ch how to hide
and guard his treasures. Nor, if the Great Pyramid had been intended to
receive the treasures of Cheops, would Chephren have built another for
his own treasures, which must have included those gathered by Cheops.
But, apart from this, how inconceivably vast must a treasure-hoard be
supposed to be, the safe guarding of which would have repaid the
enormous cost of the great Pyramid in labour and material! And then, why
should a mere treasure-house have the characteristics of an astronomical
observatory? Manifestly, if the pyramids were used at all to receive
treasures, it can only have been as an entirely subordinate though
perhaps convenient means of utilising these gigantic structures.

Having thus gone through all the suggested purposes of the pyramids save
two or three which clearly do not possess any claim to serious
consideration, and having found none which appear to give any sufficient
account of the history and principal features of these buildings, we
must either abandon the inquiry or seek for some explanation quite
different from any yet suggested. Let us consider what are the principal
points of which the true theory of the pyramids should give an account.

In the first place, the history of the pyramids shows that the erection
of the first great pyramid was in all probability either suggested to
Cheops by wise men who visited Egypt from the East, or else some
important information conveyed to him by such visitors caused him to
conceive the idea of building the pyramid. In either case we may
suppose, as the history indeed suggests, that these learned men, whoever
they may have been, remained in Egypt to superintend the erection of the
structure. It may be that the architectural work was not under their
supervision; in fact, it seems altogether unlikely that shepherd-rulers
would have much to teach the Egyptians in the matter of architecture.
But the astronomical peculiarities which form so significant a feature
of the Great Pyramid were probably provided for entirely under the
instructions of the shepherd chiefs who had exerted so strange an
influence upon the mind of King Cheops.

Next, it seems clear that self-interest must have been the predominant
reason in the mind of the Egyptian king for undertaking this stupendous
work. It is true that his change of religion implies that some higher
cause influenced him. But a ruler who could inflict such grievous
burdens on his people in carrying out