of the work is inferior to that at
Thebes.

The pictures of the pyramids are misleading. They give the impression
that these great masses of stone rise near palm groves and that the
Sphinx is almost as huge as the pyramid of Cheops which overshadows it.
In reality, the pyramids are set on a sandy plateau, about fifteen feet
high, while the Sphinx is practically buried in a hollow to the west of
the great pyramid and can only be seen from one direction. When you
stand in front of the big pyramid you can form no idea of its size, but
you know from the guide book that it is seven hundred and fifty feet
long and four hundred and fifty-one feet high. The height of each side
is five hundred and sixty-eight feet, while the angle of the sides is
fifty-one degrees fifty minutes. These statistics do not make much
impression on the mind but, when it is said that this huge pyramid
actually covers thirteen acres, the mind begins to grasp the stupendous
size of this great mass of masonry. This pyramid to-day is of dirty
brown color, but when finished it was covered with blocks of white
limestone.

These were removed by various builders and have served to erect mosques
and temples. Had this covering remained intact it would be impossible to
climb the pyramid of Cheops. From Cairo and the Nile, as well as from
the desert, the pyramids are an impressive sight. Unique in shape and
massive as the Libyan hills beyond them, they can never be forgotten,
for they represent more perfectly than any other remains in Egypt the
control by the early kings of unlimited labor and materials.

It used to be the fashion to sneer at the stories told by Herodotus, but
the excavations in Egypt during the last thirty years have demonstrated
that this old Greek traveler was an accurate observer and that what he
saw may be accepted as fact. He was the first to give any detailed
description of the pyramids and of the enormous work of building them.
Herodotus visited Egypt about 450 B. C., and he related that one hundred
thousand men were employed for three months at one time in building the
great pyramid of Cheops. The stone was quarried near the site of the
citadel in Cairo, and ten years were consumed in constructing a great
road across the desert to Gizeh by which the stone was transported. The
remains of this road, formed of massive stone blocks, may now be seen
near the Sphinx. The construction of the big pyramid alone required
twenty years. The story