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150 Thou extendest the cords for the plan, thou didst give form to the lands... Thou didst make secret the Lower World. . . Thou hast built for thee a place protected in the sacred desert, with hidden name. Thou risest by day opposite them... Thou art rising beautifully ... Thou art crossing the sky with a good wind... Thou art traversing the sky in the celestial barque . . . The sky is jubilating, the Earth is shouting of joy. The crew of Ra do praising every day; He comes forth in triumph. Egyptian texts asserted that Shu and Tefnut were involved in Ra's extensive space-related works by "upholding the skies over Earth." Their son Geb bore a name that stemmed from the root gbb—"to pile up, to heap up"—attesting, scholars agree, to his en- gaging in works that entailed piling up; a strong suggestion of his involvement in the actual construction of the pyramids. An Egyptian tale concerning the Pharaoh Khufu and his three sons reveals that in those days the secret plans of the Great Pyramid were in the custody of the god whom the Egyptians called Thoth, the god of astronomy, mathematics, geometry, and land survey- ing. It will be recalled that a unique feature of the Great Pyramid was its upper chambers and passages. However, because these passages were sealed off—we shall show how, when, and why- just where they branch off from the descending passage, all the Pharaohs who attempted to emulate the Giza pyramids built theirs with lower chambers only, being either unable to emulate the upper chambers for lack of precise architectural knowledge, or (in time) simply unaware of their existence. But Khufu, it seems, was aware of the existence of these two secret chambers within the Great Pyr- amid, and at one point was on the verge of discovering the plans of their construction, for he was told where the god Thoth had hidden them. Written on the so-called Westcar Papyrus and titled "Tales of the Magicians," the tale relates that "one day, when king Khufu reigned over all the land," he called in his three sons and asked them to tell him tales of the "deeds of the magicians" of olden times. First to speak was "the royal son Khafra" who related "a tale of the days of thy [Khufu's] forefather Nebka. . . of what came to pass when he THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN