知道吗？那时没有机器——没有滑车，没有起重机，没有轨道，没有卡车，没有发动机，更没有其他什么机器发明——不像我们现在有升降和运载大型货物的工具，可以单靠纯机械外力运输每一块石料。那时候，重物搬运全靠人力，几百个人在前面拉，几百个人在后面推，这样来把石料搬运到目的地。当时金字塔旁可能事先修筑了一条路，用以拖运石块。据推测，基奥普斯金字塔花费了二十年左右的时间，动用了十万名劳工才得以建成。
金字塔的外部在刚建成时表面平滑、细腻——或许是因为大量使用了不同颜色的大理石，可是没多久，这些外部抛光的大理石却惨遭偷盗，被偷运作了其他建筑材料，导致现在金字塔的侧面粗糙不堪，出现不规则的石阶。每一级石阶都有好几英尺高，从任何一面你都可以轻而易举地拾级而上，爬上金字塔顶端。
我们把基奥普斯金字塔称作大金字塔。如果我们像切奶酪一样把这座金字塔从中间切开的话，你将会看到三个小房间紧紧相依，而且还有过道通往每个房间。其余的部分就是坚硬的岩石了，见图60-1。
最顶端的房子用以放置国王的木乃伊。为了保证顶端石头的重量不会压垮盛放国王遗体的房间，于是就用石头把顶端建成五层，层层相叠，中间留出空间，最上层呈斜坡状。而连接房屋和金字塔侧面的两条向上倾斜的通道是两个通风口。国王房间的下面是王后的房间，再往下即金字塔的地下室或地基里的房间，或许空无一物。这曾一度成为大金字塔的一个谜团，但如今此谜团已被解开。如图所示，该金字塔只有一条通道通向外界。这条通道从侧边岔开一条秘密小道，通往国王和王后的房间。由这条通道一直往下就到达那间空屋。基奥普斯害怕自己和王后死后埋葬此地时，他的敌人会偷走他们的木乃伊，在最后审判日阻止他们的肉体复活。所以让人埋葬他和王后之后，把每一条通道都塞满石头，并掩盖好每一个出口，这样就没人知道如何找到他们了。
基奥普斯盘算万一出口真的被人发现了，所以就把通道一直挖到地下室，这条笔直的通道会把人一直往下带，越带越偏，这样就找不到另外那条通往国王和王后房间的密道了。即使最终到达那间空屋，却一无所获——就像是愚人节开的玩笑。
尽管基奥普斯挖空心思采取了万无一失的预防措施，以防被人找到他的藏身处，但所有的通道还是被后人发现了，房间被一一打开，木乃伊也被挪走——被谁挪走，挪到哪里，却无人知晓——这简直就是拿基奥普斯开玩笑！
如我所述，尽管目前现存的金字塔有一百多座，但并不是每一座都是真的按金字塔形状而建造的。也就是说，并不是所有的金字塔都呈三角形。有些金字塔的底端也并不那么倾斜，可能是建筑师后来改变了主意，建到上方开始加剧倾斜。法老在建造金字塔的时候也许正病危，害怕自己在金字塔竣工前就要驾崩，所以加快了进度。在某些金字塔的内部，侧边有一些巨大的台阶弯弯曲曲地向上蜿蜒。或许法老只是希望自己的金字塔能与众有所不同。还有的法老也许是比较贫困，他们的金字塔由砖块而不是岩石建成。
在沙漠中紧紧伫立的三座大金字塔依然威严而神圣，穿越了千古，还将流芳百世。它的壮丽与威严让观赏者震撼。
庞大不等于雄伟。庞大也可能面目可憎。但是金字塔成了人类历史的丰碑，实现了人类建造坚固持久建筑物的愿望，宣告了当时建筑家们的成功。金字塔也是这样一座丰碑，证明了埃及人死后可以复活的信念。掩卷沉思，历史的丰碑虽然竖立了，但芸芸众生却在这儿繁衍生息，生老病死，接着是一批又一批的生命在这重演，来了又走了，而金字塔却伫立依然，这不得不让我们感叹生命的短暂，敬畏永恒之漫长。而这永恒，就是艺术。
所有的金字塔都是坟墓，但坟墓不一定都是金字塔。也就是说，有些坟墓压根儿连金字塔的皮毛都沾不上，只不过是一些带有小平顶的石建筑罢了。而且，在尼罗河西岸有一些坟墓只不过是在石崖上凿出的洞窟。这些石墓开凿在尼罗河西岸，好使墓口朝东，向着升起的太阳。埃及人的坟墓毫无例外都是这样设计的。他们相信，只有坟墓面朝太阳升起的东方，太阳神在最后审判日那天才可以唤醒沉睡的亡灵，就像初升的太阳在早晨把阳光射进东边的窗户会照醒沉睡者一样。
尼罗河西岸著名的石窟墓之一——贝尼哈桑墓。特别有趣的是，墓的正面有两根圆柱，这两根圆柱是从同一块石头开凿出来的。
而金字塔形状的坟墓一般不用柱子。以上就是世界上最古老的房子，为死人建造的房屋。它们是金字塔和坟墓。
HOUSES FOR GODS
神庙
ALL of you at some time or other have built a house.It may have been a house of cards that blew over very easily，or it may have been made of books，or it may have been made of building blocks，or it may have been a shack in the back yard.
Now，every house must have walls and a roof.If you lean two blocks or cards together you have the walls forming a roof and the roof forming the walls.That is the simplest way—the sides form both walls and roof，as in a tent or a wigwam.The sides of the pyramids were both walls and roof.A pyramid was shaped something like a tent，but was built solid except for the small rooms in the center.
I told you the oldest buildings were tombs.The next oldest buildings were temples—houses men built for their gods.On the next page is a picture of the ruin of what we think was a temple.It probably never had a roof，but you can see several stone cross-beams still in place.It is called Stonehenge and it’s not in Egypt，it’s in England.I am showing it to you here because the stones still standing show very well how it was built—not as the pyramids were built，but by putting one stone across two standing stones.This is the second way of building.
No.61-1STONEHENGE，ENGLAND（史前巨石柱，英国）Photograph by Ewing Galloway
The ruins of Stonehenge look very much like something a child might build out of blocks—two blocks standing up with one laid across.But these blocks are of stone，immense stones many times bigger than a man.Stonehenge probably was built just to inclose a space that was set aside as holy ground，where the ancient men came to worship the Sun God，for this was long before Christ was born and before the Christian religion.We call the people who built Stonehenge，Druids.
One of the greatest and oldest of temples is in Egypt.It is the temple at Karnak，part of which was built by Rameses the Great，the Pharaoh who ordered all the Israelite children in Egypt killed.It also is a ruin and one of the most beautiful ruins in the world.You may feel that a ruin could not be beautiful.A broken down and dilapidated house or man is not usually beautiful.Why do you suppose this ruin of Karnak is called beautiful？I know a man who built a ruin in his garden！That’s absurd，ofThe main columns at Karnak which once supported the roof were almost seventy feet high （twelve times as high as a man standing up）and twelve feet wide （twice as thick as a man’s height when he is lying down）.These columns were made to look either like a single lotus flower or a bouquet of lotus flowers.Lotus flowers were water lilies that grew in the Nile.
There are other Egyptian temples，but though all of them are smaller，all were built in somewhat the same way.First there was an avenue of sphinxes leading to the temple，and then there were two obelisks.An obelisk is a tall，upright stone pointed at the top and it was supposed to represent a ray of the sun.
No.61-2RESTORATION OF TEMPLE OF AMON，KARNAK（卡尔纳克的阿蒙神庙复原）Courtesy of The University Prints
After the obelisks，came the gateway to the temple.This was made with two huge towers called pylons one at each side of the door.The pylon walls slant inward and if they went higher they would meet like a pyramid.It is thought that the old astrologers—that is，men who told fortunes from the stars—used to go up on top of these pylons to “read the stars.”The front of these pylons had figures cut into the rock face.See picture No.32-1in Chapter32.
Back of the gateway was a walled courtyard，and back of that was a hall of columns called a hypostyle hall，and back of that the Holy of Holies where the statue of the god was kept.