How many
centuries had it taken to arrive at this degree of maturity and
perfection?" It is impossible to guess. The long process of self-
schooling in artistic methods which must have preceded this work
is hidden from us. We cannot trace the progress of Egyptian art
from its timid, awkward beginnings to the days of its conscious
power, as we shall find ourselves able to do in the case of Greek
art. The evidence is annihilated, or is hidden beneath the sand
of the desert, perhaps to be one day revealed. Should that day
come, a new first chapter in the history of Egyptian art will have
to be written.
There are several groups of pyramids, large and small at Gizeh and
elsewhere, almost all of which belong to the Old Empire. The
three great pyramids of Gizeh are among the earliest. They were
built by three kings of the Fourth Dynisty, Cheops (Chufu),
Chephren (Chafre), and Mycerinus (Menkere) They are gigantic
sepulchral monuments in which the mummies of the kings who built
them were deposited. The pyramid of Cheops (Fig.
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