The Great Pyramid of Giza
is the Oldest wonder(monument) in the list of Seven Ancient Wonders and also
the last ancient wonder existing on Earth .It was built in around 2700 - 2500
BC. It is located
in city of Giza, Egypt on the west bank of the Nile River, near Cairo. This Pyramid is also known
as the “Pyramid of Khufu” or the “Pyramid of Cheops”. It is the largest
of the three pyramids. This Monument is a Considerable example of HUMAN
ENGINEERING . It might be the most famous and discussed structures in
history. Its sheer size and scale compete all the structures built
within the last few hundred years. It's construction has always been the subject of debate among people, because
of its huze size and almost perfect proportions.
Read Also: Seven Natural Wonders of the World
Inside The Great Pyramid of Giza
The Kings Chamber
The Kings Chamber is a great feat of architecture as its flat roof
(composed of nine huge granite blocks) supports over four hundred tons of
masonry. It measures 10.45 meters by 5.20 meters, and is 5.80 meters high and
is made entirely of pink granite. It had to be built to resist an enormous
amount of pressure from the masonry above it. In order to achieve this, the
builders constructed five relieving chambers. In the four thousand years since
their creation, only one small crack has developed in the ceiling slabs near
the south wall.
The "air shafts"
It has been suggested that the shafts were used to ventilate the monument
during construction. This would certainly be a problem, but the shafts do not
run all the way to the outside and so they may not have been able to fulfil
this function. No shafts were discovered in other pyramids, so it seems that
the ancient builders had found another way of overcoming this problem. The
discovery of small finely finished limestone "doors" at the top of
the shafts suggests that there was more to the shafts than ventilation. This
was a very popular theory among scholars, but most are now of the opinion that
it is unlikely that they served such a mundane purpose.
The Queens Chamber
Queens Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza received its name from Arab
explorers, but scholars now agree that it was not actually intended to be the
burial chamber of a queen. You enter through a horizontal passageway from the
lower end of the Great Gallery. About five meters from the end of the passage,
there is a step, before the passage slopes downward a further sixty centimeters
to the floor level of the Queens Chamber. There is some speculation regarding
this step. Some argue that the pink granite floor blocks originally started at
the edge of the step and ran to join the floor of the chamber (so in fact there
was no step). They suggest these block (being easier to remove) were stolen in
antiquity. Other suggest that this feature is the result of the "changes
in building plans" often referred to in discussions regarding this
monument.
The Grand Gallery
The Grand Gallery itself is an architectural masterpiece. Its ceiling
consists of a corbel vault with seven layers built from enormous limestone
blocks. Each block projects about seven and a half centimetres, dissipating the
weight of the monument and creating an impressive visual effect.There is
disagreement as to the function of the low ramps which skirt the sides of the
gallery. Twenty-seven square openings in the ramp corresponding to twenty-seven
niches in the side walls, and Borchardt suggested that wooden beams were placed
in the openings to aid the transport of building materials or to support the
huge blocks while the masons build the corbelled ceiling. Lehner suggests they
were actually holes for large beams which had supported the blocks that roofed
the horizontal passage into the Queens Chamber, and provided a continuous floor
for the Grand Gallery to the Ascending passage.
The Escape Shaft (or well shaft)
There is a small opening in the west wall of the Great Gallery is a just
above the door which is known as the escape shaft (also known as the well shaft
or service shaft). It leads to a corridor deep under the pyramid, near the
entrance to the underground chambers. There appear to be rough footholes in the
shaft, which led Petrie to speculate that the shaft was an escape route for the
men who were to lower the granite blocks into the ascending corridor when the
burial ritual was over. However, it would have been fairly easy to fill in the
shaft from above once the burial was complete, so this seems unlikely. Others
suggest the shaft provided fresh air for the workers who were digging the
underground chamber, but this suggests that the underground chambers and the
shaft were built after the Great Gallery. This theory is largely rejected as
the underground chambers are assumed to have been the first stage in
construction.
The Subterranean Chamber and Pit
The descending corridor cuts into the bedrock for a distance of about
thirty meters under the base of the pyramid, before turning into a horizontal
passageway which runs for about nine meters. At the end of this passageway
there is an unfinished niche and a rock cut chamber. The chamber was apparently
unfinished and the protective blocks were never placed at the entrance to the
chamber. It has also been noted that the entrance was too small to allow a
sarcophagus to be carried into the room after completion, leading most experts
to agree that the chamber was not intended to be used for a burial despite the
fact that the tunnel and chamber conform to the classic pyramid substructure (a
descending corridor leading to a burial chamber below ground level).
HISTORY
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for Khufu
(Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh ) . It was constructed over a 20 year period.
Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu,
believed by to be the architect of the The Great Pyramid of Giza.
At construction, The Great Pyramid
was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall
(146.5 metres (480.6 ft)), but with
erosion and natural disasters its present height is 138.8 metres (455.4 ft) It was tallest structure in
the world for more than 43 centuries when it didn’t lost its 10 metres. Approx.
800 tonnes of stone were fixed every
day. The total number of identified pyramids in Egypt is about 80.
Mystery about How the Pyramid was Constructed ?
Nobody Doesn’t know and can’t explain how this pyramid was built ?. It's made out of huge blocks of stone
but how were they put in place?
because each block’s weight around 2-3 tons. One theory goes that a straight or spiral ramp was built and, the ramp grow alongwith the pyramid grew.
And the Ramp was covered with mud and water so the blocks could easily have been pushed into place.
Life of Khufu
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| Khufu |
Khufu probably ruled for about 23 or 24 years like his
Father . He seems to have initiated Military expeditions to the Sinai
peninsula. Rock inscriptions in the Wadi
Maghara record the presence of his troops
in this region, no doubt for the dual
purposes of keeping the Bedouin in check and exploiting the turquoise
deposits there. A now very faint inscription on a large boulder on the island
of Elephantine at Aswan also indicates that the king had interests in the far
south of the country - quarrying the fine Aswan red granite.
Extrerior DIMENSIONS of The Great Pyramid of Giza
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| dimensions |
Exact measurements of The
Great Pyramid of Giza were first made by “W.M. Flinders Petrie”
- Height (including capstone): 480.69 feet
- Length of Sides:
West: 755.76 feet
North: 755.41 feet
East: 755.87 feet
South: 756.08 feet
- Perimeter: 3023.22 feet
- Angle of Corners :
Northwest: 89° 59’58”
Northeast: 90° 3’02”
Southeast: 89° 56’02”
Southwest: 90° 3’02”
- Area of the Base: 13 acres
- Number of Blocks: more than 2.3 million
- Weight of Blocks: 2-70 tons each
- Size of original limestone casing stones: Some weigh 15 tons each
- Whole mass of the pyramid : 5.9 million tonnes.
- The volume ( including internal hillock ) : 2,500,000 cubic metres (88,000,000 cu ft).
- Each base side : 230.4 metres (755.9 ft) or 440 cubits long.
THREE PYRAMIDS – THREE RULERS
The three Large pyramids on the Giza plateau were built over the span of three generations by the Rulers Khufu , Khafre , and Menkaure.
Each pyramid was part of a Royal Mortuary
Complex that also included a temple
at its base and a long stone causeway (around
1 kilometer in length) leading east from the plateau to a valley temple
on the edge of the floodplain.
In addition to these major structures, several smaller pyramids
belonging to queens are arranged as satellites.
Interesting Facts about The Great Pyramid of Giza
- The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest Wonder of the Ancient World.
- The Great pyramid is the largest of all three pyramids built near to that and it is also the largest pyramid ever built.
- About 2.3 million stone blocks are used to made this Pyramid and it is thought to weigh 5.9 million tonnes.
- The Ancient name of The Great Pyramid of Giza was Khufu's Horizon.
- This is the only one in Egypt known to have passages inside that go up and go down. If you wanted to visit the king’s chamber you would have to walk down, all the way, bent over.
- The Great Pyramid of Giza once had a swivel door at the entrance. It weighed about 20 tonnes and could easily be pushed open from the inside. On the outside it was very hard to find because it fit perfectly. There are only two other pyramids known to have had swivel doors. One was Khufu’s father’s pyramid and the other was his grandfather’s pyramid.
- The Mortar that was used to build the pyramid cannot be reproduced today. Even though it has been analyzed they still can’t make it. It is stronger than the stone that was used to build the pyramid and is still in place today.
- There has been no writing or hieroglyphics found inside The Great Pyramid of Giza.
- This pyramid is the only one to have been built with concave sides. This means that all four side curve in slightly.
- If we tried to build an exact replica of this pyramid it would not be possible. We do not have the precise technology that the ancient Egyptians had that was necessary to build this pyramid.
- There were three burial chambers inside. One of the chambers was built into the bedrock underground. The queen’s chamber was higher and the king’s chamber was the highest. Khufu didn’t intend to use the queen’s chamber for any of his wives. It is thought that he intended to use it for a statue of himself.
Changes at The Great Pyramid of Giza
Although The Great Pyramid of Giza was has
been around for many centuries, there are still chambers within that have
yet to be explored. Because there is a small
chamber above the Queen's Chamber,
(which does not actually hold the body of the Queen ) that was
deliberately blocked off when the pyramid was built. Although there has been
much speculation as to why this part of the pyramid was blocked, no one knows
for sure since no one has ever been able to get into it. On September 17th, 2002 however,
scientists sent a robot through the 8-inch square opening that leads to the
mysterious chamber. The Robot discovered a wedge of limestone farther down the
chamber. Scientists have yet to penetrate this second door.
Secrets of The Great Pyramid of Giza
A “snake robot” designed by scientists at the University of
Leeds has transmitted the first pictures from inside a small chamber of the
Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt , becoming the first eye that observes this part
of the Pyramid in 4500 years. It is believed that this camera is a huge tomb
for the pharaoh Khufu built circa 2560 BC.
The great Pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world has
three chambers. The so called “base” chamber sits on bedrock while the two
upper chambers are called the chambers of the Queen and the King. The network
extends from the north and south walls of the Queen’s Chamber into two tunnels
, about 20 centimeters wide and high; it is unclear to what purpose these
tunnels were made, although it is speculated that they led to a secret chamber.
Throughout history researchers have tried exploring the
Pyramid with several robots, and in 1993 a exploration robot managed to travel
64 meters to the tunnel on the south wall, where it found a small pair of stone
doors secured with metal pins.
Tourism in Egypt ( at The Pyramids Of Giza )
Tourism is one of the most important sectors in Egypt's
economy.Tourism gives second highest revenue in Egypt. More about 17.7 million tourists visited Egypt
in 2010, providing revenues of nearly $12.5 billion. At its peak the sector employed about 12% of
Egypt's workforce as well as contributing more than 11% of GDP and 14.4% of
foreign currency revenues.
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| The Great Pyramid of Giza Complex |
SOURCES :
Ancient History Encyclopedia : The Great Pyramid of Giza.
Ancient Egypt Online : The Great
Pyramid.
SoftSchools.com
: Facts about The Great Pyramid.
Wikipedia ; Tourism
in Egypt
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