that towered into
the air sometimes to a distance of seventy feet. These great spires were
engraved with the name of the monarch, a description of his greatness,
and some of the more important records of his reign.
In closing, we must not neglect to mention also the boundary markers
that were so common in the Assyrian culture. These engraved stones,
often illustrated with sculptured figures in high relief, are of unique
importance not only because of their written records but also because of
their ubiquity. Throughout all of the ancient world of Mesopotamia they
seem to have been in general use. Since they were an important factor in
deciding the title of a section of land, they were carefully made and
preserved. The date factor is generally a certain year of the reign of a
given king, and the historical information derived from monuments of
this type is practically unlimited. (See Plate 16.)
Also, since the ancients had no hinges, it was customary in constructing
a door to have it turn upon a pivot. Beneath the door sill was a
hollowed stone customarily called an ouch. This acted as a bearing which
supported the weight of the door and enabled one man easily to swing a
very heavy structure. These ouches were generally engraved with the name
of the building, the purpose of the building and, perhaps, the cost and
record of the construction. (See Plate 17.)
From all these scattered sources, then, we gather together the unified
testimony of multiplied thousands of men once dead who speak from the
long silence of their forgotten era. Their united testimony is an
unbroken chorus of assurance for those who are concerned over the
integrity of the text of the Scripture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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