Unsolved mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids. Egyptian pyramids Mysteries of the history of the pyramid
The pyramids still keep many secrets and mysteries. Some of them, of course, have already been revealed, but questions remain that still trouble the minds of scientists and historians. How and by whom were these monuments created? What technologies were used during construction? How did builders manage to move huge stone blocks? Why did the pharaohs need this kind of tomb? You will learn all this and many other interesting facts from the article and will become a little closer to understanding the secrets of the pyramids and knowing their power and greatness.
Interesting facts about Egyptian pyramids
These ancient building structures have been occupying their places of honor for centuries and glorifying the talent of their creators, thanks to whom it was possible to make eternal monuments. Until now, scientists have not been able to reliably determine how the pyramids were made and what technologies were used. Only some data is known, but most of the technologies used remain secret.
Just tombs?
There are about 118 pyramids in Egypt, created in different periods, of various sizes and types. There are two types of pyramids, the older step pyramids, one of the first surviving examples is the pyramid of Djoser, around 2650 BC. e.
In reality, these pyramids are graves, and their clusters are a cemetery. In ancient times, it was believed that wealthy people should be buried with everything they might need in life. afterlife, therefore, the pharaohs found their final refuge in the luxurious pyramids, which they began to build long before their death.
Robbers of the tombs of the pharaohs
The horrors that take place about the Egyptian pyramids are directly related to the robbers who love to visit them under the cover of darkness and take away their last property from the deceased. However, looters visit monuments not only for the sake of jewelry hidden in tombs.
Local residents have spoiled the appearance of some of the pyramids. For example, the two pyramids at Dahshur look completely different from what they used to be; all the limestone with which they were covered was stolen to build houses in the nearby city. Stone blocks and other building materials are also often stolen, causing incredible destruction.
Secrets and myths
The horrors of the Egyptian pyramids also lie in the fact that many legends reign around them. The reason for the emergence of such a myth was the fictitious curse of the most famous tomb in the world - the tomb of Tutankhamun. It was discovered in 1922 by a group of researchers, most of whom died within the next seven years. At the time, many believed it was due to the curse of the tomb or some mysterious poison, although most still believe this.
But it all became one huge misconception. Immediately after the tomb was opened, it created a real sensation. In one of the newspapers, in the name of raising ratings, it was stated that in front of the entrance to the tomb there was a sign warning that anyone who entered here would die. However, this turned out to be just newspaper duck, but after the researchers began to die one after another, the article gained popularity, and since then a similar myth has existed. It is worth noting that most of these scientists were elderly. This is how some of the riddles of the Egyptian pyramids are easily solved.
Pyramid design
The funerary complex of the pharaohs consists not only of the pyramid itself, but also of two temples: one next to the pyramid, one should be washed by the waters of the Nile. The pyramids and temples, which were located not far from each other, were connected by alleys. Some have partially survived to this day, for example, the alleys between Luxor and Between the Pyramids of Giza, such alleys, unfortunately, have not survived.
Inside the pyramid
Egyptian pyramids, interesting facts concerning them, and ancient myths - all of this is in direct connection with the internal structure. Inside the pyramid there is a burial chamber, to which passages lead from different sides. The walls of the passages were usually painted with religious texts. The walls of the pyramid at Saqqara, a village near Cairo, were painted with the oldest mortuary texts that have survived to this day. Near the pyramids of Giza there is also the famous figure of the sphinx, which, according to legend, should guard the peace of the deceased. Unfortunately, the original name of this structure has not reached our time; it is only known that during the Middle Ages the Arabs called the monument “the father of horror”
Types of pyramids
Many mysteries of the Egyptian pyramids are directly related to their creation. Until now, no one has been able to reliably determine how the ancient Egyptians were able to create such monumental structures that are still intact to this day.
Scientists believe that construction was carried out in several stages, during which the dimensions of the pyramid could have increased significantly compared to the original ones. Construction began long before the death of the pharaoh and could take several decades. It took about a dozen years just to create a suitable site for construction and level the soil. It took two decades to create the largest pyramid to date.
Who built the pyramids
There is an opinion that the pyramids were built by slaves who were starved and whipped for poorly done work, but this is not so. showed that the people who built the pyramids were kept in good conditions and were well fed. However, no one has yet been able to unravel for certain how the heaviest stone blocks rose to the top, because human power is incapable of this.
However, archaeologists believe that over time, construction techniques changed, and the Egyptian pyramids themselves changed. Interesting Facts in mathematics they also relate to the construction of pyramids. Thus, scientists were able to determine that the pyramids have mathematically correct proportions. How the ancient Egyptians managed to do this remains a mystery.
Egyptian pyramids - a wonder of the world
- The Pyramid of Cheops is the only surviving wonder of the world.
- There are several theories about the construction of the pyramids. According to one of them, construction took place according to the principle of leverage, but if this were taken into account, it would have taken no less than a century and a half, and the pyramid was erected in two decades. That's what remains a mystery.
- Some lovers of the mystical consider these buildings to be powerful energy sources and believe that the pharaohs spent time in them during their lifetimes in order to receive new vitality.
- There are some completely incredible theories. For example, some believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, while others believe that the blocks were moved by people who owned a magic crystal.
- There are still some questions regarding the construction. For example, it has not yet been clarified why the pyramids were built in two stages and why breaks were needed.
- The pyramids took two centuries to build and were erected several at a time.
- Now, according to research by various scientists, their age ranges from 4 to 10 thousand years.
- In addition to precise mathematical proportions, pyramids have another feature in this area. The stone blocks are arranged in such a way that there are no gaps between them; even the thinnest blade will not fit through there.
- Each side of the pyramid is located in the direction of one side of the world.
- The Cheops Pyramid, the largest in the world, reaches a height of 146 meters and weighs more than six million tons.
- If you want to know how the Egyptian pyramids were created, you can learn interesting facts about construction from the pyramids themselves. Construction scenes are depicted on the walls of the passages.
- The edges of the pyramids are curved by one meter so that they can accumulate solar energy. Thanks to this, the pyramids could reach thousands of degrees and emit an incomprehensible hum from such heat.
- A perfectly straight foundation was made, so the edges differ from each other by only five centimeters.
- The first pyramid built dates back to 2670 BC. e. In appearance, it resembles several pyramids located next to each other. The architect created the type of masonry that helped achieve this effect.
- The Cheops Pyramid is made of 2.3 million blocks, perfectly aligned and matching each other.
- Structures similar to the Egyptian pyramids are also found in Sudan, where the tradition was later picked up.
- Archaeologists managed to find the village where the pyramid builders lived. A brewery and bakery were discovered there.
- The Egyptian pyramids hide many secrets. Interesting facts concern, for example, the principle by which the pyramid is made. The walls are at an angle of 52 degrees, which makes the ratio of height and perimeter equal to the ratio of length.
Power and greatness
Why were the Egyptian pyramids created? Interesting facts about construction do not give an idea of what they served. And the pyramids were created to praise the power and greatness of their owners. Magnificent tombs were a significant part of the entire funerary complex. They were filled with things that the pharaohs might need after death. There you could find literally everything a person might need. Any clothes, jewelry, dishes - all this and many other things were sent along with the pharaohs to their tombs. These riches, buried with their owners, are often the reason for the appearance of robbers who want to get the jewelry. All these mysteries and myths that shroud the pyramids, starting from their very creation, have remained unsolved for many centuries, and no one knows whether they will ever be revealed.
Behind Egyptian pyramids a strange feature was noticed: they are capable of destroying modern precision equipment. And, according to some information, up to 80% of the electronic devices that have visited the pyramids come out intact. According to the stories of old Cairo residents, in 1967, during the Arab-Israeli war, three Israeli planes flying low over the Giza pyramids crashed into the sand for an unknown reason. The Arabs explain this as the “curse of the pharaohs.” Independent researchers believe that inside the pyramids there is a powerful electromagnetic emitter
An examination of the pyramids with a thermal imaging system showed that there are several powerful heat sources inside the pyramids. Ancient energy installations? The legendary “perpetual motion machine”? The results of the study, which is not surprising, were attributed to errors in the device, especially since after the expedition it really began to malfunction.
The technologies used to build the pyramids appear to have been very different from those used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as described by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. We were hardly talking about tens of thousands of slaves. What could he know about ancient Egyptian technology when more than two millennia separated him from the construction of the pyramids at Giza? He presented only his ideas and judgments of the ancient Egyptian priests of his time.
Archaeologist and surveyor Flinders Petrie, researched and presented his conclusions about the technologies for building them. In his opinion, the ancient craftsmen had at their disposal tools of a type “that we have only recently invented.” Petrie carefully examined the sarcophagus of the Cheops pyramid and reported that it was cut out of a granite block with saws “at least 2.5 Peters in length.” This granite is of very high strength. It was assumed that the saws were made of bronze, and the cutting edges were equipped with very strong stones. Diamonds?
The processing of the internal cavity of the sarcophagus is even more mysterious. It is much more difficult than cutting out a block of rock. To do this, the Egyptians had to “move from reciprocating cutting to rotary cutting, turning the saw into a pipe, making annular grooves with the resulting tubular drill. The diameter of these tubular drills ranged from 6 to 130 millimeters, the width of the cutting edge was from 0.8 to 5 millimeters.” Of course, Flinders admits that no one has been able to find the diamond saws and drills themselves. The nature of the surfaces processed by drilling and sawing showed the existence of such tools among the ancient Egyptians. 
The deeper the scientist researched, the more mysterious the stone-cutting technology of the ancients became. “The magnitude of the cutting forces is worthy of surprise, as evidenced by the speed with which the drills and saws passed through the stone,” writes Petrie, “apparently, when drilling granite with 100-mm drills, they were subjected to a load of at least two tons.”
Over 4,500 years ago, the ancient Egyptians introduced industrial age technology? Drilling machines had over a ton of spindle force, allowing them to drill through hard stones like butter.
Diorite bowls from the IV Dynasty... Diorite is one of the hardest stones on the planet, it is harder than iron. And the hieroglyphs on the bowls were cut with an extremely sharp tool, and not scratched, as evidenced by the edges of the lines. “Since the width of the lines is 0.17 millimeters, the hardness of the cutting edge must be higher than that of quartz and viscous enough not to crumble with such a sharp edge (about 0.13 mm). It is known that it was possible to engrave parallel lines with a pitch of 0.8 mm.” What kind of instrument it is, how it was maintained at such high precision, how it was worked with is a mystery.
The pyramids were built using technologies close to modern ones. They contain proportions that testify to the brilliant knowledge of the ancients in the field of mathematics. The angle of inclination of the side faces of the Cheops pyramid (52 degrees) is chosen so that the original height of the monument is 146.6 meters, the perimeter of the base is 920.85 meters, are in the same ratio as the radius of the sphere with its circumference. The ratio is equal to 2p. That is, the Egyptians used this number before its discovery by the ancient Greeks. In addition, the layout of the Cheops pyramid uses the “golden section rule”, known to architects since the Middle Ages. The height of the pyramid is exactly a billion times less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
If for academic science the age of the pyramids ranges from the 25th to 25th centuries BC, then atlantologists suggest much greater deviations from these dates.
About the construction of the pyramids, the Arab historian of the 9th century Ibn Abd Hokmah said: “Most people agree that the first pyramids were built by Sorid ibn Solyuk, the pharaoh of Egypt, who ruled three hundred years before the flood. The reason was that he saw in a dream that the whole earth had turned over... People were lying face down, and the stars were falling and hitting each other with a terrible roar. Waking up in horror, he gathered the high priests of all the provinces of Egypt, a total of one hundred and thirty people led by Aklimon, and told them everything. They measured the heights of the stars and, after making calculations, predicted the catastrophe.”
Sorid (Zarid) built 30 treasuries in the pyramid. He filled them with gold, gems, jewelry, stainless steel weapons, vessels, ceramics, and also, according to the ancient author, unbreakable glass that can be bent. 1000 years before the invention of stainless steel and plastics, the author should have known about their existence.
Interestingly, recently new datings of the age of the Sphinx have appeared, based on the nature of its water erosion. The dates are close to the hypothetical time of the Great Flood, possibly taking place in the ninth millennium BC. The heavy rainfall required for the sphinx's observed erosion ceased to occur in Egypt thousands of years before Egyptologists say the sphinx was built. Then, according to Egyptology, the Nile Valley was inhabited only by primitive Neolithic hunter-gatherers, with tools such as sharpened pieces of flint and sticks...
The pyramids of Egypt are simply stunning; the legends and myths force you to hold your breath and listen in admiration. For most centuries, scientists and researchers have been trying to get, in the literal sense of the word, to the truth that the most unique man-made wonders of the world keep inside themselves!
In accordance with the Egyptian religion, the pyramids were needed for people who had gone to the afterlife, because together with the embalmed bodies, all the things that a person needed, everything that he needed during life were buried there: valuable jewellery, clothes, household utensils and other items that he might need in another life.
It is believed that the larger and higher the pyramid, the more powerful and richer the person was during his lifetime. Now, looking at such large structures, it is difficult to imagine what kind of wealth the pharaohs must have owned, and that all this was built by human hands; however, it should be taken into account that all construction was carried out manually, without the use of special construction equipment.
And when you also look at the numbers, it will seem completely unrealistic - the area of the largest and well-known Cheops pyramid is 85,000 m3, the length of each side of the pyramid is 230 m and the height is almost 150 m. To really imagine how much this is, then just remember a 9-story building, its area is approximately 10,000 m3. These numbers are, in fact, shocking! The most fascinating thing is that it took only 20 years to create such a brute!
Shrouded in mystery from creation itself. To this day, scientists do not agree on when and by whom the pyramids were built. The ideas are generally divided into two theories:
1st - that the pyramids were built long before the first Egyptians by aliens;
The second one says that it was the Egyptians who were the creators of these unique objects.
At the same time, they continue to argue about the actual purpose of the pyramids. Some believe that the famous pyramids at Giza were intended as beacons for alien ships, indicating a course towards the Sinai Desert, which served as a typical port. This version is confirmed by a photograph taken by NASA's galactic spacecraft from space.
If you superimpose a map of Egypt onto a map of the starry sky, you will notice that the placement of the pyramids coincides with the stars, the placement of the Nile can be compared to the Milky Way, and the three pyramids at Giza are recognized as Orion’s belt. But not everything coincides - 2 monuments of the 5th dynasty do not fall into such a code, but they are not stars, but they are 2 parallel medians.
Archaeologists have found unique ancient Egyptian manuscripts and texts that, according to legend, were acquired in ancient times from the Nefers - people with divine capabilities who lived in Atlantis.
And these are no longer some hypotheses, there is real documentary evidence of this. Whoever those Gods who were worshiped in Egypt were, ordinary mortal people who knew the laws of the Universe or aliens, they gave the Egyptians knowledge that we have not known until now. In particular, the Egyptians glorified their knowledge of the synchronization of the heavenly and earthly in history by constructing the entire complex of pyramids in strict accordance with the star map.
Like the stars, the pyramids of Egypt are very diverse; we can only solve the mysteries hidden in the majestic structures that have carried ancient knowledge through the centuries. There is a legend that when all the doors are open and the last riddle is solved, the end of the world will come. But at the same time there is another legend, which says that in the pyramids, like in the others, hidden knowledge is hidden that will help reveal the secrets of the Egyptian pyramids, and with them the secrets of the philosophy of the world.
While the secrets of the Egyptian pyramids remain secrets and excite our fantasies, no one has yet been able to guess them, perhaps because they are looking in the wrong place; after all, one of the legends says that the secret is hidden not on the walls and in writing, but in the buildings themselves; this knowledge is the source of a separate energy, which is destined to be read only by a chosen one!
The times are long gone when the Egyptian pyramids amazed the observer with unprecedented grandeur and unsurpassed monumentality. About one thousand three hundred years ago, humanity learned to build bigger, higher, more massive and faster than the ancient Egyptians did. But still, for four thousand years, leadership in the field of construction remained with a long-vanished people...
Who, how and when built the Egyptian pyramids? Interest in the Pyramids of Giza has not waned for five millennia in a row. Egyptologists know the answers to most questions.
How and from what the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids – in many cases we only speculate, and among the hypotheses being propagated there is a lot of outright fantasy. Let's try to understand the history of the Egyptian pyramids without prejudice, mysticism and feigned mystery.
How many pyramids are there in Egypt?
The question is far from idle, given the length of the period of construction of the pyramids, the variety of materials used, the architectural features - and, of course, the preservation. According to various sources, the total number of Egyptian pyramids reaches 140, but many of them are difficult to identify.And if the pyramids of Giza are famous for their impressive size, perfect shape and good preservation, the pyramids of other ancient Egyptian tombs were less fortunate. Many of them - due to the fragility of the usual adobe clay brick at that time or the urgent need for building materials - collapsed completely or partially, and are more reminiscent of hills than pyramids.
Thus, in 2013, American archaeologist Angela Micol, examining high-resolution photographic maps, suggested that several hills on the territory of modern Egypt are nothing more than ancient pyramids, partly eroded under the influence of climatic factors, partly covered with sand and dust.
Inspired by a hint from overseas, Egyptian archaeologists undertook an expedition to the indicated heights. Cautious statements have appeared in the press regarding the fairness of the judgments of the American scientist, however, the finds of Angela Micol have not yet been included in the official register of Egyptian pyramids - as well as the remains of 17 more pyramids, similarly discovered by Sarah Parcak from the University of Birmingham, Alabama.
Mastaba - the modest tomb of the pharaoh
The tradition of building pyramids as pharaonic tombs did not arise suddenly. The burials of the pharaohs of the first dynasty (there are more than 30 dynasties in total) were arranged in relatively small buildings that looked like a cut-off hill or a tetrahedral pyramid with a cut-off top and a rectangular base.The imperfection of the then construction technologies forced the Egyptians to create buildings with inclined edges of the outer walls. The intuitive assimilation of the artificial structure to a natural embankment made of stone ensured the stability of the erected structure no worse than that of a conical pile of debris of different sizes at the foot of the mountain.
In Arab Egypt, the first tombs of the pharaohs were called “mastaba”, which means “stool” in Arabic.
In terms of its architectural appearance, the mastaba resembles a slightly expanded ancient Egyptian residential building, and there is not a drop of holiness in the purely utilitarian building. So it is not surprising that every new ruler sought to build his mastaba higher than any buildings in the area, and most importantly, higher than the tomb of his predecessor. Delusions of grandeur are so characteristic of leaders!
The logical result of the growth of the mastaba was a geometrically correct pyramid, but it was not possible to achieve the desired shape immediately.
Tomb of Djoser - the first Egyptian pyramid
Thirty kilometers south of Cairo is the village of Saqqara. Saqqara is the resting place of the pharaohs of the III-IV dynasty. The oldest surviving Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser, is located here.Imhotep - a brave innovator
According to information collected by historians, Imhotep, the main architect of the project, originally planned to build an ordinary mastaba. However, the idea of building a multi-tiered tomb seemed much more fruitful to both the architect and the customer. Therefore, already during the construction process, the project was changed. The triple superstructure of a smaller mastaba over a larger one resulted in a forty-meter four-tier pyramid with a rectangular base.Realizing that adobe clay brick (in Russian tradition the material is known as “adobe”) was not strong enough to create a high-rise structure, Imhotep ordered the use of limestone blocks to construct the tomb body.
Ingenious technology for constructing Djoser's pyramid
for construction it was mined in a quarry nearby. The dimensions and shape of the stone blocks were not strictly observed, but they allowed masonry with ligation: three longitudinally oriented blocks were replaced by two transverse ones - and so on. The mass of a single block did not exceed the “carrying capacity” of a strong porter.A thick clay composition was used as a binding solution, designed not so much to hold the blocks together as to fill the voids. Nature itself could have suggested the idea of such a building material to Imhotep. Egyptians traveling around the surrounding world probably came across educated mudflows and quickly turned into a dense and durable material.
The clay was dug in the Nile Valley, soaked and mixed with some sand (to prevent cracking during the drying process). The wall stone was laid at an angle inside the building so that the wall line deviated from the vertical by 15˚. Thus, the walls of each of the tiers of the tomb formed an angle of 75˚ with the conventional plane of the firmament.
The critical components of the internal structures of Djoser's pyramid were made of two-ton blocks, delivered from afar by water, and coarsely hewn limestone. The cementing gypsum mortar, used by the Egyptians more often than lime, held the elements together only in some places. In particular, blue tiles in the cladding interior spaces tombs, held on the walls thanks to gypsum binders.
Imhotep - the deified pioneer of perestroika
Having erected a four-tiered pyramid, inspired by the success, Imhotep proposed not to stop construction and increase the number of tiers to six while simultaneously increasing total area pyramids. For the exterior cladding of the structure, it was planned to use white limestone from the Tours quarry on the eastern bank of the Nile.The pharaoh's consent was not long in coming. The uninterrupted continuation of work allowed the outstanding architect Ancient Egypt increase the height of the pyramid to 62 meters. Having become six-tiered in 2649 BC, the pyramid of Djoser crowned a huge complex of ritual buildings and for a long time became a record-breaking structure in Egypt and the entire world of that time.
It is estimated that 850 thousand tons of limestone were spent on the construction of the Djoser pyramid. According to the unanimous opinion of the builders of our time, there are no technological mysteries in the construction of the first Egyptian pyramid. However, Imhotep's contemporaries treated the outstanding architect with much greater reverence. After his death, the architect, engineer and scientist Imhotep was deified, and the Egyptian pyramids, according to the behest of the founder, were built in steps for a long time.
The Pyramids of Giza are the center of secrets and mysteries
There are quite a lot of stepped and multi-tiered pyramids and pyramids built according to the precepts of the great Imhotep in Egypt. But only the Egyptian pyramids of the regular tetrahedral shape are considered wonders of the world, and not all of them, but only those that stand in Giza.The pyramids of Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin represent the pinnacle of the building art of Ancient Egypt. The studies carried out did not provide a clear and reliable picture of the stages and methods of construction. Of the historical documents, the description of Herodotus is considered the most detailed - however, we must remember that Herodotus made his notes 2000 years after the construction of the Cheops pyramid...
Hemiun – hero of pyramid-building work
The task assigned to Hemiun, a relative of the pharaoh and, concurrently, the chief administrator of the state, was difficult. On a rocky square base it was necessary to build a pyramid of the correct geometric shape and standard aesthetic qualities. The structure, of course, had to be higher than the pyramids of previous pharaohs and, preferably, remain unsurpassed in the future. 
Perhaps the task was posed in some other way - but it doesn’t matter. Hemiun managed to create a pyramid that contained millions of tons of natural stone, rose almost to the skies (147 meters in height), concealed several secret rooms, and amazed (and amazes) the observer with the perfection of its forms and the grandeur of the idea.
The first secret plus the main secret
How the construction was carried out is not described anywhere. Not a single papyrus was found in which not only the construction technology of Hemiun was revealed, but even the pyramid of Cheops was simply mentioned!This is the first mystery of the main Egyptian pyramid. However, there may be several answers:
- a) researchers were simply unlucky to find required document;
- b) there was a ban on documenting and disclosing methods for constructing the pyramid;
- c) design documentation was not drawn up, construction records were not carried out - as unnecessary.
How the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids was built
Most of the Cheops pyramid is made of blocks of yellow-gray limestone, a relatively loose material, but quite strong. Since the blocks were cut down in different sizes, it would be logical, when preparing materials at a construction site, to arrange the stones so that the largest and heaviest ones at the bottom were spent on the construction of the lower tiers of the masonry, and less massive stones were intended for the upper tiers. 
Egyptian builders did just that. The limestone blocks of the pyramid are smaller the closer to the top they lie. Which, by the way, refutes the fashionable theory about building a structure from concrete blocks.
Is the concrete idea false?
It is indeed easier to transport buckets of thick mortar to the upper floors of a construction site, but why change the standard of formwork from tier to tier? Artificial building stone, as a rule, has standardized dimensions, while the blocks of the Cheops pyramid are far from standard.The time factor is also important. Curing of concrete requires the cast part to rest for a long time. Initial setting does not equate to full strength development. A multi-ton load cannot be immediately piled on a freshly cast and already hardened stone. You can speed up the hardening of the casting with organic additives - at least egg white - but then the mountain of shells will exceed the size of the pyramid. Is such a monument acceptable to the pharaoh?
The production of binder for concrete requires high-temperature dehydration of the raw material - in the case of Ancient Egypt. The country's resources made it possible to produce a certain amount of gypsum mortar painlessly, but not the millions of cubic meters required for a complete transition to artificial building stone! There simply wasn’t that much firewood in the state!
Concrete is not only a binder, it is also a mineral filler of several fractions. Modern concrete is created from cement mortar, sand and crushed granite. The blocks of the Egyptian pyramids are entirely limestone. One can, of course, imagine how thousands of slaves spend years crushing natural limestone to obtain crumbs, other thousands drag stretchers with limestone chips to a construction site, still others carry water in wineskins, and still others trample wet concrete - because without compaction it will turn out to be fragile.
But isn't it easier to carve ready-made blocks from stone? Moreover, all qualified mineralogists are unanimous in their assessment of the main material of the Cheops pyramid and consider it natural limestone.
However, individual structural elements of the pyramids could indeed be made of artificial stone. But not the most responsible and loaded with astronomical masses of overlying materials.
The granite mystery of the Cheops pyramid
Adherents of secret knowledge talk about the impossibility of manufacturing, processing and delivering granite construction parts without the use of steel tools and abrasives of a hardness level.Meanwhile, granite columns, obelisks and other “megaliths” were produced in Ancient Egypt without much difficulty. Our French contemporaries reproduced all stages of granite mining and processing, and were quite satisfied with the experience gained.
The following method was used to split off a large workpiece from a natural massif.
- 1. Along the contour of the proposed workpiece, a low fireplace was built from clay bricks.
- 2. Firewood was loaded into the hearth and a fire was lit. Hot coals heated the underlying granite to a shallow depth.
- 3. Water was poured onto the heated granite. The stone was cracking.
- 4. After removing the brick, ash and exfoliated rock, the heating zone was subjected to impact treatment with dolerite (dolerite is a type) hammers. As a result, a groove 10–15 cm deep was formed in the monolithic granite massif.
- 5. To deepen the contour groove, the operation was repeated.
Technique self made with a rounded dolerite hammer suggests the endurance and perseverance of the performer. An hour's (even not very dexterous) beating of dolerite on granite allows you to remove a layer 6 - 8 mm thick over an area of several square decimeters.
A dolerite nodule split in half served as the main tool for grinding granite. The abundance of dolerite in the eastern regions of Egypt allowed ancient craftsmen to use this hard stone in unlimited quantities.
Lifting heavy objects without a crane
Herodotus writes that lifting the stone upward was carried out by simple wooden devices such as a well crane. The carrying capacity of such devices is sufficient for two-ton cargo (the average volume of a lime block of the Cheops pyramid is 850 - 1000 liters, the density of limestone is 2000 kg per cubic meter). But how were the much more massive structural elements installed? In particular, the pyramidion, the monolithic top of the pyramid weighing 15 tons?Modern inventors talk about the possibility of covering a stone product with three-dimensional wooden structures that bring the shape of the packaged part closer to a cylinder. Such containers really make transportation easier, but require a solid road.
Inclined ramp or spiral road?
How is a waste heap - a cone-shaped dump of waste rock - constructed? First, supports are installed, and an inclined rail track is placed on them. Cars with bulk mass are driven onto the rails and unloaded to the side. As the dump grows, the road lengthens. The end result is an artificial mountain with steep slopes and a long, gentle embankment with rails from the flat bottom to the very top. 
Researchers believe that this is how access roads to the Egyptian pyramids were built. An extendable inclined (7˚-8˚) ramp, made of bulk materials, compacted and reinforced with imported timber, could really help deliver massive stone blocks to their installation site.
However, the volume of earthworks in this case turns out to be comparable to the volume of the entire construction, and the pace of work is limited by the frequency of reconstruction of the transport route. The bulk spiral road laid around the pyramid makes it impossible to check the geometry of the edges and faces of the entire structure.
It would be another matter, suggested the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, if the spiral road was laid in the body of the pyramid along its outer edges. You can walk along such a road like a gentle staircase, dragging limestone blocks up along the way. True, this path is replete with right-angle turns. But if you make open areas with simple lifts at turning points, the difficulties will disappear.
Houdin's hypothesis is flawed in many respects. However, turning platforms were discovered in the corners of the structure, as well as some inclined passages along the perimeter of the pyramid. However, the Egyptian authorities have not yet given permission for large-scale hardware research of the historical structure.
Final process reconstruction
A generally reconstructed picture of the construction of the Cheops pyramid looks like this:- - the most massive parts of the base of the pyramid and the interior of the tomb were delivered to the installation site along surface roads and a low bulk ramp;
- - the blocks composing the body of the pyramid rose along spiral scaffolding built outside;
- - a white limestone top - pyramidion - was installed immediately after the completion of the masonry;
- - facing blocks of white limestone, in cross-section representing a right-angled triangle, were laid from top to bottom, flush with the edges of the pyramidion.
And although individual details of the construction are not fully clarified, the overall picture is quite clear and plausible. However, the secrets of the Egyptian pyramids lay not only in the design and construction of Cyclopean structures.
"Unsolved" secrets of the Egyptian pyramids
The exploration of the Cheops pyramid, undertaken by treasure-hungry humanity over the past two thousand years, turned out to be very traumatic for the historical structure. Partly for this reason, and partly because of the high tourism potential, permission for scientific research in Giza is very difficult to obtain.As a result, today scientists do not have a complete plan of the cavities and rooms of the Cheops pyramid - which is why assumptions about the purpose of rooms, corridors and channels are based on insufficient information.
This situation gives food for idle thoughts about the presence of secret treasuries under the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx. The tabloid press is all about the idea of the hiddenness of samples of ancient knowledge, stored either under the paws of the Sphinx, or under the burial chamber of Khufu, or even deeper.
However, historians and archaeologists do not expect any special revelations from hypothetical treasuries. Yes, if repositories that were not looted in the past are discovered, museum collections around the world will be significantly replenished with works of ancient Egyptian art - but one cannot expect advanced technologies among the surviving artifacts. Alas…
Is the pyramid a working device?
The idea that each individual pyramid, and especially the largest and most beautiful pyramid of Cheops, is not just a monument and tomb, but some kind of tool for interacting with secret forces, has tormented humanity for four and a half thousand years.Echoes of the excitement that arose during the perestroika years regarding the miraculous properties of pyramidal structures are still alive. Allegedly, the blades in them self-sharpen, bacteria self-destruct, water self-sanctifies - and in great pyramids oh, plus time slows down, organisms get younger and fools get smarter.
The experiments are still ongoing, but the statistics of the results are disappointing. Nothing special happens either in the ancient Egyptian pyramids or in their modern counterparts.
“In addition,” object the esotericists, “that contact is made with the higher mind!”
The influence of the Egyptian pyramids on the mind
Initiates write: whoever lies down in the sarcophagus of the Cheops pyramid and concentrates, voices become audible, colorful pictures are visible, the complexities of the structure of the universe are understood - and the future is also revealed. So Napolen, after spending the night in the sarcophagus, came out pale, was silent about his experience, and only in exile on the island of St. Helena hinted that he had seen his own fall...True, psychiatrists, having learned about the voices and visions, begin to nervously trample and stroke bags of medicine. Psychologists talk about the similarity of individual reactions to darkness, silence and complete solitude. To save money, they say, instead of a sarcophagus, you can lie down in a wooden box with a lid, and instead of an Egyptian pyramid, use any dungeon - even a shallow hole.
The sum of sensations and thoughts that arise in the subjects is typical. In such solitude, every person thinks about the transience of life, the vanity of all things and the inevitability of the end. Pyramids have nothing to do with it!
Astronomical factor
The Belgian Robert Bauval, born and long lived in Alexandria, Egypt, was not the first person to notice the similarity between the locations of the pyramids at Giza and the stars in Orion's Belt. However, he was the first to speak out loudly and publicly about the similarity.The check showed that the coincidence of directions and proportions is very conditional. Defending his point of view, Bauval suggested: the position of the pyramids corresponds to the picture of the starry sky during the third dynasty of the pharaohs.
The development of computer technology has made it possible to restore the position of stars in the past. The simulated picture of the starry sky of 2500 BC turned out to be close to the location of the pyramids at Giza, but only approximately...
Further research led astronomers to the conclusion: the relative position of the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure (Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin) fully corresponds to the location of Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintak (stars of the “Orion’s Belt” asterism) in 10500 BC.
Idle thinkers immediately came to the conclusion that the initial marking of the construction site was completed in 10500, and they decided to postpone the actual construction for 8 thousand years.
Moreover! At the beginning, namely 14 thousand years before the birth of Christ, on the site of the future Giza and all its tombs there was a pyramid - to all pyramids a pyramid, the size of a real mountain! True, the ancestor of the pyramids was monolithic and cracked during the earthquake. It was decided to demolish the colossus, and in its place, after cleaning up the debris, to build a new pyramidal complex.
The thinkers do not say who and why made such unexpected decisions.
Numerological heresy of the Cheops pyramid
Heading to Egypt, Napoleon, as is known, included more than one and a half hundred scientists in his detachment. Bored during the transition, inquisitive scientists pounced on the Egyptian pyramids like a hungry dog on a bone. All available space was measured and measured, including each of the pyramids and the Sphinx.The data obtained became the subject of scientific discussions that continue to this day. Over two hundred years of speculation, particularly advanced experts have established a relationship between the linear parameters of the Cheops pyramid and:
- - the size of the Earth and solar system;
- - the number "pi";
- - past and future events;
- - physical constants that determine the balance of interaction of forces in the Universe.
Hey, psychiatrists!..
So, does this mean that there are no secrets in the Egyptian pyramids?
There are still many secrets in Egyptology. However, the Egyptian pyramids have been studied very thoroughly, although not completely. There are a number of ambiguities in the unhurried existence of the pyramids that are visible to specialists. For example, did the visible deflection of the faces of the Cheops pyramid arise as a result of unexpected deformation of materials or as a result of architectural calculations?So far, there is no clear picture of the complex of technologies used almost 5,000 years ago. It is not clear why the Pyramid of Cheops, the most monumental of all the monuments of Ancient Egypt, is devoid of wall inscriptions and images. There is no confidence in understanding the purpose of the discovered objects, premises, buildings...
It is important, however, that only those studies of the Egyptian pyramids that are conducted within the framework of materialist theory become fruitful. The search for the extraordinary forces that took part in the creation of the Egyptian pyramids is fantastically funny - that’s all.
We continue our research into ancient architectural monuments based on ancient sources. Previous articles have examined Solomon's Temple and ancient Babylon as described in the book Sketches of Historical Architecture: in Pictures of Various Famous Buildings, Antiquities, and Foreign Nations, from History Books, Commemorative Coins, Ruins, with True Descriptions Added for Visualization, 1725 year of publication. Let's start exploring the Egyptian pyramids with it. The book provides an illustration of these pyramids with explanatory text:
Egypt A The largest of the pyramids, which was built by 360,000 people over 20 years.
B second, slightly smaller
WITH the smallest one, which does not have an entrance like the second one
D remains of a colossal sphinx
E whole sphinx
We must understand that those ruins of the colossal sphinx have not reached our time, and we can only see the sphinx that was intact at the beginning of the 18th century, i.e. at the time of writing this book. Beginning of description:
“The second wonder of the world is the Egyptians, and mainly the three that remain, which the Arabs call the mountains of Pharaoh. They are located about 3 leagues (approx. 13.3 km) from Cairo on a sandy plain located on a rocky base. Their distance from one to another is about 200 steps. Mr Thévenot doesn't think the smallest one was ever bigger. However, from the description of Strabo, who saw her, it seems that she was much more magnificent than she is now.”
It says here: “those 3 that remain.” Nowadays, there are 6 more small pyramids near the three large ones, 3 near the pyramid of Cheops and 3 near the pyramid of Menkaure, called companion pyramids. This book does not mention the number of small pyramids. Another book, published 61 years earlier, which will be discussed below, says that there were pyramids on this plateau near Cairo 17 . But there are three big ones. This means that the remaining small pyramids were destroyed. So did the second sphinx.
Winged sphinx
Description of the destroyed sphinx given in this book:
“A few steps from the second Pyramid we discover, with some other small Pyramids, the amazing head of the Sphinx, carved in stone on a base proportional to this colossal figure. It must have been whole at one time; for Pliny gives us its length 143 feet (43m), height from belly to apex 62 feet (19m), and circumference of head 102 feet (31m). In order to give more information to the reader, we present the figure of the Roman Sphinx as described by Ausonius: “The Sphinx with the wings of a bird, the paws of a beast, the face of a girl. And in the distance is the Egyptian Sphinx without wings.” This next verse is translated from Greek in praise of the pyramids: "The pyramids stand quietly on the land of the Nilotids, the golden constellation of the Pleiades before them."
I’m not very sure about the translation of the last phrase, but for sure it has something to do with the pyramids located on Egyptian soil and with the Pleiades constellation. Here is this phrase in Latin: “Pyramides, sèd adhuc terra Nilotide tangunt Aurea Pleïadum sidera fronte suâ.” Maybe someone can translate it better? It turns out that the sphinx remained intact without wings. And the one with wings was completely destroyed. There was a sphinx in Greek mythology: “a monster with the head of a woman, the paws and body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the tail of a bull, a character in the legend of Oedipus.” And he looked something like this:
Attic marble stele (c. 530 BC) As I understand it, a fairly common image for ancient world. Found in Greece, northern Africa, in general, wherever the ancient “Greeks” lived?
The base of the column is in the shape of a double sphinx. From Sam'ala. 8th century BC Museum of Ancient Orient, Istanbul Ancient travelers and historians who described the Egyptian pyramids
The book mentions people who saw all these pyramids and sphinxes before they were destroyed. This Strabo- (64/63 BC - 23/24 AD) - ancient historian and geographer of Roman Greece. The author of “History” (not preserved) and the almost completely preserved “Geography” in 17 books, which serves as the best source for studying the geography of the ancient world. Something tells me that his “History,” which has not survived, was much more interesting than the 17 volumes that have survived. As it usually happens. Ausonius, the ancient Roman poet and rhetorician who described the ruined Sphinx, lived around the 4th century AD. (all dates are official, and it’s not a fact that they are correct, but we don’t have others). Jean de Thévenot(Jean de Thévenot) is the French traveler in the East closest to our time, who lived in the 17th century, famous for his travel notes. Often in the texts describing the pyramids there are names Diodora And Pliny:
“The strength of structures of this type, conical in shape, like a torch, has this advantage over all other structures that have been known for a thousand years since the time of Diodorus. Still preserved, they are beyond the forces of time, which would rather lose the memory of this structure than destroy it. Because since the time of Pliny man has not been able to learn anything more definite about their founders.”
Diodorus Siculus(lat. Diodorus Siculus; about 90 - 30 BC) - ancient Greek historian and mythographer originally from Sicilian Agyria.
Pliny the Elder(between 22 and 24 AD - 79 AD) - Ancient Roman polymath writer. He is best known as the author of Natural History, the largest encyclopedic work of antiquity; his other works have not survived to this day. He was the uncle of Gaius Pliny Caecilius II, known as Pliny the Younger.
I don’t know when Diodorus actually lived, but Pliny, in my opinion, lived around the 15th century.
Construction of the pyramids
From the description of “Sketches of Historical Architecture”:
“We know that 360,000 people worked 20 years on the largest pyramid, according to Herodotus [who counts only 100,000 activities]: 10 years to prepare stones and materials, 10 years to build the pyramid. The largest, whose perimeter exceeds the second by 51 cubic feet, was the only one with an entrance discovered. Monsignor Thévenot counted 208 steps, most of which is 3 feet (0.9m) in height."
I wonder where they got so many people to build the pyramid? And where could they be located? This is approximately the population of the city of Vladimir or Arkhangelsk. Or did you calculate the total number of builders for the entire construction period, and not their simultaneous employment in construction? Russian-language Wikipedia gives a figure of 100,000 people. Other Wikipedias do not mention the number of builders at all. The results of modern measurements of the largest pyramid:
“Its initial volume was 2,520,000 cubic meters; now it is about 170,000 cubic meters smaller, because for centuries the pyramid was used as a quarry. About 2,250,000 stone blocks, each with a volume of more than a cubic meter, were used for its construction; this material would be enough to build a city with a population of one hundred thousand. Its weight is 6.5-7 million tons. If it were hollow, it would fit a space rocket launcher. According to experts, even an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima would not have destroyed it.”
A city of 100,000 people is not small. Is the volume of material contained in one pyramid really enough to build such a city? I decided to calculate approximately how many Khrushchev buildings would fit into this pyramid (based on the volume of material). I took the standard 5th entrance, i.e. for 100 apartments, and about 300 residents - roughly. The volume of materials spent on such a house (92x12x16m), again approximately, roughly - 5 thousand. m3. Those. one pyramid fits approximately 504 of these houses, or 151,200 inhabitants.... I can’t even believe it, but I think I’ve counted everything exactly. And this is just one pyramid. And there are 3 of them. Even if they are smaller, they are a city for 100 thousand with complete infrastructure: shops, schools, gardens, etc. enough.
On the possibility of destroying the atomic pyramid bomb and in general, whatever the cataclysm, we will discuss below. For now, let’s calculate the man-hours, assuming that people worked 12 hours a day without days off, we get: 12x365x20=87,600 It turns out that 2.4 minutes were spent on the production of one block. Currently, some researchers believe that the blocks were not cut in a quarry, but were cast from concrete. But is it much simpler? Yes, there is no need to lift blocks weighing more than 2 tons to a height of more than 100 m, but you still need to extract material for making concrete, grind it, then mix it, diluting it with water, make formwork, pour concrete into it, and compact it. Currently, reinforced concrete plants exist for the production of concrete, a metal frame is used for formwork, and electric vibrators are used for compaction. Despite all this, 10 years for the construction of a large project is a normal period these days. For clarity, a photo of the pyramid:
What could the formwork be made of and how? I read several articles by researchers of the Egyptian pyramids, but did not find the answer to this question. Made of wood? Where did they get so much wood, and what tools did they use to process it? How was the formwork made from it? This is what modern formwork looks like:
Panel formwork diagram Description of the manufacture of wooden formwork:
“Although you can use ordinary edged boards under the foundation formwork, you will have to ensure that the surface facing the concrete is smooth and clean.
It is not allowed for the inner surface of the boards to contain unevenness, cracks, traces of dirt, chips, etc.
The formwork must be set strictly according to the level; all fastenings are made in such a way that when the concrete mixture hardens no shrinkage occurred. If this condition is not met, then the foundation will begin to deform, and in the future will not withstand the loads that were planned during construction; (let me remind you that the weight of the pyramid is about 7 million tons, and the load, especially on the lower blocks, is colossal - my comment)
When attaching individual elements, care must be taken to ensure that There were no cracks or gaps between the individual boards. All fastenings must be secure, capable of withstanding the load from concrete poured into the structure.”
It is believed that formwork made from boards can withstand up to 15 cycles, after which it can be thrown away. We divide 2,250,000 stone blocks by 15 and get 150,000 formwork blocks we will need to build a pyramid (we are counting only one for now - Cheops), or approximately 1,500 large trees, with a trunk diameter of 30 cm and a height of more than 20 m. Something like this:
Or 37.5 hectares of forest(approximately), for construction only this one pyramid. But besides it there are 2 more, albeit smaller, but also quite large, and there were 17 small pyramids, as well as a lot of different temples and the city of Cairo nearby. Considering that wood was used not only for the formwork of pyramids and temples, but also for the manufacture of ships, roofs and ceilings of residential buildings, and furniture. Even without taking into account the possible use of wood for cooking (it can be cooked on dry grass, camel dung, etc.), Egypt had to have forests to provide the necessary needs for wood. But there is this opinion on this matter:
"Incredible fact: in Egyptian desert, two hours from Cairo, the capital of Egypt, there is a full-fledged thriving forest called the Serapium and covers an area of \u200b\u200b240 hectares. But where did it come from in a place where there are no natural sources of water, no natural precipitation, and where for thousands of years there was only one hot, lifeless desert? The fact is that a team of German and Egyptian researchers came up with a very effective method stopping desertification and starting land reclamation from dry sands.”
It is likely that there was water and forests in Egypt, if you believe, for example, this map:
Carte de L "Afrique selon les auteurs anciens enrichie de remarques historiques (Map of Africa, according to ancient authors, enriched with historical notes) And many other ancient maps. But what other types of formwork could be used instead of wood? Sackcloth? Then it would look like this:
A wall of bags. This type of formwork does not correspond to the appearance of the pyramids. The wooden formwork also does not match the interior. It is not possible to achieve this look using it:
King's Chamber in the Pyramid of Cheops What other types of formwork remain? Only metal or polymer (plywood also includes here) - this is already an industrial production; you cannot make it using a homemade method on your knees. But even if the builders of the pyramid used precisely these types of formwork, there are moments in the pyramid that cannot be explained simply by the use of concrete. For example, above this King’s chamber in the Cheops pyramid there is a structure made of a system of large blocks:
Unloading chambers above the Chamber of the King BP Cheops. Description of these blocks:
“On long wall beams of low height lie across rather roughly processed, but very heavy and strong granite beams, of very heterogeneous thickness, about 1.5 meters on average, about 1 meter wide and over 7 meters long, forming the roof of the chamber and at the same time - the floor of the next one.”
The same structures are found in the other two pyramids. Such blocks would crack under their own weight if they were made only of concrete. Concrete works well in compression, but not in bending. And to cover the spans, therefore, not concrete is used, but reinforced concrete, i.e. concrete, with a frame of metal rods located in it, pre-tensioned to increase the strength of the structure. In addition, both concrete and reinforced concrete are not so easy to obtain of good quality, even in industrial production conditions, where there is every opportunity for strict adherence to technology. Poor quality concrete begins to crumble very quickly. The service life of high-quality concrete is 50-100 years. For those who are interested: “Service life of concrete”. Natural stone still remains stronger than artificial, no matter how high quality it is.
Entrance to the Pyramid of Cheops
But let's return to the old description:
“The upper part of the pyramid, with the top cut off, according to the measure of Monsignor Thévenot, is a square of 16 feet (4.8 m) on each side, or 20 according to Lucas, composed of 5 blocks. This should make us admire the machines of the ancients to lift such a weight to such a height. But Diodorus believes that machines were not used in this century. Each side of the Pyramid is 682 feet (204m). The entrance is located on the north side near the 16th step, approximately in the middle. The entrance width is 3 feet, 3 inches; height is 3 inches longer(approximately 1x1m). Door set on top of a large stone 2 feet wide and 8 feet long.
This is how the entrance to the Cheops pyramid is depicted in an illustration from the book “Relations de divers voyages curieux, qui n"ont point esté publiees” (Descriptions of various curious journeys that were not published), published in 1664:
Obviously, the entrance was blocked later. But let's return to Thévenot's drawing. In addition to the entrance to the Great Pyramid, it shows the pyramids themselves, the Great and the Second, the profile of the wells of the great pyramid according to Pere Eliazar (in the upper right corner of the picture), and the profile of the internal channels of the pyramid from the entrance and on to the middle and upper chambers (at the bottom of the picture):
Explanatory notes:
A Entrance to the pyramid
bc The rise of the first gallery,
ce First gallery
dr Well
dh Passage leading to the vaulted chamber
lii vaulted chamber
fK Second gallery
Kn First vestibule
nq Second vestibule
op Chamber containing Tomb Q
And the dimensions of this tomb are given. The dimensions of the upper chamber and the tomb located in it are given in feet, with 3 digits after the decimal point. Why was such precision in measurements needed? And how was the person measuring it able to install it? Feet are centimeters. Those. the third digit after the decimal point is micrometers. On modern construction drawings, dimensions are plotted to the nearest millimeter. Well, in practice, such accuracy is never achieved in modern construction. Despite the use of the most advanced modern technology. Therefore, the accuracy of the dimensions of the Egyptian pyramids still amazes the imagination of specialists. And everyone who understands this. Those who measured the Cheops pyramid say that there is not a single random variable there. All quantities obey a certain mathematical law. All relationships between quantities are the same. Let's compare measurements made in the 17th century with modern ones:
Scheme of the Cheops pyramid In my opinion, it's not a big difference. The modern drawing is more detailed. But the instruments of modern researchers are also more advanced?
Lighting the interior of the pyramids
Image of the second internal gallery of the Cheops pyramid:
La grande galerie vers 1799 (Description de l"Égypte) Use burning torches for lighting. Thevenot writes in his book that it was hard to breathe inside the pyramids. Even without burning torches, there is not much oxygen to breathe there. And mentions perpetuelles lampes ( eternal lamps), which most likely were used by the builders of the pyramids. Here's what he writes:
“The blackness you notice there makes you believe that there were once lighting lamps. Burratini believes that some of these eternal lamps were found in Italy in the tomb of Tulliola, and also in England."
I found a mention of such a lamp in the book “” (Dictionary of the methodical encyclopedia or in order of disciplines: hobbies in mathematics and physical sciences), 1792, and in other sources, which say that eternal lamps used to be found everywhere: in ancient times in temples and burials Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, in Egypt, Europe, Asia Minor, India, Tibet, America. Perhaps one of these lamps is shown here:
Bas-relief sculpted on the walls of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera in Egypt. Athanasius Kircher, in his book Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 1652–1655, described many eternal lamps found by his contemporaries in the underground vaults of Memphis.
Pyramid cladding
Description of the pyramids given by Jean de Thévenot:
“Pres described the appearance Great Pyramid with its dimensions, I begin here to describe the interior, which the ancients did not speak of; what I attribute to the belief they had for the tombs is that it did not allow them to enter this Palace of Death, dedicated to the peace and quiet of the dead. Herodotus says in a nutshell that the Pyramids had secret vaults carved into the rock; Diodorus Siculus does not talk about this at all, although he is too interested in things that are not so interesting. Strabo says little about this. According to him, 40 stadia (7.7 km) from the city of Memphis there is a rock on which pyramids and tombs of ancient kings were built. Three of these pyramids are very prominent; but, in general, two that are among the seven Wonders of the World; they are 4 stades (768m) high, and each of their four sides is almost as long as the height of the pyramid. One of these two pyramids is slightly larger than the other; At the top of the largest of these pyramids, at the point where its four sides end, there is a stone that can easily be removed and an entrance leading down to the tomb can be opened. Pliny only describes the well, which is still visible here today, he says its depth is 86 cubits (43m). It seems he thought that some underground tunnels carried water from the Nile. Aristide, in a speech entitled "Egyptian", says that the base of the pyramids descends underground to the same depth as the height of the pyramid above the ground. In this he was ill-informed by the Egyptians because the pyramids have no base other than rock. This is how he puts it: We look with admiration at the height of the pyramids and do not think that their bases are as deep as they are high, as I learned from their priests. This is what he found among the ancients, and which I report here only out of the respect we should have for antiquity.”
Those. The author of these lines does not believe that there are structures under the pyramids that go to such great depths. And I think that this may well be the case. Nowadays, there are also opinions that under the pyramids of Giza there is an underground city. Interesting in this description is the mention of the entrance to the pyramid located at its top. If there was such an entrance, then it was possible to get into it only from the air. When the pyramids were still intact, they were lined with stone, polished to such an extent that they sparkled in the sun, reflecting its rays. And therefore, they were so smooth that it was impossible to climb up the walls. The cladding of only one, the second largest pyramid of Khafre, has survived to this day:
The remaining cladding on the top of the Pyramid of Khafre. El Giza But according to the descriptions of the ancients, all three pyramids were faced in the same way. Only the cladding material is called different. And speaking of the cladding, I cannot keep silent about the fact that Jean de Thévenot describes on the third pyramid, called the pyramid of Menkaure or Mikerinus, a completely different cladding that is present now:
Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza. Here is what he writes about the cladding of this pyramid, excerpts:
« Diodorus says that each side of the base of the pyramid of Menkaure is 300 feet long; what is 15 main blocks of black stone, similar to the marble from Thebes, and the rest are made from the same blocks that make up other pyramids. He says that this pyramid is not as large as the others, but surpasses them in the beauty of its structure and the splendor of its fine marble. On the north side there is engraved the name of Menkaure the Founder.
Strabo says that on a higher rock in this place the third pyramid is much smaller than the other two, but much more expensive because from the base to half its height it is made of this black marble, from which they make cement in this area, and which is very difficult to cut.
Pliny describes it speaking more like a historian than an eyewitness. According to him, the third pyramid is smaller than the others, but much more beautiful; it is made of Ethiopian marble, each of its sides is 363 feet. This is all I have found of the antiquity of this pyramid.
But among the contemporaries we must first examine what Bellon says, or, moreover, Peter Gilius: The third pyramid is much smaller than the other two; but it is a third larger than the one located within the walls of Rome near the Mount of the Covenant (Pyramid of Cestius as further reported by the author - my note), it is so intact as if it had just been built; for it is built of marble, called basalt or Ethiopian marble, harder than iron.”
"It is true that on the eastern side of this pyramid we see ruins of dark colored stone mass, very similar to those we described between the first and second pyramids, which can lead to this error."
But no mention of red granite cladding. Most likely, the pyramid no longer had any cladding at the time when the traveler Thévenot saw it.
Etruscan pyramids
The Pyramid of Cestius mentioned here is believed to have been built around 18-12 BC. as a tomb for Gaius Cestius, magistrate and member of one of the four great religious corporations in Rome. The pyramid is made of concrete with brick cladding, covered with slabs of white marble, the base of the pyramid measures 30x30 m and height is 36.4 m. Thévenot also mentions other European pyramids:
« Pausanias says that formerly people who had wealth were buried under mountains, and that columns and pyramids were erected over their tombs. Perhaps it was precisely such a pillar or column that he wrote about Absalon in the 18th chapter of Samuel. And Pausanias, as he describes the funeral of the Sicyonians, said that they buried the bodies of the dead in the ground and placed columns on top. But having described the Egyptian pyramids, I don’t think there are any that deserve more attention than the pyramids Porsens, king of Etruria, which deserve a higher estimate for their number than for their size. Varro says that he was buried outside the city of Clusium. He had a tombstone made of square stones, 300 feet (91.5 m) long and 50 feet (15 m) high, under the base there was a labyrinth from which it was impossible to escape; at the top there were five pyramids, four at the corners and one in the middle; which was 75 feet ( 23m) at the base and 150 ( 46m) in height; at the top of the pyramid was a bronze circle around which there was a chain with bells attached. The wind made the structure make a sound that carried very far, like in the Dodona forest.”
Pausanias- ancient Greek writer and geographer of the 2nd century, author of a kind of ancient guidebook “Description of Hellas”. Absalon(1128 - 1201) - Danish archbishop and statesman. Lars Porsena(approximately 6th century BC) - Etruscan king and commander, ruler of the city of Clusium. So, the Etruscans also built pyramids. The proportions of the Etruscan pyramids indicated here (the height is 2 times the base) coincide with the pyramids depicted in numerous paintings by ruinists of the 17th and 18th centuries. For example:
Roman ruin with figures, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, 1748 Here, however, a small pyramid is depicted. The pyramid of Porsena described in the text is 46m high - this is approximately the height of a 12-story building. Apparently, by the 18th century there were no such large pyramids left in Europe. But at least this is additional confirmation that the ruin artists were not imagining the pyramids in their paintings. In his description of these pyramids, Thévenot refers to Etruscan mythology, from which we can conclude that in the 17th century the Etruscan language was quite readable. What I already wrote about in the article ““. The description of the bells making sound under the influence of the wind coincides with the description given by Nicholas Witsen in the book “Northern and Eastern”. Excerpt from there:
“Mr. Adam Brand, a noble merchant from Lübeck, who saw this temple, writes to me the following: “Near the river Kazumur, which flows into Naum and has good drinking water, there are ruined cities, where figures of men, women and wild animals carved from stone are still visible life-size animals. It is rare to find more skillfully executed sculptures in Europe. These are obviously images from ancient history: men with bows - and they say that this area was destroyed by Alexander the Great. We saw here huge columns skillfully carved from stone; some of them have many bells hanging on them. They make a lot of noise when there is wind Source
What speaks about the unified culture of the Slavs in the past, regardless of their place of residence.
Pyramids - repositories of knowledge for descendants who survived the disaster
The 17th century French traveler Jean de Thévenot also describes a possible reason for the construction of the pyramids:
“Most chronologists agree that these pyramids were built by King Saurid of Egypt 300 years before the flood. This prince had a vision that the earth was turned upside down, he saw people lying face down and stars falling from the vault of heaven. Disturbed by this dream, he kept it a secret. Then he saw the fixed stars fall to the earth, in the form of white birds, which served as guides for the people and led them between two great mountains; the tops of these two mountains approached and crushed these people, meanwhile the stars darkened. He was very surprised by this vision and gathered the leaders of all the provinces of Egypt. He collected them to the number of 130, among whom the most famous was named Aklimon. The prince, who was narrating his dream, drew the figure of Heaven during this dream. From what they heard, they concluded that something great was about to happen and the country was in danger of ruin. Because this terrible event was to occur several years later, Saurid built pyramids and constructed a cistern or underground canal to drain water from the Nile in Western Egypt, in a province called Alsaida. He filled this channel with talimans (Talimans, maybe talismans? - my note) and placed his treasures in the pyramid, as well as collections of everything he learned from the most skilled people of the time, including jewelry, the secrets of astrology, object lessons in geometry , physics and other sciences, books understandable only to those who know their character. Then he cut stones and columns of enormous size, the stones were brought from Ethiopia, he laid them in the foundation of three pyramids, they were connected to each other with iron ties sealed with lead(A. Kircher speaks about the same technology, describing the Babylonian Bridge over the Euphrates River. About this in the previous article - my note)
The entrances to the pyramids were made and sealed underground at a depth of 40 cubits ( 51m). The height of the pyramids was 500 royal cubits ( 265m). Having made them, he covered them with satin of a beautiful color (satin is also translated from French as “barium sulfate”, here I did not understand what he actually covered the pyramids with - fabric or some kind of possibly waterproof substance? - my note). There was a solemn holiday in which all subjects participated. He then built thirty chambers in the western pyramid, which were filled with treasures and many magical gems, machines, all kinds of tools and malleable glass. He put in all sorts alakakirov(???), several singles, duplicates, several poisons (potions), and thousands of other things that he put inside the pyramid. Balls, celestial spheres, stars of the sky, with inscriptions about their nature and their aspects, and perfumes were placed in the eastern pyramid. He also placed in the Pyramid, painted with the interpretations of his priests, black marble chests containing books containing the secrets of the science of these priests, their occupation, their actions, their temperament, the history of everything that was done in their time, and the history of everything that would happen to the end Sveta.
He installed a guardian in each pyramid. In the pyramid facing west stood a statue of black marble with a spear and a snake entwined around it; when someone approached, the snake rushed at him, made several turns around his neck and returned to its place after killing. The guardian of the Pyramid, facing the east, was an idol made of black agate with open and shining eyes; he sat on a throne with a spear in his hand, and whoever approached him heard a voice that stopped the feeling, he fell to the ground and died almost suddenly. For the guardian of the colored pyramid, he made a statue from a stone called albut. It was a seated figure that attracted those who looked at it. They died clinging to her, unable to break away. The Copts write in their books that there is an inscription on this pyramid that reads:
“King Saurid built the pyramids at such and such a time, he completed them in 6 years. The one who comes after me, and who believes in himself as much as I believed, undertakes to destroy them in 600 years. Because it is easier to demolish a building than to build it. I covered them with satin, and he undertakes to cover them with matting.”
Here is the information I found about malleable glass:
« The History of the World by the Hellenic historian Pliny describes an episode with forging glass, whose method has been lost. In the Middle Ages they knew about this and tried to restore the method, but to no avail.”
The same as with eternal lamps and many other ancient technologies. The pyramids were built with the expectation that they could withstand a global cataclysm. Which turned out to be true. It’s just that there are no more people who are able to read the inscriptions and feel as strong as the Builder of the Pyramids, judging by the fact that the pyramids are still standing, albeit partially destroyed. Unless, of course, such an inscription on the pyramid really exists, and is not a fantasy of Thevenot or the Copts to whom he refers. And it is obvious that the Guardians of the pyramids could not protect them from plunder. Although probably the essence of these pyramids, based on the text, was precisely to preserve knowledge for surviving descendants. That’s why it was ordered to dismantle the pyramids. To remove from them everything carefully preserved. Perhaps not everything has been found yet? But perhaps the purpose of the pyramids was completely different? Nowadays, there are many versions of the purpose of the pyramids, and all of them can be considered equal until one of them is precisely confirmed.
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