Note 12 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
The Caliph Melec-Alaziz-Othman-ben-Yusouf (quite worthy of his name) sent a large number of workmen here with orders to destroy the Pyramids. They spent eight months, with pickaxes, ropes, &c., and put him to an enormous expense; but after all were able only to disfigure one front of one, that of Mycerinus, the smallest one. Even Saladin bade his workmen consider Memphis and the Pyramids as quarries, from which to procure materials for building the walls and the citadel of Cairo. Recent accounts from Egypt state that Mohammed Ali is taking from the Pyramid of Mycerinus materials for his great work at the Barage.