The Pyramid of Cheops was built around 2600 BC.
The pyramids are shrouded in mystery to this day. Many scientists have devoted their entire lives to unraveling the great construction and purpose of these magnificent buildings. However, several millennia, from the first study of Herodotus to the present day, have not brought the expected success. The main questions remained unanswered - who? when? what for? We will tell you about the most reliable assumptions and versions collected by the best scientists over several centuries and related to the history of the Egyptian pyramids.
Already in ancient times, the pyramids were considered one of the main wonders of the world! Their number was about 100, located along the banks of the Nile River. If you look at all the pyramids from above, then their location is similar to the map starry sky... The largest, main pyramids are at Giza. The world famous sphinxes, as well as temples and tombs of the pharaohs, are also located here. A very important factor of the pyramids is that all their faces are clearly located along the magnetic poles of the Earth! You probably already know the names of the three main pyramids? If not, then be sure to remember - the pyramid of Cheops, Mikerin and Khafre.
The most large pyramid - Cheops was erected by Khufu, who at that time was the pharaoh. The estimated, most accurate date of construction is 2590 BC. The height of the pyramid is more than 146 meters, the length of each side is more than 241 m. The sides are located to the cardinal points with amazing accuracy, the angle of inclination is 52 degrees. The Cheops pyramid covers an area of \u200b\u200b5.4 hectares, the base is aligned with the horizon with an accuracy of 3 centimeters. The pyramid consists of more than 2,350,000 stone blocks, each weighing about two and a half tons! The pyramid was originally covered with white sandstone cladding for precise shape and long-term preservation. Unfortunately, the facing has not survived to this day.
The entrance to the pyramid is at a height of 14 meters. There are no decorations inside, no inscriptions or drawings. For that, there are three chambers, the lower of which is located at a depth of 30 meters above the ground. The room is carved into the rock, in order to get to it you need to overcome 120 meters of a narrow corridor (1.1x1.0) at an angle of 27 degrees. After that, the remaining 9 meters, the angle changes to zero relative to the horizon. The tunnel ends with a burial chamber (8.0x14.0x3.0).
Now the passage to the lower tier is closed, for that you can go up the stairs, and then along the corridor of 40 meters, which leads to the queen's chamber. A room with dimensions (5.5x5.2x6.3) is located clearly in the middle, at a height of 20 meters from the ground. There are two ventilation shafts in the walls, directed exactly north and south, but not facing the street.
Even higher is the "Great Gallery" - a corridor more than 48 meters long, with a ceiling height of 8.4 meters and an angle of inclination of 26 degrees. The walls are lined with polished limestone slabs in eight layers. At the end of the corridor there is the main room - the tomb of the pharaoh with dimensions (10.5x5.3x5.8). The chamber is lined with black Aswan granite, each block of which weighs at least thirty tons! Moreover, all blocks are so well polished and fitted that even the thinnest knife blade will not pass between them. The ceiling consists of 9 monoliths, each weighing over 400 tons. Above them are the discharge chambers 17 meters high, designed to preserve the peace of the pharaoh. A gable roof was built above them, made of huge blocks that take on the weight of more than a million tons! Note also that the pharaoh's sarcophagus is much wider than the entrance to the chamber, and most likely it was hewn right here, from a large block of granite.
There are also ventilation chambers (0.2x0.2) with an exact north-south direction, but unlike the queen's chamber, here they go outside. In 817, Caliph Mamun was able to penetrate into the tomb of the pharaoh, but found there only an empty sarcophagus, the remains of Cheops were never found.
The finds near the pyramid are also interesting. For example, in 1953, during excavations, the oldest ship in the world was discovered - a wooden boat, about 44 meters long, built without nails from cedar. On the wooden elements of which traces of silt were found, it means that at one time the boat was used for its intended purpose. Ancient scriptures claim that the pyramid was surrounded by a stone wall that was 10 meters high and 3 meters wide. Two temples were located nearby - the upper and the lower. The upper one was to the east of the pyramid, built of Turkish limestone, it contained about 40 granite pillars. The lower temple was used for the first part of the burial ceremony.
The essence of the whole system of buildings was most likely as follows - initially the remains of the pharaoh were delivered along the Nile to the lower temple, where, after the necessary preparations, they were sent to the upper temple along a long connecting corridor. In the upper temple, among the many columns, a funeral service and prayers for the repose of the pharaoh were held. After that, the body was delivered to the lower chamber of the pyramid, where the pharaoh was carefully walled up. On the four sides of the pyramid, walled up in the rocks, there were four boats intended for travel in the afterlife. The main pyramid was accompanied by three small companion pyramids (base length 49 m), located, like the upper temple, in the east. Moreover, each next of which (from north to south) is less than the previous one. It is believed that the companion pyramids were intended for the wives of the pharaoh.
There are other theories about the purpose of the pyramids. In those distant times, the pharaohs were ruled by a group of priests who possessed unearthly knowledge. This was a separate caste of people who called themselves the elect. They knew mathematics, medicine, astronomy and other sciences very well. The level of education of the priests was several times higher than our idea of \u200b\u200bthe world. This knowledge was inaccessible to the common man. The priests chose their disciples themselves, initiating and teaching them in underground rooms located under the pyramids. The teachings assumed a connection with the universe and an awareness of the essence of earthly existence. After that, the student was subjected to tests in the labyrinths of the pyramids, then in a secret sanctuary, on pain of death, they achieved complete obedience and an oath not to disclose secrets. The priests could predict the future, thanks to their connection with the higher forces of the universe. Let's make a reservation right away, later the chosen ones disappeared due to the so-called disconnection.
Modern scientists have found a lot of evidence for this - the 33-year duration of Christ, the date of the beginning of the Second World War. Back in 1964, Charles Smith suggested that the pyramids store information for understanding the prophecies from the Bible from the beginning of time to the second coming of God.
In 1994, a discovery was made using computer simulations that explained the location of the three main pyramids, which exactly correspond to the positions of the three stars in Orion's belt, which at the time were crossing the Giza meridian. If this assumption is correct, then the age of the pyramids can be increased to 10,400 years BC! The same Sphinx is a confirmation of this theory, because his gaze is directed exactly to the point where this constellation was located.
With the help of modern equipment, hidden tunnels were discovered under the Sphinx itself, which, according to the legend, were supposed to lead to a chamber containing a capsule with a message for all mankind. Indeed, the chamber was found, it contained a sarcophagus made of black granite, unfortunately it was also empty. For that, on the walls of the tunnel leading to the chamber, drawings were found that represent predictions of the future of humanity. From there it became known that a series of cosmic cataclysms awaits our civilization, which will nightmare the "Earth" for several millennia .. However, the priests will again appear on our planet and find a way to salvation by conquering space and restoring a civilization based on the laws of life.
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Pyramid of Cheops (Egypt) - description, history, location. The exact address, phone, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
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Probably, there is no person who would not know the main Egyptian landmark - the pyramid of Cheops. And tourists who have visited Egypt and have not visited the only surviving Seven Wonders of the World can be counted on one hand.
Despite numerous studies, the Cheops pyramid keeps many secrets. The pharaoh's sarcophagus has not yet been found.
The height of the largest pyramid in Egypt today is 140 meters, and total area more than 5 hectares. The Pyramid of Cheops is built - attention - from 2.5 million stone blocks! To deliver these blocks to the construction site, the ancient Egyptians had to travel hundreds of kilometers! It took 20 years to build the Cheops pyramid.
Millennia have passed, but the pyramid is still highly revered in Egypt. Every year in August, the Egyptians celebrate the day the construction began.
True, historians have not found reliable information confirming this fact.
Climbing
The entrance to the pyramid of Cheops, like all ancient Egyptian tombs, is located on the north side at a height of about 17 m. Inside the pyramid there are three burial chambers and a whole network of descending and ascending corridors leading to these rooms. For the convenience of tourists, multi-meter walkways are equipped with wooden steps and railings. The pyramid is illuminated, but it is better to take a flashlight with you.
Despite numerous studies and excavations, the Cheops pyramid keeps many secrets. So, for example, until now it has not been possible to find a corridor leading to the chamber with the pharaoh's sarcophagus.
In the burial room of the ruler's wife, scientists have discovered secret doors, which supposedly symbolize the road to the afterlife. But the archaeologists could not open the last door ...
Several disassembled boats were found near the Cheops pyramid. Now the assembled vessels (by the way, it took the researchers almost 14 years) to be admired by everyone.
Practical information
How to get there: by bus or taxi from Tahrir Square in Cairo (about 20 minutes on the way), from Hurghada (5-6 hours), from Sharm El Sheikh (7-8 hours).
Working hours: daily from 8:00 to 17:00, at winter time - until 16:30.
Entrance: to the territory - 80 EGP (for adults), 40 EGP (for children); into the pyramid - 200 EGP (for adults), 100 EGP (for children).
- Oh Osiris, I do not want to die! - Who wants to? - Osiris shrugged his shoulders. - But I ... I'm still a Pharaoh! .. Listen, - Cheops whispered, - I will sacrifice you a hundred thousand slaves. Just let me immortalize one of my life! - One hundred thousand? Are you sure they will all die on construction? - Rest assured. Such a pyramid, as I intended ... - Well, if so ... Perpetuate, I do not mind.
The Pyramid of Cheops
Nobody remembers Cheops alive. Everyone remembers him only when he is dead. He was dead a hundred, and a thousand, and three thousand years ago and will always, always 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 the Pharaoh Khufu (2590 - 2568 BC), in Greek his name sounded - Cheops. Currently, the height of the pyramid is 138 m, although initially it was 147 m: the upper stones fell during earthquakes. The pyramid is composed of 2.5 million limestone blocks different sizes weighing an average of 2.5 tons. Initially, it was faced with white sandstone, which is harder than the main blocks, but the facing has not survived. At the base of the pyramid lies a square with a side of 230 m and is 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 Cheops pyramid, the Khafre pyramid rises, the height of which is 136.6 meters, and the length of the sides is 210.5 meters. At its top, part of the original cladding is still visible. 
The Pyramid of Mikerin, which is even smaller, is located 200 meters from the Pyramid of Khafre. Its height is 62 meters, and the sides are 108 meters long. 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 a complex, which also consists of several temples, small pyramids, tombs of priests and officials.
The smaller pyramids 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.In such a space, the five largest cathedrals in the world could freely fit at the same time: St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, as well as the Florentine and Milan cathedrals. All the churches of Germany created in our millennium could have been built from the building stone that went into the construction of the Cheops pyramid. The young pharaoh Cheops gave the order to build the pyramid immediately after the death of his father Sneferu. Like all previous pharaohs from the time of Djoser (about 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 be superior in size, splendor and luxury to all other pyramids. But before the first of the more than two million blocks that make up the pyramid was hewn in a quarry on east coast 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 soil 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 Cairo, on the ledge of a plateau in the desert seven kilometers west of the village of Giza. This solid rocky area was able to support the weight of the pyramid.
First, the surface of the site was leveled. For this, a waterproof shaft of sand and stones was built around it. In the resulting square, a dense network of small canals intersecting at right angles was cut down, so that the site looked like a huge chessboard. The canals were filled with water, the height of the water level was marked on the side walls, then the water was drained. The stone cutters cut down everything that protruded above the surface of the water, and the canals were again filled with stones. The base of the pyramid was ready. 
Over 4,000 people - artists, architects, stonecutters and other artisans - have been doing this preparatory work 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), the construction continued for another twenty years, about 100,000 people worked on the construction of the huge tomb of Cheops. Only on the radishes, onions and garlic, which were added to the food of the construction workers, 1,600 talents were spent, i.e. approximately $ 20 million. Data on the number of workers are being questioned by many modern researchers. In their opinion, there would simply not be enough space for such a number of people on a construction site: 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, 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 by means of devices made of short wooden levers; on this first row there was another one that lifted the blocks one level higher, thus, step by step, the blocks were lifted 
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 from the highest level, continued downward, and ended with the lowest levels, which are 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 the 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 take up to three harvests a year - grain, fruits and vegetables. So, from June to November, the peasants could not work in their fields. And they were delighted when every year in mid-June, the pharaoh's scribe appeared in their village to draw up lists of those wishing to work on the construction of the pyramid.
3. Who worked on the construction of the pyramid?
Almost everyone wanted this job, which means that it was not bonded, but voluntary labor. This was due to two reasons: each participant in the construction during work received housing, clothing, food and a modest salary. Four months later, when the waters of the Nile left the fields, the peasants returned to their villages. 
In addition, each Egyptian considered it his natural duty and a matter of honor to participate in the construction of the pyramid for the pharaoh. After all, anyone who contributed to the fulfillment of this grandiose task hoped that a particle of the immortality of the godlike pharaoh would touch him too. Therefore, at the end of June, endless streams of peasants rushed to Giza. There they were housed in temporary barracks and formed into groups of eight. Work could begin. Having sailed on boats to the other side of the Nile, the men went to the quarry. There they cut down a block of stone, hewed it out with the help of sledgehammers, wedges, saws and drills and received a block of the required dimensions - with sides from 80 cm to 1.45 m.Using ropes and levers, each group installed its block on wooden runners and on them she dragged him along the log deck to the bank 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 transported by drag to the construction site. This was 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 Nile silt, runners with a stone block were pulled to the upper platform of the pyramid under construction using ropes and levers. There, the workers laid the block in the place indicated by the architect with millimeter precision. The higher the pyramid rose, the longer and steeper the entrance became and the more the upper working platform became smaller. So the work was getting harder.
Then came the turn of the most dangerous work: laying the "pyramidon" - the upper block nine meters high, dragged upward along the inclined entrance. How many people died doing this job alone, we do not know. So twenty years later, the construction of the pyramid body was completed, which consists of 128 layers of stone and 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 ledges. 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 slabs were fitted so precisely that it was impossible to insert even a knife blade 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 using the hardest grinding stones. According to eyewitnesses, in the sun or in the 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 does not consist entirely of stone. Inside it is a branched system of passages, which, through a large 47 m long passage, 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 faced with granite, but not decorated with any ornament. There is a large empty granite sarcophagus without a lid. The sarcophagus was brought here during construction, since it does not pass through any of the pyramid's passages. There are such chambers of the pharaohs in almost all egyptian pyramidsah, they served as Pharaoh's last refuge.
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 in 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, an image 150 meters high can be discerned - a portrait of a man, apparently one of the deities Ancient egypt... This image is surrounded by other images (a trident of the Atlanteans and Scythians, an airplane bird, plans of stone structures, pyramid rooms), texts, individual letters, large signs resembling a flower bud, etc. On the north side of the pyramid 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 Cheops pyramid there are three burial chambers, one above the other. The construction of the first chamber was not completed. It is carved into the rocky base. 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 of the pharaohs' wives they were buried in separate small pyramids.
The queen's chamber is overgrown with legends. A legend is connected with it, according to which the pyramid was the main temple of a certain Supreme Deity, a place where ancient secret religious rites... Somewhere in the depths of the pyramid lives an unknown creature with the face of a lion, who holds in his hands the seven keys of Eternity. Nobody can see it, except those who have gone through special rituals of preparation and purification. Only to them did the Great Priest reveal the secret Divine Name. The person who owns the secret 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 initiation was, as it were, in an interval between the material world and the divine world, inaccessible to human consciousness. 
From the beginning of the horizontal corridor another one, about 50 m long and more than 8 high, goes upward. At the end of it there is a horizontal passage leading to the burial chamber of the pharaoh, trimmed with granite, in which the sarcophagus is placed. In addition to burial chambers, voids and ventilation shafts were found in the pyramid. However, the purpose of many rooms and various hollow channels is not fully understood. One of such rooms is the room where on the table there is an open book about the history and achievements of the country during the completion of the construction of the pyramid.
The purpose of the underground structures at the foot of the Cheops pyramid is also unclear. Some of them were opened in different time... In one of the underground structures in 1954, archaeologists found the oldest ship on Earth - a wooden boat, called solar, 43.6 m long, disassembled into 1224 parts. It was built of cedar without a single nail and, as evidenced by the traces of silt preserved on it, before the death of Cheops, it was still floating on the Nile.
6. How was the burial of 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 canopic tubes, 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 man, his "second self", which left the body at the time of death and could freely move between the earthly and the afterlife. After leaving the burial chamber, the "ka" rushed to the top of the pyramid along its outer facing, so smooth that none of the mortals could move on it. There was already the father of the pharaohs - the sun god Ra in his solar boat, in which the deceased pharaoh began his journey into immortality.
IN recent times some scholars doubt that the Great Pyramid really was 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, has no decorations.
The sarcophagus, in which the body of the deceased pharaoh was supposed to rest, was only roughly hewn, i.e. not completely ready; the cover is missing.
And, finally, there are two narrow passages through which air from outside enters the burial chamber through small holes in the pyramid's body. But the dead do not need air - this is another weighty argument in favor of the fact that the Cheops pyramid was not a burial place.
7. Who was the first to penetrate the Cheops pyramid?
The entrance to the Cheops pyramid was originally located on the north side, at the level of the 13th row of granite slabs. It is now 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. 
This is why the robbers appeared here much later. The first who entered the pyramid of Cheops was the Caliph Abdullah al-Mamun (813-833 after R. Chr.), The son of Harun al-Rashid. He dug a tunnel to the burial chamber in the hope of finding treasures there, as in other tombs of the pharaohs. But he did not find anything except the droppings of the 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 seekers of jewels in the Cheops pyramid 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 later 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 building remained - this is how it appears now before the enthusiastic eyes of tourists. Together with the facing, 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. In 1842 this site became a place for unusual festivities. The Prussian king Frederick William IV, known for his love of art, sent an expedition to the Nile Valley led by archaeologist Richard Lepsius to acquire ancient Egyptian art and other exhibits for the Egyptian Museum, which was being created in Berlin (it was opened in 1855).
Powerful, surrounded by mystery .. - such a pyramid of Cheops stood for 4500 years
The Pyramid of Cheops short message will tell you a lot useful information about the only wonder of the world that has survived to this day.
The message about the pyramid of Cheops
How old is the pyramid of Cheops?
The largest pyramid of the Egyptian complex - Giza is the real embodiment of royal ambitions. Its author was the vizier and nephew of Pharaoh Hemion, who was also an architect. The building was built in 2540 BC. And construction began much earlier, around 2560 BC.
To erect the Great Pyramid in Giza, it took more than 2 million huge stones to be delivered. The weight of the blocks reached tens of tons. Lumps of granite were delivered from a quarry located 1000 km from the construction site. The place of construction was also not chosen in vain. So that Cheops, weighing 6.4 million tons, did not sit down under its own weight, it was decided to build it on rocky solid soil in Giza. Scientists from all over the world still cannot understand how the stones were transported, and how the pyramid of Cheops was built.
How was the pyramid of Cheops built?
Nowadays, the technology of building pyramids is controversial. To get a stone block, the future shape was first planned in the rock. Then they dug out small ditches and inserted dry wood into them. The tree was doused with water until it expanded and formed a crack in the rock. This was the only way to separate the block. Then it was processed with tools to the desired shape and sent along the river to a construction site.
To raise the block up, the ancient Egyptians used gentle embankments. The megalith was dragged along them by wooden sledges to the required height. After the construction of the pyramid, they were engaged in interior decoration: painting the walls, filling the royal tomb, and so on. It is noteworthy that initially the Cheops pyramid was completely covered with an even white facing material, which was delivered from the other side of the Nile.
Description of the pyramid of Cheops
The Cheops pyramid has the shape of a regular quadrangular pyramid. The base of the building covers an area of \u200b\u200b53 thousand square meters. The base is 230 m long, the lateral rib is 230 m, and the lateral surface area is 85.5 thousand m 2. The original height of the Cheops pyramid is 147 m (like a 50-storey building), and today it is 138 m. For thousands of years, earthquakes brought down the stone top of the structure. The smooth facing stone of the outer walls was crumbling.
The entrance to the pyramid is located on the north side. At first, it was located at a height of 16 m, sealed with a granite plug. Modern tourists get into the interior through a huge gap 10 m below, which was left by the Arabs in 1820 (Caliph Abdullah al-Mamun tried to find treasures).
Inside Cheops there are 3 tombs, one above the other. At the base of the rock is the lowest, underground chamber. The burial chambers of the queen and the pharaoh are located above it. The Great Gallery, which rises upwards, leads to them. The pyramid is equipped with a complex system of mines and corridors, the plan of which has not yet been fully studied. It has many secret doors and other design features.
- It is believed that the great pyramid served as an astronomical observatory for the ancient Egyptians. Its ventilation ducts and corridors accurately point to stars like Tuban, Sirius and Alnitak.
- In Egypt, the date of the beginning of the construction of the pyramid of Cheops is officially celebrated on August 23, 2480 BC. e.
- The top of the pyramid was previously crowned with a gilded pyramidal stone.
- Near the pyramid, archaeologists found pits with ancient Egyptian boats made from cedar, made without the use of fasteners and nails. It was disassembled into 1224 pieces for better transportation. The restorer Ahmed Yussuf Mustafa spent 14 years collecting it back.
We hope that the Cheops pyramid report helped you to find out a lot of useful information about this ancient Egyptian structure. A short story about the Cheops pyramid, you can add through the comment form below.
The Pyramid of Cheops is a rare case in Egyptology when we can be sure exactly who the monument belongs to. Often the ancient monuments of Egypt were appropriated by later rulers. The technology of appropriation was very simple - the name of the builder pharaoh (cartouche) simply got lost with the inscriptions in the temple or in the tomb, and another name was knocked out.
This phenomenon was very common. Take, for example, the famous pharaoh Tutankhamun. Until 1922, when archaeologist Howard Carter dug up, Egyptologists doubted the existence of this ruler. There was almost no written evidence about him, everything was destroyed by subsequent pharaohs.
In the 19th century, archaeologists often used very barbaric research methods. In the pyramid of Cheops, explosions of gunpowder were used to search for secret rooms. You can still see traces of such methods on the surfaces of structures (see photo on the left).
During such research, small chambers were found above the main burial chamber. Explorers rushed there in hopes of finding treasures, but of course there was nothing but dust.
These rooms, only 1 meter high, had a purely technical purpose. These are unloading chambers, they protect the ceiling of the burial chamber from collapse, and remove mechanical stress. But it was on the walls of these unloading chambers that scientists discovered inscriptions made by ancient builders.
These were block markings. As we now put a label on the goods, so the ancient Egyptian foremen marked the blocks: "Block such and such for the pyramid of Khufu, produced then, laid then and then." These inscriptions cannot be fake, they prove that this structure was built by Cheops.
A little about Pharaoh Cheops
In the last paragraph we used the name “Khufu”. This is the official Egyptian name for this pharaoh. Cheops is the Greek interpretation of his name, and not the most common one. Other pronunciations of "Cheops" or "Kiops" are more common.
The name “Khufu” is more widespread in the world. If you are going on an excursion to Giza with a Russian-speaking guide, then there will be no problems, he will be aware of this phonetic difference. But, if you communicate with local residents or tourists from other countries, we recommend using the name “Khufu”.
Although Pharaoh Khufu is one of them, it will not be possible to write much about him. We know very little about him.
In addition to the fact of the construction of this pyramid, we know that Khufu organized expeditions to develop useful resources on the Sinai Peninsula. That's all. To this day, only two artifacts have survived from Khufu - a giant pyramid 137 meters high and a small ivory figurine only 7.5 centimeters high (pictured on the right).
Pharaoh Cheops remained in the people's memory as a tyrant ruler who forced people to work on grandiose construction. We can read about this in the works of the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt and recorded the stories of the priests.
Surprisingly, his father, Pharaoh Sneferu, remained in the people's memory as a very kind ruler, although he built as many as three pyramids (and) and overextended the country twice as much as Cheops.
