THEY have been called mystical, awe-inspiring, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But it is safe to say that in the 45 centuries the great pyramids of Giza have cast their formidable shadow over the desert, they have never before been described as a cuckoo clock.

But that is what Jean-Pierre Houdin said as he lifted his tall lanky body up the steps into the pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the three pyramids high up on the Giza plateau overlooking this teeming, ancient city on the Nile.

"This is not just a pile of rocks," he said, his words curled around a soft French accent. "This is a cuckoo clock."

Paragraphs above are from today's NYT article about a new theory put forward by a Frenchman. Needless to say that the antiquity Czar of Egypt (aka Zahi Hawas) has no kind words for the Frenchman.