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The final pyramid Snefru constructed was the North or Red Pyramid, so named for its reddish color. The king began the pyramid in his thirtieth year of rule, but it remains unknown if that was the final resting place. The Red Pyramid is considered the first true pyramid that survived unblemished and therefore provided the template for the later Giza Pyramids. <ref> Lehner, p. 104</ref>
====The Giza Pyramids====[[File: Khufu’s Barq.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|King Khufu’s Funerary Barque]]Snefru left his son and successor, Khufu (ruled ca. 2589-2566 BC), known as Cheops to the Greeks, with an impressive architectural base from which to build. Khufu did so by building the greatest of the three pyramids known collectively as the “Great Pyramids” or the “Giza Pyramids” for the modern town in Lower Egypt near where they are located. Khufu’s Pyramid covers 13.1 acres, is 479 feet high, and has a slope of 53 degrees. The Smaller pyramids accompanied the Great Pyramid was accompanied by smaller pyramids for the king’s queens and a royal barque that was never used in the temporal world, but was buried next to the pyramid to be ridden by the king through the underworld. <ref>Lehner, p. 14</ref>
The organization of the labor needed to build the pyramids was almost as incredible as the pyramids themselves. The Great Pyramid was built from 2,300,000 limestone stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons. <ref> Lehner, p. 108</ref> The workers were picked from villages throughout Egypt in a conscription/draft system, were paid, and their families were also taken care of while they were away. The men would be divided into groups of 25,000 who would work for three -month “tours.” On any working day, there were two gangs of 1,000 men working, further divided into “phyles” of 200 men, which were sub-divided into groups of twenty. The quarry was less than a mile away, which made hauling the stones easier, but the workers had to do so without the use of wheels. Twenty men could pull a two ton block on a sled from the quarry to the pyramid in about twenty minutes, less if they poured water to make the sled slide better. Ten stone setters would work per block. The builders had no pulleys, so they constructed dirt ramps that allowed the workers to stack the blocks. <ref> Lehner, p. 224-25</ref>
The quarry was less than a mile away, which made hauling the stones easier, but the workers had to do so without the use of wheels. Twenty men could pull a two-ton block on a sled from the quarry to the pyramid in about twenty minutes, less if they poured water to make the sled slide better. Ten stone setters would work per block. The builders had no pulleys, so they constructed dirt ramps that allowed the workers to stack the blocks. <ref> Lehner, p. 224-25</ref> Two kings after Khufu, Khafra (reigned ca. 2558-2532 BC), called Chephren by the Greeks, was the next king to build a pyramid at Giza. Although Khafra’s pyramid looks bigger than Khufu’s, it is on a bedrock foundation that is thirty-three feet higher. Khafra’s pyramid is at a slightly sharper angle than Khufu’s , and the bottom is made from red granite. <ref> Robins, Gay. <i>The Art of Ancient Egypt.</i> (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 49</ref>
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Khafra’s pyramid is the larger complex, which contains the fabled Sphinx. The Sphinx, which was carved from the natural bedrock instead of limestone, and the temple complex are connected to the pyramid by a causeway that at one time would have connected to canals that brought people to and from the Nile. <ref> Lehner, p. 126</ref>
