The lake Mœris was a hundred and fifty leagues in circuit, and entirely
the work of one Egyptian king, who caused that immense compass of ground
to be hollowed, to receive the waters of the Nile, when it overflowed
its usual level, and to serve as a reservoir for watering Egypt by means
of canals, when the river was not of sufficient height to overflow and
fertilize the country. From the midst of this lake arose two pyramids,
of six hundred feet in height.
The other pyramids of Egypt, in bulk and solidity so far surpass
whatever we know of edifices, that we should be ready to doubt their
having existed, did they not still subsist. One of the sides of the base
of the highest pyramid measures six hundred and sixty feet. The
free-stones which compose it are each of them thirty feet long. The
moderns are at a loss to imagine by what means such huge and heavy
masses were raised to a height of above four hundred feet.