When the Greeks visited Egypt the Pyramids were already several thousand
years old.

[Illustration: THE MUMMY]

Of course the Egyptians took their guests into the desert to see these
wondrous sights just as we take foreigners to gaze at the Wool-worth
Tower and Brooklyn Bridge.

The Greek guest, lost in admiration, waved his hands and asked what the
strange mountains might be.

His guide thought that he referred to the extraordinary height and said
"Yes, they are very high indeed."

The Egyptian word for height was "pir-em-us."

The Greek must have thought that this was the name of the whole
structure and giving it a Greek ending he called it a "pyramis."

We have changed the "s" into a "d" but we still use the same Egyptian
word when we talk of the stone graves along the banks of the Nile.

The biggest of these many pyramids, which was built fifty centuries ago,
was five hundred feet high.

At the base it was seven hundred and fifty-five feet wide.

It covered more than thirteen acres of desert, which is three times as