Great
Pyramids of Egypt
Summary of the Article
- The Pyramids of Egypt, particularly the Great
Pyramids of Giza, are among the oldest man-made structures, dating back to
around 2700 years BC.
- The Great Pyramid of Giza, built by Pharaoh Khufu,
is the largest and the only remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World.
- It is constructed with around 2.3 million stones,
each weighing tons, and was once the tallest man-made structure.
- The pyramids were not built by slaves but by skilled
workers, likely common Egyptians with decent living conditions.
- The technique used for transportation of heavy
stones remains a mystery, with theories ranging from levitation to
extraterrestrial assistance.
- The alignment of the pyramids with the poles
suggests advanced knowledge of mathematics and geometry, possibly aided by the
Indian Circle method.
- Some suggest the stones were molded on-site rather
than transported, while others theorize the pyramids served as temples or power
plants.
- Despite ongoing research, the exact purpose of the
pyramids remains unknown, though they continue to attract millions of tourists
annually, contributing significantly to Egypt's economy.
Welcome
to Historical Horizons.
Humans have been living on this planet for hundreds of thousand years. But the
oldest remains of any particular civilization go as far back as 6000 years.
Since the dawn of civilization, man has started to change the world by his
genius. And created such amazing wonders that are a mystery even to the people
of this day.
Some
of them still exist today. And are still enough to amaze a man of modern times.
One of them is the Pyramids of Egypt which are the largest among the 7 wonders
of the ancient world. And they are the only ones that have remained after
thousands of years. When, how and why were these mysterious mega structures
built? And who built them? Let's try to figure that out together.
Background
Egypt
is known to be the cradle of ancient civilization as the remains of the 1000s
of years old civilizations are found there. These remains include the three
Pyramids of Giza near Egyptian capital of Cairo, which are considered to be the
oldest man made structures. According to experts, the number of pyramids
discovered all around Egypt is 138, out of which 80 still exist today.
The
most magnificent of them all are the great pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and
Menkaure. These are the topic of this video. The famous Greek historian
Herodotus wrote in his book, 'The Histories' that almost a 100 thousand workers
took part in constructing these pyramids. However, modern archeologists believe
that there were only 20 - 30 thousand who built them.
Considering
their huge sizes, these pyramids were considered to be the highest man made
structures in the world till 20th century.
The
Pyramid of Khufu
The
ancient Egyptians used to call their kings Pharaohs and worshiped them like
gods. The Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khufu, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops is
the largest among the 3.
Also
known as the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one among the 7 wonders
of the ancient world that still exists today. It's time of construction is
estimated to be 2700 years BC. It used to be as tall as 482 feet high but
weathering reduced it to a height of 450 feet. Its width is 755 feet on each
side of its base and it occupies an area of 13 acres.
Almost
2.3 million pieces of stones were used in its construction with each stone
weighing about 2.5 to 3 tonnes. Some stones are even heavier than that.
Considering this, the total weight of all these stones was almost 5.75 million
tonnes. An estimate suggests that on average 800 ton stone was laid each day.
That
means 12 or 13 large stones were fixed in their respective places in the
pyramid each day. These stones were laid so skillfully that it was not possible
to insert a small plastic ATM or credit card between any stones. The
Egyptologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, was the first one to record the dimensions
of the pyramid in 1880 ...
And
published a book by the name of 'The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh'. For
a long time, this Pyramid has been the biggest and highest building in the
world. One popular theory suggests that these pyramids were built by slaves.
However, the famous Egyptian historian Dieter Wildung believed that the
pyramids builders were not slaves.
Rather
they were common people of Egypt, who had a high quality of basic facilities of
life. Three chambers have been discovered in the pyramid of Khufu, namely, the
king's chamber, the queen's chamber and the underground chamber. There is an
entrance way to access these chambers.
The
Pyramid of Khafre
The
second largest pyramid of Giza is called the Pyramid of Khafre. This pyramid was built by the
4th pharaoh of the dynasty, the son of Khufu, Khafre. Seeing from a distance,
Khafre's pyramid appears to be bigger than that of Khufu but that's not the
case. The height of this pyramid is 471 feet and the length of each side of its
base is 707 feet. Khafre's pyramid is the only one among the three in Giza,
that still has its peak intact, giving us a glimpse of its ancient glory.
It
shows that the top of the pyramid was lines with white limestone which came
undone in an earth quake in 1303 AD. Then later during the time of Nasir uddin
Hassan of the Mamluk dynasty, limestone was removed from the pyramid, to build
a fortress and a mosque. Some historians also believe that Muhammad Ali Pasha
in the 19th century, used stones from the pyramid to lay the foundations of
Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo.
The
Pyramid of Menkaure
The
third and the smallest of the Pyramids of Giza is the Menkaure, built by the
5th pharaoh, son of Khafre. He ruled for 18 or 28 years as per historians. It
is believed this pyramid was still incomplete when Menkaure died and it was
later finished by his son. The pyramid is 213 feet high with some part
underground and the length of each side of its base is 365 feet.
The Sphinx Standing close to these pyramids is a gigantic statue known
as the Sphinx. The statue has a human head and the body of a lion. Its Arabic
name is 'Abu Al-hol' meaning 'the father of terror'. Experts are divided on the
true age of the sphinx. Some believe that it dates back to 7000 years BC or in
other words 9000 years old.
While
some others believe that it was carved out of a huge rock 2500 years BC or 4500
years ago. The Sphinx is 240 feet long and has a height of 66 feet. It looks
like a mountain from a distance. It was carved out of a limestone peak in the
Giza desert 60 miles from Cairo. Expert tell that almost 100 skilled workers
finished building the sphinx in 3 years.
There
is a granite slab between the front paws of the sphinx that tells that Pharaoh
Thutmose ruled till 1420 BC. Once, Thutmose rested under the shade of the
sphinx while he was out hunting in the desert. There he fell asleep and saw a
dream. It was because of that dream that the granite slab is also called 'the
Dream Stele'.
A
hypothesis suggests that the sphinx was worshiped as a form of the sun god. The
nose and the beard of the sphinx are disfigured. It is told that Napoleon's
army demolished the sphinx's nose with cannon fires in 1798. But as a counter
evidence, some paintings of the 18th century depict the sphinx with an already
disfigured nose.
However
many Egypt experts say that it was purposely destroyed by a Muslim Sufi,
Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr in the 15th century AD. Apparently, he did this because
people had started worshiping the sphinx.
How could
a Structural Masterpiece be Constructed 1000s of Years Ago?
How
could a Structural Masterpiece be Constructed 1000s of Years Ago? How were such
heavy stones transported without any machine or technology? What techniques
made this possible? It's only natural to wonder about such questions.
For
centuries, historians and archeologists have been trying to unlock the
mysteries of the pyramids. But most of them couldn't go beyond hypotheses. For
instance, there's a theory that suggests that theses stones were transported by
flying them using a kite. This theory was presented by a software engineer from
California.
She
tried to prove it by successfully flying a 180 kg cement obelisk with the help
of a kite. Even then, this theory couldn't get much attention. Another theory
suggests that the Egyptians had a special technique to counter the force of
gravity to transport the stones to Giza. This theory is known by the name of
Levitation theory.
However,
modern science has refuted it because so far we haven't come across any
technique to make things gravity free. A rather famous theory tells us that the
pyramids were either built by extra terrestrials or at least with their help.
It is pertinent to note that just recently the founder of Space X, Elon Musk,
tweeted in support of this theory.
As a
response, the Egypt government invited him to their country so that he could
examine the pyramids himself to be sure if they were built by aliens. Another
well known theory in this regard is the 'Orion Correlation Theory'. This theory
presents three stars in the sky, situated right at the top of these pyramids.
And
it is believed that there is a correlation between the location of these
pyramids and the location of these stars in the sky. This theory was presented
by Robert Bauval in 1983. However, astronomer Anthony Fairall refuted the
theory by saying that at the time of the construction of pyramids, these stars
were not at this location.
Fairall
also found that the angle formed by pyramid was 45 degrees and that by the
stars is 54 degrees. Therefore, despite these inconsistencies, the theory
appears to be correct to a man in the street. The most recent technological
tools have revealed that the pyramids are in fact an epitome of technological
deisgn.
And
the people behind it were fully aware of some of the deep secrets of the
universe. They were strangely well equipped with mathematics and geometry. It
is interesting to note that these pyramids perfectly align with the poles. It
is speculated that the Indian Circle method must have been used to perfect the
pyramids.
Because
there was no other way the pyramids could be so perfect with the technology of
that time. Indian Circle method was a rather simple method for measurements
used in ancient times. In this method, the time of the year when days and
nights are equal, meaning March Equinox or September Equinox, a large bamboo or
stick was fixed in the ground and its shadow was marked in a circle.
This
would give them the perfect idea of the orientation of North and South. The
historians believed that 1000s years ago, this could have been the only
technique to perfect align the pyramids. Another theory was presented by a
French scientist Joseph Davidovits in 1980. He proposed that these stones
weren't brought from any other place but were produced right there by molding
stones from mud and limestone in wooden casts.
Nobody
believed in what Joseph proposed initially. But a few years later, a scientist
by the name of Michael Barsoum presented his 5-year long research to suggest
that Joseph could be right. Other than these theories, lets now discuss some
common legends. Some believe that these stone blocks were brought from a place
called Tora via boats through a canal especially dug for this purpose. While some other granite
blocks found inside the pyramids were brought from Aswan, 800 km away.
Reason
for Construction
A
pertinent question that comes to mind is that why these pyramids were built?
Such questions have been tried to answer with many hypotheses. One such
hypothesis is that these pyramids served the purpose of a power plant.
The
believer of this idea present Baghdad Battery as evidence which is a 2000 years
old artifact found in Baghdad. These artifacts are believed to be a way using
which the ancients produced electrical power. Another very well accepted theory
is that the pyramids were in fact temples of the pharaohs, because they
believed in life after death.
A
strange thing is that there hasn't been any mummy found in any of the
discovered chambers. Although, King Khufu's coffin was found in the king's
chamber, when it was opened, it was just empty. However, during recent research
in the area surrounding the great pyramids, some remains of ancient pharaohs
were discovered.
Considering
all our discussion, we can be certain about one thing; that these pyramids were
built for some special purpose. But what was that purpose ... that question
remains to be answered.
Pyramids
and Tourism
According
to a certain report, Egypt annually receives 15 million tourists. And this
tourism has been a great source of earning for the country.
An
estimated 12% of the economy of the whole economy is through tourism. Since
2010, Egypt has been earning 8 - 12 billion dollars each year, through tourism.
Friends, these 1000s of years old pyramids are still carrying countless secrets
within them. And scientists are constantly putting their efforts to try and decode
these secrets.
Many
many secrets are waiting to unfold. Hopefully, modern science will be able to
decode the mysteries of these great pyramids real soon.
Friends,
did you enjoy this article? And what else do you know about the
pyramids? Do let us know your feedback in the comments section.
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