If mainly brick, the bricks were moulded on the spot with earth taken from the foot of the hill.

If of stone, the nearest parts of the plateau provided the common marly limestone in abundance (Note 15).

The fine limestone of Turah was usually reserved for the chambers and the casing, and this might be had without even sending specially for it to the opposite side of the Nile; for at Memphis there were stores always full, upon which they continually drew for public buildings, and, therefore, also for the royal tombs.

The blocks being taken from these stores, and borne by boats to close below the hill, were raised to their required places along gently sloping causeways.

The internal arrangement of the pyramids, the lengths of the passages and their heights, were very variable; the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) rose to 475 feet above the ground, the smallest was not 30 feet high.