Herodotus, 5th century BC:
For this, they [the Egyptian priests] said, the ten years were spent [to build the causeway], and for the underground chambers on the hill upon which the pyramids stand, which he [Khufu] caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile….
This king [Khafre] followed the same manner as the other, both in all the rest and also in that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of that which was built by the former [Khufu] (this I know, having myself also measured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath nor does a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the other, in which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round an island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for a basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours; and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards size, building it close to the great pyramid.
According to Herodotus, as told to him by Egyptian priests, Khufu was not buried inside G1 but rather underneath the "hill on which the pyramids, plural, stand. Herodotus makes no mention of the pyramids of Giza being tombs nor does he mention Khafre and Menkaure as to where they may have been buried.
Greek historian Diodorus, 1st century BC:
Although these kings [Khufu and Khafre] intended these [G1 and G2] for their sepulchres, yet it happened that neither of them were buried there. For the people being exasperated against them by reason of the toilsomness of these works [building the pyramids], and for their cruelty and oppression, threatened to tear in pieces their dead bodies, and with ignominy to throw them out of their sepulchres. Wherefore both of them, dying, commanded their friends to bury them in an obscure place.
Regardless of the validity of either of these tales, one thing that is common to both is they specifically make note of the fact the pharaohs were not buried within the pyramids themselves. This information came to Herodotus from Egyptian priests and Diodorus, I am assuming, from the histories of other writers before him which at their root would have come from earlier Egyptian sources as well. It is interesting then that the AE of these periods did not consider the pyramids of at least Khufu and Khafre, which neither source mention Menkaure's burial place, to be the actual places they were buried.
This begs the question-how did they know? In G2's case, it could be entered and known there was no body, but in regards to G1, as we are told, the access before the Arabs breached it was by way of the well shaft which there is no evidence this was ever done after G1 was completed beyond someone going in and making later mortar repairs which presumably happened shortly after completion. It may have been, but there is no evidence of such. Was the idea the pharaohs were not buried within the Giza pyramids and buried elsewhere from knowing they never were or derived from looking inside centuries after the fact and finding nothing? If the latter then why not just say the tombs were robbed, by the angry mobs that hated them so, as was commonplace, yet instead the stories tell of the fact they were deliberately buried elsewhere.
For this, they [the Egyptian priests] said, the ten years were spent [to build the causeway], and for the underground chambers on the hill upon which the pyramids stand, which he [Khufu] caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile….
This king [Khafre] followed the same manner as the other, both in all the rest and also in that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of that which was built by the former [Khufu] (this I know, having myself also measured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath nor does a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the other, in which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round an island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for a basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours; and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards size, building it close to the great pyramid.
According to Herodotus, as told to him by Egyptian priests, Khufu was not buried inside G1 but rather underneath the "hill on which the pyramids, plural, stand. Herodotus makes no mention of the pyramids of Giza being tombs nor does he mention Khafre and Menkaure as to where they may have been buried.
Greek historian Diodorus, 1st century BC:
Although these kings [Khufu and Khafre] intended these [G1 and G2] for their sepulchres, yet it happened that neither of them were buried there. For the people being exasperated against them by reason of the toilsomness of these works [building the pyramids], and for their cruelty and oppression, threatened to tear in pieces their dead bodies, and with ignominy to throw them out of their sepulchres. Wherefore both of them, dying, commanded their friends to bury them in an obscure place.
Regardless of the validity of either of these tales, one thing that is common to both is they specifically make note of the fact the pharaohs were not buried within the pyramids themselves. This information came to Herodotus from Egyptian priests and Diodorus, I am assuming, from the histories of other writers before him which at their root would have come from earlier Egyptian sources as well. It is interesting then that the AE of these periods did not consider the pyramids of at least Khufu and Khafre, which neither source mention Menkaure's burial place, to be the actual places they were buried.
This begs the question-how did they know? In G2's case, it could be entered and known there was no body, but in regards to G1, as we are told, the access before the Arabs breached it was by way of the well shaft which there is no evidence this was ever done after G1 was completed beyond someone going in and making later mortar repairs which presumably happened shortly after completion. It may have been, but there is no evidence of such. Was the idea the pharaohs were not buried within the Giza pyramids and buried elsewhere from knowing they never were or derived from looking inside centuries after the fact and finding nothing? If the latter then why not just say the tombs were robbed, by the angry mobs that hated them so, as was commonplace, yet instead the stories tell of the fact they were deliberately buried elsewhere.