Pyramids are one of the most outstanding mysteries of mankind. Engineers are still amazed at the scope and complexity of the work, and historians cannot understand what exactly pushed the ancient peoples to erect these structures. Also, there are still disputes about the true purpose of these monuments of ancient architecture. Some believe that the structures of Yucatan and Egypt are related, but this is not so. This is indicated by both the age of the pyramids and the aspects of their construction.
Egypt
The Great Pyramid, located on the Giza plateau in Egypt, has long amazed the imagination of all explorers and ordinary tourists. In general, the same can be said about her "sisters". Despite the seismic activity of the construction site over the past thousand years, these amazing and bizarre monuments of ancient culture are surprisingly well preserved.
Scientists suggest that in the past there were many more pyramids, but ... But then the Romans came. The first rule of Rome is more good roads! After all, it is so convenient to transfer new legions over them! So, a large part of the "average" pyramids turned into the material of the Roman road builders. Today tourists and localswho still use ancient roads, "knead with their feet" the remains of ancient buildings!
The first of the pyramids and its age
One cannot discuss without telling about the time when the first such structure was erected in Egypt. It is believed that this happened about five thousand years ago, and construction was started on the initiative of Pharaoh Djoser. It is in these five thousand years that the total age of the pyramids in Egypt is estimated. By the way, the famous Imhotep supervised the construction. He was such a good "contractor" that in later centuries the grateful Egyptians even deified him.
Taking care of relatives
At that time, the building area was huge - 545 by 278 meters. The perimeter of this structure was protected by a wall with a height of ten meters at once, in which 14 gates were made at once ... of which only one was real. In addition to himself, Djoser ordered to take care of the afterlife of his family members: for this, the builders prepared 11 additional smaller burial chambers.
The pyramid of Djoser is not only considered the most ancient in Egypt, but also the most unique, as its sides represent a "staircase" that can be seen on structures in the center of Yucatan. There is no need to look for mystical coincidences here, since in both cases such a construction had a sacred meaning, implying the ascent of the ruler to heaven.
How old are structures on the Giza plateau?
It is believed that age egyptian pyramids on the Giza plateau is 4.5 thousand years. But with the dating of many structures, difficulties arise, since they were partially rebuilt, restored, and therefore even a radiocarbon analysis cannot give absolutely accurate answers. The rest of the pyramids, presumably, were built during the time of the Old Kingdom - about 2300 BC. e.
To this day, 80 pyramids have survived on the territory of Egypt, and the most beautiful are those that remained after the fourth dynasty. But since ancient times, only three are considered a real Wonder of the World. Their names are known to everyone - the pyramid of Cheops, Khafren and Mikerin. The age of the Cheops pyramid and the other two are about four thousand years, which cannot but surprise.
Pyramids of mexico
The Mexican pyramids are no less impressive and majestic monument to human architecture and incredibly hard work. To this day, they amaze everyone who saw them, and even at the time of the first discovery, the impression was ten times higher!
They were erected by the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mayans and some other South American peoples. Scientists sometimes find it very difficult to understand all this "vinaigrette", since almost all written sources of these cultures were destroyed during the Spanish conquest. But what about the age of the pyramids, which were erected by the ancestors of modern inhabitants Latin America? First, you need to familiarize yourself a little with the history of those nationalities who lived here.
The Cuicuilco civilization flourished here most vividly. The peak of its maximum power falls on the period from 1500 to 200 BC. Why are we all talking about this? The fact is that the largest and most impressive pyramid of Cuicuilco was built at this time (southern part of Mexico City). Moreover, the structure is unique, as its cross-section ... is round, perfectly fitting into the surrounding landscape.
How was Cuicuilco's pyramid forgotten?
But scientists did not find it right away. When at the beginning of our era there was a grandiose eruption of the Shitle volcano, this unique one was completely buried under a layer of ash, lava and tuff. Only in 1917, during an archaeological survey, scientists accidentally discovered this pyramid.
The eruption of the same volcano put an end to the development of civilization in this region, and therefore no other magnificent architectural monuments were found here. If we talk about modern ideas, then the inhabitants who left these places became the "foundation" of the Teotihuacan people, who also built their pyramids.
Pyramids of other nations
The civilization of Teotihuacan dates back to 200 BC. The same approximate age of the pyramids in that region. This people existed until 700 AD. The place they chose for themselves is known all over the world today. Teotihuacan. Incidentally, this name was given by the Aztecs, who came here a thousand years later. What this area was originally called, we do not know today. So when were the majestic pyramids erected here, which still amaze the imagination today?
Who exactly built them is not entirely clear today: either the Teotihuacan people themselves, or the Aztecs who came to replace them. The latter had a legend that the three great pyramids were actually built by giants. So, three buildings. Three pyramids: Solar, Lunar and Quetzalcoatl. The latter, by the way, is the most beautiful and majestic. It is believed that they were built somewhere around 500 BC. e.
What caused the city to be abandoned?
So the age of the pyramids at Giza is much older. Most likely, initially there were much more monuments of ancient architecture in these parts, but the whole thing was spoiled by volcanoes. Under a thick layer of solidified lava, a lot of interesting things are probably hidden, but we are unlikely to ever see it. The ongoing excavations clearly indicate that the construction of the city was carried out according to a very strict and logically completed plan. Scientists suggest that the city was home to around 200 thousand people! And this is even before the beginning of our era!
In the destruction of the city and part of the pyramids today, they "blame" both some natural disasters and a social split, when numerous poor people are simply tired of enduring the ever-increasing arbitrariness on the part of the highest nobility. The city of Teotihuacan was savagely plundered and destroyed. But both hypotheses are very controversial, since no evidence of violence was found, and as for the looting, anyone could have done it. If the city was abandoned for some reason, then neighboring peoples can also be blamed. They obviously would not have passed such a "tasty" piece.
What is the difference between the Egyptian and Mexican pyramids?
Many believe that they are practically identical, and due to this, they put forward different (in the degree of absurdity) theories about the Atlanteans and "heavenly descendants" who fled from the cataclysm, but this is not so. The pyramids of Egypt and Mexico are similar only externally (and even then relatively), but in everything else they have a lot of differences.
Firstly, in Egypt, these buildings were absolutely smooth, while the Aztecs, Toltecs and Mayans built them in steps from the beginning. Secondly, the pharaohs considered the pyramids exclusively as a place of their rest from earthly troubles, and in Mexico, the pyramids were used exclusively as temples, and even carried out very bloody rituals of sacrifices there.
Other differences
Third, the tops of structures in South America - completely flat, since it was there that the priests were doing their bloody work. Moreover, there is also an additional building there, which actually served as a temple and a “slaughterhouse” in combination. In principle, one can also climb to the top of the Egyptian pyramid, but it is impossible to do something there due to the banal lack of space.
Fourth, the age of the Mayan and Egyptian pyramids. In Mexico, almost all of these buildings were erected literally at the beginning of our era, while the tombs of the pharaohs were built three to four thousand years before our era.
Fans of conspiracy theories may argue that all this is nothing, because the main characteristic of these structures, that is, the pyramidal shape, is the same in all cases. But this is not an argument, since such forms are found in nature, and a gap of several thousand years allows us to assume that the Toltecs or Maya themselves reached the most convenient form of their temples.
What is the basis for determining the age of the pyramids?
So how is the science of the Egyptian pyramids and their Mexican "cousins"? Based on radiocarbon analysis, which began to be actively used only in 1984. At that time, Egyptologists examined at least 64 samples of organic matter from the pyramids. Measurements showed that many of the structures on the Giza plateau were 400 years older than previously thought. However, some of them were older than "only" by 120 years, but even this in some cases may be significant.
After that, the pyramids of Giza, whose age turned out to be much more than the "official" values, began to attract even more researchers from all over the world. However, this circumstance did not cool the heated debates about the nature of these structures.
So, it was reliably established that the Cheops pyramid was built no earlier than 2985 BC. e. This is five centuries more than previously thought! However, this is already enough to refute the version of "Atlanteans who built these structures tens of thousands of years before our era." The age of the pyramids of the pharaohs was much more modest. It should be noted that he even posed several new questions for researchers.
So, it is already known for sure that the pyramid of Khafre was erected somewhere in the region of 2960. This gives logical grounds to assume that its construction was carried out almost simultaneously with the Cheops. It is also possible that it was a separate complex of two structures, to the construction of which the same pharaoh could have had a hand. It would be entirely normal to assume that it was built somewhere in the next 50 years ...
But radiocarbon analysis showed that it was built no earlier than 2572 BC. e. This one is almost 400 years later than the expected date! Moreover, in 1984, scientists established that the famous Sphinx was built in 2416 BC. e. Simply put, as much as five centuries after the pyramid of Khafre! But historians have long assumed that these two objects were built together ...
The age of the Mayan pyramids was determined in a similar way. Moreover, in this case, there were practically no problems, since the cities of this people were abandoned, no one was involved in completion and restoration, and therefore the result of the radiocarbon analysis was much more accurate.
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 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 distant suburb of Cairo Giza. Nearby are two more pyramids of the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaur (Khafren 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 burial structures of ancient Egyptian monarchs. Some scientists believe that these were astronomical observatories. There is no direct evidence that the pharaohs were buried in the pyramids, but other versions of their purpose are less convincing.
When the pyramid of Cheops was built
On the basis of the ancient "royal lists" it is established that Cheops ruled about 2585-2566. BC. The construction of the "Sacred Height" lasted 20 years and was completed 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 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 to this day 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 face is 51 ° 50 ", the total volume is about 2.5 million cubic meters. At the time of the end 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 facing 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 correct organization of work and engineering, the Egyptians would have had several tens of thousands of workers for construction. For the supply of materials, temporary workers were involved, the number of whom, according to Herodotus, reached 100 thousand. Modern scientists fully agree with this, as well as with the reality of the 20-year construction period.
The construction of the pyramid was supervised by the head of the royal works, Khemiun. The tomb of Hemiun is located next to his creation, in which a statue of the architect was discovered.
The main material for the construction was gray limestone, which was cut in the nearest quarries or brought from the other bank of the Nile. The pyramid was faced with light sandstone, which made it literally shine in the sunlight. For interior decoration, granite was used, which was delivered over a thousand kilometers from the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-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 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 differ among themselves. The largest are laid in the base, their height is one and a half meters. The higher the blocks are, the smaller they are. 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 builders of the pyramid was extremely hard. It took a lot of time and effort to extract the stone, trim the blocks and fit 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. Flint tools were widely used - saws, drills, hammers. Many of them were found during excavations.
The delivery of materials was carried out by the river, and the stone was brought to the construction site on a wooden sled or roller. It was a hell of a job, 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 raise and install the monoliths, and inclined embankments were erected to drag the most massive elements that make up the lower rows up. Images of construction work have been found in a number of Egyptian temples and tombs.
Recently, an original theory has emerged regarding the building 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 limestone was crushed at the mining sites and in a crushed form was delivered to the construction site. Directly at the place of laying, blocks were made of limestone mass, which thereby were a semblance of modern concrete structures, and the traces of tools on the blocks are in fact imprints of the formwork.
Be that as it may, the construction was completed, and the grandiose size of the pyramid fully justifies the supporters of the theories of the Atlanteans and aliens, who do not believe in the possibility 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. Later it was sealed with a granite plug and covered with cladding. The current entrance, 10 meters lower, was pierced in 831 by order of the Caliph Al-Mamun, who hoped to find gold here, but found nothing of value.
The main premises are the pharaoh's chamber, the queen's chamber, the Great Gallery and the underground chamber. The passage made by Al-Mamun leads into a 105-meter inclined corridor, ending in a chamber carved into the thickness of the rock below the base of the pyramid. Its dimensions are 14x8 m, its height is 3.5 m. For unknown reasons, the work here was not completed.
At 18 meters from the entrance, the descending corridor is separated by an ascending one with a length of 40 meters, 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. In the floor of the Gallery, a rectangular ditch in cross section, 60 cm deep and 1 m wide, has been pierced, its purpose is unknown.
The pharaoh's chamber is 10.5 m long, 5.4 m wide, 5.84 m high. It is faced 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 tsar's chamber exit at one end into the room, with the other on 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 by stone doors with handles. It is assumed that the ducts were made to ventilate the premises during the work. Another version, associated with the beliefs of the Egyptians, claims that this is the path to the afterlife, which the souls of the deceased had to pass.
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 fortified with rather rough-cut stone. It is assumed that this is part of some more ancient structure than the pyramid.
One discovery related to the pyramid should be mentioned. In 1954, at the southern edge, two pits faced with stone were discovered, in which there were 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 Cheops pyramid continues. Research using the latest methods used in the exploration of the earth's interior shows with a high degree of probability the existence of unknown caverns within the pyramid. So it is quite possible that scientists are expecting new interesting discoveries and discoveries.
In the meantime, the Great Pyramid keeps its secrets, proudly towering in the middle of the desert, as thousands of years ago. After all, as the ancient Arab proverb says, everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids.
Pyramids of Egypt. Wonder of the World. A great monument of ancient culture that has come down to us from the depths of millennia. It would seem that everything is clear with them. All history textbooks say: the pyramids were the tombs of three pharaohs of the fourth dynasty.
These classical data are based on the well-known document - the Westcar papyrus, which tells that the Pharaoh Cheops decided to build himself a tomb, the equal of which the ancient world did not know.
It was built for twenty years by thousands of slaves, dragging boulders from Asuan. Pharaoh Cheops ruled, according to the same historical papyrus, in the 2540s BC. This means that the pyramids are about four and a half thousand years old. But is everything so simple in this story?
Textbooks unequivocally date the age of the pyramids at forty-five centuries, relying on this ancient manuscript source. But recent research suggests that the pyramids were built much earlier. The age of the pyramids is at least 10-12 thousand years.
First doubts about correctness official version originated from the American geologist John Anthony Wester. Examining ancient statues, he drew attention to the fact that the stone body of the Sphinx has traces of erosion and weathering. Of course, stones that are four and a half thousand years old may not look new. However, in order for the ancient statues to receive such characteristic damage, it is necessary that water and the sun affect it for a long time.
The sun is clear - there is plenty of it in the Sahara. But water! Water, that is, rain, you need a lot for this. Tropical rainstorms must grind this stone for thousands of years to leave traces that can still be seen today. But the Sahara is a waterless desert. Only the sun. What does the official history say about this? History is silent. But the answer to this question is easily given by climatologists.
It turns out that there was once a lot of water in the Sahara. Hot tropical downpours literally flooded this fertile land, and the Sahara Desert was a blooming land. True, it was 10-12 thousand years ago.
“In the 10th millennium BC, according to paleoclimatology, the Sahara had lush savannah vegetation, there was a humid climate, it often rained, and that is why the Sphinx has peculiar traces of water erosion that have come down to us,” says the famous researcher Graham Hancock.
Thus, everything falls into place, if we assume that both the Sphinx statue and the pyramids were not built four and a half thousand years ago, as it is written about in textbooks, but at least 7-8 thousand years earlier, when the Sahara desert represented are the humid tropics. But the extra 7-8 thousand years is not a joke! This huge, unrecorded chunk of human history means we know nothing. What was the ancient man like? How did he live? what could you do? And, most importantly, where did the one who created these complex structures disappear without a trace?
After all, the strange traces of hot rains on the body of the Sphinx are not the only evidence that the pyramids were built at a completely different time than indicated in our textbooks. To test this hypothesis, another group of American scientists decided to compile a computer model of the starry sky and use it to determine the age of the pyramids. The result of these studies exceeded all expectations. After all, it turned out that the statue of the Sphinx itself is able to indicate the exact date of its birth.
Graham Hancock, personally involved in the research, explains:
“With the help of a computer program, we first determined what the starry sky was like in different periods of the Earth's existence. It is possible. The fact is that the axis of the Earth in relation to the sun is constantly shifting during its movement. The full cycle takes 25 thousand 920 years. And this is the starting point. Then, we combined the current position of the Sphinx with the resulting model of the star map. "
There is one subtlety here. The Sphinx is oriented strictly to the East. The point at which the Sphinx is looking moves along the horizon in exactly twelve zodiacal constellations. Only in back side... In our time, his gaze left the constellation Pisces and moved towards Aquarius. The Egyptian Sphinx is known to be the earthly embodiment of the constellation Leo. It only remained to calculate when in ancient history his gaze was directed towards this constellation. The result obtained by American researchers turned out to be a sensation.
Combining the position of the statue with a computer model of the starry sky, Hancock found out that the Sphinx's gaze was directed to the vernal equinox of the constellation Leo 10,500 BC. Thus, it turns out that the age of both the statue and the Egyptian pyramids is 12 and a half thousand years.
What a coincidence! After all, it is this age - 12 thousand years - that was indicated by American geologists who studied the stone body of the ancient giant. It would seem why the official historians do not correct the long-term mistake and admit - yes! The Egyptian pyramids are 7 thousand years older. For us living today, this difference is not too fundamental. However, the question is much more complicated than it seems. Indeed, in this case, you will have to admit that the whole story is wrong.
For more such historical revelations, see the new program of REN TV and documentary filmmaker Igor Prokopenko - "Territory of delusions" every Tuesday at 20.00.
Pyramid of Cheops or, as the locals call it, Khufu, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the pyramids of Egypt. The only Wonder of the World that has survived to modern history. It is located in the complex of the largest Egyptian pyramids on the Giza plateau. It is believed that the architect and designer of the Great Pyramid was the nephew of Cheops - Hemion. In addition, he bore the title of Pharaoh's Construction Manager. For three millennia, this wonder of the world was the tallest building in the whole world.
Scientists suggest that the construction of the pyramid, which took place over twenty years, was completed around 2540 BC. Today, there are several methods of dating the period when the construction of the pyramid began: astronomical, radiocarbon and historical. In Egypt itself, its own date for the beginning of the construction of the Great Pyramid is officially adopted and annually celebrated - August 23, 2560 BC, it was obtained using the astronomical method of C. Spence. However, the scientific community does not consider this date to be a true historical event, since this method, and the date obtained with its help, have been repeatedly criticized by experienced Egyptologists. The historical method assumes several variants of dates at once: S. Hack, from the University of Nebraska, set the date 2720 BC, J. Belmonte - 2577 BC, and Pollux - 2708 BC. e. In turn, the radionuclide method offers a range from 2850 to 2680 BC. None of these dates have fundamental confirmation, since Egyptologists cannot come to a consensus regarding the true time of the beginning of the construction of the pyramid of Cheops. In any case, to the question of how old the Cheops pyramid is, an approximate answer can be given: more than 4.5 thousand years!
In the ancient Egyptian language, the pyramid of Cheops sounds like Akhet-Khufu, which in translation means the Horizon of Khufu or, more precisely, Relating to the sky, is Khufu. In its construction, mainly giant blocks of granite and lime were used. The Great Pyramid is located on a naturally formed limestone hill. After several millennia spent in the conditions of the mercilessly scorching sun, the Great Pyramid was left without some layers of cladding, and the hill on which it is located is no longer visible from the north. It is the most voluminous and tallest in comparison with the rest of the pyramids of Egypt, however, Pharaoh Sneferu, who ordered to build two pyramids - in Dakhshut and in Meidum, which were respectively named the Pink Pyramid and the Broken Pyramid, broke the weight record. The total weight of these pyramids is estimated at 8.5 million tons.
Initially, the Cheops pyramid had a white limestone lining, which was much stronger than the limestone used to make the blocks. The top of the pyramid was decorated with a gilded stone called the pyramidion, or, translated from Egyptian, Benben. The facing, reflecting the sunlight, shone with the color of a ripe peach, like a beautiful miracle, into which, it seemed, the sun god Ra laid out all his rays. At the beginning of the first millennium, as a result of the attack of the Arabs, who burned and plundered Cairo, the locals were forced to remove its facing from the pyramid, using it as material for building their houses.
The magic of mysterious lands still exists. Palm trees sway in the warm wind, the Nile floats through the desert, surrounded by a green valley, the sun illuminates the Karnak Temple and the mysterious pyramids of Egypt, and bright schools of fish flicker in the Red Sea.
Burial culture of Ancient Egypt
Pyramids are called grandiose structures in the form of a regular geometric polyhedron. In the construction of burial buildings or mastabs, this form, according to Egyptologists, began to be used because of the resemblance to a memorial cake. If you ask how many pyramids there are in Egypt, then 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 Sakkara, Upper Egypt, Memphis, Abusir, El-Lahun, Giza, Hawara, Abu Ravash, Meidum. They were built from clay bricks with river silt - adobe, in the 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 have evolved from a stepped to a true geometrically correct form.
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 place, where the oldest of all the great burial buildings are located. When Sneferu came to the throne (circa 2575 BC), Saqqara was the only large fully completed royal pyramid of Djoser.
The ancient locals called it "al-haram-el-kaddab", which means "false pyramid". Due to its shape, it attracted the attention of travelers back in the Middle Ages.
The step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is known as the earliest form of a 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 southern one. This is the only completed building with huge steps that were faced with stone. But its shape 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 has arisen as a result of the natural development and improvement of the architectural design of the stepped building. The structure of a real pyramid is practically the same. The building blocks were laid to the required shapes and sizes of the object, and then they were finished with limestone or stone.
Dakhshur pyramids
Dakhshur forms the southern region of the necropolis in Memphis and contains a number of pyramidal complexes and monuments. Dakhshur has only recently been opened to the public. In the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, alone at the edge of the Western Desert, above lush green fields in Meidum, is a notable area where the transition from stepped to regular pyramid shape can be seen. 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 his father's pyramids, then built his own - a step one. But the construction plans of the pharaoh were curtailed, as the construction did not go according to plan. Decreasing the angle of inclination of the lateral plane resulted in a diamond-shaped curved silhouette. This structure is called the Broken Pyramid, but it still has the outer shells intact.
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 at Saqqara are represented by the first oldest stepped pyramid, Djosera. It was here that the history of the construction of these burial structures began. In Saqqara, the first writing on the walls was found, known as the Pyramid Texts. The architect of these projects is called Imhotepa, who invented masonry from cut stone. Thanks to construction developments, the ancient architect was ranked among the deities. Imhotep is considered the son of Ptah, the patron saint of crafts. There are many tombs at Saqqara that belonged to important ancient Egyptian officials.
The true gem represents the great pyramids of Egypt at the Sneferu complex. Discontent with the Broken Pyramid, which did not allow him to go to heaven with dignity, he began construction about two kilometers to the north. It was the famous Pink Pyramid, so named for the red limestone used in construction. This is one of the oldest buildings in Egypt, and it was built in the correct shape. It has a slope 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 Pink. Other major monuments in Dahshur belong to the 12th and 13th dynasties and are incomparable in scale with the works of Huni and Sneferu.
Late pyramids in the Sneferu complex
There are later pyramids in Meidum. In Egypt, where the White Pyramid of Amenemhat II, the Black Amenemhat III and the building of Senusret III are located, smaller burial monuments for minor rulers, nobles and officials dominate.
They talk about a fairly stable and peaceful period in the history of Egypt. Interestingly, the Black Pyramid and the Senusert III structure are not built 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, while brick was much easier to work with, compared to granite blocks that weighed many tons, this material did not stand the test of time. Although the Black Pyramid is fairly well preserved, the White one 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 is aware of the great burial structures of Egypt, there are many less significant examples of similar structures. Scattered along the Nile from Celia at the edge of the oasis to Elephantine Island 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.
Pyramids of Giza and the necropolis
For all tourists who come to Egypt, an excursion to the pyramids becomes almost a ritual. Giza's buildings are the only surviving of the seven wonders Ancient World and the most famous landmarks. This sacred place impresses with its antiquity, the scope of the necropolis, the unreality of the structures and the Great Sphinx. The mysteries of the construction and supposed symbolism of the pyramids of Giza only add to the appeal of these ancient wonders. Many modern people Giza is still considered 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 Cheops and his relative, Hemiun. Giza is the most important place on earth for many researchers who are trying to unravel the geometric perfection of burial structures in ancient sources. But even the greatest skeptics are in awe of the deep antiquity, the scope and absolute harmony of the Giza pyramids.
History of the pyramids of Giza
Located on the west 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. It 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 burials of the pharaohs. Together they constitute the only ancient wonder of the world still in existence today. Egypt (Hurghada) attracts many tourists. 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 (which is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza), and the necropolis bordering Cairo, 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. It was originally 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 were built. Ancient egypt, and about the methods of construction directly Great. Most of the accepted construction theories are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones out of the quarry and lifting them into place. It covers an area of \u200b\u200bjust over 5 hectares. The original height was 146 m in height, but the pyramid is still an impressive 137 m high. The main losses are associated with the destruction of the smooth limestone surface.
Herodotus about Egypt
When the Greek historian Herodotus visited Giza, around 450 BC, he was describing what pyramids were in Egypt. He learned from the Egyptian priests that the Great Pyramid was built for the Pharaoh Khufu, who was the second king of the fourth dynasty (c. 2575-2465 BC). The priests told Herodotus that it was built by 400,000 people over 20 years. The construction involved 100,000 people moving the blocks at a time. But archaeologists find this implausible and tend to think that the labor force was more limited. Perhaps 20,000 workers with an accompanying support staff of bakers, doctors, priests and others would be enough to carry out this task.
The most famous pyramid was neatly laid out with 2.3 million cut stone blocks. These blocks had an impressive weight of two to fifteen tons. After the completion of construction, the burial structure was striking in weight, which was approximately 6 million tons. All the famous cathedrals in Europe taken together have such a weight! The Pyramid of Cheops has been registered for thousands of years as the tallest structure in the world.
Only the graceful spiers of the unusually majestic Lincoln Cathedral, built in England, with a height of 160 m, 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 Khafr (Khafren), the son of Pharaoh Khufu. He inherited power after the death of his older brother and was the fourth ruler in the fourth dynasty. Of his noble relatives and predecessors on the throne, many were buried in penniless tombs. But the grandeur of the Khafre pyramid strikes almost as much as the "last house" of his father.
The Khafre pyramid visually stretches towards the sky and seems higher than the first pyramid of Giza - the burial building of Cheops, because it stands on the higher part of the plateau. It is characterized by a steeper slope with a preserved smooth limestone cover. At the second pyramid, each side 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, for example Cheops, as well as the construction of Khafre, include five burial pits, connected by passages. Together with the morgue, the Valley of the Temples and the connecting dam, it is 430 meters long carved into the rock. The burial chamber, which is underground, preserved a red granite sarcophagus with a lid. Nearby is a square cavity where the chest with the Pharaoh's entrails was located. The Great Sphinx near the pyramid of Khafre is considered his royal portrait.
Pyramid of Mikerin
The last of the pyramids of Giza is the Pyramid of Mikerin, located to the south. It was intended for the son of Khafre, the fifth king of the fourth dynasty. Either side is 109 m, and the height of the structure 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 the long dam were small tombs of courtiers, the temple and morgue were built only to mummify 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 canopics.
Theories about the construction of Egyptian giants
The centuries-old history of Egypt conceals many mysteries. The pyramids, built without modern appliances, only increase the curiosity about these places. Herodotus assumed that the foundation was made of huge blocks weighing about seven tons. And then, like from children's blocks, all 203 layers were lifted up step by step. 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 inclined ones, along which blocks of stone were towed along the 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. Opened by the Italians in 1818, Chefren's burial chamber was empty, there was no longer any gold and other treasures.
There is a possibility that the pyramids of Egypt are still undiscovered or are now completely destroyed. Many people express fantastic theories about the extraterrestrial interference 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.
