"When he dies, pharaoh Khufu will roam the heavens with the sun."

4,500 years ago, Egypt was a nation of farmers living on the thin, green edge of a harsh desert. Life was good. Food was plentiful. But starvation and chaos were just over the horizon.

Egyptians looked to their pharaoh for protection. A god while on earth, the pharaoh became even more powerful afterwards. For when he died, his spirit joined the sun on its daily journey, assuring the natural order and protecting his people for eternity.

And so Egyptians built a passage to the heavens for the pharaoh, 50 stories of stone rising out of the desert, pointing to the sky.

4,500 years later, it still stands. It is the Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu and this is its story.

From the dust jacket