Giza Pyramids

Pyramids of Giza

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The pyramids of Giza, as seen from the south and focuses on the three small pyramids of queens, and behind the pyramid of Menkaure, in the middle of Chephren and the right of Cheops (Great Pyramid ")

The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt are among the most famous and oldest surviving monuments of mankind. You are on the western edge of the Nile Valley, about eight kilometers southwest of the city of Giza. They are located about 15 km from Cairo city center and are located directly on the Pyramid Street (Sharia al-Ahram). They are the only surviving of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Since 1979, the Pyramids of Giza are among the World Heritage.

Sphinx

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Features
For more than four millennia, the Sphinx rises from the sands of the Egyptian desert. The figure is about 73.5 m long, 6 m wide and 20 meters high. Only the front feet have a length of about 15 m. Paint on the ear suggests that the figure was originally painted in bright colors. It was carved from the remains of a limestone hill, which served as a quarry for the Cheops pyramid. In addition to the Sphinx, a temple was built, which is the Valley Temple of Khafre's pyramid, almost exactly in line. Thutmose IV erected between the paws of the Sphinx a dream board, whose inscriptions tell of his life.

Function
Why was the Sphinx, is still unknown. Maybe they should guard the plateau of Giza. The German Egyptologist Herbert Ricke said that the statue belonged to the sun cult and Harmachis represents a local form of the sun god Horus. Perhaps the statue is also a picture of Horus depicted as Pharaoh Chephren, or even a replica of Cheops. Mark Lehner, who has researched from 1979 to 1983 at the Sphinx, Chephren than expected, like other builders. The German Egyptologist Professor Rainer Stadelmann preferred against the king Cheops. Using modern methods have been in recent years, other pictures and statues of these two pharaohs compared with the head of the Sphinx. A clear and unambiguous assignment was not possible so far.

Structure
That the head of the Sphinx was set later in the lion's body, it has been scientifically disproved. The significant color differences are due to the different rock layers. The geologist Thomas Aigner identified the stones that were used in the Sphinx Temple, with a layer that is located at chest height of the Colossus. In the Valley Temple of Khafre were used blocks, which come from the upper part of the Sphinx. Thus, dates are like "look older than 8000 years" as unscientific speculation. According to the researchers of the head has been revised several times over the years.

The Pyramid of Menkaure

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There are three possible reasons why the Pyramid of Menkaure is smaller than the Cheops and Chephren's pyramid:

1. Space problems on the Giza Plateau
2. Too high construction costs (the successor Shepseskaf built only a Grabmastaba)
3. The turn to the sun cult of Re, promoted the building of the temple to the sun god.

The Pyramid of Menkaure was built with local limestone and then, as usual, covered with polished limestone slabs. In the lower 16 layers were used, however, granite slabs that remained untouched until a few polished bodies at the entrance and mortuary temple. The previously advocated believe the pyramid was completely covered with granite slabs, is now disproved. The lack of editing is one of the indications that the king died before the completion of his tomb.

The fragment
The entrance of the pyramid is about. four meters in height on the north side. A diagonally downward extending key slot from 32 meters in length opens into a vestibule of 3.63 x 3.16 meters with slender false doors, called the panel chamber. Behind this chamber three case-lock blocks are installed. From here, the tunnel leads horizontally into the center of the structure, the anterior chamber, carved below ground level in the bedrock was. Above that access to pre-chamber flows coming from above, a further access shaft, which, however, ends blindly in the base plate and was given up during the construction. An entry point in the floor of the antechamber a short passage leads into the lower-lying actual grave chamber. The passage of several steps lower branches off one side of Appeal, the American Chamber, with six slots (each measuring about 2.50 x 0.60 meters and 1.4 meters high which is provided), whose significance is unclear. The actual grave chamber measuring 6.59 x 2.62 meters and 3.43 meters high. She was completely covered with granite, the granite beams of the ceiling have been processed so that the ceiling looks like a barrel vault.

In the grave chamber Richard William Howard Vyse discovered in 1837 when he penetrated into the pyramid, an ornate, palace facade with ornate patterns of dark stone coffin without a lid before. When the ship came to England Beatrice but a storm and sank in 1838, complete with his precious cargo. Vyse also discovered the remains of an anthropomorphic wooden coffin with the name of Menkaure, and human bones. The coffin comes from Kurt Sethe from the Saite period, the bones for radiocarbon tests before the Christian period.

A thorough examination of the pyramid took place only in the years 1906 to 1924 by a team from Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under the direction of George Andrew Reisner. The main results of the studies is the insight that the substructure has been amended three times during construction.

The Khafre pyramid

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The Khafre pyramid

The Khafre's pyramid is located southwest of those of his father, and thus in the middle of the three pyramids of Giza on a terrace. The stages of the northwest corner of the base are carved about 10 meters into the rock, the opposite southeast corner has been massively hochgemauert to compensate for the slight incline of the terrace. The quarry for building materials is right on the spot. The horizontal pipe are roughly trimmed layers of stone, the joints were very broad, and often lack the mortar, the pyramidal core is crafted out significantly worse than the Cheops pyramid.
The cladding of the two lower layers consisted of granite, limestone cladding further.
At the top of Khafre's pyramid are still remnants of the panel present, the Pyramidion no longer exists.

Due to the progressive erosion of the preserved limestone cladding was investigated by Italian experts. On this occasion, a huge shift of the corner edges were recorded and calculated by computer simulation of the cause: an earthquake.
Already in the 19th Dynasty Ramses II has begun with the stone robbery. He used the limestone cladding for the construction of a temple in Heliopolis (rock carvings of the head of the temple works Maj).
Between the years 1356 and 1362 to more distant parts of the cladding for the construction of the Hassan mosque in Cairo.

The fragment
Cross section of the Pyramid of Khafre

Descending the pyramid has two entrances in the north. Both are on top and the bottom begins 30 meters outside the building at ground level, the upper 11.5 m above the base. The lower passage leads into a horizontal tunnel, which defines a secondary chamber forks (10.41 × 3.12 m, 2.61 m high). It is believed that this chamber, the same function as the so-called Queen's Chamber in the Cheops pyramid had. Behind the horizontal tunnel, the passage rises again and hits just below ground level to the second coming from the top access. The now common corridor now runs horizontal to the grave chamber in the center of the structure.

The grave chamber measuring 14.15 × 5 m and has a height of 6.83 m. The ceiling consists of powerful, sloping limestone beams, the walls are already in place from bedrock. Until Belzonis graffito the chamber is blank and only contains the sarcophagus of granite, which is half sunk into the ground. The sliding cover was broken in the chamber, discovered bones were from bulls. A small pit in the ground probably hid the jars.

It is likely that the pyramid has been stripped for the first time in the First Intermediate Period. The historian Ibn Abd as-Salam noted a further opening of the pyramid in the year 774 after the Islamic calendar (= 1372 AD), but this seems to have been closed again.

On 2 March 1818 was the grave chamber of Belzoni rediscovered. Opposite the magnificent system of the chamber of the Cheops Chephren but has rather simple - unless, through recent research further chambers were discovered in the core masonry.

The number pi

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Especially in popular scientific literature appears occasionally on the statement that the builders were in the dimensions of the pyramid, the circle number π (pi) "encrypted". Split the double base side (230.37 m) by the amount (146.60 m) π (would give 3.14). However, it is likely that an integral relationship between the page length (440 royal cubits) the amount (280 royal cubits) = 11:7 was chosen by the builders and only chance is half of π. The deviation from 11:7 to π / 2 is only 0.04%. The statement that the construction of the building had lain with the intention of deliberately mathematical encryption, such as bring in π, it is not established yet.
The pyramid complex

The pyramid was surrounded by a high wall over 8 feet of limestone in the east and provided with the usual mortuary temple. This now completely destroyed mortuary temple was the only entrance to the building itself a causeway leading from here to the Valley Temple, the site could be localized only in recent years, but we know nothing about him.

Recent Researches

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In the summer of 1986 discovered by the French architect Jean-Patrice and Gilles Dormion Goidin in the Great Pyramid was still unknown chambers. After they had with electronic microprobe by strong rock can penetrate two-meter, first came up three feet wide and about 5.5 meters high, with sand-filled room to the fore. Furthermore, it was localized behind the northwest wall of the Queens Chamber of another cavity. Both rooms were still not open.

In 1993, the Munich-based engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink investigated in cooperation with the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Cairo under the direction of Rainer Stadelmann using the mini-robot Upuaut-2, both the Queen's Chamber shafts. These shafts are unlike those of the King's Chamber are no openings on the outer walls of the pyramid. In the northern shaft discovered the device after about forty meters, a fixed bend in a shaft jammed long iron bar that was in 1872 by the English amateur archaeologist and discoverer of the two shafts at a blind Waynman Dixon inspection no longer be removed. A further exploration in this bay was therefore impossible, and it is planned to be removed with a special device one day, this bar again jammed full. In the southern shaft Upuaut-2 65 feet pressed on and then ran into a blocking stone in the construction period, which could suggest a further chamber. This stone was pierced in 2002 with a robot vehicle and inspected with a camera probe. The operation could be simultaneously followed by television in the world. After the blockade was an empty cavity, which is also closed by a blocking stone. Specific findings were not made during the inspection.

In August 2004 Gilles Dormion and hired him geophysicist Jean-Pierre Baron with the help of endoscopes, with further ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic testing revealed the untapped since 4,600 years ago have determined gait. Many Egyptologists think, however, sparked off the speculation about further grave or treasuries for nonsense. In their view, the courses have discovered only a pure statistical significance.

The Great Pyramid in the 19th Century

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The pyramid is called "Akhet-Khufu" - the horizon of Khufu / Cheops and consists of blocks of limestone, basalt or granite, with a weight of two to four tons (an average of 2.5 tons) per block.

Thus, results from the pyramidal volume of around 2,500,000 m³ of a pyramid weight of about 6.25 million tonnes. It was built on a natural hill. Although the Great Pyramid, the tallest and largest of all Egyptian pyramids, but having built the Pyramids Pharaoh Sneferu resulting in Meidum (Meidum pyramid) and Dahshur (Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid), together with a mass of around 8.4 million tonnes. This is around 2.15 million tonnes or 25.6 percent more in material than was blocked by Cheops.

Originally the pyramid was covered with polished Tura limestone. However, many of these stones are broken off and then reused for buildings in Cairo have been such that the underlying structure is now in steps. But today we get an idea of the former splendor of the pyramids if you look at the top of the lying next to the Pyramid of Cheops Pyramid of Khafre. There the top of the pyramid is still preserved with its old stone cladding, even if due to weather conditions now are covered with a brown layer.

Builder of the Great Pyramid was probably Hemiunu, probably a nephew of Cheops. He held the office of the vizier, and also wore the title "Overseer of all works of the king."

The Great Pyramid differs in its internal structure clearly from the other pyramids of Egypt and the other two pyramids at Giza, because they do not have one but has one of the Egyptian pyramids as a total of three chambers grave - and beyond the so-called "big Gallery possesses. The greater number of chambers and corridors, which create very precise alignment to the cardinal points, and the excellent workmanship so their uniqueness.

There are three chambers in the pyramid of Cheops:

1. the so-called "rock chamber below the pyramid in the natural rock rock (according to the researchers wanted the builders of this unfinished chamber representing the underworld)
2. the so-called "queens chamber" (the name comes, therefore, that in the early days of Archeology / Egyptology here the grave of the wife of Pharaoh was suspected) and
3. the so-called "King's Chamber": the top chamber approximately in the middle of the vertical structure. In it you can still visit the remains of a stone sarcophagus.

To relieve the ceiling of the King's Chamber, the ancient builders have built five low discharge chambers are arranged with the granite blocks of the upper chambers like a gabled roof. In these inscriptions were found relieving chambers of the workers who had been demonstrably applied before the stones were used.

At this - today inconspicuous - Chamber leads the "grand gallery" with a vaulted construction, which also applied already King Sneferu in his Red Pyramid. There is a corbelled, so a room whose walls taper sharply upward: a construction that serves the purpose of the weight of the overlying rocks to divert the side, so that the ceiling did not collapse.

The normal system of chambers of the pyramid, as well as the bodies of all the other pyramids and private grave constructions of that era, completely without any inscriptions. Only much later, from the 5th Dynasty can be found inside pyramids, inscriptions, such as the Pyramid Texts in the pyramid of Pharaoh Unas.

The Great Pyramid joins with the steepness of their sides in the historical context. For example, earlier pyramids are built mostly flat, later often steeper. The appropriations in the Khufu pyramid construction principles are the obvious consequence of the previously under Pharaoh Sneferu experience and knowledge in the pyramids.

A special feature of the pyramid are the so-called air shafts. Two of these wells range from the royal chamber at an angle to the north and south exterior walls and appear to the constellation of Orion, or be directed to the then North Star. It was quickly established then the theory that the pyramids were used as an observatory. Two distinct reasons contradict this theory:

1. these shafts are known only from the Great Pyramid
2. they do not run straight, a view of the night sky is not therefore possible.

The Pyramids of Giza: left of Menkaure, Khafre and right in the middle of Cheops

Researchers suspect that these are two bays either symbolically share the path of the deceased pharaoh in the sky (see Ba) or a logistic function over the pyramids filled.

With the demise of the Old Kingdom at the end of the 6th Dynasty and the end of the death cult of the dead kings came to plunder the grave plants in Giza, which includes the pyramid of Cheops was a victim. During this time, was presumably built the grave robbers corridor through which even today, the pyramid can be accessed and the system indicates that the first grave robbers knew about 4000 years ago the plans of the pyramid because they are aimed at blocking stones by blocking passages worked .

Great Pyramid Data

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The Great Pyramid 2005

* Original) level (the estimated 146.60 m, about 280 Ellen King (1 King Selle ≈ 52.3 cm)
* Height (today): about 138.75 m
* Angle: 51 ° 50 '
* Originally) side (in the estimated 230.33 m, about 440 yards King
* Page length (today): approx 225 m
* Original) (square)-Size (: approximately 53,000 sqm (5.3 hectares)
* Original) volume of the pyramid body, without deduction of voids (: ≈ 2.58 million m³
* Original) volume of the pyramid, after deduction of all known spaces (: 2.50 million m³
* Surface area (originally) about 85,500 sq
* Average size of the visible blocks: 1.0 m in width, height and depth (Most units, however, have a rectangular shape.)
* Average mass of a stone block: 2.5 tons
* The largest mass of a stone block: 7.5 tonnes
* Number of blocks: about 2.5 million
* Estimated total weight of the pyramid: about 6.25 million tonnes

An accurate determination of the original pyramid dimensions is not possible, since the edges and surfaces are now largely dismantled and destroyed. This makes it difficult for example) an accurate measurement of angle (angle of inclination. In addition, the building itself is not perfect in its symmetry, the differences arise in the measurements. In the Egyptological literature, the information is, to Peter Jánosi, Mark Lehner, Miroslav Verner, Zahi Hawass, and Alberto Siliotti Basismaß to the page length (from 230.33 to 230.37 m) and the slope calculated from the amount (146.59 to 146, 60 m) is slightly different. The slope is generally given in recent literature, with 51 ° 50 ', leaving the arcseconds usually ignored.

With the origin of just below 146.60 m, it was almost 4000 years the tallest building of its time and was only in the 14th Century by the Lincoln Cathedral surpassed.

The Great Pyramid

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The Great Pyramid is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids of Giza and is therefore referred to as the Great Pyramid. It is the tallest pyramid in the world and was built as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, far better known by his Greek name Cheops, who during the 4th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom ruled. In classical antiquity, the pyramid was called Greek ἡ μεγάλη Πύραμις τοῦ Хέοπος (hê tou megale Pyramis Chéopos, "The Great Pyramid of Cheops") or αἱ Πυράμιδες Αἰγυπτίαι (hai Aigyptíai Pyramides, "the Egyptian pyramids"), Latin Pyramides Aegyptiae and Magna Pyramis cheopis .

This pyramid, together with her sisters, the Pyramid of Khafre and Menkaure's Pyramid, also the oldest and last surviving wonders of the ancient world. The completion of the structure dates back to 2580 BC in the time of the Old Kingdom. It is exactly facing the four cardinal points, and the difference in the lengths of its four sides is less than one per thousand. She is often confused with the Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest Egyptian pyramid. The Pyramid of Khafre, the middle of the three pyramids of Giza and appears larger than that of Cheops, since it was built on a high rock, and therefore about 10 m is higher, but is almost 3 meters lower in their original size.

Pyramids Building

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Building History

Background
The pyramid field at Giza had been for the 1 Dynasty, an important cemetery. Here large mastaba were the 1st, 2nd and 3 Dynasty will be excavated. It is unclear to what extent by the later cemetery and the pyramids of the fourth dynasty such old graves were destroyed.

Pyramid
The pyramids were built between about 2620 to 2500 BC in the 4th Dynasty. They were built on an approximately 1000 times 2000 meters high limestone plateau, which originated with the construction of small pyramids, temples, burial grounds and village workers. It is noteworthy that the construction of the pyramids carts without wheels were used, as the Egyptians at that time the bike did not yet know.

Great Pyramid (Khufu pyramid)
The biggest and probably the most famous pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu. He ruled for about 2620 to 2580 (according to other sources from 2604 to 2581 BC) The Great Pyramid was originally 146,6 m high (now known as 138.75 feet), the pages are on average 230.3 m long and its inclination angle is 51 ° 50 '. It was built from about 3 million stone blocks, is the average weight of 2.5 tons each, and was completely covered with limestone blocks. Inside is the Great Gallery, which is 8.5 meters high and 47 meters long. The construction of the pyramid led the Builder Hemiunu. At the end of the gallery is located in the King's grave chamber. In it are the remains of a granite sarcophagus. In addition, there is the so-called Queen's Chamber, and the first underground grave chamber. On the east side of the pyramid are the remains of the mortuary temple and the causeway. The valley temple is buried beneath the modern city. Southeast of the mortuary temple of the pyramid are systems for the queens Hetepheres, Meritetis and Henutsen. In the solar barge museum on the south side of the pyramid there is one in 1954 and excavated wiederzusammengefügten solar boats. The pyramid complex, there are three smaller pyramids of queens and a cult pyramid.

Medium pyramid (Khafre's pyramid)
The mean of the three pyramids is that of the Pharaoh Chephren. He reigned from about 2558 to 2532 BC The Chephren pyramid originally was 143,5 m high (now 136.4 meters), the side length was 215.25 meters, and its inclination angle is 53 ° 10 '. Like the Great Pyramid, she was completely covered with limestone slabs. It works by its more elevated location about 10 meters due to a very slightly smaller size and the amount even greater than the Great Pyramid, and the top tower over their head out, so they will be held by lay people often for the Cheops pyramid. A 400 m long causeway leads from the valley temple reliefs on Sphinxtempel and the Great Sphinx of Giza by up to mortuary temple and valley temple, the pyramid itself is 45 × 45 m and 18 m high. The depressions in the alabaster floor showing the location of once larger than life figures of the Pharaoh 23. South of the pyramid are the remains of a small cult pyramid.

Located north of the causeway and valley temple of Chephren, the 73 m long sculpture of the Sphinx, which was carved from the bedrock. The head of the Sphinx is covered by a headscarf with uraeus king snake, the Dream Stela of Tuthmosis IV keeps them in their forepaws.

Small pyramid (Menkaure's Pyramid)
The smallest of the three pyramids is that of the Pharaoh Menkaure. He reigned from about 2532 to 2503 BC, the Pyramid of Menkaure was originally 65 meters high, which she's not even half as much as the other two pyramids. The pages are 102.2 m × 104.6 m long (mean base length 103.4 m), and its inclination angle is 51 ° 20 ', with which he is almost identical to that of the Cheops pyramid. The upper part of the pyramid was - like the Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre - lined with limestone slabs. The bottom 16 layers, but consist of red granite mantels. The corresponding valley and mortuary temples are no longer intact. In the Cairo Museum are on display today, the groups of statues of Menkaure, which were found in the Valley Temple. On the south side has three queens pyramids, two of which were executed as step pyramids.

I. Chentkaus the grave (so-called "fourth pyramid ')
South-east of Khafre's pyramid is located near the Great Sphinx is also known as the "fourth pyramid of Giza" marked grave at the end of the 4th Dynasty reigning queen Chentkaus I explored until 1932, this grave has the peculiar character of a two-step pyramid and was originally thought to be an unfinished pyramid. The left is 45.8 meters x 45.5 m measured from a first stage Felsquader who are in the local quarries was. On it is the second brick, mastabaähnliche stage. The building was dressed like the great pyramids of limestone, and reaches a height of 17 m. In this tomb there was a settlement for the priesthood, and a ship's grave, with which it was endowed with the attributes of a full sovereign Grabs.

Giza in the Old Kingdom was a major cemetery and was probably abandoned until the beginning of the First Intermediate Period. From the Middle Kingdom little remains are preserved, and it is striking that it can be shown from this time a cult of death to the little pyramids. Only from the time of the New Kingdom and Late Period, however, there is again considerable in Giza grave plants. There are repairs to the temples and pyramids testified.
Modern

2007, the Wall was built in 2002, closed at the pyramid complex at times. The redeemed through the visiting admission proceeds go to the Egyptian government. Locals who could earn their living there for generations, they work in highly restricted.

Giza Necropolis

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The necropolis of Giza, Saqqara and Thebes, in addition to the most important burial place of ancient Egypt. The first burials here were already between the 1st and 3 Dynasty place. To the great importance they reached during the 4th Dynasty, when the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure Giza selected as the site for its pyramids. In addition to the pharaohs were buried here and their family members as well as officials and priests. By the end of the Old Kingdom in the 6th Dynasty created here, several hundred graves. After Giza lost its importance, but found during the late period of a general return to the Egyptian past, once used as a burial ground.