The Pyramids of Giza
It is believed that the first pyramid was built as a tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu (often Hellenized as “Cheops”) and was constructed over a 20-year period. Khufu’s vizier, Hemiunu (also called Hemon) is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian Royal cubits tall (146.5 meters (480.6 ft.)), but with erosion and absence of its pyramidion, its present height is 138.8 meters (455.4 ft.). Each base side was 440 cubits, 230.4 meters (755.9 ft.) long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tones. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters (88,000,000 cu ft.). Egypt’s pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife. To prepare for the next world they erected temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves — filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world. Pharaoh Khufu began the first Giza pyramid project, circa 2550 B.C. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and towers some 481 feet (147 meters) above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons. Khufu’s son, Pharaoh Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza, circa 2520 B.C. His necropolis also included the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a lion and a pharaoh’s head. The Sphinx may stand sentinel for the pharaoh’s entire tomb complex. The third of the Giza Pyramids is considerably smaller than the first two. Built by Pharaoh Menkaure circa 2490 B.C., it featured a much more complex mortuary temple. At 481 feet tall, the Great Pyramid eclipsed every structure ever built until the completion of the Lincoln Cathedral in 1311 CE. The Cathedral topped out around 525 feet before the collapse of its central spire in 1548.
Designed as a tomb, the Great Pyramid contains three burial chambers that were intended to house Khufu and the litany of goods and treasures he would take with him in the afterlife. Upon entering the pyramid, a passage (3.1 feet high, 3.4 feet wide) descends about 354 feet into the bedrock, levels off, and continues another 29 feet to an unfinished, underground chamber. About 93 feet down the descending passage, a hole in the roof leads to the ascending passage, a 129-foot stretch that rises to the Grand Gallery (it is the only known pyramid with a passage that slopes upward). At the start of the Gallery is a passage to the Queen’s Chamber, which measures 18.9 feet by 17.2 feet and is 20 feet high. A series of shafts, extending from the north and south walls, were explored multiple times but their purpose has yet to be uncovered. Back at the Grand Gallery, a 28-foot high, 153-foot long passage leads up to the King’s Chamber. Inside, the walls are entirely covered in granite, and a pair of shafts, which at one point were thought to be air shafts, slope up and out the north and south sides of the pyramid, leading many experts to believe that they had an astrological purpose. Khufu’s sarcophagus is the only object that remains in the room, and its lid is gone and a chunk of the corner is missing. Atop the roof was a series of relief chambers that took pressure off the room below.
Facts about Pyramids of Giza
- Long thought to have been the work of thousands of slaves, experts today believe 20,000–30,000 skilled laborers, including stone masons, engineers, architects, surveyors, builders, and other craftsmen, were conscripted to construct Khufu’s temple. Egyptologists Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawaas theorize that a small crew worked year-round on the project, while a larger collection of workers was summoned during the summer months when the Nile flooded the surrounding valley and integrated with the permanent labor force.
- While the three pyramids of the Giza plateau — known as Cheops (The Great Pyramid), Chephren and Mycerinus are the most famous in Egypt, more than 130 other pyramids have been discovered scattered around the area of Ancient Egypt.
- All pyramids in Egypt, including those built on the Giza plateau, are situated on the west bank of the River Nile because that is where the sun sets every evening, symbolizing the realm of the dead.
- Despite the scorching heat that can often be felt in Egypt, the temperature inside the pyramids remains a constant 20C the average temperature on earth.
- The Great Pyramid of Giza is so big that if all the stones of the pyramid are taken and used for building a wall, a wall of 3 feet height and 1 foot thickness can be built all around France.
- There are absolutely no records found about the Great Pyramid. No artifacts, no inventory, no drawing or picture — just nothing. Egyptians were known for putting down pictorial history of everything like agriculture to birth to death to prayers to sacrifices to weaving to embalming, they left 3000 years of history for us to decipher. How come, they did not leave any record of the Great Pyramid and the other two pyramids of Giza complex.
- The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the last one still in existence.
