Pyramid of Cheops: pictures and interesting facts. The story of the construction of the pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops

Herodotus tells about the construction of this pyramid: Cheops forced the entire Egyptian people to work for him, dividing it into two parts. He was the first to order the delivery of blocks from the quarries in the Arabian mountains to the banks of the Nile. Others were engaged in their further transportation to the foot of the Libyan mountains. 100,000 people worked constantly, they replaced each other every three months. For ten years of hard work, a road was built along which the blocks were delivered to the river". The construction of this road was no less difficult task than the construction of the pyramid itself. It was lined with polished stone slabs, decorated with carvings. After the construction work around the pyramid was completed, the construction of underground structures that were intended for the tomb and the burial chamber of the pharaoh was completed, and the construction of the pyramid itself began. The construction of the Cheops pyramid itself continued for another twenty years.

Herodotus' statement that 100,000 slaves were employed in the construction of the Cheops pyramid now seems doubtful. Perhaps the pyramids were erected by peasants who were free from field work during the Nile floods. The builders were paid for their work. Over the past twenty years, archaeologists have unearthed a settlement in which the people who built the pyramid lived. It was separated from the sacred part of the Giza plateau by a wall. Excavations show that the builders were not slaves, they were very well taken care of.

These people were doing hard physical labor. But nevertheless, the bones of the workers found in the burials indicate that many successfully endured various injuries due to the high level of medical care.

Excavation data from January 2010 support the theory that the pyramids were built by civilian workers. Up to 10 thousand people were employed at the construction site at the same time, while the workers worked in shifts of three months. It is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids of the Giza necropolis.

Initially, the pyramid of Cheops rose to 147 meters, but due to the advance of the sands, its height decreased to 137 meters.

The pyramid of Cheops consists of 2,300,000 cubic limestone blocks with smoothly polished sides. Each block weighs an average of 2.5 tons, and the heaviest - 15 tons, the total weight of the pyramid - 5.7 million tons.

The stones are tightly adjacent to one another and are held by their own weight. The decoration of the facing stones was so perfect that it was impossible to immediately determine the places of their connection and insert a knife blade between the stones. The lining of excellent white limestone has not been preserved, as well as the tops of the pyramid covered with gold.

Each side of the square base of the pyramid is 233 meters, its area is more than 50 thousand square meters. square meters. In order to get around the pyramid of Khufu around, you need to walk about a kilometer.

Until the end of the 19th century, the pyramid of Khufu was considered the tallest building on earth. Its grandiose size amazed everyone who was in Egypt.

Four faces are oriented to the cardinal points, and their angle of inclination to the base is 51o52". The entrance is located on the north side.

Confirmation of the inexplicably high knowledge of the Egyptians in the field of astronomy and civil engineering is the location of the Cheops pyramid in relation to the cardinal points: the pyramid almost unmistakably points to the true north. As a result of the most accurate measurements taken in 1925, an incredible fact was established: the error in its position is only 3 minutes 6 seconds. For comparison, the following case is usually cited: in 1577, the brilliant Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, through long and complex calculations, oriented the Oranienburg obsertory to the north, but in the end he still made a mistake by 18 minutes. The minimum error of the ancient Egyptians is explained by a slight shift of the north itself over the past millennia!

This amazing accuracy is also evident in the size of the base of the pyramid. With an average side size of about 230 meters, the difference between the largest and smallest sides does not exceed 20 cm, i.e. about 0.1 percent, which is surprisingly small, considering that we are talking about a surface made of multi-ton limestone blocks.

When scientists mapped the position of the Cheops pyramid, it was found that the diagonal of the pyramid gives its absolutely exact direction along the meridian. This meridian, passing through the pyramid of Cheops, divides the surface of the sea and land into two equal parts, counting America and the Pacific Ocean, and the latitude passing through the center of the pyramid divides the entire globe into two equal parts by the amount of land and water. It is hard to imagine that the Egyptians needed such accuracy simply to bury the kings.

Secrets and mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids, and especially the pyramids of Cheops, will excite the imagination of people for a long time to come. We have only just begun to understand the properties of the pyramids ...

The entrance to the pyramid is located on the north side at a height of 15.63 meters. This entrance was sealed with a granite plug. Strabo has a description of this cork. In 820, Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Ma'mun made a breach 10 meters below 17 meters. He hoped to find the innumerable treasures of the pharaoh inside the pyramid, but found only a layer of dust half a cubit thick. It is through this gap that tourists get inside the pyramid.

The picture shows a corridor to the ascending tunnel and closing blocks to the left.

Inside the pyramid of Cheops are located one above the other three burial chambers.

The first one was carved into a rocky limestone base. Its construction was never completed. To get into it, you need to overcome 120 m of a narrow descending (at an angle of 26.5 degrees) lower passage. Egyptologists believe that it was originally built as a burial chamber for King Cheops. However, he apparently decided to build another tomb in the pyramid, located higher.

From the first third of the lower passage (18 m from the main entrance) at the same angle of 26.5 degrees, but already upwards, an upper passage about 40 m long goes south.

From the lower part of the Great Gallery, a horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high leads to the second burial chamber in a southerly direction. It is called the "Queen's Chamber" or "Queen's Chamber", although according to the rite, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids. Lined with limestone, the "Queen's Chamber" measures 5.23 meters from north to south, and 5.74 meters from east to west; its maximum height is 6.22 meters. The unfinished floor in the queen's chamber suggests that the construction in this room was interrupted for some reason.

A high niche can be seen in the eastern wall of the chamber.

From the lower part of the Great Gallery, a narrow almost vertical shaft about 60 m high leads to the lower passage. It is believed that it was intended for the evacuation of priests or workers who were completing the "sealing" of the main passage to the "King's Chamber".

The upper passage continues with the Great Gallery.

This is a high inclined rectangular tunnel with a length of 46.6 m. The height of the Great Gallery is 8.53 m. The gallery is a magnificent architectural structure with a skillfully executed stepped vault from a series of recesses in polished limestone walls. A horizontal passage at the end of the Grand Gallery leads through the "antechamber" to the burial "Chamber of the King", lined with black granite.

Here is an empty sarcophagus. It is carved from a single piece of red Aswan granite. The sarcophagus is 2.5 cm wider than the entrance to the king's chamber, from which it follows that the sarcophagus was first installed here, and then the chamber was equipped.

There is evidence that in the 90s of the 18th century, Napoleon spent a terrible night alone in the king's chamber, this feat was repeated in the 30s of the 20th century by the British occultist Paul Brighton.

In the northern and southern directions (at first horizontally, then obliquely upwards) the so-called “ventilation” channels 20-25 cm wide extend from the “King’s Chamber” and the “Queen’s Chamber”. Several underground structures were found at the foot of the Cheops pyramid. In one of them, archaeologists in 1954 found the oldest ship on Earth - a wooden boat, called "Sunny".

It is built of cedar without a single nail, the length is 43.6 m, the boat is disassembled into 1224 parts. As evidenced by traces of silt preserved on it, before the death of Cheops, the boat was still floating on the Nile.

about the pyramid of Cheops

• The exact date for the start of the construction of the pyramid of Cheops in Giza has been established - August 23, 2470 BC. e. This date was determined by historical facts and astronomical calculations. Now this date has become the "National Day" of the province of Giza.

• The area of ​​the base of the pyramid is comparable to the area of ​​10 football fields.

• The English colonel Howard Wise, who was fond of Egyptology, dreamed of unraveling the mysteries of the pyramids. In the first half of the 19th century, he arrived in Egypt and received permission from local authorities to excavate the pyramid. After a while, Wise discovered previously unknown chambers above the premises where the tomb of Pharaoh Cheops was supposed. The name of Pharaoh Cheops was written in scarlet paint on the walls of the chambers for the first time. Colonel Wise is a hero! Time passed, and the deception was revealed. Egyptologist Samuel Birsch, a connoisseur of hieroglyphs, identified hieroglyphs in the name written on the wall that had not yet been introduced into Egyptian writing during the reign of Cheops. Howard Wise, in order to become famous, wrote the name of the pharaoh himself, using information from an 1828 book on hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians.

• Since there are practically no official texts among the inscriptions on the walls inside the pyramid, many modern researchers question the generally accepted version that this is really the tomb for Pharaoh Cheops. But even the inscriptions found inside the monument reinforce the arguments of supporters of traditional theories. In five unloading chambers located above the king's chamber, texts on stones were found. The passage to them is difficult, so the inscriptions were hardly made after the installation of the stones. The text of one reads: "Supporters of Khufu." Fragment of another important rock inscription: "The 17th year of the reign of Khufu". These inscriptions indicate a connection between Cheops and the construction of the pyramid.
• Two French amateur Egyptologists Gilles Dormaillon and Jean-Yves Werdhart in August 2004 stated that they had found a previously unknown chamber in the pyramid of Cheops under the queen's chamber. With the help of radar, the waves of which are able to penetrate the layers of soil, they analyzed and put forward the assumption that this chamber is the tomb of King Cheols. However, the representative of the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Zahi Hawass, categorically rejected their request for excavations.

- Oh Osiris, I don't want to die! - Who wants to? Osiris shrugged. - But I ... I'm still a pharaoh! .. Listen, - Cheops whispered, - I will sacrifice a hundred thousand slaves to you. Only let me perpetuate one of my lives! - One hundred thousand? And you're sure they'll all die in the construction? - Rest assured. Such a pyramid, as I conceived... - Well, if so... Perpetuate, I don't mind.

The Pyramid of Cheops

No one remembers Cheops alive. Everyone remembers him only dead. He was dead a hundred, and a thousand, and three thousand years ago and always, always will be dead - the pyramid immortalized his death.

1. What is called the first wonder of the world?
Already in antiquity, the pyramids of Giza were considered one of the seven "wonders of the world." The largest of the pyramids was built by Pharaoh Khufu (2590 - 2568 BC), in Greek his name was Cheops. At present, the height of the pyramid is 138 m, although originally it was 147 m: the upper stones fell during earthquakes. The pyramid is made up of 2.5 million limestone blocks of various sizes, weighing an average of 2.5 tons. Initially, it was lined with white sandstone, which was harder than the main blocks, but the lining was not preserved. At the base of the pyramid lies a square with a side of 230 m, oriented to the cardinal points. According to some legends, the corners of the square symbolize Truth, Reason, Silence and Depth, according to others, the pyramid is based on four material substances from which the human body is created.
The greatest creations of antiquity among the pyramids include only the pyramid of Cheops, also called the Great Pyramid.
At a distance of about 160 meters from the pyramid of Cheops, the pyramid of Khafre rises, the height of which is 136.6 meters, and the length of the sides is 210.5 meters. A part of the original cladding is still visible on its top.
The Pyramid of Menkaure, which is even smaller, is located 200 meters from the Pyramid of Khafre. Its height is 62 meters, and the length of the sides is 108 meters. But the most famous Egyptian monument in the world after the pyramid of Cheops is the figure of the sphinx, vigilantly guarding the city of the dead.
The three pyramids are part of the complex, which also consists of several temples, small pyramids, tombs of priests and officials.
The smaller pyramids located to the south were probably intended for the wives of the rulers and remained unfinished.

2. How was the pyramid of Cheops built?

Its height is 146.6 m, which roughly corresponds to a fifty-story skyscraper. The base area is 230x230 m. On such a space, five of the largest cathedrals in the world could easily fit simultaneously: St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, as well as Florence and Milan Cathedrals. From the building stone that went to the construction of the pyramid of Cheops, it would be possible to build all the churches in Germany, created in our millennium. The young pharaoh Cheops ordered the construction of the pyramid immediately after the death of his father Snefru. Like all previous pharaohs since the time of Djoser (approximately 2609 -2590 BC), Cheops wanted to be buried after his death in a pyramid.
The ivory statue of Pharaoh Cheops is the only surviving image of the pharaoh. On the head of Cheops is the crown of the Ancient Egyptian kingdom, in his hand is a ceremonial fan.
Like his predecessors, he believed that his pyramid should exceed all other pyramids in size, splendor and luxury. But before the first of more than two million blocks that made up the pyramid was cut in a quarry on the east bank of the Nile, complex preparatory work was carried out. First, it was necessary to find a suitable site for the construction of the pyramid. The weight of the huge structure is 6,400,000 tons, so the ground had to be strong enough so that the pyramid would not sink into the ground under its own weight. The construction site was chosen south of the modern Egyptian capital of Cairo, on a ledge of a plateau in the desert seven kilometers west of the village of Giza. This solid rocky platform was able to support the weight of the pyramid.
First, the surface of the site was leveled. To do this, a waterproof shaft of sand and stones was built around it. In the resulting square, a dense network of small channels was cut down, intersecting at right angles, so that the site looked like a huge chessboard. The channels were filled with water, the height of the water level was marked on the side walls, then the water was let down. Stonemasons cut down everything that protruded above the smooth surface of the water, and the channels were again laid with stone. The base of the pyramid was ready.
Over 4,000 people - artists, architects, masons and other craftsmen - carried out these preparatory works for about ten years. Only after that it was possible to proceed with the construction of the pyramid itself. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (490 - 425 BC), construction continued for another twenty years, about 100,000 people worked on the construction of the huge tomb of Cheops. Only 1600 talents were spent on radishes, onions and garlic, which were added to the food of construction workers, i.e. approximately $20 million. Data on the number of workers are questioned by many modern researchers. In their opinion, there simply would not be enough space on the construction site for so many people: more than 8,000 people would not be able to work productively without interfering with each other.
Herodotus, who visited Egypt in 425 BC, wrote: "The method used was to build in steps, or as some call it rows or terraces. When the construction of the base was completed, the blocks for the next row above the base were raised from the main level with devices made of short wooden levers; on this first row there was another that raised the blocks one level higher, thus, step by step, the blocks were raised all Higher and higher. Each row or level had its own set of mechanisms of the same type that easily moved loads from level to level. The completion of the construction of the pyramid began at the top with the highest level, continued down, and ended with the lowest levels closer to the ground.
During the construction of the pyramid, Egypt was a wealthy country. Every year from the end of June to November, the Nile overflowed its banks and flooded the adjacent fields with its waters, leaving a thick layer of silt on them, which turned the dry sand of the desert into fertile soil. Therefore, in favorable years, it was possible to harvest up to three crops a year - grain, fruits and vegetables. So, from June to November, the peasants could not work in their fields. And they were glad when every year in mid-June a scribe of the pharaoh appeared in their village, compiling lists of those who wanted to work on the construction of the pyramid.

3. Who worked on the construction of the pyramid?
Almost everyone wanted this work, which means that it was not forced labor, but voluntary labor. This was due to two reasons: each construction participant received housing, clothing, food and a modest salary while working. Four months later, when the waters of the Nile left the fields, the peasants returned to their villages.

In addition, every Egyptian considered it his natural duty and honor to participate in the construction of the pyramid for the pharaoh. After all, everyone who contributed to the fulfillment of this grandiose task hoped that a particle of the immortality of the god-like pharaoh would touch him too. Therefore, at the end of June, endless streams of peasants rushed to Giza. There they were placed in temporary barracks and united in groups of eight people. You could start work. Having crossed in boats to the other side of the Nile, the men were heading to the quarry. There they cut down a stone block, hewed it with a sledgehammer, wedges, saws and borers and got a block of the required size - with sides from 80 cm to 1.45 m. Using ropes and levers, each group installed its block on wooden skids and on them along the log flooring she dragged him to the banks of the Nile. The sailboat transported workers and a block weighing up to 7.5 tons to the other side.

4. What was the most dangerous job?
On the roads lined with logs, the stone was dragged to the construction site. Here came the turn of the hardest work, since cranes and other lifting devices had not yet been invented. Along an inclined entrance 20 m wide, built of bricks from the Nile silt, skids with a stone block were pulled to the upper platform of the pyramid under construction with the help of ropes and levers. There, the workers laid the block in the place indicated by the architect with an accuracy of a millimeter. The higher the pyramid rose, the longer and steeper the entrance became, and the upper working platform became more and more reduced. So the work got harder and harder.
Then came the turn of the most dangerous work: the laying of the "pyramidon" - the upper block nine meters high, dragged upward along an inclined entrance. How many people died doing just this job, we do not know. So, twenty years later, the construction of the body of the pyramid was completed, which consists of 128 layers of stone and is four meters higher than the Strasbourg Cathedral. By this time, the pyramid looked about the same as it looks now: it was a stepped mountain. However, the work did not end there: the steps were laid with stones, so that the surface of the pyramid became, although not quite smooth, but already without protrusions. At the end of the work, the four triangular outer faces of the pyramid were faced with slabs of dazzling white limestone. The edges of the plates were fitted so precisely that even a knife blade could not be inserted between them. Even from a distance of several meters, the pyramid gave the impression of a giant monolith. The outer slabs have been polished to a mirror finish with the hardest grinding stones. According to eyewitnesses, in the sun or moonlight, the tomb of Cheops mysteriously sparkled like a huge crystal glowing from within.

5. What's inside the pyramid of Cheops?
The pyramid of Cheops is not made entirely of stone. Inside it there is a branched system of passages, which, through a large passage 47 m long, the so-called large gallery, leads to the pharaoh's chamber - a room 10.5 m long, 5.3 m wide and 5.8 m high. It is entirely lined with granite, but not decorated with any ornament. Here stands a large empty granite sarcophagus without a lid. The sarcophagus was brought here during construction, as it does not pass through any of the passages of the pyramid. There are such chambers of the pharaohs in almost all Egyptian pyramids; they served as the last refuge of the pharaoh.
There are no inscriptions or decorations inside the Cheops pyramid, except for a small portrait in the passage leading to the Queen's chamber. This image resembles a photograph on a stone. On the outer walls of the pyramid there are numerous curvilinear grooves of large and small sizes, in which, at a certain angle of illumination, one can distinguish an image 150 meters high - a portrait of a man, apparently one of the deities of Ancient Egypt. This image is surrounded by other images (the trident of the Atlanteans and Scythians, a flying bird, plans of stone buildings, pyramid rooms), texts, individual letters, large signs resembling a flower bud, etc. On the north side of the pyramid there is a portrait of a man and a woman with their heads bowed to each other. These huge images were painted just a few years before the main pyramid was completed and installed in 2630 BC. top stone.
Inside the pyramid of Cheops there are three burial chambers located one above the other. The construction of the first chamber was not completed. It is carved into the rock. To get into it, you need to overcome 120 m of a narrow descending corridor. The first burial chamber is connected with the second horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high. The second chamber is called the "queen's chamber", although according to the rite, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids.
The queen's chamber is overgrown with legends. It is associated with a legend according to which the pyramid was the main temple of a certain Supreme Deity, a place where ancient secret religious rites were held. Somewhere in the depths of the pyramid lives an unknown creature with the face of a lion, which holds in its hands the seven keys of Eternity. No one can see him, except for those who have undergone special rites of preparation and purification. Only to them did the Great Priest reveal the secret Divine Name. The person who owns the secret of the name became equal in its magical power to the pyramid itself. The main sacrament of initiation took place in the royal chamber. There, the candidate, tied to a special cross, was placed in a huge sarcophagus. The person receiving the initiation was, as it were, in the gap between the material world and the divine world, inaccessible to human consciousness.
From the beginning of the horizontal corridor, another one goes up, about 50 meters long and more than 8 meters high. At the end of it there is a horizontal passage leading to the pharaoh's burial chamber, finished with granite, in which the sarcophagus is placed. In addition to the burial chambers, voids and ventilation shafts were found in the pyramid. However, the purpose of many rooms and various hollow channels has not been fully figured out. One of these rooms is a room where there is an open book on the table about the history and achievements of the country during the period when the construction of the pyramid was completed.
The purpose of the underground structures at the foot of the pyramid of Cheops is also unclear. Some of them were opened at different times. In one of the underground structures in 1954, archaeologists found the oldest ship on Earth - a wooden boat, called the sun, 43.6 m long, disassembled into 1224 parts. It was built of cedar without a single nail and, as evidenced by traces of silt preserved on it, before the death of Cheops, it was still floating on the Nile.

6. How was the burial of the pharaoh?
After death, the carefully embalmed body of the ruler was placed in the burial chamber of the pyramid. The internal organs of the deceased were placed in special hermetic vessels, the so-called canopies, which were placed next to the sarcophagus in the burial chamber. So, the mortal remains of the pharaoh found their last earthly refuge in the pyramid, and the "ka" of the deceased left the tomb. "Ka", according to Egyptian ideas, was considered something like a double of a person, his "second self", which left the body at the time of death and could freely move between the earthly and the afterlife. Leaving the burial chamber, "ka" rushed to the top of the pyramid along its outer lining, so smooth that none of the mortals could move along it. The father of the pharaohs, the sun god Ra, was already there in his solar boat, in which the deceased pharaoh began his journey to immortality.
Recently, some scientists have expressed doubt that the Great Pyramid was indeed the tomb of Pharaoh Cheops. They put forward three arguments in favor of this assumption:
The burial chamber, contrary to the customs of that time, does not have any decorations.
The sarcophagus, in which the body of the deceased pharaoh was supposed to rest, was only roughly hewn, i.e. not completely ready; lid is missing.
And, finally, two narrow passages through which air from outside enters the burial chamber through small holes in the body of the pyramid. But the dead do not need air - this is another weighty argument in favor of the fact that the pyramid of Cheops was not a burial place.
7. Who first entered the pyramid of Cheops?
The entrance to the pyramid of Cheops was originally located on the north side, at the level of the 13th row of granite slabs. Now it is closed. You can get inside the pyramid through a manhole left by ancient robbers.
For more than 3500 years, the interior of the Great Pyramid was not disturbed by anyone: all the entrances to it were carefully walled up, and the tomb itself, according to the Egyptians, was guarded by spirits ready to kill anyone who tried to enter it.
That's why the robbers came here much later. The first person to penetrate the pyramid of Cheops was Caliph Abdullah al-Mamun (813-833 BC), son of Harun al-Rashid. He dug a tunnel to the burial chamber in the hope of discovering treasures there, as in other tombs of the pharaohs. But he did not find anything except the droppings of bats that lived there, the layer of which on the floor and on the walls reached 28 cm. After that, the interest of robbers and treasure seekers in the pyramid of Cheops disappeared. But they were replaced by other robbers. In 1168, after R. Chr. part of Cairo was burned and completely destroyed by the Arabs, who did not want it to fall into the hands of the crusaders. When the Egyptians then set about rebuilding their city, they removed the shiny white slabs that covered the outside of the pyramid and used them to build new houses. Even now, these plates can be seen in many mosques in the old part of the city. From the former pyramid, only a stepped body remained - this is how it now appears before the enthusiastic gaze of tourists. Together with the lining, the pyramid also lost its top, the pyramidon, and the upper layers of the masonry. Therefore, now its height is no longer 144.6 m, but 137.2 m. Today, the top of the pyramid is a square with sides of about 10 m. This site in 1842 became the venue for unusual festivities. The Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV, known for his love of art, sent an expedition to the Nile Valley led by archaeologist Richard Lepsius in order to acquire ancient Egyptian art objects and other exhibits for the Egyptian Museum being created in Berlin (it was opened in 1855).

Powerful, surrounded by mystery .. - this is the pyramid of Cheops that stood for 4500 years

For over 4,000 years, the pyramids of Giza have towered over the west bank of the Nile south of Cairo, giving rise to many theories, from their construction methods to their astrological connections.

The Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) was built between 2560 and 2540. BC e. in Giza. The greatest of all the tombs built in the ancient world, the Great Pyramid is the centerpiece of a complex that includes tombs for Khufu's wives, a mortuary temple, a valley temple, boats, and a dam.

The second pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, Khufu, Hellenized as Cheops, was the son of Sneferu and Hetefer I and probably ascended the throne at the age of 20. Very little information about Khufu has been preserved, and conflicting accounts of his reign have been written centuries after his death, especially in the history of Herodotus.

At a height of 146 meters, the Great Pyramid eclipsed all structures ever built until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311 AD. The cathedral exceeded it by about 160 meters, before the collapse of its central spire in 1548.

The pyramid used 2.3 million stone blocks from a quarry in Aswan. Each block weighs about 2.5 tons on average, and the pyramid itself is estimated at 6.5 million tons.

Historians and scholars have not proven that the ramp system must have been the method of raising and maneuvering the massive granite blocks for the Great Pyramid. Archaeological evidence elsewhere on the pyramid shows that linear, stair and spiral ramps were used to slowly bring stones hundreds of meters into the air.

And now, little one excursion inside the pyramid. The Great Pyramid, shaped like a tomb, contains three burial chambers designed to house Khufu and the treasured items he will "take" with him into the afterlife. Upon entering the pyramid, the passage (0.9 meters high and 1.1 feet wide) descends about 107 meters inward, levels out, and continues another 8 meters to an unfinished underground chamber. About 28 meters down the descending passage, a hole in the roof leads to an ascending passage that ascends to the Great Gallery (this is the only known pyramid with a passage that slopes upwards). At the beginning of the Gallery is a passage to the Royal Chamber. A series of ramparts extending from the northern and southern walls have been explored several times, but their purpose has not yet been revealed.

Returning to the Grand Gallery, the passage leads to the Royal Chamber. Inside, the walls are entirely covered in granite, and a pair of shafts, which at one point were thought to be air shafts, sloped up and down the north and south sides of the pyramid, leading many experts to believe they had an astrological purpose.

Khufu's sarcophagus is the only object left in the room.

For work, according to experts, about 20,000-30,000 skilled workers, including stone masons, engineers, architects, surveyors, builders and other craftsmen. A small team worked year-round on the project, while most workers were called in during the summer months when the Nile flooded the surrounding valley.

Along with his tomb, Khufu's pyramid complex includes three small pyramids built for his wives, a mortuary temple, and mastabas (tombs) for relatives and officials who will "accompany" Khufu on his journey to the afterlife. His son, Khafre, built an almost 135 meter pyramid that appears taller than Khufu's from certain angles due to its position on slightly elevated ground. Khafre also commissioned the Great Sphinx for the front of the complex.

The Great Pyramid of Cheops is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Pyramid age

The architect of the Great Pyramid is Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also bore the title "Manager of all construction sites of the pharaoh." It is assumed that the construction, which lasted twenty years (the reign of Cheops), ended around 2540 BC. e. .

The existing methods of dating the time of the beginning of the construction of the pyramid are divided into historical, astronomical and radiocarbon. In Egypt, it was officially established (2009) and the date of the start of the construction of the pyramid of Cheops is celebrated - August 23, 2560 BC. e. This date was obtained using the astronomical method of Kate Spence (University of Cambridge). However, this method and the dates derived from it have been criticized by many Egyptologists. Dates according to other dating methods: 2720 BC. e. (Stephen Hack, University of Nebraska), 2577 B.C. e. (Juan Antonio Belmonte, University of Astrophysics in Canaris) and 2708 BC. e. (Pollux, Bauman University). The radiocarbon method gives a range from 2680 BC. e. until 2850 BC e. Therefore, there is no serious confirmation of the established “birthday” of the pyramid, since Egyptologists cannot agree on exactly what year the construction began.

The first mention of the pyramid

The complete absence of a mention of the pyramid in Egyptian papyri remains a mystery. The first descriptions are found in the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) and in ancient Arabic legends [ ] . Herodotus reported (at least 2 millennia after the appearance of the Great Pyramid) that it was erected under a despot pharaoh named Cheops (Greek. Koufou), who ruled for 50 years, that 100 thousand people were employed in the construction. for twenty years, and that the pyramid is in honor of Cheops, but not his grave. The real grave is a burial near the pyramid. Herodotus gave erroneous information about the size of the pyramid, and also mentioned the middle pyramid of the Giza plateau, that it was erected by the daughter of Cheops, who sold herself, and that each building stone corresponded to the man to whom she was given. According to Herodotus, if "to raise a stone, a long winding path to the grave opened," without specifying what kind of pyramid in question; however, the pyramids of the Giza plateau did not have "winding" paths to the tomb at the time of their visit by Herodotus; on the contrary, the Descending passage of the BP of Cheops is distinguished by careful straightness. And other premises in the BP at that time were not known.

Appearance

The surviving fragments of the facing of the pyramid and the remains of the pavement that surrounded the building

The pyramid is called "Akhet-Khufu" - "Horizon of Khufu" (or more precisely "Related to the sky - (this is) Khufu"). Consists of blocks of limestone and granite. It was built on a natural limestone hill. After the pyramid has lost several layers of lining, this hill is partially visible on the eastern, northern and southern sides of the pyramid. Despite the fact that the Pyramid of Cheops is the tallest and most voluminous of all Egyptian pyramids, Pharaoh Sneferu built the pyramids in Meidum and Dahshut (the Broken Pyramid and the Pink Pyramid), the total mass of which is estimated at 8.4 million tons.

Initially, the pyramid was lined with white limestone, harder than the main blocks. The top of the pyramid was crowned with a gilded stone - a pyramidion (ancient Egyptian - "Benben"). The cladding shone in the sun with a peach color, as if "a shining miracle, to which the sun god Ra himself seemed to give all his rays." In 1168, the Arabs sacked and burned Cairo. The inhabitants of Cairo removed the lining from the pyramid in order to build new houses.

Statistical data

Pyramid of Cheops in the 19th century

Map of the necropolis near the pyramid of Cheops

• Height (today): ≈ 136.5 m
• Sidewall Angle (Now): 51° 50"
• Side rib length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 royal cubits
• Side rib length (now): 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
• Base area (originally): ≈ 53,000 m2 (5.3 ha)
• The area of ​​the side surface of the pyramid (initially): ≈ 85,500 m 2
• Base perimeter: 922 m
• The total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m 3
• The total volume of the pyramid minus all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m3
• Average volume of stone blocks: 1.147 m3
• Average weight of stone blocks: 2.5 t
• The heaviest stone block: about 35 tons - is located above the entrance to the "King's Chamber".
• The number of blocks of the average volume does not exceed 1.65 million (2.50 million m³ - 0.6 million m³ of rocky base inside the pyramid = 1.9 million m 3 / 1.147 m 3 = 1.65 million blocks of the specified volume can physically fit in the pyramid , without taking into account the volume of the solution in the interblock seams); reference to a 20-year construction period * 300 working days per year * 10 working hours per day * 60 minutes per hour results in a paving (and delivery to the construction site) speed of about a block of two minutes.
• According to estimates, the total weight of the pyramid is about 4 million tons (1.65 million blocks x 2.5 tons)
• The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation with a height in the center of about 12-14 m and, according to the latest data, occupies at least 23% of the original volume of the pyramid
• The number of layers (tiers) of stone blocks - 210 (at the time of construction). Now the layers are 203.

Side concavity

The concavity of the sides of the pyramid of Cheops

When the sun moves around the pyramid, you can notice the unevenness - the concavity of the central part of the walls. Perhaps the reason for this is erosion or damage resulting from the fall of the stone cladding. It is also possible that this was deliberately done during construction. As Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi note, the pyramid of Menkaure no longer has such a concavity of the sides. I.E.S. Edwards explains this feature by the fact that the central part of each side was simply pressed inward from a large mass of stone blocks over time. [ ]

As in the 18th century, when this phenomenon was discovered, today there is still no satisfactory explanation for this feature of architecture.

Observation of the concavity of the sides at the end of the 19th century, Description of Egypt

Tilt angle

It is not possible to accurately determine the original parameters of the pyramid, since its edges and surfaces are currently mostly dismantled and destroyed. This makes it difficult to calculate the exact angle of inclination. In addition, its symmetry itself is not perfect, so deviations in numbers are observed with different measurements.

Geometric study of ventilation tunnels

The study of the geometry of the Great Pyramid does not give an unambiguous answer to the question of the original proportions of this structure. It is assumed that the Egyptians had an idea about the Golden Ratio and the number pi, which were reflected in the proportions of the pyramid: for example, the ratio of height to base is 14/22 (height \u003d 280 cubits, and base \u003d 440 cubits, 280/440 \u003d 14 / 22). For the first time in world history, these values ​​were used in the construction of the pyramid at Meidum. However, for pyramids of later eras, these proportions were not used anywhere else, as, for example, some have height-to-base ratios, such as 6/5 (Pink Pyramid), 4/3 (Chefren's Pyramid) or 7/5 (Broken Pyramid).

Some of the theories consider the pyramid to be an astronomical observatory. It is alleged that the corridors of the pyramid point exactly towards the "polar star" of that time - Tuban, the ventilation corridors of the south side - to the star Sirius, and from the north side - to the star Alnitak.

Internal structure

Cross section of the pyramid of Cheops:

The entrance to the pyramid is at a height of 15.63 meters on the north side. The entrance is formed by stone slabs laid in the form of an arch, but this is a structure that was inside the pyramid - the true entrance has not been preserved. The true entrance to the pyramid was most likely closed with a stone plug. A description of such a cork can be found in Strabo, and its appearance can also be imagined based on the surviving slab that closed the upper entrance to the Bent Pyramid of Snefru, the father of Cheops. Today, tourists enter the pyramid through a 17-meter gap, which was made in 820 by the Baghdad caliph Abdullah al-Mamun 10 meters lower. He hoped to find the innumerable treasures of the pharaoh there, but found there only a layer of dust half a cubit thick.

Inside the pyramid of Cheops are three burial chambers located one above the other.

Funeral "pit"

Underground Chamber Maps

A descending corridor 105 m long, inclined at 26° 26’46, leads to a horizontal corridor 8.9 m long leading to the chamber 5 . Located below ground level in a rocky limestone base, it was left unfinished. The dimensions of the chamber are 14 × 8.1 m, it is elongated from east to west. The height reaches 3.5 m, the ceiling has a large crack. At the southern wall of the chamber there is a well about 3 m deep, from which a narrow manhole (0.7 × 0.7 m in cross section) stretches southward for 16 m, ending in a dead end. Engineers John Shae Perring and Richard William Howard Vyse cleared the floor of the chamber in the early 19th century and dug a 11.6 m deep well in which they hoped to find a hidden burial chamber. They were based on the evidence of Herodotus, who claimed that the body of Cheops was on an island surrounded by a channel in a hidden underground chamber. Their excavations turned up nothing. Later research showed that the chamber was left unfinished, and it was decided to arrange the burial chambers in the center of the pyramid itself.

Ascending Corridor and Queen's Chambers

From the first third of the descending passage (after 18 m from the main entrance) upwards at the same angle of 26.5 ° there is an ascending passage to the south ( 6 ) about 40 m long, ending at the bottom of the Great Gallery ( 9 ).

At its beginning, the ascending passage contains 3 large cubic granite “plugs”, which, from the outside, from the descending passage, were masked by a block of limestone that fell out during the work of al-Mamun. Thus, for the first 3000 years from the construction of the pyramid (including during the era of its active visits in Antiquity), it was believed that there were no other rooms in the Great Pyramid except for the descending passage and the underground chamber. Al-Ma'mun failed to break through these plugs and simply hollowed out a bypass in the softer limestone to the right of them. This passage is still in use today. There are two main theories about plugs, one of them is that the ascending passage has plugs installed at the beginning of construction and thus this passage was sealed by them from the very beginning. The second asserts that the present narrowing of the walls was caused by an earthquake, and the plugs were previously located within the Great Gallery and were used to seal the passage only after the burial of the pharaoh.

An important mystery of this section of the ascending passage is that in the place where the traffic jams are now located, in a full-size, albeit shortened model of the pyramid passages - the so-called test corridors north of the Great Pyramid - there is a junction of not two, but three corridors at once, the third of which is the vertical tunnel. Since no one has been able to move the traffic jams so far, the question of whether there is a vertical hole above them remains open.

In the middle of the ascending passage, the construction of the walls has a peculiarity: the so-called “frame stones” are installed in three places - that is, the passage, square along the entire length, pierces through three monoliths. The purpose of these stones is unknown. In the area of ​​the frame stones, the passage walls have several small niches.

A horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high leads to the second burial chamber from the lower part of the Great Gallery in a southerly direction. . Behind the western wall of the passage there are cavities filled with sand. The second chamber is traditionally called the "Queen's Chamber", although according to the rite, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids. The "Queen's Chamber", lined with limestone, has 5.74 meters from east to west and 5.23 meters from north to south; its maximum height is 6.22 meters. There is a high niche in the eastern wall of the chamber.

Blueprint of the Queen's Chamber ( 7 )



Niche in the wall of the Queen's Chamber



Corridor at the entrance to the Queen's Hall (1910)



Entrance to the Queen's Chamber (1910)



Niche in the Queen's Chamber (1910)



Ventilation duct in the queen's chamber (1910)



Corridor to ascending tunnel ( 12 )



Granite Plug (1910)



Corridor to the ascending tunnel (left - closing blocks)

Grotto, Grand Gallery and Pharaoh's Chambers

Another branch from the lower part of the Grand Gallery is a narrow almost vertical shaft about 60 m high, leading to the lower part of the descending passage. There is an assumption that it was intended for the evacuation of workers or priests who were completing the "sealing" of the main passage to the "King's Chamber". Approximately in the middle of it there is a small, most likely natural extension - the "Grotto" (Grotto) of irregular shape, in which several people could fit from strength. Grotto ( 12 ) is located at the "junction" of the masonry of the pyramid and a small, about 9 meters high, hill on a limestone plateau lying at the base of the Great Pyramid. The walls of the Grotto are partially reinforced with ancient masonry, and since some of its stones are too large, there is an assumption that the Grotto existed on the Giza plateau as an independent structure long before the construction of the pyramids, and the evacuation shaft itself was built taking into account the location of the Grotto. However, taking into account the fact that the shaft was actually hollowed out in the already laid masonry, and not laid out, as evidenced by its irregular circular section, the question arises of how the builders managed to accurately reach the Grotto.

The large gallery continues the ascending passage. Its height is 8.53 m, it is rectangular in cross section, with walls slightly tapering upwards (the so-called “false vault”), a high inclined tunnel 46.6 m long. 1 meter wide and 60 cm deep, and on both side protrusions there are 27 pairs of recesses of unclear purpose. The deepening ends with the so-called. The “Big Step” is a high horizontal ledge, a platform of 1 × 2 meters at the end of the Great Gallery, directly in front of the entrance to the “entrance hall” - the Anterior Chamber. The site has a pair of recesses similar to the ramp recesses, recesses at the corners near the wall (the 28th and last pair of BG recesses). Through the "entrance hall" the manhole leads to the burial chamber "King's Chamber" lined with black granite, where an empty granite sarcophagus is placed. The lid of the sarcophagus is missing. Ventilation shafts have mouths in the "King's Chamber" on the southern and northern walls at a height of about a meter from the floor level. The mouth of the southern ventilation shaft is badly damaged, the northern one appears undamaged. The floor, ceiling, walls of the chamber do not have any decorations or holes or fasteners of anything related to the time of the construction of the pyramid. The ceiling slabs have all burst along the southern wall and do not fall into the room only due to the pressure of the overlying blocks by the weight.

Above the "King's Chamber" there are five discharge cavities discovered in the 19th century with a total height of 17 m, between which lie monolithic granite slabs with a thickness of about 2 m, and above - a gable ceiling of limestone. It is believed that their purpose is to distribute the weight of the overlying layers of the pyramid (about a million tons) in order to protect the "King's Chamber" from pressure. Graffiti has been found in these voids, probably left by workers.

Interior of the Grotto (1910)



Grotto drawing (1910)





Drawing connecting the Grotto with the Grand Gallery (1910)



Tunnel Entrance (1910)



View of the Grand Gallery from the entrance to the premises



Grand Gallery



Grand Gallery (1910)



Drawing of the Pharaoh's Chamber



pharaoh's chamber



Pharaoh's Chamber (1910)



Interior of the vestibule in front of the king's chamber (1910)



Channel "ventilation" at the south wall of the king's room (1910)

ventilation ducts

So-called "ventilation" channels 20-25 cm wide depart from the "King's Chamber" and the "Queen's Chamber" in the northern and south directions (at first horizontally, then obliquely upwards). At the same time, the channels of the "King's Chamber", known since the 17th century, through, they are open both from below and from above (on the faces of the pyramid), while the lower ends of the channels of the "Queen's Chamber" are separated from the surface of the wall by about 13 cm, they were discovered by tapping in 1872. The upper ends of the shafts of the "Queen's Chamber" do not reach the surface of about 12 meters, and are closed with stone "Gantenbrink Doors", each with two copper handles. Copper handles were sealed with plaster seals (not preserved, but traces remained). In the southern ventilation shaft, the “door” was discovered in 1993 using the Upuaut II remote-controlled robot; the bend of the northern mine did not allow Then to find in it the same “door” by this robot. In 2002, using a new modification of the robot, a hole was drilled in the southern "door", but behind it a small cavity 18 centimeters long was found and another stone "door". What lies next is still unknown. This robot confirmed the presence of a similar "door" at the end of the northern channel, but they did not drill it. A new robot in 2010 was able to insert a serpentine television camera through a drilled hole in the southern “door” and found that the copper “handles” on the other side of the “door” were designed in the form of neat hinges, and individual badges were applied in red ocher on the floor of the “ventilation” shaft. Currently, the most common version is that the purpose of the "ventilation" ducts was of a religious nature and is associated with the Egyptians' ideas about the afterlife journey of the soul. And the “door” at the end of the channel is nothing more than a door to the afterlife. That is why it does not go to the surface of the pyramid. At the same time, the shafts of the upper burial chamber have through exits to the outside and inside of the room; it is not clear if this is due to some change in ritual; since the outer few meters of the facing of the pyramid have been destroyed, it is not clear whether the "Gantenbrink Doors" were in the upper shafts. (could be in the place where the mine was not preserved). In the southern upper mine there is a so-called. "Cheops niches" - strange expansions and grooves, which, perhaps, contained a "door". In the northern upper there are no "niches" at all.

Research History

There are those dedicated to the pyramids

Why did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids, how were these grandiose and mysterious creations of human hands created. Many mysteries have not yet been revealed, and there are more questions than answers. Perhaps the rulers of those times wanted to emphasize the majesty of the era, to confirm the constancy of their power, to show proximity to the gods.

In contact with

First buildings

From the end of the 4th millennium BC. pharaohs were buried in truncated structures - medium-sized stone buildings (mastabs), for fastening which a solution of clay was used. Today, such structures look like shapeless piles of stones that do not carry any architectural value.

The history of the pyramids - the most unusual buildings of ancient Egypt - began in 2780-2760 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser, who completely changed the architectural style of the tombs. His new tomb consisted of as many as 6 mastabas erected on top of each other. The narrowest was at the top, the widest at the bottom. Such a building was a stepped building. Its height was just over 60 meters, and the perimeter was 115 by 125 meters.

The construction of the pyramids in ancient Egypt was carried out in a special architectural style that reigned for two hundred years. Its developer and designer was the famous vizier Imhotep. They built pyramids in a different form. For example, the period of the reign of Pharaoh Snefru was marked by the creation of two unique pyramids of ancient Egypt - broken and pink:

1. At the first, the angle of inclination of the walls from the base of the building to its middle is 54° 31', and then it changes to 43° 21'. There are many versions explaining such a strange form of construction. The main one is that the death of the pharaoh was sudden, so the workers made the slope steeper to speed up the construction process. There are other opinions on this matter. For example, that it was a trial version created for the sake of "experiment".
2. The second got its name due to the color of the blocks that were used for construction. The stone was a pale pink hue, and at sunset it turned bright pink. Initially, the outer cladding was white, but over time, the coating gradually peeled off, and pink limestone, the material from which the structure was laid out, came out.

But still, the most famous are those structures that proudly rise on the Giza plateau. These three majestic pyramids of impressive size are famous all over the world.

The largest pyramid

Its other name is the Pyramid of Khufu. This is one of the most famous and largest buildings in the world. Let's make a brief description of it. When was the pyramid of Cheops built? It was erected near the city of Giza (at the moment - a suburb of Cairo). The largest pyramid began to be built on August 23, 2480 BC. For its construction, the forces of 100 thousand people were used. The first 10 years were required in order to build a road along which giant blocks of stones were delivered. It took another 20 years to build the structure itself.

Attention! The Pyramid of Cheops is striking in its scale. Today, its height is 137 meters, but this was not always the case, because over time the cladding was worn out and part of the base was covered with sand. Initially, it was 10 meters higher.

147 meters is the length of the side of the base, made in the form of a square. According to studies, more than 2 million limestone blocks were used for construction, the average weight of one of them is 2.5 tons. Each block fits perfectly to the next one and is raised to a certain height. The entrance can be found on the north side of the building, at a height of just over 15 meters. Stone slabs resembling an arch are laid out around.

It is still unknown how exactly the Egyptians managed to cope not only with the lifting of the blocks, but also with their perfect fit to each other. There are no gaps between blocks. Some are sure that they were not engaged in raising the blocks - they just crushed the limestone, brought it to a powdery state, and then removed the moisture, and so it turned into cement, which was poured into pre-created formwork. After that, water, crushed stone and stone were added - in this way monolithic blocks arose.

The stepped structure served several purposes: it was used as a sundial, a seasonal calendar, and a reference point for geodetic measurements.

Little is known about who built the largest Egyptian pyramid. The architect was the vizier of the pharaoh named Cheops Hemiun. He was engaged in design, was the head of the work, but he did not have time to see his offspring, as he died shortly before the completion of construction.

Attention! Today there is no exact information that the tomb of Cheops is located inside. However, it is believed that such buildings were part of ritual burial complexes.

Chamber inside Khufu's pyramid

Inside there are three chambers: the upper one is the royal burial chamber and is lined with granite blocks, each one weighs 60 tons. This chamber is located at a height of 43 meters from the base. There is also an ascending corridor and the queen's chambers. In the burial pit at the beginning of the 20th century, two engineers dug a well, where, in their opinion, a hidden burial chamber should have been located.

However, their efforts were in vain: it later turned out that the construction of the chamber was not completed. Instead, the burial chambers were arranged in the center, they are located one above the other.

More recently, using muon radiography technology, it was possible to find a room that was not known before.. It was calculated that its length is 30 meters, and its width is 2 meters, it is located right in the center of the building. Scientists are trying to drill a small 3-centimeter hole in order to launch a mini-robot inside and explore the room they found, since it is still unknown what is in it and for what purposes it serves.

Today, there is almost nothing left of the cladding - the inhabitants of Cairo decided that it would be “more necessary” for the construction of their houses, and they took it to their homes. However, there are remains of white limestone on the nearby Pyramid of Khafre, which is somewhat smaller.

Second largest building

Its height is 143.5 meters. If you believe the legends, then it was crowned with a granite pyramidion, decorated with gold. There is no data on why what is no longer there, and where it is now. Khafre spent 40 years building a tomb for himself. It was built using the same technology as the previous one, but it is located on a higher hill, and its slope is steeper, which makes the structure impregnable and difficult even for professional climbers. At the moment, climbing to the top is prohibited in order to preserve the remains of the old cladding.

The protective material granite was used inside and outside the pyramid, but it was not used in the burial chamber. At the moment, the condition of the building is assessed as good, despite the fact that its size has slightly decreased. The blocks, made of limestone and weighing a couple of tons each, are attached to each other so tightly that not a piece of paper or even a hair can be inserted between them.

The youngest of the three, the height is 62 meters. At the same time, in some pictures, tourists manage to choose the angle so that it looks the highest. The ancient building has been preserved in good condition and is open to the public. Starting from this building, large tombs were no longer erected. Scientists believe that by that time the decline of the era of great buildings began.

Attention! An interesting feature of the Menkaure pyramid is that the largest stone block in it weighs at least 200 tons.

Other architectural elements

Later, the pharaohs stopped creating grandiose structures. Thus, Pharaoh Userkaf ordered the construction of a building in Saqqara, the height of which is 44.5 meters. At the moment, it looks like a pile of stones that has nothing to do with an architectural structure. The same goes for the rest of the buildings. In total, about 100 pyramids were erected in Egypt. Their appearance is the same - only the height and volume change.