At Egypt in the Giza plateau three tall pyramids have defied the passing of time for several millennia. The tallest of them, the pyramid of Cheops was probably the first to be built. Immediately next to it, three smaller and much lesser know pyramids stand. This is the story of one of those small pyramids, the middle one to be precise, no taller than thirty meters, and no larger than fifty.
When Cheops became pharaoh of Egypt it is said he brought misery to his people. Cheops had a great plan, he wanted to build the largest and most splendorous pyramids ever. He would need money, all of it, for this was not to be a cheap enterprise. Laborers too he would need, and so he went on to enslave all the Egyptians and force them to build his pyramids.
Chronically short in money, Cheops proved that nothing was above him when it would come to gathering coin, and so being as malevolent as he was, he devised the most evil plan to boost his finances. He forced his daughter to work at a brothel so that he could keep her earnings.
However, he did made sure to instruct her not to charge as if she was the daughter of a king, rather the same fee as every other girl in the brothel. While the daughter did follow the orders of his father, she asked each of her clients to donate a stone. This stone would be deposit at the Giza plateau next to where his father’s pyramid was being built.
And so, enough stones were gathered, and this small pyramid came to be. A rather scandalous story from a very controversial king.
One has to remember that the pyramids are rather old, and tourism, visiting, the marvels of the world is no modern invention. The story I shared comes via Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the fifth century BC. At that time the pyramids were already at least two thousand years old. As I said before, tourism was not invented recently.
Herodotus writes of his visit to the Giza plateau where he saw the pyramids. He had a guide with him who was giving him a tour of the place. He asked the guide many things we would expect modern tourists would ask too: Who built the pyramids? How were they built? How long it took to build them? It was this guide of his who probably told him the story of Cheops and his daughter. A story that is likely the invention of an amateur guide who knew little of the history of the pyramids. I say this because he too told Herodotus that the pyramids were only five hundred years old and the explanation he gave for how they were build defies the laws of physics. Keep that in mind next time you travel somewhere and you hire a guide who tells you very embellished stories.
