ABSTRACT
BEGINN IN G a chapter on the Pyramids is like beingasked to describe dawn or sunset, or the arrival ofSpring. Behind stretch the unnumbered generations who have seen and described them, and ahead are the unborn millions who will also feel and respond to the same eternal stimuli. Beside the visitor to the Great Pyramid are the shades of writers, travellers and historians stretching back to the time of Herodotus and beyond. In such company he must avoid on the one hand the banal and the obvious, and on the other the oh-so-superior attitude of the "seasoned traveller" who knows it all.
