Foreign visitors in Egypt in history begun to record their journeys in the age of the Hellenes and the Latins. A basic point is to understand that in that late period also Egyptian weren't so sure about their knowledges. The pyramids, the sphinx and other monuments were already in the far history for them. So it happened that Greek and Latin visitors received explanations and tales coming from history, imagination and tradition.

Aristotle, in Politica V9, wrote:

"to make subjects poor to not allow them to have the possibility to make an army and run a rebellion, it's an expedient of the tyranny; so since they have to deal with the daily necessities, they've got no time to conspire. The pyramids of Egypt give an example of such an expedient".

Strabone had a right impression. He described the "pyramids on the highland, 40 stadi far from Memphis as tombs of Kings". He had a better "context" than Aristotle. He had read Herodotus and Diodoro Siculo. He lived in Alexandria and he was friend of Elio Gallo, Roman Prefect who had studied the country. Romans lernt that the pyramids were tombs but we have to report that while Herodotus trusted Egyptian priests of the major religious centres for their attribution, Diodoro wasn't so clear and sure. His further sources added to Khufu, Kafre and Menkaura also Armaues, Amasis and Jnaron. Then Diodoro reports that Khufu and Kafre hadn't buried in the pyraminds. Even if the kings built them as tombs. Diodoro tells that , after all the suffering for the construction of the pyramids, and after other violences of this two kings, the populaion made the oath to take their bodies out and to piece them out.

Plinio "The Old" defined the pyramid a "foolish and useless ostentation of the richness of the King" - regum pecunie otiosa ac stulta ostentatio -.

I mention also Philone of Bisantio, IV century a.c. He said that the underground part of the pyramids is equal to the visible part - Peri ton hepta theamaton, CP 398,2 -

Muslims conquerers thought that the pyramids were the barns of Joseph. Nice to note that already the patriarch of Antiochia, IX century a.c., Denis de Tell-Mahré - Jacobite - wrote: "they are not barns at all, they are mausoleums built on the burials of ancient kings. They are oblique and full, not excavated and empty".

The tale of Joseph's barns lasted for a long time. Also in the Basilic of Saint Marc in Venice it's still visible, in the decoration of a dome.

In X century a.c. the Arab historian Al-Ma Sudi told the story of Caliph Al-Ma Mun when in 820 b.c. he decided to dismantle the greatest pyramid to see if it hided a treasure. Since the deed was impossible he limited the action to open a tunnel in the stone. After spending a lot of money and a lot of time he found nothing in the pyramid. The tale says that he found a container full of gold coins, but that was a typical ingredient of an Arab fairy tale. Al-Ma Sudi added that the pyramid contained the statue of a Cheik. Clearly an invented fact. In XII century b.c. an other Arab source said that Al-Ma mun, after excavating a tunnel found a chamber and under it other 4 chambers full of skeletons and bats.

A note for a complete information: the Arab chronicle are not unanimous in attributing the opening of the Great Pyramid to Al-Ma Mun, a minority indicates the Caliph Harun El Rashid. Historians are anyway certain that it was Al-Ma Mun to do it.

In the Arab world, in XII, the writer Ibn Wasil elaborated a developed consideration about the pyramids. He indicated catastrophic dreams as the cause of the construction of the two biggest pyramids. Surin made some dreams and he asked to the priests to interpret them. The priests predicted a giant flood. So the King ordered the construction of the pyramids with canals and tunnels to deviate the water of the Nile during the flood. The tale says also that the Egyptians wrote on the internal walls of the pyramids all the science and the knowledge of the time to preserve it. They put treasures and other important objects in the monuments. Reality is that the pyramids at Giza don’t show writings a part some little signatures on some stones. This argument about the preservation of the ancient science has been recalled also in the last decades about Giza.

It’s precious the description of the pyramids made by an Arab scientist in 1200. Abd al-Latif from Baghdad visited Giza reporting that the Arab workers were taking blocks of stones away from the external layer of the pyramids. He tried and climb the Great Pyramid and he arrived almost on the top observing the activity of the Arab workers. Those stones are still in many buildings of the period in the city of Cairo. He reports also that the tunnel excavated by Al Ma Mum is still open, full of bats and of individuals who say spells and magic formulas hoping to be able to find a treasure.

Writings

Many travelers reported to have seen inscriptions of the walls of the pyramids. This point requires a little digression.

First we have to make the difference among the writings of ancient visitors and the original writings of the period of the construction. A lot of visitors left a trace of their passage in the pyramids.

An excursus with some examples:
Ibn Khordadhbeh in X century b.c. talked about “musnad” words and some years later Ind Hawkal mentioned “Greek-Syrian” words. In XIII century b.c. Abu Ma’shar Dia’far – II – reported words in Greek, Arab, Syrian, Musnad, Himyarit – Hirit or Hebrew -, Rumi, Persian.
In 1140 Ciriaco found Phoenician writings. In 1336 Guillaume de Bldensele saw writings in several languages. Among them also some verses in Latin.

Original writings from the period of the construction.
We know that the external facades of the pyramids hadn’t writings, it was common to see them on the pyramidion, the tope stone of the pyramid together with symbols and representations, but the top stone of he Great Pyramid is not available. So, since some travelers reported Ancient Egyptian writings in the external layer of the Great Pyramid – now dismantled – we can make the hypothesis that those writings were related to the work of maintenance of the monuments. Like the works that Pharaoh Ramses II ordered under the command of his son Khaemwese, in XIII century a.c. Khaemwese mentioned the execution of these works in a great writing on the external layer of the Pyramid of Unas. I it we can read that the Pharaoh had ordered to write on the monument the name of the King of the High and the Low Egypt. And there is also a reference to the habit of Khaemwese to take care and to recover old monuments in ruin. This writings was found in fragments in front of the south façade of the Pyramid of Unas in 1937.

Note: so we have got only some signatures by the workers, on some blocks above the chamber of the king as original writings in the Great Pyramid. And about these writings the dispute has been as great as the pyramid.