The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

length of the causeway was 5 sta&dioi, that is, somewhere between 891 and 1065
meters. 410 The only measurement that finds Herodotus and modern excavations in
agreement is the width of the causeway, whose actual figure of 18.50 meters is not far
away from Herodotus’ ten o)rguiai/, which lie between 17.80 and 21.30 meters. 411 As for
the height of the structure, Herodotus’ allegation that its highest point was eight o)rguiai/
has been translated to mean forty-eight feet (c. 14.5 meters), 412 but as Lloyd remarks, the
absence of material evidence makes this measurement impossible to establish. 413 The
foundations of the structure have been estimated to have reached more than 40 meters
(131 feet) in height, 414 and it has been thought to have been roofed. 415 The architectural
evidence that has been excavated so far amounts only to “a fragment of the south wall of
also located during this investigation. The literature following this investigation, however, records no
consistent measurement of the length of the causeway. Thus, Hawass, “The Programs,”in O’Connor and
Silverman, eds., Ancient Egyptian Kingship 226, states that the overall length of the causeway was
approximately 825 meters; Lehner, The Complete Pyramids 109, says 739.8 meters; Haase, Eine Stätte für
die Ewigkeit 58, estimates that the overall length of the causeway was approximately 700 meters, but does
caution that there is no fixed measurement of the structure in the existing literature.
410 Lloyd, Herodotus. Book II 65, equates Herodotus’ measurement to 925 meters, but the same author,
“Herodotus on Egyptian Buildings,” in Powell, ed., The Greek World 278, says that this measurement
should be somewhere between 891 and 1065 meters.
411 For the width of the causeway being 18.50 meters, see Goyon, “Le chausée” 58, and also Lloyd,
Herodotus. Book II 65. For the suggestion that this width was 18.35 meters, and the further attempt to
decipher Herodotus’ figure, see Lloyd, “Herodotus on Egyptian Buildings,” in Powell, ed., The Greek
World 278.
412 Forty eight feet: De Sélincourt and Marincola, Herodotus. The Histories 146; Macaulay and Lateiner,
The Histories. Herodotus 120; eight fathoms: Godley, Herodotus 427; Waterfield, Herodotus. The
Histories 145.
413 Lloyd, Herodotus Book II 65.
414 Lehner, The Complete Pyramids 109; also Haase, Eine Stätte für die Ewigkeit, 58, fig. 59a, clarifies that
the difference in height of the causeway, between the valley and mortuary temples, was approximately 40
meters.
415 Z. Hawass and M. Verner, “Newly Discovered Blocks from the Causeway of Sahure (Archaeological
Report),” MDAIK 52 (1996) 17; also Hawass, “The Programs,” in O’Connor and Silverman, eds., Ancient
Egyptian Kingship 226; and Z. Hawass, Mountains of the Pharaohs. The Untold Story of the Pyramid
Builders (New York, 2006) 70, where he states that “enough of this causeway remained in the fifth century
B.C. for Herodotus to be able to describe it as a huge roofed structure decorated with birds and stars.” Also
in discussing the causeways of Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid complexes, D. Arnold, “Royal Cult
Complexes of the Old and Middle Kingdoms,” in Shafer, ed., Temples of Ancient Egypt 54-55, maintains
that as a structure, the causeway was a narrow, roofed, thus dark inside, space; finally, Lloyd, Herodotus.
Book II 65, rightly points out, that it is not clear whether the causeway of Khufu “was roofed like the
causeways of Chephren and Unas or unroofed like that of Snofru.”
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