For several centuries, the mysteries of Ancient Egypt have been the focus of attention of historians and archaeologists. When it comes to this ancient civilization, the first thing that comes to mind is the grandiose pyramids, many of the secrets of which have not yet been revealed. Among the puzzles that are still far from being resolved is the construction of a great building - the largest of all the pyramids of Cheops that have survived to this day.
The famous and mysterious civilization
Of all the oldest civilizations, the culture of Ancient Egypt is perhaps the best studied. And the point here is not only the many extant historical artifacts and architectural monuments, but also the abundance of written sources. Even the historians and geographers of Antiquity paid attention to this country and, describing the culture and religion of the Egyptians, did not ignore the construction of the great pyramids in Ancient Egypt.
And when in the XIX century the Frenchman Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphic writing of this ancient people, scientists gained access to a huge array of information in the form of papyrus, stone stelae with hieroglyphs and numerous inscriptions on the walls of tombs and temples.
The history of ancient Egyptian civilization has nearly 40 centuries, and it has many interesting, vibrant and often mysterious pages. But the most attention is attracted by the Ancient Kingdom, the great pharaohs, the construction of the pyramids and the riddles associated with them.
When the pyramids were built
The era, which Egyptologists call the Ancient Kingdom, lasted from 3000 to 2100 BC. e., just at that time the Egyptian rulers were fond of the construction of the pyramids. All the tombs erected earlier or later are much smaller in size, and the quality is worse, which affected their safety. It seems that the heirs of the architects of the great pharaohs at once lost the knowledge of their ancestors. Or were they completely different people, who replaced the incomprehensibly far-away race?
Pyramids were erected during the period of the Middle Kingdom, and even later, in the Ptolemaic era. But not all pharaohs "ordered" their own tombs. So, currently more than a hundred pyramids are known, built over 3 thousand years - from 2630, when the first pyramid was erected, until the 4th century AD. e.
Predecessors of the great pyramids
Before the great pyramids of Egypt were erected , the history of the construction of these grandiose buildings totaled more than one hundred years.
According to the generally accepted version, the pyramids served as tombs in which the pharaohs were buried. Long before the construction of these structures, the rulers of Egypt were buried in mastabs - relatively small buildings. But in the XXVI century BC. e. the first real pyramids were built, the construction of which began from the era of the pharaoh Djoser. The tomb, named after him, is located 20 km from Cairo and is very different in appearance from those that are called great.
It has a stepped shape and creates the impression of several mastabs placed one on top of the other. True, its dimensions are rather big - more than 120 meters around the perimeter and 62 meters in height. This is a grandiose building for its time, but it can not be compared with the Pyramid of Cheops.
By the way, a lot is known about the construction of the tomb of Djoser, even written sources that mention the name of the architect - Imhotep are preserved. After fifteen hundred years, he became the patron saint of scribes and doctors.
The first of the classical pyramids is the tomb of Pharaoh Snofu, the construction of which was completed in 2589. The calcareous blocks of this tomb have a reddish hue, which is why Egyptologists call it “red” or “pink”.
Great Pyramids
So called the three cyclopean tetrahedra, located in Giza, on the left bank of the Nile.
The oldest and largest of them is the Khufu pyramid, or, as the ancient Greeks called it, Cheops. It is her who is most often called the Great, which is not surprising, because the length of each of its sides is 230 meters, and the height is 146 meters. Now, however, it is slightly lower due to destruction and weathering.
The second largest is the tomb of Chephren, son of Cheops. Its height is 136 meters, although visually it looks higher than the Khufu pyramid, because it is built on a hill. Not far from it you can see the famous Sphinx, whose face, according to legend, is a sculptural portrait of Chefren.
The third - the pyramid of the pharaoh Mikerin - is only 66 meters high, and it was built much later. Nevertheless, this pyramid looks very harmonious and is considered the most beautiful of the great.
Modern man is accustomed to grandiose structures, but his imagination is shocked by the great pyramids of Egypt, the history and secrets of construction.
Mysteries and mysteries
The monumental buildings in Giza in the era of Antiquity were included in the list of the main wonders of the world, which the ancient Greeks numbered only seven. Today it is very difficult to comprehend the plan of the ancient rulers, who spent enormous funds and human resources on the construction of such giant tombs. Thousands of people over the course of 20-30 years were torn off from the economy and were engaged in the construction of a tomb for their ruler. Such irrational use of labor is in doubt.
Since the time the great pyramids were built, the secrets of construction have not ceased to attract the attention of scientists.
Maybe the construction of the great pyramid had a completely different goal? Three chambers were discovered in the Cheops pyramid, which Egyptologists called funerary, but in none of them were found mummies of the dead and objects that necessarily accompanied a person to the kingdom of Osiris. There are no decorations or drawings on the walls of the burial chambers either, more precisely, there is only one small portrait in the corridor on the wall.
The sarcophagus found in the pyramid of Chefren is also empty, although many statues have been found inside this tomb, but there are no things that were laid in tombs according to Egyptian customs.
Egyptologists believe that the pyramids were looted. Perhaps, but it’s not entirely clear why the robbers also needed the mummies of the buried pharaohs.
There are many riddles associated with these cyclopean structures in Giza, but the very first question that arises for a person who personally saw them: how did the construction of the great pyramids of Ancient Egypt take place?
Amazing facts
Cyclopsic structures demonstrate the phenomenal knowledge of the ancient Egyptians in astronomy and geodesy. The faces of the Cheops Pyramid, for example, are precisely oriented to the south, north, west and east, and the diagonal coincides with the direction of the meridian. Moreover, this accuracy is higher than that of the observatory in Paris.
And such an ideal figure from the point of view of geometry has huge dimensions, and even is made up of separate blocks!
Therefore, even more impressive is the knowledge of the ancients in the field of building art. The pyramids are built of giant stone monoliths up to 15 tons in weight. The granite blocks that lined the walls of the main burial chamber of the Khufu pyramid weighed 60 tons each. How did such engines rise if this camera is at a height of 43 meters? And some stone blocks of the tomb of Chefren in general reach a weight of 150 tons.
The construction of the great Cheops pyramid required the ancient architects to process, drag and lift over 2 million such blocks to a very significant height. Even modern technology does not make this task simple.
There is a completely logical surprise: why did the Egyptians need to drag such colossus to a height of several tens of meters? Wouldn't it be easier to fold a pyramid of smaller stones? After all, they were able to somehow “cut out” these blocks from a solid rock mass, why didn’t they ease their task by sawing them into pieces?
In addition, there is another mystery. The blocks were not just stacked in rows, but so carefully processed and tightly driven to each other that in some places the gap between the plates is less than 0.5 millimeters.
After the construction, the pyramid was still lined with stone slabs, which, however, have long been taken away by enterprising local residents for the construction of houses.
How did the ancient architects solve this incredibly complex task? There are many theories, but they all have their flaws and weaknesses.
Herodotus Version
The famous historian of Antiquity Herodotus visited Egypt and saw the Egyptian pyramids. The construction, the description of which was left by an ancient Greek scientist, was as follows.
Hundreds of people dragged the stone block to the pyramid under construction, and then with the help of a wooden gate and a system of levers raised it to the first platform, equipped at the lower level of the structure. Then the next lifting gear came into play. And so, moving from one platform to another, the blocks were raised to the desired height.
It is hard to imagine how much power the great Egyptian pyramids demanded. The construction (photo, according to Herodotus, see below) of them was really an extremely difficult task.
For a long time, most Egyptologists adhered to this version, although it was doubtful. It is difficult to imagine such wooden lifts that could support a weight of tens of tons. And dragging and dropping millions of tons of blocks on draggers seems difficult.
Can Herodotus be trusted? Firstly, he did not witness the construction of the great pyramids, since he lived much later, although he might have observed how smaller tombs were built.
Secondly, the famous scholar of Antiquity in his writings often sinned against the truth, trusting the stories of travelers or ancient manuscripts.
Theory of the "ramp"
In the 20th century, a version proposed by the French researcher Jacques Philippe Luer became popular among Egyptologists. He suggested that the stone blocks were moved not on drags, but on skating rinks on a special ramp embankment, which gradually became higher and, accordingly, longer.
The construction of the great pyramid (photo of the image below), therefore, also required great ingenuity.
But this version also has its drawbacks. Firstly, one can not help but pay attention to the fact that the work of thousands of workers in dragging stone blocks did not facilitate this method at all, because the blocks had to be dragged uphill, into which the embankment gradually turned. And this is extremely difficult.
Secondly, the slope of the ramp should be no more than 10˚, therefore, its length will be more than a kilometer. To build such an embankment, labor is needed no less than the construction of the tomb itself.
Even if it was not one ramp, but several, built from one tier of the pyramid to another, it is still a colossal work with dubious results. Especially when you consider that to move each block, several hundred people are needed, and there is practically nowhere to place them on narrow sites and embankments.
In 1978, fans of the history of Ancient Egypt from Japan tried to build a pyramid with a height of only 11 meters using dragoons and embankments. They could not finish the construction, having invited modern equipment to help.
It seems that people with the technology that was in antiquity, like this is not possible. Or were they not people? Who built the great pyramids in Giza?
Aliens or Atlanteans?
The version that the great pyramids were built by representatives of a different race, despite its fantastic nature, has completely rational grounds.
Firstly, it is doubtful that people who lived in the Bronze Age possessed the tools and technologies that allowed them to process such an array of wild stone and build from it a perfect, from the point of view of geometry, construction weighing more than one million tons.
Secondly, the assertion that the great pyramids were built in the middle of the III millennium BC. e., debatable. He was expressed by the same Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century. BC. and describing the Egyptian pyramids, the construction of which was completed almost 2 thousand years before his visit. In his writings, he simply retold what the priests told him.
There are suggestions that these cyclopean structures were erected much earlier, perhaps 8–12 thousand years ago, or maybe all 80. These assumptions are based on the fact that, apparently, the pyramids, sphinx and temples around them survived the flood era. This is evidenced by traces of erosion that were found on the lower part of the sphinx statue and the lower tiers of the pyramids.
Thirdly, the great pyramids are clearly objects in one way or another connected with astronomy and space. Moreover, their purpose is more important than the function of tombs. It is enough to recall that there are no burials in them, even though there is what Egyptologists call sarcophagi.
The theory of the alien origin of the pyramids in the 60s was popularized by the Swiss Erich von Deniken. However, all his evidence is more likely a figment of the writer’s imagination than the result of serious research.
If we assume that the alien aliens organized the construction of the great pyramid, the photo should look something like the one in the picture below.
No less fans have the version of the "Atlanteans." According to this theory, pyramids long before the emergence of ancient Egyptian civilization were built by representatives of some other race, possessing either superdeveloped technology or the ability of willpower to move huge blocks of stone through the air. Just like Master Yoda from the famous Star Wars movie.
It is almost impossible to prove, as well as refute these theories, by scientific methods. But, perhaps, to the question of who built the great pyramids, there is a less fantastic answer? Why could not the ancient Egyptians, who possessed diverse knowledge in other areas, be able to do this? There is an interesting theory that removes the veil of secrecy surrounding the construction of the great pyramid.
Concrete version
If moving and handling multi-ton stone blocks is so time-consuming, could the ancient builders use the lighter concrete casting method?
This point of view is actively upheld and proved by several well-known scientists, with different specialties.
The French chemist Joseph Davidovich, having made a chemical analysis of the material of the blocks from which the Cheops pyramid is built, suggested that this is not a natural stone, but concrete of a complex composition. It is made on the basis of crushed rock, and is the so-called geopolymer concrete. Davidovich's findings were confirmed by a number of American researchers.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. G. Fomenko, having studied the blocks that make up the Cheops pyramid, believes that the “concrete version” is the most plausible. The builders simply grinded the excess stone, added binders such as lime, lifted the base for concrete in baskets to the construction site and already loaded it into the formwork and diluted it with water. When the mixture solidified, the formwork was disassembled and transferred to another place.
After decades, concrete was so compressed that it became indistinguishable from natural stone.
It turns out that during the construction of the great pyramid were used not stone, but concrete blocks? It would seem that this version is quite logical and explains many of the mysteries of the construction of ancient pyramids, including the complexity of transportation and the quality of processing blocks. But she has her own weaknesses, and she gives rise to questions no less than other theories.
Firstly, it is very difficult to imagine how the ancient builders without the use of technology were able to grind more than 6 million tons of rock. After all, this is exactly the weight of the Cheops pyramid.
Secondly, the possibility of using wooden formwork in Egypt, where wood has always been very highly valued, is doubtful. Even the rooks of the pharaohs were made from papyrus.
Thirdly, ancient architects could undoubtedly think of making concrete. But the question arises: where did this knowledge go then? A few centuries after the construction of the great pyramid, they did not leave a trace. Tombs of a similar kind were still being erected, but all of them were only a miserable likeness of those standing on a plateau in Giza. And to date, the pyramids of a later period have often left shapeless piles of stones.
Therefore, it is impossible to say with certainty how the great pyramids were built, the secrets of which have not yet been revealed.
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