"To speak the name of the dead is to make him live again"

Ancient Egypt civilization lasted over 3000 years. Egyptian monuments have been around so long that their monuments were ancient even in Greek and Roman times. but one key question has always loomed: how were the pyramids built?

The Pyramids are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Decorating the Nile waterfront they loom over passing boats. They are the lasting reminders of the Pharaohs that once ruled Egypt and of the power that the nation had.There are More than eighty (80) pyramids were built around the Nile from 1600 - 2700 BC

How did the Egyptian burial practices evolve?MastabasMummification3. Pyramids4. Valley of the Kings

Mastaba tombs were low rectangular brick or stone structures. Like the pyramids, they were built on the west side of the Nile (symbol of death, where the sun falls into the underworld).In the mastabas, lavish tombs with all necessary possessions would be prepared for the Phaorahs The pyramids evolved from the mastabasMASTABAS

BURIAL TOMBS: four-sided stone structure that symbolizes the sacred mountain, humanitys universal striving to reach the heavens. PURPOSE: because the Pharaoh was viewed as a god, he lived in the spirit world with the gods. Upon death, he had to be able to return to his body on earth, and required a tomb where his body would be preserved and surrounded by materials he would need whenever his spirit returned to his body IMMORTALITY: the ancient belief in raising the human spirit towards the gods is the quintessential purpose behind the construction of pyramidsPYRAMIDS

The Pyramids were built on the west side of the Nile, as the sunsets in the west. This represented the cycle of life (east = rebirth); west= death).

Valley of the KingsBeginning with the 18th Dynasty and ending with the 20th, the kings abandoned the Memphis area and built their tombs in Thebes. Also abandoned were the pyramid style tombs. Most of the tombs were cut into the limestone following a similar pattern: three corridors, an antechamber and a sunken sarcophagus chamber. These catacombs were harder to rob and were more easily concealed. Construction usually lasted six years, beginning with the new reign. The text in the tombs are from the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Gates and the Book of the Underworld.

Imhotep:The Step Pyramid at SaqqaraDuring the early Old Kingdom (2680 BCE), King Djoser commissioned Imhotep to build him a memorial tomb that would remind future generations of his brilliance and power Imhotep took the idea of the mastabas and stacked six of them one on top of the other > creating a stairway to Heaven This became the worlds first building made completely of stone Steps in the pyramid were to enable the pharaoh to take his place among the star gods

The pyramids evolved from that pointLater designers were to smooth out the edges Inner burial chambers and hidden passages and tombs were built within the pyramidsThe pyramids have mathematical dimensions that have stupefied later societies

Pharaoh Sneferu2575-2551 BCE)(father to Khufu)Most enthusiastic builder of pyramids building at least four pyramids during his reignAt Dashur, a pyramid was built with 2 entrances (north and west)However the angle of the first was too sharp and collapsedTo save the other, the angle of the walls was changed, leaving a bent appearanceThis is called the Bent Pyramid!

The Red Pyramid was the first to achieve the perfect pyramid shapeStripped from its limestone casing, this pyramid reveals the reddish sandstone used to build most of its core.Its Ancient Egyptian name was "The Shining One".

the Red Pyramid at Dashur has the second largest base of any pyramid in Egypt

Giza Pyramid: The Great PyramidBuilt under the rule of Khufu (Cheops in Greek) outside of Cairo (Giza)Belief that Pharaoh would join the sun-god Re as Re made his daily journey by boat across the sky. Thus Khufu would need a pyramid shaped like a sunburst, so he could climb on the rays of the sun to join ReStill remains the largest stone building on Earth

It aligns almost perfectly with a compass

A meridian running through the pyramids divides the continents and oceans into two equal halves

The Pyramid lies in the exact center of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth's land mass into approximately equal quarters.

The north-south axis is the longest land meridian, and the east-west axis is the longest land parallel on the globe. There is obviously only one place that these longest land-lines of the terrestrial earth can cross, and it is at the Great Pyramid!

It stands 147 meters high

Pyramid of Giza: Look at the Stats!

Total of 2.3 2.6 million blocks of limestone were cut out of the quarries, dressed and transported and fitted togetherEach block weighs average 2.5 tons 15 tons2.5 tons= approximately 25 refrigeratorsseam between blocks were very fine, about 1 mm on all 6 sides Only error of less than 0.1% in construction of Great PyramidEstimated Construction: 20- 80 yearsOriginal entrance of the Great Pyramid.

Great Pyramids of Giza: Size Stats920 meters around

Nearly 10 football fields could fit within the base.

The area of the base is also equal to about seven city blocks in New York City or about 13 acres.

The rocky structure where the pyramids stand had to be leveled (south east corner is just 1/3 inch higher than northwest corner! Great Pyramid is a sundial. The shadow fell on pavements and the pavements were marked with the day of the year and the hour of the day. Great Pyramid is a giant calendar. The Egyptians could use it to measure the length of a year to three decimal places 365.24

Did you know? The surface of blocks did not crack along layers after thousands of years of exposure to wind and sun The casing stones, 144,000 in all, were so brilliant that they could literally be seen from the mountains of Israel hundreds of miles away. On bright mornings and late afternoons, sunlight reflected by this vast mirrored surface of 5-1/4 acres distinguished the Pyramid as being visible from the moon.

Priests of Pharoh Khufu convinced him to pay for all the bills of the Great Pyramid!

In the Chamber

In the heart of the burial chamber, you'll be 20 m (66 ft) beneath the foundation with over 6 million tons of stone piled above you! Burial chamber filled with riches for Pharaoh to take into afterlife Inside the pyramids there were false doors, staircases and corridors

In the Kings Chamber of the Great Pyramid, laid a stone coffin that contained nothing! King Khufu had never been placed in his burial place!

The area of the base of the pyramid divided by twice its height gives the figure of pie (3.14) The height of the Pyramid's apex is 5,812.98 inches, and each side is 9,131 inches from corner to corner (in a straight line). If the circumference of the Pyramid is divided by twice its height (the diameter of a circle is twice the radius), the result is 3.14159, which just happens to be pi. Incredibly, this calculation is accurate to six digits. So the Pyramid is a square circle, and thus pi was designed into it 4,600 years ago. Pi is demonstrated many times throughout the Pyramid.

Pi?

QUESTIONSBlocks of granite moved from Aswan (950 km away) each weighing 53.5 tonsHow did people get out of pyramids (building trap doors / secret corridors?No markings inside the pyramids from torches?How did they transport the stones? Ramps? Boats? Lifting? Who built these pyramids?

Power of the Pyramid ShapeScientists experimented by making model pyramids and placing different types of food in them (usually food that goes bad quickly). The food stayed in good condition much longer than expected. 1959, engineer Karel Drbal did a similar experiment with blunt razor blades. To his astonishment, Drbal found the blades actually became sharp again when stored in pyramid. He sold his idea to a company who successfully sold plastic models of pyramids.

Theories: Who really built the pyramids?Slaves (100 000 or 20 000? )Hebrew SlavesFarmers (during annual flooding)StarsAliensHow long?Transportation Methods?Limestone from quarries floated to base of pyramids Graffiti / DrawingsArticles: 1)Heave Ho 2) Chariots Still Crash 3) Pouring a Pyramid

Great Sphinxoldest and longest stone sculpture from the Old Kingdomlions body and a human head, it represents Ra-Horakhtv, a form of the powerful sun god, and is the incarnation of royal power and the protector of the temple doors. The face of the Great Sphinx is believed to be that of Chephren, the fourth-dynasty pharaoh who built the second-largest pyramid in the Giza triad. Carved out of a natural limestone outcrop, the Sphinx is 19.8 metres (65 feet) high and 73.2 metres (240 feet) long. It is located a short distance from the Great Pyramid.

The Legacies of the PyramidsLOUVRE, France

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Related LinksWho Built the Pyramids? Harvard ArticleWho Built the Pyramids? Nova OnlineExplore the Pyramids National Geographic

Before the pharaohs began to construct pyramids as monuments, they were buried in long, low lying brick buildings called mastabas. In these mastabas, the pharaohs would prepare lavish tombs with all the possessions they would need for the afterlife. There are actually over 90 pyramids in EgpytLegend says that the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Djoser, who ruled from about 2670-2650 B.C.E., did not think that the mastaba would be good enough to remind future generations of his brilliance and power. He wanted something bigger and better, and he called upon his royal court to think of something that would be more suitable for him. The answer came from his royal vizier, or adviser, a man by the name of Imhotep. Imhotep had the idea to build one of these low mastabas, and then build no less than five more on top of it, each smaller than the one before, creating a staircase to the heavens. The result was the Step Pyramid, which so impressed Djoser that he issued a royal decree stating that Imhotep, upon his death, would be worshipped as a god.The idea of the pyramid quickly caught on with the Old Kingdom Pharaohs, who followed Imhotep's original idea, but improved on it, removing the stair-step appearance and replacing it with a more smooth appearing edge. The most enthusiastic builder of all the Pharaohs was the Pharaoh Sneferu (2575-2551 B.C.E.), who had at least four pyramids built during his reign. In Sneferu's day, the engineers were still trying to figure out how to make a pyramid that would not fall over, and they were not always successful. At a place called Meidum, about 75 miles southwest of Cairo, one of Sneferu's pyramids collapsed. Another, at a site near Sakkara called Dahshur, began to sag during construction, so the workers quickly changed the angle of the edges, giving this pyramid a "bent" appearance, which gave it the name that it has to this day: "The Bent Pyramid." It was Sneferu's son who started the most famous pyramid complex in the world. The Pharaoh Khufu (also called Cheops) selected an imposing site above a rough escarpment in the desert, where the Nile plain rises to meet the Sahara. The ancient name for this place is now lost, and the site is called by the name of the suburb of Cairo where the pyramids are located: Giza. When Khufu's pyramid was completed, it was simply the most exquisite, elegant and massive structure ever built. Over 2.5 million stone blocks, weighing 2.5 tons each, rise to a height of 450 feet above the desert floor, which had to be leveled to create a flat building surface. The sides angle inwards at a precise measurement for their entire length to a carefully centered point. The entire pyramid was covered in white limestone slabs so carefully fitted together that it appeared that the entire pyramid was one solid piece of stone. The limestone was so fine that the residents of medieval Cairo used it as building material for their lavish palaces, so that--of the three major pyramids at the site--only the limestone cap of the second great pyramid, that of Khufu's grandson Khafra, remains in place. It is believed that Khufu's son, Djedef-ra built the Sphinx, and Djedef-ra's son Khafra built the second pyramid, which is directly behind it. The third pyramid on the plateau, that of Khafre's son Menkaura, was covered in granite, which was a more expensive and harder-to-find material. Although the pyramid may appear less impressive due to its smaller size, the granite coating would have made a statement of wealth equal to that of the pyramids built by Menkaura's father and great-grandfather.quarry- An open excavation or pit from which stone is obtained by digging, cutting, or blasting.

Standing at the base of the pyramids at Giza it is hard to believe that any of these enormous monuments could have been built in one pharaoh's lifetime. Who Really Built the Pyramids?Ever since the day that the finishing touches were put on the Great Pyramid at Giza, there has been all sorts of speculation about who really built the pyramids, and how they were built. The ideas range from the possible (the pyramids were built by the Jewish slaves who were later freed by Moses in the story of the Exodus) to the really ridiculous (the pyramids were built by any or all of the following: the flying saucer people; the inhabitants of the lost continent of Atlantis; some previously unknown civilization that predated ancient Egypt by hundreds of thousands of years; the Egyptians, but using the power of the Ark of the Covenant / the flying saucer people / the lost magic of the people of Atlantis). The Greek historian Herodotus (who, though very prolific and well respected, was also wrong about a lot of things) was told on his visit to Egypt that it took 100,000 men working year round for twenty years to build his pyramid. He was also told that Khufu was a horrible tyrant who saw to it that these workers were subjected to the most horrible conditions: they were beaten, not fed well, and many of them died while working on the pyramids. The real story, however, is probably a lot less interesting. Most modern archaeologists think that the real number of workers needed to build the pyramids was only around one third of the number given by Herodotus. Most of the laborers were farmers, who were recruited to work during the annual flooding of the Nile, when their fields were underwater. During that time, it would have been easy to send the large limestone blocks across the Nile from the quarries on the east bank all the way to the construction site on the west by barge. Demonstrations have shown that it takes only one six-man team to move blocks even bigger than those used in the construction of the pyramids using technology that the Egyptians had available to them. And, while the story that it was the Jewish slaves who built the pyramids seems plausible, the fact is that the pyramids were built about a thousand years too early for there to have been any Jews involved in the construction at all. The Great Sphinx at Giza, near Cairo, is the oldest and longest stone sculpture from the Old Kingdom With a lions body and a human head, it represents Ra-Horakhtv, a form of the powerful sun god, and is the incarnation of royal power and the protector of the temple doors. The face of the Great Sphinx is believed to be that of Chephren, the fourth-dynasty pharaoh who built the second-largest pyramid in the Giza triad. Carved out of a natural limestone outcrop, the Sphinx is 19.8 metres (65 feet) high and 73.2 metres (240 feet) long. It is located a short distance from the Great Pyramid.