the Nile is the Sphinx, near
whose feet was the underground temple of Horus.

The pyramids, but especially that of Cheops, as a work of human labor,
astound by their greatness. This pyramid is a pointed stone mountain;
its original height was thirty five stories, or four hundred and
eighty-one feet, standing on a square foundation each side of which was
seven hundred and fifty-five feet. It occupied a little more than
thirteen acres of area, and its four triangular walls would cover
twenty acres of land. In building it, such vast numbers of stones were
used that it would be possible to build a wall of the height of a man,
a wall half a meter thick, and two thousand five hundred kilometers
long.

When the attendants of the prince had disposed themselves under the
wretched trees, some occupied themselves in finding water; others took
out cakes, while Tutmosis dropped to the ground and fell asleep
directly. But the prince and Pentuer walked up and down conversing.

The night was clear enough to let them see on one side the immense
outline of the pyramids, on the other, the Sphinx, which seemed small
in comparison.

"I am here for the fourth time," said the heir, "and my heart is always
filled with regret and astonishment. When a pupil in the higher school,
I thought that, on ascending the throne, I would build something of
more worth than the pyramid of Cheops. But today I am ready to laugh at
my insolence when I think that the great pharaoh in building his tomb
paid sixteen hundred talents (about ten million francs) for the
vegetables alone which were used by the laborers. Where should I find
sixteen hundred talents even for wages?"

"Envy not Cheops, lord," replied the priest. "Other pharaohs have left
better works behind: lakes, canals, roads, schools, and temples."

"But may we compare those things with the pyramids?"

"Of course not," answered Pentuer, hurriedly. "In my eyes and in the
eyes of all the people, each pyramid is a great crime, and that of
Cheops, the greatest of all crimes."

"Thou art too much excited," said the prince.

"I am not. The pharaoh was building his immense tomb for thirty years;
in the course of those years one hundred thousand people worked three
months annually. And what good was there in that work? Whom did it
feed, whom did it cure, to whom did it give clothing? At that work from
ten to twenty thousand people perished yearly; that is, for the tomb of
Cheops a half a million co