John Greaves (1602-1652), professor of astronomy at the University of Oxford, first reviewed the existing literature and then went to Egypt to study the pyramids for himself. He dismissed all the accounts of the Giza pyramids having been built by biblical figures or legendary kings. From the classical sources, it was he who concluded that these monuments were erected by Cheops (Khufu), Chephren (Khafre) and Mycerinus (Menkaure), as tombs for the security of the body because of an ancient Egyptian conviction that this would ensure the endurance of the soul.

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