Pyramids next to the Cheops pyramid. Ancient pyramid of Cheops, Egypt

02.10.2020

The Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (in the Greek version of Cheops), or the Great Pyramid, is 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 survived 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 suburb of Cairo, Giza. Nearby there are two more pyramids of the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure (Khefre and Mikerin), according to ancient historians, the sons and successors of Khufu. These are the three largest pyramids in Egypt.

Following ancient authors, most modern historians consider the pyramids to be funerary structures of 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 Cheops pyramid built?

Based on ancient “royal lists”, it has been established that Cheops reigned around 2585-2566. BC. Construction of the "Sacred Height" lasted 20 years and ended after the death of Khufu, around 2560 BC.

Other versions of the construction dates, based on astronomical methods, give dates from 2720 to 2577. BC. Radiocarbon dating shows a scatter of 170 years, from 2850 to 2680. BC.

There are also exotic opinions expressed by supporters of theories of aliens visiting the Earth, the existence of ancient civilizations, or adherents of occult movements. They determine the age of the Cheops pyramid 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", overall volume 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, but over the past centuries almost all of the cladding of the pyramid was dismantled. Natural factors also did their job - temperature changes and desert winds carrying clouds of sand.

Ancient Greek historians reported that the construction involved the labor of millions of slaves. Modern researchers believe that with the correct organization of work and engineering, the Egyptians would have had enough tens of thousands of workers to build it. Temporary workers were hired to transport materials, 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.

The chief supervised the construction of the pyramid royal works Hemiun. Hemiun's tomb is located next to his creation, and a statue of the architect was discovered in it.

The main material for the construction was gray limestone, which was cut down in nearby quarries or brought from the other bank of the Nile. The pyramid was lined with light sandstone, which is why it literally shone in the sunlight. For interior decoration, granite was used, which was delivered a thousand kilometers away, from the area of present-day Aswan. The structure was crowned with a hewn gilded granite block - a pyramidion.

In total, the construction of the pyramid took about 2.3 million limestone blocks and 115 thousand facing slabs. The total weight of the building, according to modern estimates, is almost 6 million tons.

The sizes of the blocks vary. The largest ones are placed at the base, their height is one and a half meters. The blocks are smaller the higher they are located. The height of the block at the top is 55 cm. The length of the facing slabs ranged from 1.5 to 0.75 m.

The work of the pyramid builders was extremely hard. A lot of time and effort required quarrying stone, cutting blocks and adjusting them to the required size. In those days, neither iron nor bronze was known in Egypt. The tools were made of relatively soft copper, so they were quickly ground down and were very expensive. Tools made of flint - saws, drills, hammers - were widely used. Many of them were found during excavations.

The materials were delivered by river, and the stone was transported to the construction site on wooden sleds 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 drag 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 examined the microstructure of the blocks in order to establish their origin discovered foreign inclusions. According to experts, these are the remains of animal hair and human hair, from which scientists concluded that the limestone at the mining sites was crushed and delivered in crushed form to the construction site. Directly at the laying site, blocks were made from the limestone mass, which were thus a semblance of modern concrete structures, and the traces of tools on the blocks are actually the imprints of the formwork.

Be that as it may, the construction was completed, and the grandiose dimensions of the pyramid fully justify supporters of the theories of Atlanteans and aliens who do not believe in the possibilities of human genius.

What's inside the pyramid

The entrance to the pyramid was made at a height of almost 16 meters in the form of an arch made of granite slabs. It was later sealed with granite plug and covered with cladding. The current entrance, 10 meters below, was made in 831 by order of Caliph Al-Mamun, who hoped to find gold here, but did not find anything valuable.

The main rooms are the Pharaoh's chamber, the queen's chamber, the Great Gallery and the underground chamber. The passage made 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. Work here was not completed for unknown reasons.

At 18 meters from the entrance, an ascending corridor 40 meters long, ending in the Great Gallery, separates from the descending corridor. 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, has been punched into the floor of the Gallery; its purpose is unknown.

The length of the pharaoh's chamber is 10.5 m, width 5.4, height 5.84 m. It is lined with black granite slabs. There is an empty granite sarcophagus here. 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 open at one end into the room, and 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 work. Another version, associated with the beliefs of the Egyptians, claims that this is the path to the afterlife that 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 processed stone. It is assumed that this is part of some structure more ancient than the pyramid.

It is necessary to mention one discovery related to the pyramid. In 1954, two stone-lined pits were discovered near the southern edge, in which there were pharaoh's boats made of Lebanese cedar. One of the rooks has been restored and is now in a special pavilion next to the pyramid. Its length is 43.5 m, width 5.6 m.

The study of the Cheops pyramid continues. Research using the latest methods used in exploration of the earth's interior shows with a high degree of probability the existence of unknown caverns inside the pyramid. So it is quite possible that scientists can expect new interesting finds and discoveries.

In the meantime, the Great Pyramid keeps its secrets, standing proudly in the middle of the desert, just like thousands of years ago. After all, as the ancient Arabic proverb states, everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids.

Everything that arises must have some reason for its occurrence, for it is absolutely impossible to arise without a cause.” (IV century BC, Plato, Timaeus).

So, let's start with the facts.
Firstly, there are three burial chambers in the pyramid. - Three! It never occurs to any living person to prepare a tomb for himself in three “copies.” Moreover, as can be seen from the size of the pyramids, this was a very troublesome and time-consuming task. Egyptian archaeologists have established that the pharaohs built separate pyramids of a much smaller size for their wives, and “family character” was not established in the burials of the pharaohs. From this it follows that at different times the pyramid had three owners (three pharaohs) and therefore each in the pyramid had its own burial chamber.

To confirm this conclusion, consider a cross-section of the pyramid (what it is).

Egyptian historians have established that long before the construction of the pyramids in ancient Egypt in the 4th millennium BC. and even earlier, pharaohs were buried in deep underground halls - “mastabas”, where the mummy was located. In the ground part, at the top above the hall, a low, flat, truncated pyramid was built, in the interior of which there was a prayer room with a statue into which after death (according to faith) the soul of the pharaoh moved. The halls of the premises could be isolated from each other.

Looking at the plan of the section, we can say that the upper prayer room of the first mastaba, which has not been discovered to date (no more than 15 meters high), is located in the center of the pyramid, just below the middle burial chamber (7). If, of course, by the time the second pharaoh built his pyramid over the mastaba, the latter was not destroyed (plundered) or crushed, and was preserved.

A narrow inclined-vertical shaft (12) for lifting the soul from the underground burial pit (5) should rise to the above-ground prayer room of the mastaba. At the exit of the shaft to the surface level of the plateau under the base of the pyramid there is a small grotto (expansion up to 5 meters) the walls of which are partially reinforced with older masonry that does not belong to the pyramid. This ancient masonry, is nothing more than belonging to the first mastaba. From the grotto (12) to the center of the pyramid there should be a continuation into the mastaba, which is closed or was later blocked.

According to archaeologists, the underground burial “pit” (5) for some reason remained unfinished. Perhaps for the same reason, the upper above-ground part of the mastaba with the prayer room was not completed (the latter remains to be seen). The unfinished burial structure, located in the most advantageous place, on the top of a stone plateau, served (the pharaoh preceding Cheops) as a pretext and moral basis to take the mastaba as the basis for building his own pyramid over it.

The fact that the age of the Sphinx is estimated to be much older than the pyramids (about 5-10 thousand years) also supports the fact that the Giza plateau was previously “inhabited” by ancient mastabas.

By the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. in Egypt, burials in mastabas were replaced by more majestic structures - pyramids. The Egyptians also developed another later worldview about the place of residence of the soul after death. - “Whoever lives the time allotted to him properly will return to the abode of the star named after him.” (Plato, Timaeus).

The burial chamber (7) belonging to the second internal pyramid (according to the cross-section plan) is presumably located above the prayer part of the first mastaba. The corridor ascending to the chamber (6) is laid along the wall, and the horizontal one (8) along the roof of the mastaba. Thus, one can “see” the approximate boundaries of the first ancient internal truncated mastaba pyramid.

The second internal pyramid is about ten meters on each side smaller than the current external third pyramid of Cheops. This can be judged by the length of the two so-called ventilation air ducts emanating from the chamber (7) (20 by 25 cm in cross section), which, approximately (according to the pyramid drawing) are about ten meters short of the plane of the current external walls. Of course, these are not ventilation ducts, which the deceased pharaoh did not need. This is a path directed into the sky, oriented with great accuracy (up to a degree) to those stars where, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the soul of the pharaoh would settle after death. When the second pyramid was built, the channels from the burial room (7) reached the edges of the outer walls and were open to the sky.

The Sphinx is a lion (symbol of royal power) with a human head and the face of a pharaoh. Presumably, the face of the pharaoh (after plastic restoration of the mummy's skull) will be similar to the face of the Sphinx. The veil over the secret pyramid of Cheops and the Sphinx has been lifted, now you need to “enter”.

The world-famous Egyptian pyramid of Cheops inside is like a “Russian nesting doll” and consists of three pyramids of three pharaohs. The veil of secrecy is lifted over one of the seven wonders of the world. Every creation of human hands has meaning.

“Everything that arises must have some reason for its occurrence, for it is absolutely impossible to arise without a cause.” So said the ancient Greek philosopher and sage Plato in the 4th century BC. e. in his book Timaeus.

All mysteries are overcome by knowledge. Knowledge can be obtained or created. As a “tool for creation,” let’s take our common sense, logic of thinking and knowledge of ancient people who used ideas about the world at that distant time.

“What is comprehended through reflection and reasoning is obviously an eternally identical being; and that which is subject to opinion... arises and dies, but never really exists.” (IV century BC, Plato, Timaeus).

Russian doll

What does it mean that the Cheops pyramid is like a “Russian nesting doll”, containing two more pyramids, one inside the other? To confirm the conclusion about the triplicity of the Cheops pyramid, let's start with the facts and look at the cross-sectional diagram of the pyramid.

Firstly, there are three burial chambers in the Cheops pyramid. Three! From this fact it follows that the pyramid had three owners (three pharaohs) at different times. And everyone had their own separate burial chamber. After all, few living people would think of preparing a tomb for themselves in three “copies.” In addition (as can be seen from the size of the pyramids), their construction is quite labor-intensive even for our time. Besides? Archaeologists have already established that the pharaohs built tomb pyramids separately and of a much smaller size for their wives.

Egyptian historians have established that long before the construction of the pyramids in ancient Egypt in the 4th millennium BC. and earlier pharaohs were buried in structures called mastabas. Below in the picture is the appearance of the ancient crypt (mastaba) of Shepseskaf in Saqqara. It consists of underground and above-ground parts.

The pharaoh's mummy was located deep underground in an underground hall. In the ground part there was a prayer room with a statue of the pharaoh. After death (according to the ancient Egyptian priests), the soul of the deceased pharaoh moved into this statue. The halls in the above-ground mastaba room could be connected to each other (or isolated from each other). Above these underground halls, a low, trapezoidal truncated pyramid was built from stone blocks.

Under the pyramid of Cheops there is underground passage(4) at the end of which there is a vast unfinished underground hall (5). There is also an exit (12) from the hall to the top, which was made according to the burial theory for the passage of the pharaoh’s soul to the above-ground part of the mastaba.

According to the section plan of the Cheops pyramid, we can conclude that if there is an underground hall (5) and there is a passage upward from it (12), then the upper prayer room of the mastaba should be in the center and slightly lower than the middle burial chamber (7). Unless, of course, when the second pharaoh began construction of his pyramid above the mastaba, these premises were not filled with stones, destroyed and preserved to this day.

This conclusion (about the presence of internal mastaba halls in the center of the Cheops pyramid) is confirmed by the observations of French researchers - Gilles Dormayon and Jean-Yves Verdhart. In August 2004, while examining the floor in the middle burial chamber (7) with sensitive gravitational instruments, they discovered an unknown void of impressive size below the floor at a depth of about four meters, the purpose of which at that time they had no versions.

According to the plan of the pyramid's section, a narrow inclined almost vertical shaft (12) goes up from the underground burial pit (5). This passage should connect to the above-ground prayer room of the mastaba. At the exit from the mine, at ground level under the base of the pyramid, there is a small grotto (extension up to 5 meters in length). Apparently, in ancient times, when excavating this grotto, they were already looking for a passage to the inner halls of the mastaba. It has been established that its walls consist of more ancient masonry that does not belong to the Cheops pyramid. The passage rising from the underground hall and the ancient stonework are nothing more than belonging to the first mastaba. From the expansion in the shaft (12) to the center of the pyramid there should be a passage to the ground halls of the mastaba. This passage was most likely walled up by the builders of the second inner pyramid.

By appearance and according to archaeologists, the underground burial chamber (5) remained unfinished. The condition of the prayer rooms in the upper above-ground part of the mastaba (which is the first of three in the Cheops pyramid) remains to be determined by opening a passage through them.

The height of the first internal truncated pyramid (mastaba), according to the pyramid's sectional diagram, should be no more than 15 meters.

The presence of an unfinished burial structure (mastaba), located in the most advantageous place (on the top of a stone plateau in the town of Giza), served as a pretext for the second (before Cheops) unknown pharaoh to use this mastaba to build his pyramid over it.

The fact that the Giza plateau was previously “inhabited” by ancient mastabas is also supported by the fact that the Sphinx was there. The purpose of the “Sphinx” is to serve as a tomb (mastaba) in the form of a lion sculpture. The age of the “Sphinx” (the deity into which, according to theory, the soul of the pharaoh should move) is estimated to be much older than the pyramids (about 5 - 10 thousand years).

In Egypt, by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the Egyptian priests had a new worldview about the place of residence of the soul after death.

In this regard, the burials of the pharaohs in mastabas were replaced by more majestic structures - step pyramids, and later by “smooth” hewn pyramids. According to the ideas of the priests, after death a person’s soul flew to life to stars related to their souls. “Whoever lives the time allotted to him properly will return to the abode of the star named after him.” Plato, Timaeus.

The burial chamber (7), belonging to the second internal pyramid (on the cross-sectional plan) is located above the prayer part of the first mastaba. The corridor ascending to it (6) is laid along the wall of the mastaba, and the horizontal corridor (8) along its roof. Thus, these two corridors to chamber (7) show approximate dimensions the first ancient internal truncated trapezoidal mastaba pyramid.

Second and third pyramids

This can be judged by the length of two emanating from the chamber (7) in opposite directions, the so-called (in modern terms) “ventilation ducts”. These channels (one to the north and the other to the south) in a cross section of 20 by 25 cm, approximately 10-12 meters do not reach the boundary of the external walls of the third pyramid.

The modern name for ducts as “air ducts” is, of course, incorrect. The deceased pharaoh did not need ventilation ducts. The channels had a completely different purpose. Channels are a pointing path directed to the sky, oriented with great accuracy (up to a degree) to the stars, where, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the soul of the pharaoh would settle after death.

The northern channel was oriented towards the star Kohab in the constellation Ursa Minor. At that time, due to precession (the displacement of the Earth's axis), "Kokhab" was the "North Star" around which the sky revolved. It was assumed that after death the pharaoh becomes one of the stars in her environment in the northern part of the sky.

The Southern Channel was targeting the Sirius star. In Egyptian mythology, “Sirius” was associated with the name of the goddess Sopdet (the protector and patroness of all the dead).

At the time the second pyramid was built, both channels from the burial chamber (7) reached the edge of the outer walls and were open to the sky. The burial chamber of the pharaoh's second inner pyramid may also have been unfinished (judging by the lack of its interior decoration).

It is possible that the top of the second pyramid was not fully completed (for example, there was a war, the pharaoh was killed, died prematurely from illness, an accident, etc.). But, in any case, the second pyramid was built no lower than the height of the channels (“air ducts”) emanating from the burial chamber (7) to the outer walls.

The second internal pyramid reveals itself not only with tightly closed channels and its own separate burial chamber, but most of all it is revealed outside by the walled-up central entrance (1) to the Cheops pyramid.

Obviously, it immediately catches your eye that the entrance, tightly walled up with huge granite blocks, is buried in the body of the third pyramid (about the same 10-12 meters as the channels from the second burial chamber).

During the construction of the third pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops, there was no point in extending this external entrance to the second pyramid. Therefore, after adding walls along the perimeter of the third pyramid, the entrance turned out to be “recessed” inside.

The entrance gates of all buildings are always made slightly outside the structure, and not buried in the depths of the structure. The Pyramid of Khafre has approximately the same entrance, but moved outside.

Cheops is the third owner of the pyramid

Archaeologists and historians, according to the deciphering of the hieroglyphs, have established that the Cheops pyramid was built not by slaves (as previously thought), but by civilian builders, who, of course, had to be paid well for hard work. And since the volume of construction was enormous, it was more profitable for Cheops to take an unfinished pyramid than to build a new one from scratch. The advantageous location of the unfinished second pyramid, which was located at the very top of the plateau, was also important.

Cheops began the construction of the third pyramid by dismantling the central part of the second pyramid. In the resulting “crater” at a height of approximately 40 meters from the ground, a pre-chamber (11) and the third burial chamber of the pharaoh (10) were built. The passage to the third burial chamber only needed to be extended. The ascending tunnel (6) was continued in the form of a large 8-meter high cone-shaped gallery (9).

The conical shape of the gallery is not similar to the initial part of the ascending narrow passage. This indicates that the tunnel was not made at the same time and under different external conditions.

After the third Cheops pyramid was expanded on the sides, adding 10-12 meters on each side, the outgoing channels of the second pyramid from the chamber (7) were accordingly closed.

If the burial chamber (7) turned out to be empty, then there was no point in extending the old channels for the builders of the third pyramid. Outside, the channels were filled with new rows of wall blocks of the third pyramid, and from the inside in chamber (7), the outgoing channels were also walled up. In the burial chamber (7), walled up channels were discovered by treasure hunters (researchers) by tapping the walls only in 1872.

In September 2010, English and German researchers launched a caterpillar robot into one of the narrow “air ducts” from the second burial chamber (7). Having risen to the end, he rested against a limestone slab 13 cm thick, drilled through it, inserted a video camera into the hole, and on the other side of the slab at a distance of 18 cm, the robot saw another stone barrier. Having reached a dead end, the scientists' search ended in nothing. The stone barrier is nothing more than the blocks of the third pyramid.

The builders of the third pyramid of Cheops from the third burial chamber of the pharaoh laid new channels (10) for the “flight of the soul” to the stars.

If you look closely at the cross-section of the pyramid, the two pairs of channels (to the north and south) from the second and third chambers are not parallel! This is one of the “keys” to solving the mystery of the Cheops pyramid.

The channels of the upper third chamber relative to the channels of the second chamber are rotated clockwise by 5 degrees. The northern pair of channels has inclination angles of 32° and 37° (5° difference). The southern pair of channels, oriented towards the star Sirius, has inclination angles of 45° and 39° (a difference of 6°). Here, an increase of 1 degree can be attributed to the own movement of the planet Sirius in its orbit. The 5-degree discrepancy in channel angles is not accidental. Egyptian priests and builders very accurately recorded the position of the stars in the sky and clearly laid out the direction of the channels to the stars (with an accuracy of minutes and seconds).

Then what's the matter

The point here is that the Earth’s rotation axis shifts by 1 degree every 72 years, and every 25,920 years the Earth’s axis, rotating at an angle like a spinning top, makes a full circle of 360 degrees. This astronomical phenomenon is called precession. Plato called the total rotation time of the Earth's axis 25,920 years - “The Great Year”.

When the Earth's axis shifts by 1 degree over 72 years, then the angle of view in the direction of all stars (including the Sun) also changes by 1 degree. If the displacement of each pair of channels differs by 5 degrees, then we can easily calculate that between the construction of the second pyramid (of the unknown pharaoh) and the third pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops, the difference is 5 x 72 = 360 years.

Egyptian historians say that Pharaoh Cheops (another pronunciation is Khufu) reigned in 2540-2560 BC. By counting “degree” years ago, we can say exactly when the second inner pyramid was built. Thus, the second pyramid was built in 2800-2820 BC.

In the Cheops pyramid, in a single place under the ceiling (on the powerful vaulted granite slabs above the third burial chamber, like a roof), there is a personal hieroglyph made by the workers who left their mark: “Builders, friends of Pharaoh Khufu.” No other mention of the name Cheops (Khufu) or the affiliation of other pharaohs to the pyramid has yet been found.

Most likely, the third Cheops pyramid was completed and used for its intended purpose. Otherwise, the Cheops pyramid would not have been “sealed.” That is, a plug of several granite cubes would not have been lowered into the ascending passage (6) from above and from the inside along an inclined plane. With these stone cubes, the pyramid was tightly closed to everyone for more than three thousand years (until 820 AD).

The ancient Egyptian name of the Cheops pyramid is read in hieroglyphs as “Horizon of Khufu”. The name has a literal meaning. The angle of inclination of the side face of the pyramid is 51° 50′. This is the angle at which the Sun rose exactly at noon on the days of the autumn-spring equinox. The sun at noon, like a golden “crown,” crowned the pyramid. Throughout the year, the Sun (the ancient Egyptian God - Ra) walks across the sky in summer higher, in winter lower (just like the pharaoh through his domains) and always the Sun (pharaoh) returns to his “home”. Therefore, the angle of inclination of the walls of the pyramid indicates the path to the house of the “Sun God”, to the “house of the pyramid” of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) - “the son of the Sun God”.

The edges of the walls are arranged at an angle of view towards the Sun not only in this pyramid. In Khafre's pyramid, the angle of inclination of the wall faces is slightly more than 52-53 degrees (it is known that it was built later). In the Mikerin pyramid, the slope of the faces is 51°20′25″ (less than that of Cheops). Until now, historians did not know whether it was built before the Cheops pyramid or later. Now, taking into account the open “degree time” of the Earth’s precession, the smaller angle of inclination of the walls indicates that the pyramid of Mikerinus was built not later, but earlier. In relation to the “degree age scale”, a difference in the slope of the walls of 30 minutes corresponds to 36 years. In later Egyptian pyramids, for example the pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre, the slope of the faces should accordingly be greater.

In Sudan (see in the picture) there are many pyramids, the angle of inclination of the faces of which is much steeper. Sudan is south of Egypt and the Sun stands higher above the horizon there on the day of the spring-autumn equinox. This explains the great steepness of the walls of the Sudanese pyramids.

In 820 A.D. The Baghdad caliph Abu Jafar al-Mamun, in search of the countless treasures of the pharaoh, made a horizontal break (2) at the base of the Cheops pyramid, which tourists use to enter the pyramid at present. The breach was made to the beginning of the ascending corridor (6), where they ran into granite cubes, which were bypassed to the right and thus penetrated into the pyramid. But, according to historians, they found nothing but “dust half the size of a palm” inside. If there was anything valuable in the pyramid, then the servants of the caliph took it. And what they left behind was taken away over the next period of time—1200 years.

Judging by the appearance of the gallery (9), 28 pairs of ritual statues stood along its walls in rectangular recesses. However, the exact purpose of the recesses is not known. Two facts indicate that there were statues there. First, the eight-meter height of the gallery made it possible to install statues. Secondly, there were large round peeling imprints on the walls from the mortar that was used to attach the statues to the walls.

I will disappoint those who were determined to find “miracles” in the design of the Egyptian pyramids.

Over a hundred pyramids have been discovered in Egypt today, and they are all different from each other. The pyramids have different angles of inclination of the faces oriented towards the Sun (because they were built at different times), there is a pyramid with a “broken side” at a double angle, there are stone and brick pyramids, smoothly lined and stepped, there are pyramids with a base not square, but rectangular in shape, for example, Pharaoh Djoser.

There is no unity even among the neighboring pyramids at Giza. The Pyramid of Mikerin (the smaller of the three) at its base is not oriented strictly to the cardinal points. The exact orientation of the sides is not given importance. In the main pyramid of Cheops, the third (uppermost) burial chamber is not located in the geometric center of the pyramid or even on the axis of the pyramid. In the pyramids of Khafre and Mikerin, the burial chambers are also off-center. If the pyramids had some kind of secret secret, law or knowledge, the “golden ratio” and so on, then all the pyramids would have uniformity. But there is nothing like that in the pyramids. Below are pictures of Egyptian pyramids of different shapes.

The former Minister of Archeology of Egypt and the current main expert on ancient Egyptian pyramids, Zahi Hawass, says: “Like any practitioner, I decided to check the statement that food does not spoil in the pyramid. Divided a kilogram of meat in half. I left one part in the office and the other in the Cheops pyramid. The part in the pyramid deteriorated even faster than in the office.”

What else can you look for in the Cheops pyramid?

Perhaps you can find the above-ground prayer room of the first pyramid - the mastaba. It would be worth drilling down several holes in the floor of the second (7) burial chamber until an internal cavity is discovered below.

Then from the grotto (12) find a walled passage into the halls (or pave it). This will not be detrimental to the pyramid, since there was originally a connecting entrance from the underground burial chamber to the above-ground mastaba room. And you just have to find it. After the discovery of the interior of the mastaba, it may become known about the pharaoh - the owner of the first truncated trapezoidal mastaba pyramid.

The Mastaba Sphinx is also of great interest on the Giza plateau. The stone body of the ancient Sphinx is located from west to east. Funeral burials were also made from west to east. Presumably, the Sphinx is an integral part of an above-ground structure (mastaba) - the tomb of an unknown pharaoh.

Searches in this direction would expand the boundaries of knowledge of the history of ancient Egypt. It is possible that there was an even earlier civilization, for example, the Atlanteans, whom the Egyptians deified, considering them their ancestors, and referred to their ancient ancestors as predecessor gods.

An identification study by American criminologists concluded that the face of the Sphinx does not resemble the faces of the statues of Egyptian pharaohs, but has distinct Negroid features. That is, the ancient ancestors of the Egyptians, including the legendary Atlanteans, had Negroid facial features and African origin.

It should be noted here that the Egyptian legend about the Atlantean ancestors is indirect evidence of proximity to Egypt.

Probably burial chamber and mummy ancient pharaoh of Negro origin is located under the front paws of the Sphinx, as the American psychic Edgar Cayce said about it. In this case, there should be a passage upward from the underground hall - a path for the relocation of the “soul” of the pharaoh and subsequent life in the body of the Sphinx statue (according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians).

The Sphinx is a lion (symbol of royal power) with a human head and the face of a pharaoh. It is possible that the face of the discovered mummy of the pharaoh (after plastic restoration) will turn out to be “two peas in a pod” similar to the face of the Sphinx.

By analogy with the construction (of later pyramids over earlier ones), we can say that many other Egyptian pyramids had more than one owner. In this regard, confusion is revealed with the time of life of the pharaohs and the time of construction of their pyramids.

For example, Pharaoh Mykerinus ruled later than Cheops, but his pyramid, based on the angle of inclination of the walls, in accordance with calculations based on “years of precession,” was started 36 years earlier than Cheops’ pyramid. How can this be? The answer to this question is that the pyramid began to be built earlier (before Mikerin), but it was completed later, when the angle of inclination of the lower walls that had been started could no longer be changed.

There is a large vertical gap on one of the side walls of the Mykerinus pyramid. Getting to the pharaoh's treasures in the burial chamber inside the pyramid, the robbers dismantled part of the wall from top to bottom. In the thus formed “vertical section” of the section of the inner blocks of the pyramid, the following was revealed - from a certain, clearly defined boundary, the upper blocks were not laid tightly and not as neatly as the lower ones. This confirms that the pyramid was being completed and that later builders were not as careful about the quality of laying the internal blocks.

At the same time, judging by the two underground halls under the pyramid of Mikerin (which belong to the burials of the pharaohs during the construction of the mastabas), the burial structure was begun many centuries earlier. This confusion of times suggests that inside the pyramid of Mikerin, as well as in the pyramid of Cheops, there should be above-ground prayer rooms of the original mastaba belonging to the more ancient burial of the pharaoh. And in the body of the pyramid there should also be a chamber-tomb for the later burial of Pharaoh Mikerin.

"Curtain" of centuries-old secrecy over the secret Egyptian pyramid Cheops is raised. All that remains is to enter the open door.
This requires permission from the Egyptian authorities, which they give to research scientists with great reluctance.
A mystery loses its appeal when it is revealed.

But, despite this, tourists’ interest in the majestic buildings does not disappear. ancient world, which has survived to this day.

How the Cheops Pyramid was built

Another confirmation of the triplicity of the Cheops pyramid. In 2009, the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, and later with the support of Egyptologist Bob Brier from the American University of Long Island, observing how roads were built in the mountains, put forward a similar erroneous assumption. about the construction technology of the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops. The fact that stone blocks were transported to the pyramid by dragging around its walls along inclined ramps and corridors, as if along a serpentine mountain road. This is a long and laborious path. Following this, Jean-Pierre Houdin began to look for evidence of his hypothesis.

To substantiate his assumption, he accepted the research of a group of engineers from the French Academy of Sciences, who in 1986 spent several months scanning the internal contents of the Cheops pyramid to detect hidden cavities inside it. French researchers discovered wide stripes along the perimeter of the pyramid at different heights with approximately 15% less density (see above picture of gravimetry of the Cheops pyramid). Areas with a density from 1.85 to 2.3 tons per 1 cubic meter are highlighted in different colors.

French scientists were unable to explain why there are sparse stripes along the walls of the pyramid, and therefore the results of the study did not receive any discussion in the scientific world.

In June 2012, in Russia, engineer Vladimir Garmatyuk revealed the “secret” of the Cheops pyramid. Obvious evidence is provided that the pyramid, like a “Russian nesting doll” inside, consists of three pyramids of three pharaohs of different times. When it became known that inside the Cheops pyramid (the third from the start of construction) there is an older (360 years earlier) second pyramid (see picture - a recessed entrance to the second closed pyramid).

And there is an even more ancient first truncated pyramid (mastaba, which reveals itself in the underground hall under the pyramid and other signs), then the stripes of material with lower density inside the Cheops pyramid found their explanation. The stripes show and confirm the separation of the bodies of the second and third pyramid.

How and with what to explain this

For the strength of the structure, the outer layer of the pyramid was laid out from hewn, tightly packed blocks. Hence the high density of the outer layer of the walls. While the inner rows of the pyramids consist of roughly fitted unhewn blocks. Therefore, the density of the inner rows of the pyramid is less.

See, for example, the picture below - the “insides” of the pyramid of Pepi II from South Saqqara. On the outside of the pyramid there are densely laid hewn blocks, and on the inside there are ordinary stones obtained from horizontal chipping of layered limestone deposits.

It is possible that the same thing happened inside the Cheops pyramid (of course, not in the central part, where the burial chambers of the pharaohs are located); a mound of stones, rubble and sand, delivered to the pyramid in baskets, was used as a volume filler. After all, this significantly reduced the cost and accelerated the construction of the pyramids. A mound of stones easily explains the same vast spaces of rarefied density that were discovered in 2017 by French and Japanese physicists when studying the inside of the pyramid with muon telescopes.

When accurately measuring the plane of the side faces of the Cheops pyramid, it is noticeable that they have some depression inward (to a depth of one meter). After all, over the 4.5 thousand years since the construction of the pyramid, there have been many earthquakes that gradually shook out its contents over and over again. And because of this, the walls (since there is loose material inside the pyramid) fell somewhat inward due to their lower density.

According to gravimetry of the Cheops pyramid (white) stripes along the perimeter of the walls of the second pyramid have a density of 1.85-2.05 tons per cubic meter. This just means that there is an embankment made of stone.

The third (outer visible today) pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops increased the sides and height of the second (inner) pyramid by 10 - 12 meters. The internal unhewn blocks of the third pyramid are laid along dense, hewn external walls second pyramid. Therefore, in 1986, French gravimetric researchers recorded a difference in the density of the material inside the pyramid; it is this difference (the difference in density) that creates the appearance of a “serpentine”. French researchers noted this circumstance, but could not explain it.

Other arguments by Jean-Pere Houdin and Bob Brier, given to prove the assumption of the “serpentine” construction of the pyramid, each have their own explanation. Researchers in 2009 did not yet know that the Cheops pyramid consists of three different pyramids. For example, longitudinal stripes of stone blocks of the same color on the edges of the Cheops pyramid, which they interpret as “dusty roads” from the transportation of blocks, are explained by the uniform color of the stones, mined in a quarry from one layer of rock.

The third pyramid was built up with stone blocks evenly along the height and perimeter onto the walls of the second pyramid, like “cream on a cake.” The stone was mined in one place, and therefore the blocks are similar in color. The order in which the stone blocks were mined was the order in which they were laid in the walls. When the blocks were taken from another place, their color was slightly different.

Or their other argument is a small pothole-deepening on the edge near the top of the pyramid, which they called a transport corridor. The pothole could have been made after the pyramid was built, for example as a failed attempt to get inside. Or the pothole could be made like:

guardhouse for giving signals,

as a guard post for religious, hermitage, cult or other purposes.

The fact that the Cheops pyramid consists of three different pyramids, separated by hundreds of years in construction time, means that it was built by more than one generation of people, and there was no such great construction “in one go.”

This significantly mitigates the worrying problem of the labor intensity of building a pyramid, but does not cancel or in any way reduce the grandeur of the undoubtedly greatest structure of the ancient Egyptian civilization in the history of mankind.

Of course, everyone knows where the Cheops pyramid is located. After all, this is one of the most outstanding monuments not only of Egypt, but of the entire planet. And despite the achievements of modern science, the secrets of the Cheops pyramid are still unrevealed. This is one of the reasons why this huge structure attracts numerous tourists, as well as the fact that it is the only wonder of the world that has survived to this day.

This place really has some special magnetism. And even the numerous souvenir sellers and camel drivers who want to make money from curious tourists do not spoil the overall impression. Looking ahead, I will say that the Cheops Pyramid inside is not as stunning as the outside. And if you decide to save money on an “internal” excursion, you won’t lose much. Moreover, I would not recommend going inside for people with claustrophobia, breathing problems or heart problems. The corridors here are quite narrow, and the air is heavy and stuffy, despite the presence of ventilation ducts. By the way, excursion tours are often very intense and do not allow time to get acquainted with the pyramidal structures inside. Therefore, be sure to clarify this point in advance if you still decide to come into contact with the secret from the inside.

History of construction

The most famous pyramidal structure owes its “birth” to Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled Egypt for at least 27 years. According to legend, a huge amount of money was spent on the creation of this great monument, which led to the weakening of the state. Scientists do not yet have a consensus on how true this is. But it is clear that a lot of resources were spent. After all, the original height of the Cheops pyramid was 146.6 meters. But what is noteworthy is that it looks slightly lower than the neighboring building. And not only because she “lost” the top. The son of Cheops, building his pyramid, cheated a little by choosing a place 10 meters higher.

There are many versions of how the Cheops pyramid was built, consisting of 2.3 million stone blocks. Their total weight is approximately 6.5 million tons. The stone blocks are carefully fitted to each other and held together with a special compound - pink gypsum “milk”. The walls have a slope of 52 degrees and embody the number "pi". This giant is located on an area of 5 hectares. The diagram of the Cheops pyramid clearly demonstrates that inside it is practically a monolith, in which there are only a few corridors, halls and ventilation ducts. To avoid theft, the ancient Egyptians placed special mechanisms inside. But the traps of the Cheops pyramid, religious prohibitions and other tricks did not protect the structure from robbers.

There is also no exact information about how old the Cheops pyramid is. Its age is estimated at only approximately 4.5 thousand years. But some researchers believe that the monument could have been erected much earlier - back in the 11th millennium BC, and that representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations were involved in the construction.

There are many legends about this building. But I also picked Interesting Facts about the Cheops pyramid, confirmed by scientific research. Among them are those that still remain little known. And if you have never been here on an excursion, then you are unlikely to know that:

For almost three thousand years, the Cheops pyramid was the tallest structure in the world. She gave the “Palm of Championship” only in 1311 - at that time construction was completed in Lincoln Cathedral. Sometimes the Eiffel Tower, built at the end of the 19th century, is mistakenly called the new record holder. In fact, before it there were structures higher than the Cheops pyramid. These are mainly temple buildings, as well as the Washington Memorial.
Many consider the pyramid to be the tomb of a pharaoh. But this is a misconception, since the Egyptian ruler was buried in the Valley of the Kings, and his body was never inside the structure. But still there is a direct connection with the pharaoh. The pyramid functionally played the role of a kind of “suitcase”. Within its walls are many things that, according to the ancient Egyptians, were necessary for a royal person in the afterlife.
For a long time it was believed that the pyramids were built by slaves. But as modern researchers have proven, free residents were employed in construction Ancient Egypt who also have high professional qualifications. The dimensions and proportions of the Cheops pyramid are perfectly calculated, and the structure was built with impeccable precision.
The Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt was first mentioned in writing in the works of Herodotus. The author describes his own impressions of visiting this religious building and shares the information he received from local priests. This work is dated 440 BC. However, Herodotus was unable to obtain any valuable information, except for some geometric data.
The Pyramid of Cheops has its own “birthday.” The Egyptians celebrate it on August 23, and this day is a national holiday. However, this holiday appeared in Egypt quite recently - only in 2009, and has only a tentative relationship to the exact date of the start of construction. This hypothesis was put forward by scientists from Cambridge.

But, nevertheless, too many tourists gather here on this day, and if you want to explore the main Egyptian attraction in a relaxed atmosphere, do not plan an excursion for this day. There are also other nuances that are useful to know if you are going to get to know this wonder of the world with your own eyes.

Helpful information

The Pyramid of Cheops on the map is located on the left and slightly south of Cairo, in Giza. It is from the Egyptian capital that it is most convenient to get to this pyramid complex, where, in addition to the famous tomb of Khufu, you will also see the pyramids of the son and grandson of the pharaoh (Khephren and Mikerin), which are slightly lower. This is the best preserved pyramidal complex in the entire country. The journey from Cairo takes about 20 minutes. Excursion tour can be purchased both directly in the capital and in any of the resorts. The road from Hugarda is approximately 5-6 hours by bus, from Sherm al-Sheikh - from 7 to 8 hours.

When buying excursions from these cities, do not focus on the cheapest offers - there is a risk of ending up in an uncomfortable bus without air conditioning, which, given the high Egyptian temperatures, can ruin the entire impression of the excursion.
Entrance to the territory is paid (80 and 40 EGP for adults and children, respectively). Entrance fee is paid separately - (200 EGP for adults and half less children's ticket). You will also have to pay extra for photography inside.
Be sure to check the weather forecast. If in the future strong wind, it is better to postpone the trip, as everything will be in the sand. And don’t forget to take a hat - this will protect you from the heat and from pestering sellers.

The number of internal visits is limited (300 people per day), so the chances of getting inside the pyramidal complex on your own, without being part of excursion group, not too high. But you can take great photos in front of the most famous Egyptian monument in any case, and they will remind you of this exciting journey for a long time.

Therefore, this article will present only the main general facts and figures relating to the Great Pyramid as a whole.

Date of construction and geometric dimensions

According to generally accepted opinion, the Great Pyramid was built in the 2560-2580s BC as a tomb for the reigning pharaoh of the IV dynasty Cheops (Khufu) at that time. Despite some difficulties in explaining the possibility of its construction in the required time frame using the technology available at that time, this version is nevertheless considered the main one and has quite numerous confirmations in the form of inscriptions discovered inside the Pyramid and the Pit of the Solar Boat with it.

The Pyramid of Cheops is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids.

Height (today): ≈ 138.75 m
Height (original): ≈ 146.5 m
Angle: 51° 50"
Side length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 Royal cubits
Side length (currently): about 225 m
The length of the sides of the base of the pyramid: south - 230.454 m; north - 230.253 m; west - 230.357 m; east - 230.394 m.
Foundation area (initially): ≈ 53,000 m² (5.3 ha)
Area of the pyramid: (initially) ≈ 85,500 m²
Perimeter: 922 m.
Total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m³
Total volume of the pyramid, after subtracting all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m³
The average size of the observed stone blocks of rough masonry: 1.27 m in width and depth, 71 cm in height (according to Petrie)
Average weight of rough masonry stone blocks: 2.5 t
The heaviest stone block of rough masonry: 15 t
Heaviest stone block (known; granite; above the entrance to the King's Chamber): 90 t
Number of blocks: about 2.5 million (provided that the pyramid is not a backfill type)
Estimated total weight of the pyramid: about 6.25 million tons (possibly about 6 million tons according to microgravimetry)
The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation in the center (in the Grotto area) more than 9 m high.
Materials used in construction (from known ones): limestone from the Giza Plateau - rough masonry, Tour white limestone - internal walls, ventilation shafts and external cladding, Aswan granite - Antechamber, King's Chamber, unloading chambers (partially), plugs; Sinai - sarcophagus. Quartz sand was also found inside.
The pyramidion of the pyramid was not found, nor were its fastening stones.
The True Entrance is located traditionally, i.e., on the north side. He is the only one known.

Difference in thickness of pyramid masonry layers

Despite the fact that the pyramid is built in layers, the thickness of the layers is different and varies from 60 cm to one and a half meters.

The reasons for this are not exactly known, there are several hypotheses, the simplest one says that large blocks were laid in eras when there was an excess amount of labor for laying layers of rough masonry. Which may be connected, for example, with its release after the completion of a certain labor-intensive stage in the construction of some complex internal infrastructure or a season for the procurement of blocks, etc. The scheme requires careful analysis.

Current state of affairs and appearance after the disappearance of the cladding

The Great Pyramid now has edges concave inward. This often gives rise to various theories and speculations, but it should be remembered that the structure has lost several meters of cladding on each side, and the nature of its looting for stone does not give reason to believe that the original faces were not flat.

Perhaps the observed picture is simply a consequence of the most profitable extraction of stone.

Question about using the pyramid for its intended purpose

Since ancient times, the question has been acutely raised: was the Cheops pyramid used for its intended purpose? There is still no clear answer to this question. On the one hand, there is almost complete confidence that the pyramid was completely completed by the builders. On the other hand, what we see inside it, for example, is clearly not best quality a sarcophagus in the King's Chamber, an unfinished floor in the Queen's Chamber or a picture of complete incompleteness in the Underground Chamber - everything suggests that the pharaoh in these famous premises could hardly have been buried at all. Herodotus also claimed that Cheops was buried in another place, on an island surrounded on all sides by water. On the third hand, traces of obvious hacking of the plugs and dampers of the Antechamber indicate that for some reason the pyramid was carefully sealed. The official point of view of science on this matter suggests that the burglars visited the pyramid no later than the first 500-600 years from the moment of its construction. But what they found, who they were and whether they found anything at all is completely unknown. In volume Great Pyramid the volume of all known and explored rooms is less than 1 percent, and it is already known that in addition to the explored ones, there are several unknown sealed rooms in it.

Blocks and Quarries

Egyptologists believe that the Pyramids of Giza were built from natural stone, which was quarried from three quarries. The actual construction of the pyramids is made of nummulitic limestone of the Mokattam formation. The quarries were located in close proximity to the pyramids. The lower parts of the pyramids of Khafre and Mikerin were lined with granite from the Aswan quarry, which is located in Southern Egypt at a distance of 934 kilometers along the Nile (700 kilometers in a straight line). Several rows of granite cladding have been preserved at the pyramid of Mikerin. Middle and upper parts of two great pyramids were lined with limestone from the Tursky quarry, which is located on east coast Nile south of Cairo at a distance of 13-17 kilometers from the pyramids. The number of pyramid facing blocks (granite and limestone) that have reached us is relatively small. Therefore, we can simply agree that stone from the Tours and Aswan quarries was used in the construction of the pyramids. The opinion that the pyramids were built from nummulitic limestone does not fully correspond to reality. The lower rows of the pyramids are made of hard limestone from the Moqattam formation. Higher up, blocks of soft limestone, which do not contain nummulites, predominate. It is fundamentally. That is, when describing the blocks of pyramids in specialized literature, it seems to remain “behind the scenes” that most of them are carved out of soft limestone.

The bottom rows of the pyramids (approximately 1-7/10 rows) are made of blocks cut from solid limestone. The first row of the Cheops pyramid (thickness 1.5 m) is carved from a layer of strong limestone, which has the greatest thickness - 1.5 m. The upper rows of the pyramids are dominated by blocks cut from soft limestone (or cast blocks indistinguishable from them - this statement requires evidence, Supervisor 03:05, 22 May 2011 (UTC)). When developing the quarry, it was necessary to fulfill one condition: the time elapsed from the opening of soft limestones to the cutting of building blocks from them should be minimal. That is, soft limestones had to be cut into blocks before they hardened from contact with air. In addition, after cutting the soft limestone blocks, it took some time for them to harden and not crumble during transportation. The cyclical nature of quarry development meets these requirements. Its site was being developed, the area of which was approximately 1.5 times larger than the area of the row of blocks where the construction of the pyramid was stopped. The blocks were cut from layers of hard and soft limestone and stored “layer by layer,” that is, according to their vertical dimensions. After all the limestone had been removed from the area, its laying into the body of the pyramid began. The order of laying blocks of different thicknesses (and, accordingly, different weights) was determined by the ratio of labor costs for lifting them. This ensured that the rows of blocks were ranked according to their thickness.

Base of the pyramid

The rocky base of the Cheops pyramid, according to modern calculations, occupies 23% of the volume of the pyramid, or about 600,000 cubic meters. The minimum figures were obtained by determining the height of the rock in terms of an average level of 12.5 meters. But the authors of the study do not exclude the possibility of using medium height 20 meters. In any case, new geological exploration work is required to clarify these data. A revision of most old works with calculations of the stone used during construction is also required. In addition, there are estimates of 10-12% of the volume of the pyramid, which is occupied by the mortar holding the blocks together.

The directions to the north of the side faces were kept so precisely that due to the sphericity of the Earth and the colossal size of the Pyramid, its northern side turned out to be 20 cm shorter than the southern one. (the exact dimensions of the pyramid are known from the preserved pits of the supporting corner stones)

Sources

[http://supernovum.ru/public/index.php?doc=171 | Mining and geological aspect of the technology of construction of the pyramids of Giza]

[http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/31/95/86/PDF/PyramidsSR.pdf Geological and Geomorphological study of the original hill at the base of Fourth Dynasty Egyptian monuments.]