What is the height of the Egyptian pyramids. Report on the topic: "Egyptian pyramids
The magic of the mysterious countries still exists. Palm trees sway in the warm breeze, the Nile sails through the desert surrounded by a green valley, the sun illuminates the temple of Karnak and the mysterious pyramids of Egypt, and bright schools of fish flicker in the Red Sea.
Funerary culture of ancient Egypt
Pyramids are called grandiose structures in the form of a regular geometric polyhedron. In the construction of funerary buildings or mastabas, this form, according to Egyptologists, began to be used because of the similarity with a funeral cake. If you ask how many pyramids there are in Egypt, you can hear the answer that to date, about 120 buildings have been found and described, which are located in different areas along the banks of the Nile.
The first mastabas can be seen in Saqqara, Upper Egypt, Memphis, Abusir, El-Lahun, Giza, Khawara, Abu Rawash, Meidum. They were built from clay bricks with river silt - adobe, in a traditional architectural form. The pyramid housed a prayer room and a funeral "dowry" for traveling in the afterlife. The underground part kept the remains. The pyramids had a different appearance. They evolved from a stepped to a true, geometrically correct form.
The evolution of the shape of the pyramids
Tourists are often interested in how to see all the pyramids of Egypt, in which city they are located. There are many such places. For example, Meiduma is the most mysterious point, where the oldest of all the great funerary buildings are located. When Sneferu came to the throne (circa 2575 BC), Saqqara had the only large royal pyramid of Djoser completely completed.
The ancient locals called it "el-haram-el-kaddab", which means "false pyramid". Because of its shape, it has attracted the attention of travelers since the Middle Ages.
The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is known as the earliest form of burial structure in Egypt. Its appearance is attributed to the period of the third dynasty. Narrowing passages from the north lead to the burial chamber. Underground galleries surround the pyramid from all sides except the south. This is the only completed building with huge steps that were lined with stone. But her form was different from the ideal. The first regular pyramids appeared at the beginning of the reign of the 4th dynasty of the pharaohs. The true form arose as a result of the natural development and improvement of the architectural design of the stepped building. The structure of a real pyramid is almost the same. Building blocks were stacked to the required shapes and sizes of the object, and then they were finished with limestone or stone.
Pyramids of Dahshur
Dahshur forms the southern region of the Memphis necropolis and contains a number of pyramidal complexes and monuments. Dahshur has only recently been opened to the public. In the valley of the Nile, south of Cairo, alone on the edge of the Western Desert, above the lush green fields at Meidum, is a remarkable area where one can see the transition from a stepped to a regular pyramid shape. The transformation took place during the change of the third dynasty of the pharaohs to the fourth. During the reign of the 3rd dynasty, Pharaoh Huni organized the construction of the first regular pyramid in Egypt, where the stepped structures from Meidum are located as a base for construction. The burial structure was intended for the son of Huni, the first pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu (2613-2589 BC). The heir completed work on the pyramids of his father, then built his own - stepped. But the construction plans of the pharaoh were curtailed, as the construction did not go according to plan. Reducing the angle of the lateral plane led to a diamond-shaped curved silhouette. This design is called the Bent Pyramid, but it still has intact outer shells.
The oldest pyramids in Saqqara
Saqqara is one of the huge necropolises of the ancient city that is known today as Memphis. The ancient Egyptians called this place "White Walls". The pyramids of Egypt in Saqqara are represented by the first oldest step pyramid of Djoser. It was here that the history of the construction of these funerary structures began. In Saqqara they found the first inscription on the walls, known as the Pyramid Texts. The architect of these projects is called Imhotep, who invented hewn stone masonry. Thanks to construction developments, the ancient architect was ranked among the deities. Imhotep is considered the son of Ptah, the patron of crafts. Saqqara is home to many tombs belonging to important ancient Egyptian officials.
The true gem is the great pyramids of Egypt in the Sneferu complex. Feeling dissatisfied with the Bent Pyramid, which did not allow him to worthily go to heaven, he began construction about two kilometers to the north. It was the famous Pink Pyramid, so named because of the red limestone used in its construction. This is one of the oldest buildings in Egypt, which is created in the correct form. It has a tilt angle of 43 degrees and is the second largest, second only to the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was built by the son of Sneferu in Khufu. In fact, the Great Pyramid is only 10 meters from the Rose. Other major monuments in Dahshur date from the 12th and 13th dynasties and are not comparable in scale to the work of Huni and Sneferu.
Late pyramids at the Sneferu complex
There are later pyramids in Meidum. In Egypt, where the White Pyramid of Amenemhat II, the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III and the building of Senusret III are located, smaller monuments of funerary purpose for minor rulers, nobles and officials dominate.
They tell of a fairly stable and peaceful period in the history of Egypt. Interestingly, the Black Pyramid and the structure of Senusret III were built not of stone, but of brick. Why this material was used is unknown, but at that time new construction methods penetrated into Egypt from other countries, thanks to trade and international relations. Unfortunately, although brick was much easier to work with than multi-ton granite blocks, the material did not stand the test of time. Although the Black Pyramid is fairly well preserved, the White Pyramid is badly damaged. Tourists, who are little aware of the huge number of pyramidal burials, have a misunderstanding. They ask: "Where are the pyramids in Egypt?" While everyone knows about the great burial structures of Egypt, there are many less significant examples of such structures. Scattered along the Nile from Celia on the edge of the oasis to the island of Elephantine in Aswan, in the village of Naga el-Khalifa, about five miles south of Abydos, in the city of Minya and many other unexplored places.
Giza pyramids and necropolis
For all tourists who come to Egypt, an excursion to the pyramids becomes almost a ritual. The buildings of Giza are the only surviving of the seven wonders of the Ancient World and the most famous sights. This sacred place impresses with its antiquity, the scope of the necropolis, the unreality of buildings and the Great Sphinx. The secrets of the construction and supposed symbolism of the pyramids of Giza only add to the appeal of these ancient wonders. Many modern people still consider Giza to be a spiritual place. A number of fascinating theories have been proposed to explain the "mystery of the pyramids". The author of the project of the Great Pyramid in Egypt is called the adviser of Cheops and his relative - Hemiun. Giza is the most important site on earth for many researchers who are trying to unravel the geometric perfection of burial structures in ancient sources. But even great skeptics are in awe of the deep antiquity, scope and absolute harmony of the pyramids of Giza.
History of the Pyramids of Giza
Located on the western bank of the Nile River, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Cairo, Giza (el-Gizah in Arabic) is the third largest city in Egypt with a population of nearly 3 million. This is a famous necropolis on the Giza plateau, which houses the most popular monuments in Egypt. The Great Pyramids of Giza were built in 2500 BC for the burial places of the pharaohs. Together they make up the only ancient wonder of the world still in existence today. Many tourists are attracted by Egypt (Hurghada). They can see the pyramids of Giza in half an hour, which will be required on the road. You can admire this wonderful ancient sacred place to your heart's content.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops as the Greeks called it (it is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza), and the necropolis bordering Cairo have remained virtually untouched by time. It is believed that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty of the Egyptian pharaohs Khufu. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Initially, it was covered with facing stones, which created a smooth outer surface. Some of them can be seen around the base and at the very top. There are various scientific and alternative theories about how the pyramids of Ancient Egypt were built, and about the construction methods of the Great One itself. Most of the accepted construction theories are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from the quarry and lifting them into place. It occupies an area of just over 5 hectares. The original height was 146 m in height, but the pyramid is still impressive at 137 m. The main losses are associated with the destruction of the smooth limestone surface.
Herodotus on Egypt
When the Greek historian Herodotus visited Giza, around 450 BC, he described what kind of pyramids there were in Egypt. He learned from the Egyptian priests that the Great Pyramid was built for Pharaoh Khufu, who was the second king of the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2575-2465 BC). Priests told Herodotus that it was built by 400,000 people over 20 years. At the construction site, 100,000 people were employed to move the blocks at a time. But archaeologists find this implausible and tend to think that the workforce was more limited. Perhaps 20,000 workers, with an accompanying support staff of bakers, doctors, priests, and others, would be sufficient for the task.
The most famous pyramid was carefully laid out using 2.3 million worked stone blocks. These blocks had an impressive weight of two to fifteen tons. After the construction was completed, the burial structure struck with a weight that was approximately 6 million tons. All the famous cathedrals in Europe, taken together, have such a weight! The Pyramid of Cheops has been recorded for thousands of years as the tallest building in the world.
Only the graceful spiers of the extraordinarily majestic Lincoln Cathedral, built in England, 160 m high, were able to break the record, but collapsed in 1549.
Pyramid of Khafre
Among the pyramids of Giza, the second largest is the structure built for the afterlife journey of Khafre (Khaphren), the son of Pharaoh Khufu. He inherited power after the death of his elder brother and was the fourth ruler in the fourth dynasty. Of his well-born relatives and predecessors on the throne, many were buried in penny tombs. But the grandeur of Khafre's pyramid strikes almost the same as the "last house" of his father.
The Pyramid of Khafre stretches visually to the sky and seems to be higher than the first pyramid of Giza - the funerary building of Cheops, because it stands on a higher part of the plateau. It is characterized by a steeper angle of inclination with a preserved smooth limestone coating. At the second pyramid, each of the sides was 216 m and was originally 143 m high. Its limestone and granite blocks weigh about 2.5 tons each.
The ancient pyramids of Egypt, such as Cheops, as well as the construction of Khafre, include five burial pits connected by passages. Together with the mortuary, the Valley of the Temples and the connecting dam, it is 430 meters long, carved into the rock. The burial chamber, which is underground, kept a red granite sarcophagus with a lid. Nearby is a square cavity, where there was a chest with the insides of the pharaoh. The Great Sphinx near the Pyramid of Khafre is considered to be his royal portrait.
Pyramid of Menkaure
The last of the pyramids of Giza is the Pyramid of Menkaure, located to the south. It was intended for the son of Khafre, the fifth king of the fourth dynasty. Each side is 109 m, and the height of the building is 66 m. In addition to these three monuments, small pyramids were built for Khufu's three wives and a series of flat-topped pyramids for the remains of his beloved children. At the end of a long dam lined small tombs of courtiers, a temple and a mortuary were built only for the mummification of the body of the pharaoh.
Like all the pyramids of Egypt, created for the pharaohs, the burial chambers of these buildings were filled with everything necessary for the next life: furniture, statues of slaves, niches for canopic canopies.
Theories about the construction of the Egyptian giants
Many mysteries are hidden by the centuries-old history of Egypt. Pyramids built without modern devices only increase curiosity about these places. Herodotus assumed that the foundation was laid out of huge blocks weighing about seven tons. And then, as from children's cubes, step by step, all 203 layers were lifted up. But this cannot be done, as evidenced by the Japanese attempt in the 1980s to duplicate the actions of the Egyptian builders. The most plausible explanation is that the Egyptians used slopes, along which stone blocks were towed along a ladder using sleds, rollers and levers. And the base was a natural plateau. The majestic structures have withstood not only the crushing work of time, but also numerous attacks by grave robbers. They robbed the pyramids in ancient times. Khafre's burial chamber, opened by the Italians in 1818, was empty, there was no longer any gold and other treasures.
There is a possibility that there are still undiscovered pyramids of Egypt or are now completely destroyed. Many make fantastic theories about the extraterrestrial intervention of another civilization, for which such construction is child's play. The Egyptians are only proud of the perfect knowledge of their ancestors in the field of mechanics, dynamics, thanks to which the construction business developed.
The Egyptian pyramids are one of the biggest attractions in the world. They, according to archaeologists, are the tombs of the pharaohs, members of their families and court nobles. This version is generally accepted and its confirmation is the presence of mummies inside. But is it? What secrets do these structures hold? Who built them and how? What for? What is inside? You will find answers to questions in this article.
Pyramids in Egypt: why were they built?
During the period of the Old Kingdom (c. 2707 - 2150 BC, III-VI dynasties), structures began to be created for burials, symbolizing the sacred mountain - the desire of mankind to reach heaven.
The Pink Pyramid at Dahshur. CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link Scientists suggest that the belief of the Egyptians in the ascension of the spirit to the gods is fundamental the purpose of their construction. In their opinion, even today, these structures personify the dream of man to achieve the Higher Consciousness. There are other opinions on this subject, which are given below. Some occult researchers of the mystery of the Egyptian pyramids spent the night in the inner chambers. They wrote books about their mystical experiences. Several theories try to explain the technology of their construction, but no one knows exactly how and why these famous architectural monuments were built. There are only versions and assumptions. One of the greatest mysteries: how did people move such massive stone blocks using primitive tools? The Egyptians left behind thousands of illustrations depicting everyday life in the Old Kingdom. It is curious that none shows their construction. But, perhaps, these images are simply not in the eyes of a modern person? Maybe looking at the drawings, we are not able to see their method of creating grandiose structures, because he cardinally different from modern ideas? Here is some information about it you can find on the Internet. But there is an architect who created a project according to which it is possible to build the pyramid of Cheops today. Read about it in the article Building the Pyramid of Cheops on the Architecture channel. In the film directed by Florence Tran "Unraveling the Mystery of the Pyramid of Cheops" this interesting version of Jean-Pierre Houdin (Houdin, Jean-Pierre) is presented. His father, a former civil engineer, came up with the idea of building with an internal ramp. The evidence presented is quite convincing. See a detailed study by a Frenchman. Maybe he solved the mystery of the construction of the Egyptian pyramids? The earliest known pyramidal structures are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis. The oldest of these is the Pyramid of Djoser, built around 2630-2611. BC. during the third dynasty, the first adviser to the king, architect and builder, high priest of Ra in Heliopolis, poet and thinker Imhotep. He is considered the founder of this architectural form, having proposed to build three more smaller ones on top of the main one. His tomb has not yet been identified. Therefore, there is no mummy of Imhotep. What do you think, did you manage to unravel the mystery of the pyramid of Cheops? Write your thoughts in the comments.
"Secrets of the Pyramids (The Secret of Orion)" by R. Bauval, E. Gilbert offers a version about the stellar orientation of buildings.
The American prophet and medium Edgar Cayce spoke about the significance of the pyramids for the lost civilization of Atlantis. Information is available on the Internet.Egyptian pyramids: about the secret of construction
Who was the architect of the first pyramid?
Where are the most famous Egyptian pyramids located?
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The first pyramid, which gave rise to all Egyptian pyramid construction, is located in Saqqara, about 17 km south of Giza. It was built in 2667-2648 BC for Djoser, the first pharaoh of the third dynasty.
The history of the construction of the pyramid of Djoser
The invention of masonry is attributed to the beginning of Djoser's reign. The Pyramid of Djoser is considered the oldest stone structure on Earth, its prototype was the mastabas of the pharaohs of the first dynasty, built of unbaked brick. At first, it also represented a stone mastaba, but after that it went through five stages in its development.
Initially, the pharaoh's architect Imhotep erected a large mastaba, similar to the previously built tomb of Djoser in Upper Egypt. This time, the mastaba was not made of bricks, but of stone blocks. Subsequently, during the reign of the pharaoh, it was expanded in four directions, and then made oblong. The decision to expand the building for the fourth time resulted in a tomb unlike any built before. Imhotep built three more mastabas, placing them on top of each other, each of them was smaller than the previous one. So the first pyramid appeared, which became the prototype of all Egyptian pyramids.
However, Djoser wanted to make the pyramid even larger, he ordered to increase its base, and to make six terraces on its top. The pyramid was lined with limestone, which was delivered from the opposite bank of the Nile, from the hills of Tura.
Design features
To create the step pyramid of Djoser, several independent layers of masonry were used; they relied on a central base of. In a similar way, all the pyramids that appeared in the future were built - Khafre, Khufu and other pharaohs who reigned later. However, unlike the later pyramids, here the stone blocks are tilted inward at an angle of 74° in order to give the structure greater strength. In the pyramids built later, the masonry layers are arranged horizontally.
The tomb of Djoser was located under the foundation, it was carved into the rocky ground, a square shaft led to it. The entrance to the mine was far outside the pyramid, to the north of it. A massive ten-meter wall was built around the pyramid, and inside it was a square on which several temples were erected and
Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (in the Greek version of Cheops), or the Great Pyramid - the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, the oldest of the seven wonders of the world of antiquity and the only one of them that has come down to our time. For over four thousand years, the pyramid was the largest building in the world.
The pyramid of Cheops is located in the far suburbs of Cairo Giza. Nearby are two more pyramids of the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure (Khafren and Mikerin), according to ancient historians, the sons and successors of Khufu. These are the three largest pyramids in Egypt.
Following the ancient authors, most modern historians consider the pyramids to be the burial structures of the ancient Egyptian monarchs. Some scientists believe that these were astronomical observatories. There is no direct evidence that pharaohs were buried in the pyramids, but other versions of their purpose are less convincing.
When was the pyramid of Cheops built?
Based on the ancient "royal lists", it is established that Cheops ruled around 2585-2566. BC. The construction of the "Sacred Height" lasted 20 years and ended after the death of Khufu, around 2560 BC.
Other versions of construction dates based on astronomical methods give dates from 2720 to 2577. BC. The radiocarbon method shows a spread of 170 years, from 2850 to 2680. BC.
There are also exotic opinions expressed by supporters of the theories of aliens visiting the Earth, the existence of ancient pra-civilizations, or adherents of occult currents. They determine the age of the pyramid of Cheops from 6-7 to tens of thousands of years.
How the pyramid was built
The Pyramid of Cheops is still the largest stone building on the planet. Its height is 137 m, the length of the side of the base is 230.38 m, the angle of inclination of the edge is 51 ° 50 ", the total volume is about 2.5 million cubic meters. At the time of completion of construction, the height was 9.5 m higher, and the side of the base was 2 m longer, however, over the past centuries, almost the entire lining of the pyramid has been dismantled.Natural factors have also done their job - temperature drops and winds from the desert, carrying clouds of sand.
Ancient Greek historians reported that the labor of millions of slaves was used in the construction. Modern researchers believe that with the proper organization of work and engineering, the Egyptians would have had several tens of thousands of workers for the construction. For the transportation of materials, temporary workers were involved, the number of which, according to Herodotus, reached 100 thousand. Modern scientists fully agree with this, as well as with the reality of a 20-year construction period.
Hemiun, the head of the royal works, supervised the construction of the pyramid. Hemiun's tomb is located next to his creation; a statue of the architect was found in it.
The main material for the construction was gray limestone, which was cut down in the nearest quarries or brought from the other side of the Nile. The pyramid was lined with light sandstone, because of which it literally shone under the sunlight. Granite was used for interior decoration, which was delivered a thousand kilometers from the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-day Aswan. The building was crowned with a hewn gilded granite block - a pyramidion.
In total, the construction of the pyramid took about 2.3 million blocks of limestone and 115 thousand facing slabs. The total mass of the building, according to modern estimates, is almost 6 million tons.
The block sizes vary. The largest ones are laid in the base, their height is one and a half meters. The blocks are smaller the higher they are. The height of the block at the top was 55 cm. The length of the facing slabs ranged from 1.5 to 0.75 m.
The work of the pyramid builders was extremely difficult. A lot of time and effort required the extraction of stone, hewing blocks and fitting to the right size. In those days, neither iron nor bronze was known in Egypt. The tools were made of relatively soft copper, so they wore down quickly and were very expensive. Flint tools were widely used - saws, drills, hammers. Many of them were found during excavations.
Delivery of materials was carried out by river, and the stone was brought to the construction site on a wooden sled or rollers. It was hellish work, because the average weight of one block is 2.5 tons, and some of them weighed up to 50 tons.
A variety of devices were used to lift and install the monoliths, and inclined embankments were erected to pull up the most massive elements that make up the lower rows. Images of construction work have been found in a number of Egyptian temples and tombs.
Recently, an original theory has emerged regarding the construction methods of the Egyptians. Scientists who studied the microstructure of the blocks in order to establish their origin, found foreign inclusions. According to experts, these are the remains of animal hair and human hair, from which the scientists concluded that the limestone was crushed in the places of extraction and delivered to the construction site in crushed form. Blocks were made directly at the place of laying from the limestone mass, which thus were a semblance of modern concrete structures, and tool marks on the blocks are actually formwork prints.
Be that as it may, the construction was completed, and the grandiose dimensions of the pyramid fully justify the supporters of the theories of the Atlanteans and aliens who do not believe in the possibility of human genius.
What is inside the pyramid
The entrance to the pyramid was made at a height of almost 16 meters in the form of an arch of granite slabs. It was later sealed with a granite cork and covered with cladding. The current entrance, 10 meters lower, was broken in 831 by order of Caliph Al-Mamun, who hoped to find gold here, but did not find anything of value.
The main premises are the pharaoh's chamber, the queen's chamber, the Great Gallery and the underground chamber. The passage punched by Al-Mamun leads to a 105-meter inclined corridor, ending in a chamber carved into the rock below the base of the pyramid. Its dimensions are 14x8 m., height 3.5 m. Works here were not completed for unknown reasons.
At 18 meters from the entrance, a 40-meter-long ascending corridor separates from the descending corridor, ending in the Great Gallery. The Gallery itself is a high (8.5 m) tunnel 46.6 m long leading to the pharaoh's chamber. The corridor to the queen's chamber branches off from the Gallery at its very beginning. A rectangular ditch 60 cm deep and 1 m wide was pierced in the floor of the Gallery; its purpose is unknown.
The length of the pharaoh's chamber is 10.5 m, width 5.4 m, height 5.84 m. It is lined with black granite slabs. Here is an empty granite sarcophagus. The queen's chamber is more modest - 5.76 x 5.23 x 6.26 m.
Channels 20-25 cm wide lead from the burial chambers to the surface of the pyramid. The channels of the king's chamber go out at one end into the room, at the other - onto the surface of the pyramid. The channels of the queen's chamber begin 13 cm from the wall and do not reach 12 m to the surface, and both ends of the channels are closed with stone doors with handles. It is assumed that the channels were made to ventilate the premises during the work. Another version, connected with the beliefs of the Egyptians, claims that this is the path to the afterlife, which the souls of the deceased had to go through.
No less mysterious is another small room, the Grotto, to which an almost vertical passage leads from the beginning of the Great Gallery. The grotto is located at the junction of the base of the pyramid and the hill on which it stands. The walls of the Grotto are reinforced with rather roughly worked stone. It is assumed that this is part of some structure older than the pyramid.
It is necessary to mention one discovery related to the pyramid. In 1954, at the southern edge, two stone-lined pits were discovered, in which were the pharaoh's boats, made of Lebanese cedar. One of the boats has been restored and is now in a special pavilion next to the pyramid. Its length is 43.5 m, width is 5.6 m.
The study of the pyramid of Cheops continues. Research using the latest methods used in the exploration of the earth's interior, show with a high degree of probability the existence of unknown caverns inside the pyramid. So it is quite possible that scientists expect new interesting findings and discoveries.
In the meantime, the Great Pyramid keeps its secrets, proudly rising in the middle of the desert, like millennia ago. After all, according to an ancient Arabic proverb, everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids.
Pyramids of Ancient Egypt: secrets, riddles, structure, architecture and internal structure of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt
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- The pyramids of Egypt are a unique architectural monument that has remained for centuries thanks to the mysterious builders who managed to create structures so strong that no natural disasters and destructive wars could completely destroy these ancient Egyptian necropolises. The mystery of the pyramids has not yet been solved: it is impossible to speak with confidence either about the method of their construction, or about who acted as the main labor force. Now in Egypt there are about 118 pyramids, the largest of which were built during the reign of the III and IV dynasties of the pharaohs, that is, during the period of the so-called Old Kingdom. There are two types of pyramids: stepped and regular. The structures of the first type are considered the oldest. For example, the pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser, dating back to 2650 BC. e.
Necropolis in Greek means "city of the dead" and is a cemetery, usually located on the outskirts of the city. Egyptian pyramids - one of the varieties of this kind of burial - served as monumental tombs for the pharaohs.
What do we know about the pyramids of Egypt?
For the first time, they learned about the pyramids thanks to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. Traveling in Egypt, he was struck by the famous pyramids of Giza and immediately ranked one of them, dedicated to Cheops, among the seven wonders of the world. Moreover, it was Herodotus who created the legend about how these structures were built. As soon as the pyramids became the object of research by scientists, and this happened only two hundred years ago, this legend immediately became a historical truth, the reliability of which was refuted not so long ago.
How were the ancient pyramids built?
Until our time, safe and sound, not so much has come down as we would like. Numerous vandals who plundered the pyramids for the sake of treasures hidden inside, and local residents who broke out stone blocks for the construction of palaces and mosques, destroyed part of the external and internal appearance. So, the Pink or Northern Pyramid from Dahshur (26 km south of Cairo) got its name because of the color of the stone, turning pink in the rays of the setting Sun. However, she wasn't always like this. Previously, the structure was covered with white limestone, which was completely used to build houses in Cairo.
For a long time it was believed that people who violate the peace of the pharaohs, the ancient gods doom to death. This was confirmed by the legend of the curse of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, according to which everyone who participated in the opening of the grave had to die within a few years. And indeed, by 1929 (the tomb was opened in 1922), 22 people, one way or another involved in the autopsy, died. Whether the reason was the magic of Ancient Egypt or the poison laid in the sarcophagus during burial, it remains to be seen.
It is believed that the famous Great Sphinx, lying near the pyramids of Giza, is the guardian of the peace of the buried pharaohs.
Architecture and internal structure of the pyramids
Pyramids were only part of the ritual-burial complex. Next to each of them were two temples, one side by side, and the other much lower, so that its foot was washed by the waters of the Nile. Pyramids and temples were connected by alleys. An analogue of an alley of a similar plan can be seen in Luxor. The famous Luxor and Karnak temples were united by an alley of sphinxes that has partially survived to our time. The pyramids of Giza have practically not preserved their temples and alleys: only the lower temple of Khafre, the pharaoh of the IV dynasty, has long been considered the temple of the Great Sphinx.
The internal structure of the pyramids implied the obligatory presence of a chamber where the sarcophagus with a mummy was located, and cut passages to this chamber. Sometimes religious texts were placed there. Thus, the interior of the pyramids in Saqqara, an Egyptian village 30 km from Cairo, contained the oldest works of funeral literature that have come down to us.
It is believed that the famous Great Sphinx, lying near the pyramids of Giza, is the guardian of the peace of the buried pharaohs. The ancient Egyptian name for this first monumental sculpture in the world has not survived to our time. Only the Greek version of the designation remained in history. Medieval Arabs called the Sphinx "the father of horror."
Modern Egyptologists suggest that the construction of the pyramids was carried out in several stages. Moreover, sometimes the size of the tomb in the process of creation increased several times in comparison with the original project. Pharaohs built their tomb for many years. Only earthworks and leveling the site for the future construction required at least ten. Pharaoh Cheops took twenty years to build the largest pyramid to date. The workers who built the tombs were not at all slaves tortured to death. Moreover, archaeological excavations have shown that they were kept in fairly decent conditions, treated and fed normally. However, it is still not known exactly how the huge stone blocks got to the very top. It is only obvious that the construction technique has changed over time, and later buildings were built differently than the first ones.
the most unesco
Pyramid of Djoser
Giza, Al Badrashin
Deciding on this trip is definitely worth it, if only out of curiosity. After all, the pyramid of Djoser is recognized as the oldest surviving Egyptian pyramid. Yes, yes, this is the first pyramid in Egypt, and it was built in honor of the ruler Djoser by the architect and close associate of the pharaoh Imhotep.
