Lori Wickham, age 9, of Gary, Indiana, for her question:

Why were Khufu and Cheops both buried in the Great Pyramid?

The famous pyramids of Egypt have stood near Gizeh for at least 45 centuries. They were built as tombs for the ancient kings of Egypt. Many things have been unearthed from the huge buildings and experts have pieced together the stories of the people who lived in those distant times. In those days it was fashionable for the king to build himself a huge tomb, based on a square and tapering to a point at the top. The pyramid was made from monstrous slabs of stone and naturally, the king did not do the building for himself. He merely decided on the plans and the royal objects that were to be buried with him in the royal tomb. Each pyramid was meant to be the resting place of one and only one king.

The biggest of the Pyramids near Gizeh is called the Great Pyramid. Some people say that it is the tomb of king Cheops; some say that it is the tomb of King Khufu. Both are correct. For Cheops and Khufu were one and the same man. His Egyptian subjects called him Khufu, while the Greek people gave him the name Cheops. He reigned in Egypt 4,600 years ago. Experts say that about 100,000 men worked 20 years to build his tremendous tomb. And no other king was allowed to share it.