dimensions of the square base thus carefully
placed in latitude 30 deg. north to the best of the builders' power, with
sides carefully oriented.

It seems highly probable that, whatever special purpose the pyramid was
intended to fulfil, a subordinate idea of the builders would have been
to represent symbolically in the proportions of the building such
mathematical and astronomical relations as they were acquainted with.
From what we know by tradition of the men of the remote time when the
pyramid was built, and what we can infer from the ideas of those who
inherited, however remotely, the modes of thought of the earliest
astronomers and mathematicians, we can well believe that they would look
with superstitious reverence on special figures, proportions, numbers,
and so forth. Apart from this, they may have had a quasi-scientific
desire to make a lasting record of their discoveries, and of the
collected knowledge of their time.

It seems altogether probable, then, that the smaller unit of measurement
used by the builders of the great Pyramid was intended, as Professor
Smyth thinks, to be equal to the 500,000,000th part of the earth's
diameter, determined from their geodetical observations. It was
perfectly within the power of mechanicians and mathematicians so
experienced as they undoubtedly were--the pyramid attests so much--to
measure with considerable accuracy the length of a degree of latitude.
They could not possibly (always setting aside the theory of divine
inspiration) have known anything about the compression of the earth's
globe, and therefore could not have intended, as Professor Smyth
supposes, to have had the 500,000,000th part of the earth's polar axis,
as distinguished from any other, for their unit of length. But if they
made observations in or near latitude 30 deg. north on the supposition
that the earth is a globe, their probable error would exceed the
difference even between the earth's polar and equatorial diameters. Both
differences are largely exceeded by the range of difference among the
estimates of the actual length of the sacred cubit, supposed to have
contained twenty-five of these smaller units. And, again, the length of
the pyramid base-side, on which Smyth bases his own estimate of the
sacred cubit, has been variously estimated, the largest measure being
9168 inches, and the lowest 9110 inches. The fundamental theory of the
pyramidalists, that the sacred cubit was exactly one 20,000,000th