A Perfect Square,
and the base lines of yours should also form a true square. If you can get some tough paper which will fold together in a flat crease without breaking, you may make the pyramid of one piece instead of four, by cutting it the shape of [Fig. 296] and bending it evenly along the dotted lines to form the four slanting sides. The loose ends must be fastened together by means of extension and slit. If you have no regular sandpaper make some. Give the paper a thin wash of glue, and before it dries sprinkle it evenly with sand. An old kitchen pepper-box filled with sand will make a fine sprinkler. If you cannot get the pepper-box, take a small empty baking-powder can and punch tiny holes in the cover by hammering a fine wire nail through the tin in many places; use it as a sprinkler. You must prepare the paper and have it evenly sanded before cutting out the design.
Fig. 296.—You may make the pyramid in one piece.
In Egypt there are three famous structures in addition to the Sphinx: the great pyramid, the middle-sized pyramid and the little pyramid—like the big bear, the middle-sized bear and the little wee bear in the story book. Each
Pile of Stones
was set up by a different king, and each one is named for the monarch who built it. The largest is called for Cheops; the second is named Chephren (pronounced Kefren) and the smallest has the longest name Mycerinus (pronounced Me-ker-in-us). Make the colossal Cheops as large as the dimensions of your paper will admit. The original is like a mountain, measuring 746 feet each side of the square foundation and reaching up 450 feet and nine inches in height.
King Chephren did not build his stones quite as high; he was satisfied with a base, each side of which is 690 feet and nine inches and a height of 447 feet and six inches. The last, King Mycerinus, must have grown tired of playing with the stone blocks, for his pyramid is merely a hill 203 feet high, with each side of the foundation 354 feet and six inches, not nearly so tall as Cheops’s monument. Build your little pyramid about half as high as the second one.
After making the Egyptian structures, naturally you might think that they could be grouped as you pleased to place them, but these pyramids are