Page 285 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Chapter 35

Tombs and Tombs Only?

Climbing down the Great Pyramid was more nerve wracking than climbing
up. We were no longer struggling against the force of gravity, so the
physical effort was less. But the possibilities of a fatal fall seemed greatly
magnified now that our attention was directed exclusively towards the
ground rather than the heavens. We picked our way with exaggerated
care towards the base of the enormous mountain of stone, sliding and
slithering among the treacherous masonry blocks, feeling as though we
had been reduced to ants.
By the time we had completed the descent the night was over and the
first wash of pale sunlight was filtering into the sky. We paid the 50
Egyptian pounds promised to the guard of the pyramid’s western face
and then, with a tremendous sense of release and exultation, we walked
jauntily away from the monument in the direction of the Pyramid of
Khafre, a few hundred metres to the south-west.
Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure ... Cheops, Chephren, Mycerinus. Whether
they were referred to by their Egyptian or their Greek names, the fact
remained that these three pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty (2575-2467 BC)
were universally acclaimed as the builders of the Giza pyramids. This had
been the case at least since Ancient Egyptian tour guides had told the
Greek historian Herodotus that the Great Pyramid had been built by
Khufu. Herodotus had incorporated this information into the oldest
surviving written description of the monuments, which continued:

Cheops, they said, reigned for fifty years, and on his death the kingship was taken
over by his brother Chephren. He also made a pyramid ... it is forty feet lower than
his brother’s pyramid, but otherwise of the same greatness ... Chephren reigned
for fifty-six years ... then there succeeded Mycerinus, the son of Cheops ... This
man left a pyramid much smaller than his father’s.
1

1 Herodotus, The History (translated by David Grene), University of Chicago Press, 1987,
pp. 187-9.

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