The first truly major building project in the history of ancient Egypt was erected during the reign of the pharaoh Khasekhemwy, who reigned until 2686 BC. He became famous in connection with the construction of Hyraconpolis in Abydos and the Pharaoh's Hall in Saqqara, made of skillfully worked stone.
Little is known about Sanakht's next ruler, Nebka, and even his existence as pharaoh is uncertain. He did not create any serious construction projects.
The tradition of building pyramids began with Djoser (ruled 2668 - 2646 BC). At this time, the high priest of Heliopolis was Imhotep.
The legends surrounding his name claim that he gained access to the secret writings of another civilization. Under him, the architecture of Egypt received a new development: buildings and steles began to be built from polished stone. It is a mystery, but until now it is not known to science how, several millennia ago, stone blocks could be perfectly processed like modern laser technology.
It is known for certain that Imhotep became the chief architect who built the complex. Perhaps he also developed a plan for the construction of the complex of the pharaoh Sekhemkhet.
The Djoser complex includes a number of buildings. His pyramid measures 121*109 m and is 60 m high.
Priest Imhotep - a messenger from other worlds?
Imhotep was revered not only as the greatest architect of all time, but also as a doctor, scientist, knowledgeable in the history of Ancient Egypt. His tomb has never been found. Probably, as for all artisans and craftsmen, it is not far from his creation - the tomb of Djoser in Saqqara. Should it ever be discovered, it could shed light on many questions in Egyptian science.
Researchers still cannot explain how, always in a few decades, Egyptian civilization moved from building with mud bricks to high-tech schemes for processing and grinding granite and stones. The answer seems to be hidden in the personality of the genius Imhotep.
One of the theories refers us to the stone ruins of Malta. The building of the Maltese cultural temple was built around 3700 BC, that is, a thousand years before Djoser. It is known that the inhabitants of Malta were superior in their skill to the builders of the Egyptian pyramids. They used for laying the same stone blocks measuring 3 * 1 m, weighing over 10 tons.
The building of the Maltese megalithic temples ceased around 2500 BC, that is, at about the same time as the giant stone buildings began to be built in Egypt. The stone structure of Stonehenge in England, for example, was also built a little later than the Egyptian tombs, around 2400 - 2300 BC.
36 years after the reign of Pharaoh Djoser in Egypt were not carried out major projects. Sneferu, to whom power passed in 2613 BC, decided to surpass all the masterpieces of ancient Egyptian architecture known at that time - to build a complex on the Giza plateau, which later became the seventh wonder of the world, perfectly preserved to our time.
In 2589 BC King Khufu (Cheops) ordered him to build the largest pyramid of all time, which is now known to the whole world as.
From the beginning of the reign of Djoser to the era of Cheops, from 2668 to 2589 BC, that is, 79 years, there has been a rapid development in the field of construction. Under them, stone structures were erected that eclipse in geometric accuracy any other structure ever made by man. After that, the decline begins. The next four pyramids were much smaller. The later burial places of representatives of the dynasties of Ancient Egypt were distinguished by their modesty: they were small in size and lined with stones on the outside and covered with sand and gravel inside. The most recent known Egyptian pyramid was built in 1750 BC. pharaoh of the 13th dynasty.
Pyramid of Khufra on the Giza Plateau in Egypt Were the pyramids tombs?
Scientists put forward several conflicting theories on this matter. But the facts show that the Giza Plateau is a huge necropolis headed by the Great Pyramid of Cheops, surrounded by numerous burials. If these complexes are not considered tombs, then where were the remains of the pharaohs of the IV dynasty, since no other burial places of the kings were found?
For the ancient Egyptians, the pharaoh was the chief priest, an intermediary between the spiritual and material worlds. Its vitality meant fertility and abundance to ancient Egypt. Every day, for this purpose, priestly orders performed their ritual services over his tomb. Their goal was to perpetuate the flow of this life-giving force to the earth. This is enough to argue that these huge ancient buildings were erected precisely for the purpose of resting the remains of the royal dynasty.
Pharaohs - the builders of the pyramids of ancient Egypt
II dynasty
Pharaoh Khasekhemwi Rasehemui
Under him, the walls of the "king's hall" were built in about 2686 BC. Perhaps they served as the foundation for the unfinished pyramid.
III dynasty
Pyramid of Pharaoh Sanakhte, ruled 2686 - 2668 BC
Nebka complex.
The Pyramid of Djoser was designed by the ancient Egyptian architect Imhotep, it is considered the first in the world. Its dimensions: 121*109 m. Height 60 m. It is built entirely of polished stone.
Pharaoh of Egypt Sekhemhem (Djoser Tati). He owns the unfinished pyramid at Saqqara. Size: 120 sq. m. Height: 7 m.
Pharaoh Zanakht. No tombs belonging to him have been found.
The structure was covered with a layer of white limestone slabs measuring 1.5*3.3*2.4 m, which weighed about 15 tons and covered an area of 8.9 hectares. The distance between them is filled with a solution whose composition is still unknown. The gaps between the plates are only 1 mm. For such processing of stone, a saw with blades of at least 3 m in length with a diamond coating would be needed. In order to cut a sarcophagus from solid granite, a drill with a pressure of 2 tons was needed. Until now, there is no technical device in the world that could perform such a job.
Mathematics of the Great Pyramid
The pyramid is a unique geometric figure, the knowledge of which is comprehensible only with the knowledge of higher mathematical laws. The height along its perimeter corresponds to the value of Pi ("π") (Smith: 3.14159+) (Petri: + 3.1428), which is a characteristic of a particular shape and no other geometric shape. It establishes a direct relationship between the pyramid and the hemisphere - northern hemisphere our planet.
The corners of the pyramid are directed to four parts of the world: North, East, South and West. The deviation level is only 3 min. However, given the theory of dispersion, its proportions are perfectly ideal. The fact is that the Earth rotates among the stars very slowly - it makes one revolution every 26,000 years. According to the zodiac calendar of the ancient Egyptians, we are currently leaving the Age of Pisces and entering the Age of Aquarius. During the existence of the ancient civilization of Egypt, our planet was in the constellation Aries, which occupies a leading place in history and played an important role in religion, appearing in the form of the cult of Amon.
Movement Knowledge celestial bodies testifies to the high knowledge of mathematical astronomy by the ancient Egyptians.
The architectural appearance of Ancient Egypt was rapidly changing during the period of the Old Kingdom. Mastaba - stone foundations were replaced by pyramidal complexes. The evolution of construction took several centuries.
The life of the builders of the pyramids of ancient Egypt
Construction pyramids in ancient Egypt was preceded by the creation of a mastaba - a platform at ground level, made of high-quality granite or marble. Under the site, underground tunnels, a burial chamber and rooms for storing things and products were previously built.
In the last pyramids of Egypt of the fifth dynasty, the chamber where the sarcophagus with the body of the pharaoh was kept was mounted from marble or granite blocks at a level above the ground with an entrance at a height of 10-20 meters. This made it possible to save on excavation work.
Giza Plateau. Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). 80s of the last century. A photo.
During the earthworks, the builders lived in a number of built temporary structures or underground structures, that is, not far from the site where the pyramids were built.
Burials of ordinary workers and employees were carried out in the zone of construction of the burial complex in the allotted place.
Part of the local population, mostly women, cooked food and baked bread, brought water in jugs from the Nile River or from canals built specifically to supply water to the village of craftsmen. Food was prepared not only for hired workers, but also for slaves.
At the same time, up to 10 thousand workers and employees worked on the pyramid, and the same number prepared blocks in limestone and marble quarries, both near the pyramid and hundreds of kilometers away.
Most of the marble and granite blocks were supplied along the Nile from the stone mines of Kom Ombo and finishing materials from Syria and Libya.
Sectional Pyramid of Ancient Egypt
If we consider the internal contents of the pyramid in a section, then it is easy to determine the place for installing a sarcophagus - a burial chamber, somewhere in the center of the pyramid, with the installation of five to seven ventilation ducts and hatches of various sections with an inclination of 45 degrees.
From above, the sarcophagus is protected by a tent-type canopy made of multi-ton marble slabs, which enhances the fastening and protection of the sarcophagus from the weight of the ceiling, the subsidence of the masonry blocks of the pyramids of ancient Egypt from above, in the early projects leading to its destruction.
Works on the construction of a burial chamber, underground passages, grottoes, false passages, lighting and ventilation shafts, tunnels, dead ends, anti-vandal bolts, corner fasteners, discharge systems Wastewater and storm water sewerage - were carried out before the construction of the pyramid, the so-called zero-cycle construction.
Question: “How did they carry a multi-ton sarcophagus through such narrow tunnels?” is fundamentally wrong. It was installed before the start pyramid building in Ancient Egypt , on a pre-built mastaba or below it at a depth of 20-60 meters!
The embalmed body of the pharaoh was brought into the sarcophagus along the corridors already at the end of the construction of the main building. With him, food and clothing were brought in, which could be useful to him in the other world. Upon completion of the loading of the burial chamber and the sarcophagus, the entrance and ventilation tunnels were covered with multi-ton granite slabs. Small holes were left in them for the passage of air and the communication of the pharaoh with the world.
Neither marble latches nor deep mines saved the tomb from robbery.
Everything that was built above the level of the mastaba, such as ventilation shafts, was carried out during the laying of stone blocks.
Compared to the processing of tunnels and passages with a simple copper chisel with a low surface quality, the walls of the burial room are made with special diligence - they are polished and painted with hieroglyphs.
Construction of the pyramids of ancient Egypt Assembly of blocks in the construction of the ancient pyramids of Egypt
No one raised blocks of 20 tons to the height of the pyramid, they were prepared on site in the formwork from Egyptian cedar boards, on polymer concrete with additives from marble and granite chips from stone quarry waste. The solution was kneaded on the spot, water, boards and building materials were brought to the height along the ramp. The larger the stone block was planned, the less expensive wood was spent on the formwork.
In earlier pyramids, the space between the burial chamber and the outer contour was filled with rubble and waste from quarries. From above, the pyramid was lined with polished limestone slabs and blocks.
There are almost no stone blocks inside - they were used only for fastening the passages of tunnels, shafts, props and stretch marks.
Pyramids of Ancient Egypt: Photos Egyptian pyramid building material
The lack of stone blocks was filled in almost all the pyramids with raw brick, which is still produced in in large numbers for building housing.
There was also a construction quarry near the pyramids, but the limestone here was of poor quality with a high content of sand. A visit to the passages of the pyramids and the opening of collapses indicates a weak fastening of the internal ligament of the body of the pyramid, consisting of fragments and pieces left over from the processing of limestone blocks and slabs, which went to the external surface finish and installation of the pyramid.
This method of economical use of materials is used in our time in construction, the outer surface is made of high quality bricks, and inner part filled with waste with a polymer mortar on cement.
The order of execution of polymer concrete blocks is shown in one of the pyramid drawings, and is no different from the modern one - wood formwork and mortar.
Egyptian Pyramid of Pharaoh Teti and Djoser The foundation for the multi-ton pyramid was not built; the foundation was taken from the solid limestone of the sole of one of the natural hills - the plateau.
Construction project ancient pyramid Egypt provided for the territory of the burial of relatives and wives of the pharaoh, sometimes next to small ones.
The lack of geodetic study of the soil, the presence of groundwater, as a rule, led to the premature destruction of the pyramid, but this rarely happened. In the floodplain of the flood meadows of the Nile, the construction of pyramids was not carried out, and the foothill territory occupied by burials did not have underground groundwater.
The pyramids, washed away by the high level of the Nile during the years of the flood, were destroyed almost to the ground.
Hundreds of millions of years ago, in the zone where the pyramids were located, there were mountain ranges that collapsed from the waters of the ancient sea in the river valley, the sun and heat - turning into sand and rubble.
Pyramids of Ancient Egypt video
Seeing the controversy about the construction of the pyramids, one involuntarily comes to the conclusion about how few supporters of the so-called alternative history know about ancient Egypt. Alas, semi-literate hamsters with iPhones and burning tour packages to Egypt only add fuel to the fire. They photograph things they don't understand and don't even try to understand. All their knowledge is limited to a tourist guide.
And so people who do not distinguish the Old Kingdom from the Middle Kingdom and confuse Ramses II with Senusret III begin to draw “significant” conclusions based on their kitchen logic, office knowledge and pictures from a school textbook that historians and scientists are lying. Let me try to dispel some misconceptions.
Egypt during the construction of the pyramids. This is the era of the Old Kingdom (28-23 centuries BC) - one of the few first civilizations of the Bronze Age among the barbarians. Others were the Sumerians in Mesopotamia and the Harappans in Punjab. After a long bloody struggle, many small city-states were united under the rule of one king-pharaoh. To make their power legitimate, the pharaohs assigned themselves a divine status, created a bureaucratic apparatus, an army (the arsenals of bronze weapons belonged to the pharaoh) and put the country under their control. The will of the pharaoh at that time was not limited to anything. Military campaigns made it possible to rob neighbors and increase the flow of copper and tin into Egypt, which were strategic materials at that time. Bronze was also enough for household tools, but they were in the minority - stone and wooden tools were used throughout the entire period of Ancient Egypt. The pharaoh's officials controlled the population literally - everything was recorded in the documents: to whom how much of what was given out and how much was produced. Moreover, the pharaohs appropriated all the arable land in private ownership. The pharaohs distributed the lands as a reward to nobles and temples. The population of Egypt was subject to taxes and duties, including for the construction of public buildings and canals. The peasant did not have any rights - the ancient peasant communities slowly lost their importance, lost their rights and fell under the rule of the pharaoh and nobles. The peasant had to work meekly and praise the gods and the pharaoh, otherwise any official could beat him with a stick.
What technology did the Egyptians of that time possess? They ideally worked with stone (they had a thousand years of experience), made ceramics, and mastered metallurgy. From the Stone Age, the Egyptians received and developed the technology of drilling, including stone, leather, bone, and wood processing. They knew the fermentation process for making bread and beer. The Egyptians used the full range of materials available to them, down to bird feathers and guts. It should be remembered that Egypt, in addition to stone, experienced a shortage in everything, including wood, so reed was widely used, which was plentiful (they made from mats and baskets to ships, not to mention writing material - papyrus). There was no lack of clay either. The Egyptians knew how to make glazed ceramics - faience. They knew how to make various paints and varnishes. The Egyptians did not know any super-technologies - they simply perfectly mastered the technologies available to them, which hamsters with iPhones are not even able to understand.
Slaves did not build pyramids. One of the most stupid statements of alternatively gifted comrades is that historians allegedly tell them about the construction of the pyramids by thousands of slaves. There is clearly a gap in knowledge here. The alternatives demonstrate their ignorance by attributing false claims historians. It is very convenient: he himself came up with nonsense - he himself refuted it.
In fact, Egypt slavery at that time was patriarchal, that is, slaves were used in the household. There were not many slaves, mostly women. The pyramids were built by the most ordinary Egyptian peasants. Construction usually took 3-4 months during the flood of the Nile, when the peasants had nothing to do. Construction work was a kind of coven for the peasants, because they received food rations for their work. It is clear that the annual work, willy-nilly, developed their professional qualities. Therefore, by the time of the construction of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, there were enough professional builders. The stone blocks themselves were cut down by professional teams of stonemasons who worked for the state for food, clothing and beer (there was no money at that time). It can be assumed that private orders were also carried out for the tombs of nobles. All the peasants of Egypt knew how to make bricks.
The construction was overseen by officials appointed by the pharaoh. It is difficult to say how much they understood mathematics and geometry, but there were specialists who were able to calculate the area of \u200b\u200bthe base and the angle of inclination. True, sometimes they were wrong. So the pyramids of Pharaoh Snefru (2613-2589 BC) turned out to be defective: one Egyptologist called it “broken”, and on the second “pink” the architects messed up with measuring the angle of inclination.
"Pink" pyramid
Therefore, by the time of the IV dynasty, whose pharaohs built the Great Pyramids, the Egyptians had accumulated experience and knowledge for such grandiose construction projects. Cheops, Mikerin and Khafre only used all the resources of their state and eventually undermined the economy of Egypt and the foundations of the power of their dynasty, when the priests of the god Ra in Heliopolis eventually seized power.
The pyramids are built from 10-50-ton blocks. Another lie, which alternative comrades feed gullible readers. This is understandable, because the drawings from children's books paint truly terrible pictures, where half-naked people drag huge blocks down the slope.
In fact, these are nightmares from ignorance. In fact, large blocks are only at the base of the pyramid. The higher the pyramid was, the smaller the blocks became. Here is a photo of the upper tiers of the Cheops pyramid - pay attention to the pigeons for scale. The height of the block is 45-50 cm, that is, the Egyptians had saws to cut blocks of this size.
Horrors about the middle blocks of the Cheops pyramid of 2.5 tons came from an outstanding English Egyptologist of the 19th century. F. Petri, who made the calculations on the pyramid. At the same time, for some reason, he calculated the mass of sandstone as 2.2 tons per cubic meter. m., although in fact - 1.7 tons per cubic meter. m. The weight of limestone is 1.6 tons per cubic meter. m. It is from these rocks that the pyramids were built. The volume of the Petri block was calculated at 1.14 cubic meters. m. As you can see, in fact, the average block did not even reach 2 tons. But many blocks are less than a cubic meter. Even the largest blocks of the lower tiers do not reach 5 tons. This is understandable, the masons would not make blocks that the workers could not budge.
It is not difficult to notice that the ancient builders did not particularly bother with the processing of blocks - they cut it somehow and that's enough. Anyway, no one will see them later, since the pyramid will be lined with slabs.
Millions of blocks in the pyramid of Cheops. The myth came from Wikipedia (I don’t know who squeezed this information in there).
The number of blocks of the average volume does not exceed 1.65 million (2.50 million m³ - 0.6 million m³ of rock base inside the pyramid = 1.9 million m³ / 1.147 m³ = 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.
Really impressive. In fact, we do not know exactly how many blocks are in the pyramid. The calculations are made speculatively, based on the total volume of the pyramid (minus the voids and the rocky base). In fact, the pyramid may not be entirely monolithic. So, during the excavations of the Palace of Knossos in Crete, archaeologists discovered that the ancient builders of the palace wall, where stone blocks were used, built them with cavities that were clogged with rubble. It can be assumed that this is Egyptian technology. And given that scientists constantly find mysterious voids clogged with sand in the pyramid of Cheops, it is quite possible that the Egyptians saved time and materials with just such cavities, filling them with sand and rubble. And besides, the error in this calculation is that such a thing as a man-hour is not taken into account. Of course, if the workers, lining up in one row, lay one block at a time, then the calculation is correct. This is how an alternatively gifted mind thinks - they simply cannot imagine the organizational abilities of their ancestors. In fact, the construction was grandiose. Dozens, if not hundreds of brigades worked there. So the pyramid was built from all four sides at once by several dozen brigades at the same time.
Cheops did not have time to complete his pyramid - he died before the interior finishing work began. So he was buried in an unfinished tomb, where the working marks of the ancient builders remained on the walls.
Therefore, millions of blocks in the Cheops pyramid is still a big question that is waiting for its solution.
geopolymer concrete. Well, the most delicious. Alternative gifted individuals, instead of looking for answers, began to invent them. If, in their opinion, pyramids could not be built from stone, then they were cast from concrete. Why it is easier is not clear. The bike about "geopolymer" concrete was thrown by the French chemist of Jewish origin Joseph Davidovich. It is not difficult to look at his website geopolymer.org to understand that Davidovich did a good business, shoeing suckers with tales of ancient geopolymers. Here and the sale of books, lectures, courses, paid of course. It is also not difficult to find out that the mythical Egyptian geopolymers have nothing to do with real geopolymers. In Russia, this bike was picked up by two neo-hrenologists - Fomenko and Nosovsky, already shoeing our suckers.
Geopolymers are materials based on alkaline activation binders (metakaolin, for example) or, on the basis of finely dispersed amorphous or crystalline aluminosilicate materials, mixed with alkali or salt solutions having alkaline reaction(usually solutions of hydroxides, silicates or aluminates of sodium and potassium). In the minds of the alternatively gifted, this is not the case. They have it just a stone crushed into powder, which was diluted with water, after which anything can be made from the mixture - even a block, even a column, even a statue.
The novohrenologists Fomenko and Nosovsky themselves imagine the process as follows:
To obtain primitive concrete, it was enough to grind the rock into a fine powder, remove moisture from it, and then mix it with water. It is easier to use soft rocks, for example, limestone, the outcrops of which are located right on the pyramid field in Egypt. Here it could be taken simply underfoot, next to the pyramids under construction. To obtain cement, moisture must be removed from the rock. But in the conditions of hot and dry Egypt, where it sometimes rains ONCE IN FIVE YEARS, v.15, p.447, special drying was unnecessary. The rock was already quite dry. After grinding, ready-made cement was immediately obtained. If you pour it into a formwork made of boards, fill it with water and mix thoroughly, then after drying, the particles of crushed rock will firmly bond to each other. When the mortar dries, it will turn to stone. Get primitive concrete.
This quote is the whole alternative theory about "geopolymer concrete". Next, adherents of neo-hrenology usually have dozens of photos of supposedly "liquid stone" and supposedly historical insights of alternative brains. I can say one thing, do not actually make such concrete, otherwise such "concrete" will fall apart right before your eyes. Why? Because a component with binding properties must be present in concrete, but alternatively gifted creatures are not aware of this. By itself, crushed limestone or gypsum does not have astringent properties. To do this, they need to be burned. It was because of the labor-intensive manufacturing process that concrete did not become widespread until the advent of the industrial age. It was easier to cut down a stone block than to grind rock into powder, burn it, mix the solution. Machines facilitated and accelerated this process, with the result that concrete displaced stone and brick from construction. But the new Khrenological Chukchi are not builders, but astronomers.
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But let's move on to an alternative version of "geopolymer concrete". For some reason, alternative comrades are firmly convinced that it is easier to cast a pyramid from concrete than to build from stone. Consider the process of building from stone: they cut down a stone in a quarry, hewn it, delivered it to the construction site, put it in a pyramid.
Now the process of casting from concrete.
1. They cut down a stone.
2. They crushed the stone into rubble.
3. Crushed rubble into powder.
4. The powder was burned on fire.
5. Fall asleep in bags or baskets.
6. Delivered to the place.
7. We built the formwork.
8. Knead the solution.
9. Waited for the block to dry.
10. Put in a pyramid.
As you can see, this is a longer and more costly way of construction. What are the objections?
1. How and with what was the crushed stone of the herald and sandstone crushed into powder? Some alternative comrades are of the opinion that they say the stone was rubbed on graters by hand. Well, let them try to do it themselves and see how they succeed. And it’s not at all clear how such a trick will work with granite, basalt, diorite or quartzite. They often offer historians to either make a catapult or make a stone block. So I propose - to crush a couple of granite stones into granite chips with your own hands. It will be very interesting to see this process.
2. The number of tools for such work will be simply fantastic - hundreds of hammers, picks, pestles and everything from expensive bronze and copper, which was very scarce at that time. Egypt of the Old Kingdom could not afford such a consumption of metal when the country actually lived in the Stone Age.
3. It is not clear where the Egyptians got so much firewood for burning limestone or gypsum into lime. Egypt is poor in wood and barely enough for the needs of metallurgy and ceramics. And without firing, no concrete will work.
4. Bags for cement, as we are told by supporters of the alternative version, were allegedly in cash. Like, if a block, according to Petri, is 2.5 tons, then having a bag of 50 kg is 50 bags for casting one block. So, alternative comrades, it was Egypt III millennium BC. e. There were no bag factories. All textiles were produced by women - wives and slaves. The sacks themselves were mainly used for storing wheat - c. 60 kg per bag. The question arises: where did they get so many bags for millions of tons of cement?
5. How were these bags of cement delivered to the construction site? The stone was mined on the opposite bank of the Nile. From the Nile to Giza - approx. 10 km.
Drag bags to own back- I advise alternative comrades to do this experience themselves. Drag on donkeys - expensive for that time. And there were not so many donkeys in Egypt. Drag on a sled? So what's the advantage over a stone block?
6. What were the formworks made of? Wood in Egypt is a rare scarce imported raw material. It was barely enough for ceiling beams, furniture, weapons, so they had to import or trivially rob neighboring peoples. And here we need tons of wood for formwork. It took us 1.5 million blocks for the pyramid of Cheops, remember? But apparently, the alternative comrades themselves understand this. A certain Kolmykov even published a new renology article in a serious journal, where he wrote in all seriousness:
"The combination of features allows us to make a categorical conclusion that the blocks of the Cheops pyramid were made by casting into formwork. The formwork could be, for example, animal skins sewn together or sheet metal with an uneven surface or other material fixed in the frame and allowing you to leave such marks on the trace-receiving surfaces".
This summer, my long-awaited vacation in Egypt finally took place. Of course, there are not so many sights in this country, but all this fades into the background when you see famous Pyramids of Egypt . To be honest, when I first saw them, I was amazed at how huge. No, of course, I knew that the pyramids were big enough, but that much! In addition, I was interested in the fact that many of them are so well preserved that it is difficult to find a fallen stone or anything else anywhere.
How the pyramids were built
For several centuries, scientists have studied quite deeply the history of Egypt and, accordingly, the history of the construction of the pyramids. But to this day no exact version of who and how built them has been found. Some of the scientists' studies lasted for several years, but in the end they all led to a dead end.
The biggest mystery remainsthree pyramids:
- Pyramid of Khufu.
- Khafre's tomb.
- Pyramid of the pharaoh Menkaure.
These three structures are called the "Great Pyramids", as they are the largest and most beautiful in comparison with the rest.
During our tour, the guide told us that pyramids builtso perfect that even with the most modern technology societycouldn't do something like that. All this time while we were listening entertaining stories about who is buried inside these pyramids, the thought was constantly spinning in my head: how strong and smart those people who were engaged in the construction of these Egyptian pyramids must have been.
Some scientists say that aliens helped build the pyramids, while others argue that people who lived a couple of millennia ago possessed some kind of supernatural knowledge themselves. But by the way, what's interesting is that the younger the pyramid, theit's built worse. What does it turn out, people eventually forgot how to build pyramids? Unclear…
Secrets and mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids
I always thought the pyramids were built forburials of Egyptian pharaohs and other important personalities for the country. But according to the stories of our guide, it turned out that in some pyramids there are no things that would indicate that someone was buried there. The most interesting thing is that even some accessories, which were usually placed in Egyptian tombs,some pyramids do not just different statues and paintings on the walls. Some Egyptologists are sure that the tombs were plundered, but it’s completely incomprehensible to me why the thieves needed the mummies of dead people.
The pyramids are the tombs of the kings, the buildings are so magnificent and monumental, because. The Great Pyramids at Giza were built between the 27th and 25th centuries BC. The problem of building pyramids is complex, I will only note some findings that provide new important details.
There are few ancient Egyptian sources about how the pyramids were built: all traces of activity were carefully removed around the finished structure. We get much more information from unfinished pyramids (for example, in): next to them, possible remains of auxiliary structures, tools are found, and the technical problems of construction are better seen there.
It is sometimes believed that the pyramid is large regular cubes, neatly folded in rows. But in the break of the pyramid, made in the Middle Ages by Arabs looking for treasures, it is clear that the masonry is irregular: stones of different sizes, in some places you can see the solution. Large blocks lie at the base, and towards the top they become smaller. There are several hypotheses regarding the technique of erecting the pyramids (for example, Mark Lehner's assumption about the ramps "encircling" the pyramid). Modern man the erection of such huge structures in such a deep antiquity seems to be a miracle, carried out, perhaps extraterrestrial civilization, but the pyramids fit very harmoniously into the context of the amazing culture of Ancient Egypt.
Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara
// wikipedia.org
The construction of the pyramids was not done by slaves, but by the main population of the country - this was their labor service for the benefit of the king. People were called to work in seasons when it was not necessary to do agricultural work. The construction itself was carried out by highly qualified specialists: architects, foremen. The largest number not so skilled people were involved in quarries and in the delivery of stone. It is estimated that 20-30 thousand people were employed at the construction site.
Next to the three pyramids in Giza, archaeologists have found a settlement for builders - excavations have been underway there since the 60s of the XX century. A necropolis was also found, where the tombs of architects, foremen are located, there are very poor burials of workers who died during the construction. American expedition Mark Lehner at Giza at the end of XX - early XXI century opened production complexes that served the great construction site. Copper-smelting workshops were found in which they made tools for building pyramids. A huge industrial complex was directed to the manufacture of food to feed the masses of workers: bakery shops (beer was brewed there), pantries for drying fish. Lehner also found places where sacrifices were made to the late kings. This material told about the wealth of society in the heyday of pyramid building, since young, not old animals were sacrificed.
It is difficult to say how long the construction took. Herodotus, an ancient Greek author of the 5th century BC, wrote that it took 20 years to build the road to the pyramid (perhaps it is a ramp) and 10 years to build the pyramid itself. But it is known that Herodotus did not know the Egyptian language, and therefore could misunderstand what he was told, especially since two millennia had already passed since the time of construction. More reliable information is the ancient Egyptian inscriptions on the stone blocks from which the pyramids were built. But most of these inscriptions are hidden in the thickness of the pyramids, because these are the working notes of ancient foremen. In unfinished structures, sometimes such marks are found that recorded the name of the construction team and the date when the work was completed (perhaps the teams competed with each other).
In 2011, on the shores of the Red Sea (Wadi al-Jarf), French archaeologists found a port during the construction of the great pyramids. From this harbor, the Egyptians sailed to Sinai in Wadi Maghara and Serabit al-Khadim, where they mined copper ore (there are traces of copper tools on the blocks of the pyramids). The papyri from Wadi al-Jarf contain very interesting data on the construction of the pyramid of Cheops, but they have not yet been fully published. In particular, a working diary of a man who led a team that delivered high-quality limestone from Tura for facing the pyramid was found. Today we see "undressed" (as if stepped) pyramids, but initially the buildings were perfectly smooth, lined with white limestone from Tura. It was delivered from the other side of the Nile, channels were laid from the river to bring the stone closer to the pyramids (the expedition of Mark Lehner also found the harbor near the pyramids). The lining of the pyramids of Giza was removed during the Arab period, it was used to build medieval Cairo mosques.
The inscriptions on the blocks of the pyramids provide reliable information about who owned the buildings. So it was established that the pyramid of Cheops really belonged to him. Above the burial chamber of the king there are low rooms, which were intended so that the top of the pyramid would not press on the burial chamber (the so-called "unloading chambers"). On the ceiling of one of these rooms, hieroglyphs were painted with paint - “Horizon of Khufu” (the name of the pyramid), we know them from other sources, in particular now from the papyri of Wadi al-Jarf (Herodotus calls the king Cheops, and the Egyptians called him Khufu ).
Pyramid of Cheops at Giza. Observation of the concavity of the sides at the end of the 19th century
// wikipedia.org
The pyramids were built from local limestone. In Giza, the expedition of Mark Lehner showed that the quarries were located no further than 300 meters from the construction site. Giza was chosen as a place with enough limestone for construction. For some works, materials were brought from afar. The burial chamber inside the pyramid of Cheops is lined with huge granite slabs. They were transported almost a thousand kilometers from the south from Aswan, where there were granite quarries. In Aswan, the details were rough processed, they were marked, and already on the spot, granite slabs were polished with dolerite tools. The nobles who supervised the work, in the inscriptions in their tombs, proudly reported that the king had sent them for material for the pyramid. The officials coped with the task, and the king praised them. The reward could also be the permission to build a tomb closer to the king's pyramid.
