"Men fear time, but time fears the pyramids."
--Arab Proverb
Egypt's first Golden Age is chiefly appreciated as the famous epoch of pyramid building. These edifices were not built by slaves. They were erected by free African people, and remain a source of awe, wonder and inspiration. These monuments, particularly the three built over a eighty year period on Egypt's Ghiza plateau during the reigns of the African kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, reflect the genius of African people at our zenith, and are arguably the world's most enduring expressions of architectural prowess. Khufu's pyramid, the largest of the three, has been called the purest geometric form in human architecture, and retains the distinction of being the largest single building ever constructed by man.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu, known to the African people of ancient Egypt as 'Khufu on the Horizon,' was by far the greatest of the so-called "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." Khufu's pyramid originally stood 481 feet high or forty-eight stories. It is composed of 2.3 million granite blocks, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons, and reaching a maximum of fifteen tons. Its precision is such that even now one would struggle in vain to place a razor blade between the stones. The entire structure was covered with fine white limestone and could be seen from a distance of hundreds of miles. It has been calculated that the cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St. Peter's at Rome, as well as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, could fit inside Khufu's pyramid with room to spare. Napoleon Bonaparte estimated that there was enough stone in the pyramid of Khufu to build a wall measuring ten feet high and a foot wide around the entire country of France. The Arab invaders of post-pharaonic Egypt were so struck by the pyramids that they coined the expression: "Men fear time, but time fears the pyramids."
SOURCES:
Black Man Of The Nile, by Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan
Egypt Revisited, Edited by Ivan Van Sertima
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