Building the Great Pyramid (Paperback: 192 pages)

Equipped only with the most basic tools, how were ancient Egyptians able to achieve such an extraordinary degree of accuracy in its construction? How were stones, some weighing as much as 40 tons, hauled into position so precisely? What was life like for the conscripted laborers who built it, and how long did it take them to complete their task? Only now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is it possible to provide answers.

The authors trace the history of the exploration of the Giza site, from the earliest Greek and Roman travelers, through to Jean-Francois Champollion's cracking of the hieroglyphic code; and the work of scholars such as Auguste Mariette and Sir William Flinders Petrie in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The final chapter covers less orthodox theories and looks at how the Great Pyramid has become a magnet for all manner of charlatans, heretics, and cranks.