The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Flinders Petrie

tough jobs, was kept up all the time by personal attention to each man, and without any extra stimulus of bakhshish, either during or after the work. The wages I offered, and freely obtained labour for, were rather above what excavators are required to work for by the Museum; but were far less than what had been paid there before by Europeans. For ordinary work the rate was 10d. a day, and 6d. for boys; for work inside the Pyramid, 1s. a day, and 7 1/2d. for boys. The men were paid weekly, and no attempts were made to impose, as I kept a daily register of the number employed. Ali received what I always paid him while I was living there, £1 a week, and 4s. for his slave and nephew sleeping in the next tomb as guards; for this he was always at my disposal for work (though I did not occupy half of his time), and he made all purchases and arrangements with the neighbours, besides keeping me quite free from molestation or black-mailing by the other Arabs.

* A notice of these excavations appeared at the time in the Academy of 17th December, 1881.

      CHAPTER V.

      CO-ORDINATES OF STATION MARKS AT THE PYRAMIDS.

      18. THE station marks of the triangulation consist of holes drilled in the rock or stone, and filled with blue-tinted plaster, as already described (sec. 10). Where great accuracy was needed a graphite pencil lead was put vertically into the plaster. Thus the mark may be scraped clean, if bruised or defaced, without destroying the mark. To enable the station-mark holes of about 1/6-inch diameter to be readily found, and at the same time to draw off attention from them, two 1/2-inch holes, similarly filled, are drilled, in most cases one on each side of each station mark, at 5 inches from it, to the N.E. and S.W. I also utilized some few of Mr. Gill’s bronze station marks, that had escaped the attention of the Arabs. The less important stations, of the rock trenches, are merely marked by a single 1/2-inch hole, filled with blue plaster. The general position of the station marks are shown in the plan of the triangulation on Pl. i.

19. The co-ordinates of the station marks, &c., are reckoned from a line beyond the N. side of the whole area, and from a line beyond the E. side of the area: thus there are no minus quantities. The azimuth of true North on the system of co-ordinates is East of the approximate North of the system, or the azimuth of its Eastern boundary, by

      + 1° 12′ 22″±6″

      and the value of the unit of co-ordinates in British inches is

·00508259±·00000003

log. ·7060853±·0000017

      or the number of units in the inch

196·750±·001

log. ·2939147±·0000017

      TABLE OF CO-ORDINATES OF MARKED STATIONS.

      RESULTING CO-ORDINATES OF POINTS OF ANCIENT CONSTRUCTION.