The Great Pyramid of Giza is 455 feet tall and its volume is calculated at 2.5 million cubic metres. It was built with thousands of slaves. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the classic Seven Wonders of the World.
But before me is what I regard as the Great Incline of Dinorwic. It's not the biggest or longest but it is right near the top of the quarry and marvellously highlights the terraced workings on the far side of the great hole. Coming down a couple of levels from the track round the very top of the huge slate quarry this incline is the only way down I know from the top on this side of the hole. Getting onto it is rather perilous and once on it the stones are now becoming very loose, loosened by wind, rain, frost and wind and people like me who rattle down it. But I take great care, and for good reason. For, off the other side of that stone construction is an enormous hole. I'm guessing that from the back of it to its lowest point might be at least 800 feet deep. You most certainly do not want to go over the edge.
Over the years men toiled, often in terrible conditions, to loosen, lift and move all of that slate by hand. They never used mechanical diggers or even horses. How much stone did they lift and move? If the Great Pyramid of Giza is 2.5 million square metres could we hazard a guess that at Dinorwig perhaps 10-15 million cubic metres of stone was moved by hand. Slate has a specific gravity of around 2.8. That could mean the men of Dinorwig loosened, lifted and transported 35 million tonnes of slate....manually. That's an amazing feat, not least when you consider what the weather can be like there, high up on the mountainside.
Perhaps my figures are overblown. All I know is that this place blows my mind every time I visit. It's a wonder of my world.
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