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Pyramid of Khufu
tips & insights

Chambers

Khufu's pyramid has three burial chambers - the upper (where he was put to rest), the middle (called "Queen's Chamber") and the lower (carved out of the solid rock below the pyramid). The lower chamber may have been a decoy to confuse tomb robbers.

Misnomer

The "Queen's Chamber" is a misnomer - it was designed for the pharaoh's crypt, but was eventually abandoned in favor of the bigger upper chamber. His queens were interred in the three small stand-alone pyramids at the base of his Seven Wonder pyramid.

Pharaoh Khufu

Little is known about Khufu (Cheops in Greek) the man. Archaeological evidence of his existence is quite skimpy.

Questionable statistic

Many current printed sources state that the pyramid of Khufu required 100,000 slaves and took 20 years to complete. Those figures are derived from writings of the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus. He wasn't qualified to give those numbers because he lived 2,000 years after this Seven Wonder was built and he didn't have the benefit of modern archaeological knowledge.

In reality ...

It took fewer years and workers to build Khufu's pyramid than Herodotus guessed. Moreover, the workforce consisted not of slaves but mainly of local peasants who needed income when the annual Nile flooding prevented them from farming their riverside plots. Their belief in the divine status of their pharaoh Khufu was added motivation.

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