The topmost room was for the king’s own mummy and in order to make sure that the weight of stone above would not crush through the room in which his mummy was，he had five ceilings of stone built，one above the other，with a space above each ceiling and then a slanting ceiling above them all.The two lines slanting upward from his room to the sides are small air passages.The room underneath his own was for his queen and the one under that，in the cellar or foundation of the pyramid was，perhaps，for nobody.That was for a while the great mystery of the Great Pyramid，but now we feel we have guessed the riddle.You see，there was only one passageway starting from the outside.From this one passageway another secret passageway led off to the king’s and queen’s chambers，but the passage that went straight ahead led down to the room that had nothing in it.Cheops was afraid that after he and his queen had been buried away in this tomb，some enemy of his might try to steal their mummies and so prevent them from coming to life again on Judgment Day.So he had all the passageways filled up with stone after he was buried and then the entrance covered so that no one could find where or how to get in.
But Cheops figured that if some one did find the entrance and began to dig out the passageway down to the cellar，this straight passage would lead him off the track and he would keep on down and not see the other secret passageway leading off to the king’s and queen’s chambers.Then when he did reach the empty room，he would find nothing—an April fool joke.
But in spite of all these extraordinary precautions that Cheops took to prevent any one’s finding his mummy，all these passageways and rooms were later discovered and opened and the mummies were removed—to where，by whom，no one knows—and that was a joke on Cheops.
Though，as I told you，there are over a hundred pyramids，not all of them have the true pyramid form.That is，not all of them are triangular.In some pyramids the sides slope in very little at the bottom and then，as if the builder had changed his mind，they slope in faster toward the top.The Pharaoh who built his tomb like this may have been sick and afraid he was going to die before the pyramid was finished and so had to hurry up.In some of the pyramids the sides zigzag toward the top in several giant-like steps，Perhaps the Pharaoh just wanted to have his pyramid different from all the others.Some of the pyramids are built of brick instead of stone.Perhaps the Pharaohs who built such pyramids were poor.
And so，the three greatest pyramids stand close together on the sands of the desert in giant majesty as they have stood for ages past and will for ages and ages to come，to thrill the beholder with their sublime grandeur.
Mere size doesn’t make a thing beautiful.A big thing may be very ugly.But the pyramids are monuments to man’s attempt to make something enduring，lasting，and the builders succeeded in making the most permanent，lasting thing ever built by man.The pyramids are also monuments to their belief in a life after death.And when we think of the millions of people that have come and gone，lived and died，since these mighty monuments were built，and the countless millions that will come and go while the pyramids still stand on，it sets us thinking of the shortness of our little lives and the awesome length of eternity—and that is ART.
No.60-2TOMB AT BENI-HASAN（贝尼哈桑墓）
Courtesy of The University Prints
All the pyramids were tombs，but not all tombs were pyramids.That is—some tombs were not pyramid-shaped at all，but just stone buildings with flat tops.Furthermore，some tombs were simply caves cut into the rock cliffs on the west side of the Nile.
These rock tombs were hollowed out on the west side of the river so that the entrance would face east，toward the rising sun.The Egyptians never faced their tombs any other way，for they thought the Sun God could not wake the dead on Judgment Day unless the tomb faced him as he rose in the east.If the tomb faced him he would wake these people who were dead，just as the rising sun shining into east windows wakes a sleeper in the morning.
Here is such a rock-cut tomb—one of the most famous—a tomb at Beni-Hasan：
It is particularly interesting because it has two colunms in front，two columns cut out of the selfsame rock.None of the pyramid tombs had columns.
So these are the oldest houses in the world.Houses of the dead，Pyramids and tombs.
【中文阅读】
一些人正在讨论房子。“你的房子有多少年数了啊？”其中一个人问我。“五年了，”我答道。“哦，我的房子已经有一个多世纪的历史了。在马萨诸塞州。”
“也不过才一百多年嘛！”另外一个人大声说道，“我的房子已经有两百年历史了。在弗吉尼亚州。”
“好像没我的老呀，”又一个人说道，“我的房子已经有四百五十年历史了。”每个人都竭力讲出一所历史更悠久的房子，来超过对手。“四百五十年啊！”我惊呼，“怎么可能呢！那时候还没发现美洲大陆，还没有一个白人到美国来居住呢！”“那房子不在美国”，他补充道，“在英国。我是英国人。”“哦？是吗，那就另当别论了。如果你指的房子还包括国外的，那我曾经还在一个有一千多年历史的房子里待过呢。那是一座教堂。在法国。”“才一千多年啊。”这位英国人似乎跟我较上劲了。“我曾去过一栋有两千多年历史的房子呢。那是希腊的一座神庙。人们称它为帕台农神庙。”“哼，”我不肯认输地说道：“那有什么，我还到过一座有五千多年历史的房子呢——一个专门为死人建造的房子。在埃及，人称金字塔。”“你赢了，”那位英国人说，“没有哪个房子能超过那个了。”千真万确。世界上最古老的房子就是埃及的金字塔——为死人造的房子。为什么最古老的房子是为死人建造的呢？那五千年前建造这种房子的人，他们当年居住的房子又在哪里呢？
那些房子在很久，很久以前，就已灰飞烟灭了。原因是这样的：那时的人一般有指望也只活到五十岁左右。他们用木头或土砖盖房子，住到死的时候，木屋腐烂了，土砖也归回尘土了。但他们却指望死后长久存在，所以如果是国王，他就为自己建造死后的住房。他建造这房子以便一直维持到最后的审判日。
要知道，埃及人在基督诞生几百年前就已经相信死而复活了。他们相信他们的尸体终有复活的一天，因此，要维持到那一天，他们就用石头来建造金字塔，并且对尸体作防腐处理——就是说，把它们制作成我们所称的木乃伊——也能保存到那一天。如今，金字塔在埃及依然屹立，但曾经在里面的木乃伊却消失不见了。他们或被盗走，或被运走放进了博物馆——在博物馆里，任何人，甚至每一个人都能一饱眼福，尽管这座坟墓建造者的初衷是使其尸体在审判日到来之前都不受打扰。我们不大在意自己死后到底怎样埋葬，在哪埋葬。如今甚至国王和女王都是埋在地下，上面立一个墓碑，或者埋在一个简陋的坟墓里。
埃及的统治者们在尼罗河沿岸总共建造了一百多座金字塔，而最大的一座是由基奥普斯王在基督诞生三千多年前建造的。它至今大约已有五千多年历史了。这座金字塔差不多有五百英尺高。确切地说，它本来高四百八十英尺，但由于顶部塌掉一部分，现在只有四百五十一英尺了。尽管如此，它仍然是目前世界上最大的石头建筑——一座石山。
基奥普斯金字塔是建造在一块坚硬的天然石基上的。但由于当时附近没有可供建造金字塔的岩石，所以不得不从采石场运来，近的有五十里路程，远的甚至有五百里。有的石块甚至比一辆满载的货物车还要重，需要花费好几年时间才能把这些石块运到金字塔工地。