It is said that six million tons of stone were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid, that of Che'ops, and that its erection occupied one hundred thousand men for twenty years! The mass is not solid, but contains a series of chambers, the entrance to which is on the north side. A long, close, and devious passage leads to the Queen's Chamber, 17 feet long by 12 high. From thence another long passage leads to the King's Chamber, 37 feet by 17, and 20 feet high. At one end of this apartment stands a sarcophagus of red granite, in which the monarch of the greatest kingdom of the Earth is supposed to have been laid.

The second Pyramid, that of Chephre'nes, is not much inferior in size to this one, its base being 684 feet, and its height 456; but it is not in such good preservation. Herodotus had asserted that it contained no chambers; but Belzoni effected an entrance to a chamber hewn out of the solid rock. In the sarcophagus he found the bones of an animal, probably the sacred bull of the Egyptians. The third large Pyramid contained a mummy; the remains of which, and of its cedar coffin, were deposited in the British Museum.