How many meters is the Cheops pyramid? The reign of Pharaoh Cheops. The Pyramid of Cheops. Afterlife of Ancient Egypt

During the construction of the most grandiose monument of antiquity, the Pyramid of Cheops, more than one year was spent and involved great amount slaves, many of whom died on construction sites. This was the opinion of the ancient Greeks, among them Herodotus, one of the first historians who described this grandiose structure in detail.

But modern scientists do not agree with this opinion and argue: many free Egyptians wanted to work on construction sites - when agricultural work ended, it was an excellent opportunity to earn extra money (here they provided food, clothing and housing).

For any Egyptian, participating in the construction of a tomb for their ruler was a duty and a matter of honor, since each of them hoped that he would also be touched by a piece of pharaonic immortality: it was believed that the Egyptian ruler had the right not only to life after death, but could also take with him their loved ones (usually they were buried in tombs adjacent to the pyramid).

Ordinary people, however, were not destined to go to the afterlife - the exception was slaves and servants, who were buried with the ruler. But everyone had the right to hope - and therefore, when housework was finished, for many years the Egyptians rushed to Cairo, to the rocky plateau.

The Pyramid of Cheops (or as it was also called, Khufu) is located near Cairo, on the Giza plateau, on the left side of the Nile, and is the largest tomb located there. This tomb is the most high pyramid of our planet, was built over many years, has a non-standard layout. A rather interesting fact is that during the autopsy, the ruler’s body was not found in it.

For many years now, it has been exciting the minds of researchers and admirers of Egyptian culture, who ask themselves the question: were ancient people able to build such a structure and is the pyramid not the work of representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations who erected it for only one clear purpose?

The fact that this tomb of stunning size almost immediately entered the list of the ancient seven wonders of the world does not surprise anyone: the size of the Cheops pyramid is amazing, and this, despite the fact that over the past millennia it has become smaller, and scientists cannot determine the exact proportions of the Cheops pyramid condition, since its edges and surfaces were dismantled for their needs by more than one generation of Egyptians:

• The height of the pyramid is about 138 m (interestingly, in the year it was built, it was eleven meters higher);
• The foundation has a square shape, the length of each side is about 230 meters;
• The foundation area is about 5.4 hectares (thus, the five largest cathedrals of our planet will fit on it);
• The length of the foundation along the perimeter is 922 m.

Construction of the pyramid

If earlier scientists believed that the construction of the Cheops pyramid took the Egyptians about twenty years, in our time, Egyptologists, having studied the records of the priests in more detail, and, taking into account the parameters of the pyramid, as well as the fact that Cheops ruled for about fifty years, refuted this fact and came to I conclude that it took at least thirty, and maybe even forty, years to build it.

Despite the fact that the exact date of construction of this grandiose tomb is unknown, it is believed that it was built by order of Pharaoh Cheops, who allegedly reigned from 2589 to 2566 BC. e., and his nephew and vizier Hemion was responsible for the construction work, using the latest technologies of his time, the solution of which many scientific minds have been struggling for many centuries. He approached the matter with all care and meticulousness.

Preparation for construction

More than 4 thousand workers were involved in the preliminary work, which took about ten years. It was necessary to find a place for construction, the soil of which would be strong enough to support a structure of this scale - so the decision was made to stop on a rocky site near Cairo.

To level the site, the Egyptians, using stones and sand, built a waterproof square shaft. They cut out channels intersecting at right angles in the shaft, and the construction site began to resemble a large chessboard.

After that, water was released into the trenches, with the help of which the builders determined the height of the water level and made the necessary notches on the side walls of the channels, after which the water was released. The workers cut down all the stones that were above the water level, after which the trenches were filled with stones, thus creating the foundation of the tomb.

Works with stone

The building material for the tomb was obtained from a quarry located on the other side of the Nile. To obtain a block of the required size, the stone was cut down from the rock and hewn to the required size - from 0.8 to 1.5 m. Although on average one stone block weighed about 2.5 tons, the Egyptians also made heavier specimens, for example, the heaviest the block that was installed above the entrance to the “Pharaoh’s Room” weighed 35 tons.

Using thick ropes and levers, the builders secured the block on wooden runners and dragged it along a deck of logs to the Nile, loaded it onto a boat and transported it across the river. And then they again dragged it along the logs to the construction site, after which the most difficult stage began: the huge block had to be pulled to the very top platform of the tomb. How exactly they did this and what technologies they used is one of the mysteries of the Cheops pyramid.

One of the versions proposed by scientists implies the following option. Along a 20 m wide brick rise located at an angle, the block lying on skids was pulled upward with the help of ropes and levers, where it was placed in a clearly designated place. The higher the Cheops pyramid became, the longer and steeper the climb became, and the upper platform became smaller - so it became more and more difficult and dangerous to lift the boulders.

The workers had the hardest time when it was necessary to install the “pyramidon” - the topmost block 9 meters high (not preserved to this day). Since the huge boulder had to be lifted almost vertically, the work turned out to be deadly, and many people died at this stage of the work. As a result, the Cheops pyramid, after construction was completed, had more than 200 steps leading up and looked like a huge stepped mountain.

In total, it took the ancient Egyptians at least twenty years to build the body of the pyramid. The work on the “box” was not finished yet - they still had to lay them with stones and make sure that the outer parts of the blocks became more or less smooth. And at the final stage, the Egyptians completely lined the pyramid from the outside with slabs of white limestone polished to a shine - and it sparkled in the sun like a huge shiny crystal.

The slabs have not survived to this day on the pyramid: the inhabitants of Cairo, after the Arabs plundered their capital (1168), used them in the construction of new houses and temples (some of them can be seen on mosques today).

Drawings on the pyramid

Interesting fact: the outer side of the pyramid body is covered with curvilinear grooves of different sizes. If you look at them from a certain angle, you can see the image of a man 150 m high (possibly a portrait of one of the ancient gods). This drawing is not alone: ​​on the northern wall of the tomb one can also distinguish a man and a woman with their heads bowed to each other.

Scientists claim that these Egyptians made the grooves several years before they finished building the pyramid body and installed the top stone. True, the question remains open: why did they do this, because the slabs with which the pyramid was subsequently decorated hid these portraits.

What the Great Pyramid looked like from the inside

A detailed study of the Cheops Pyramid showed that, contrary to popular belief, there are practically no inscriptions or any other decorations inside the tomb, except for a small portrait in the corridor leading to the Queen's Room.

The entrance to the tomb is located on the north side at a height exceeding fifteen meters. After burial, it was closed with a granite plug, so tourists get inside through a gap located about ten meters below - it was cut down by the Caliph of Baghdad Abdullah al-Mamun (820 AD) - the man who first entered the tomb with the aim of robbing it. The attempt failed because he found nothing here except a thick layer of dust.

The Cheops Pyramid is the only pyramid where there are corridors leading both down and up. The main corridor first goes down, then branches into two tunnels - one leads down to the unfinished funeral chamber, the second leads up, first to the Great Gallery, from which you can get to the Queen's Room and the main tomb.

From the central entrance, through a tunnel leading down (its length is 105 meters), you can get into a burial pit located below ground level, the height of which is 14 m, width - 8.1 m, height - 3.5 m. Inside the room, near Egyptologists discovered a well on the southern wall, the depth of which is about three meters (a narrow tunnel stretches from it to the south, leading to a dead end).

Researchers believe that this particular room was originally intended for the crypt of Cheops, but then the pharaoh changed his mind and decided to build a tomb higher for himself, so this room remained unfinished.

You can also get to the unfinished funeral room from the Great Gallery - at its very entrance a narrow, almost vertical shaft 60 meters high begins. Interestingly, in the middle of this tunnel there is a small grotto (most likely of natural origin, since it is located at the point of contact between the stonework of the pyramid and a small hump of limestone), which could accommodate several people.

According to one hypothesis, the architects took this grotto into account when designing the pyramid and initially intended it to evacuate builders or priests who were completing the “sealing” ceremony of the central passage leading to the tomb of the pharaoh.

The Pyramid of Cheops has another mysterious room with an unclear purpose - the “Queen's Chamber” (like the lowest room, this room is not completed, as evidenced by the floor on which they began to lay tiles, but did not complete the work).

This room can be reached by first going down the corridor 18 meters from the main entrance, and then going up a long tunnel (40 m). This room is the smallest of all, located in the very center of the pyramid, has an almost square shape (5.73 x 5.23 m, height - 6.22 m), and a niche is built into one of its walls.

Despite the fact that the second burial pit is called the “queen’s room,” the name is a misnomer, since the wives of Egyptian rulers were always buried in separate small pyramids (there are three such tombs near the tomb of the pharaoh).

Previously, it was not easy to get into the “Queen’s Chamber”, because at the very beginning of the corridor that led to the Great Gallery, three granite blocks were installed, disguised with limestone - so it was previously believed that this room did not exist. Al-Mamunu guessed about its presence and, being unable to remove the blocks, hollowed out a passage in the softer limestone (this passage is still in use today).

It is not known exactly at what stage of construction the plugs were installed, and therefore there are several hypotheses. According to one of them, they were installed even before the funeral, during construction work. Another claims that they were not there at all in this place before, and they appeared here after the earthquake, rolling down from the Great Gallery, where they were installed after the funeral of the ruler.

Another secret of the Cheops pyramid is that exactly where the plugs are located, there are not two, as in other pyramids, but three tunnels - the third is a vertical hole (though no one knows where it leads, since granite blocks with no one has moved the seats yet).

You can get to the tomb of the pharaoh through the Great Gallery, which is almost 50 meters long. It is a continuation of the upward corridor from the main entrance. Its height is 8.5 meters, with the walls narrowing slightly at the top. In front of the tomb of the Egyptian ruler there is a “hallway” - the so-called Antechamber.

From the Antechamber, a hole leads to the “Pharaoh's Chamber,” built from monolithic polished granite blocks, in which there is an empty sarcophagus made from a red piece of Aswan granite. (interesting fact: scientists have not yet found any traces or evidence that there was a burial here).

Apparently, the sarcophagus was brought here even before construction began, since its dimensions did not allow it to be placed here after the completion of construction work. The length of the tomb is 10.5 m, width – 5.4 m, height – 5.8 m.

The biggest mystery of the Cheops pyramid (as well as its feature) is its 20 cm wide shafts, which scientists call ventilation ducts. They start inside the two upper rooms, first go horizontally, and then go out at an angle.

While these channels in the Pharaoh’s room are through, in the “Queen’s Chambers” they begin only at a distance of 13 cm from the wall and do not reach the surface at the same distance (at the same time, at the top they are closed with stones with copper handles, the so-called “Ganterbrink doors”). .

Despite the fact that some researchers suggest that these were ventilation ducts (for example, they were intended to prevent workers from suffocating during work due to the lack of oxygen), most Egyptologists are still inclined to think that these narrow channels had religious significance and were able to prove that they were built taking into account the location of astronomical bodies. The presence of canals may well be related to the Egyptian belief about the gods and souls of the dead who live in the starry sky.

At the foot of the Great Pyramid there are several underground structures - in one of them archaeologists (1954) found the most old ship of our planet: a wooden boat made of cedar, disassembled into 1224 parts, the total length of which when assembled was 43.6 meters (apparently, it was on it that the pharaoh was supposed to go to the Kingdom of the Dead).

Is this tomb Cheops?

Over the past few years, Egyptologists have increasingly questioned the fact that this pyramid was actually intended for Cheops. This is evidenced by the fact that there is absolutely no decoration in the burial chamber.

The pharaoh's mummy was not found in the tomb, and the sarcophagus itself, in which it was supposed to be located, was not completely finished by the builders: it was hewn rather roughly, and the lid was missing altogether. These Interesting Facts provide an opportunity for fans of theories of the alien origin of this grandiose building assert that the pyramid was built by representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations, using technologies unknown to science and for a purpose incomprehensible to us.

Tourists arriving on holiday in Egypt are usually interested in pyramids much more than other local attractions. Against the backdrop of all the existing ancient buildings, the Pyramid of Cheops is of particular interest.

Find out why it is remarkable and what you need to remember when going on this kind of excursion.

During this excursion you will see three pyramids located next to each other. Ancient Egypt, namely:

• Cheops;
• Mekerina;
• Khafre.

Among them, the Cheops pyramid is the tallest.

A monument to ancient Egyptian civilization is located near the city, in the suburbs of Cairo. Install exact time The construction of a pyramid is extremely difficult: the data from numerous studies differ greatly from each other. The Egyptians themselves believe that construction work began in 2480 BC. and this event is celebrated annually on August 23.

According to historians, about 100 thousand workers were simultaneously engaged in the construction of the pyramid. During the first decade of convict labor, a road was made to transport stone blocks and the underground structures were completed. The monument itself was erected over another 20 years.

The height and overall size of the monument are truly impressive. Initially, the pyramid rose to about 147 m, but time has not been kind to the monument: as a result of the loss of cladding and being covered with sand, the previously given figure decreased to 137 m.

At the base of the pyramid is a square with a side of 230 m. According to average data, the construction of the monument took more than 2.3 million blocks, each of which weighs an average of 2500 kg.

The price of a trip to the pyramids depends on where you live and how you will get to the excursion. Those living in Cairo or Giza will not have any problems with the trip - the distance is short, you can also get there by bus. As for popular Egyptian resorts, the fastest way to get to the pyramids is from Hurghada - the distance is about 457 km. Taba is a little further - about 495 km. The longest road will be for residents of Sharm el-Sheikh - about 576 km.

Far? Naturally! And it’s good that you found out about this before the trip, and not after arriving in Egypt. In general, you will have to spend about a day traveling to the pyramids and back.

As for the tour, in specialized agencies it is most often called “excursion to Cairo”, and in addition famous pyramids includes visits to local museums and a variety of retail stores, mostly sponsored.

The cost of the excursion also depends on how exactly you are going to get to the Cheops Pyramid. So, tourists are usually taken from Hurghada by bus. Guests of Sharm el-Sheikh and Taba have access to flights. Average prices are as follows:

• bus tour from Hurghada – $50-70 per adult and $40-50 per child ticket;
• by bus from Sharm el-Sheikh - $50-60, by plane - $170-190;
• by bus from Taba - $50-70, by plane - $250-270.

Helpful advice! Don’t immediately discount the possibility of flying. First, familiarize yourself with the features of the road to the pyramids and back. It is possible that after studying the information presented you will change your mind.

There are no questions about the flight - you board the plane, wait a little, and now you are already at your destination. For tourists who choose Bus tours, you need to know the following:

• firstly, it is hot in Egypt at any time of the year. To prevent travelers from getting sick during a bus trip, travel agencies provide transfers mainly at night;
• secondly, you can’t count on traveling in a comfortable modern bus with powerful air conditioning. Of course, in similar vehicles There are air conditioners, but they rarely “cope” with the local climate. During the trip, do not hesitate to ask the driver to increase the air conditioning power.

You will arrive in the suburbs of Cairo around 7-8 am. Here you will be asked to join the caravan and calmly, accompanied by local guards, proceed to your destination. You will reach approximately 10-11 o'clock in the morning.

After listening to the guide's stories, seeing the areas open to tourists, taking the desired number of pictures, you will go back to the hotel and get to your room late at night.

Description of the pyramid

The external design of the monument is very interesting and unusual. On the walls you can see many grooves of various sizes. When viewed from the right angle, the individual lines form an incredibly tall portrait of a man believed to be one of the deities of ancient Egyptian civilization. Around the main image there are several pictures and other design elements of a more modest size, namely:

• bird-plane;
• plans interior spaces;
• trident;
• texts with beautiful signs, etc.

On the northern part of the monument you can see a beautiful image of a woman and a man with bowed heads. The painting was painted shortly before the installation of the last stone.

The pyramid in question is not a simple stone monument, but a well-thought-out structure with an extensive system of corridors. The first of them has a length of about 47 meters - this is the so-called. "big gallery" From here you can get to the Cheops chamber, which has a height of about 6 m and dimensions of 10.5 x 5.3 m. The room is lined with granite. There are no ornaments.

Here tourists are invited to look at the empty sarcophagus. It was brought here during the construction of the pyramid, because... the dimensions of the product would not allow carrying the product later. There is a similar chamber in almost every pyramid. It was in such premises that the rulers found last refuge.

Of the decorations and inscriptions inside the pyramid, the only thing worth noting is the portrait in the corridor through which you can get to the Queen’s chamber. Externally, the portrait looks like a photograph taken in stone.

In general, there are 3 chambers in the pyramid. The first burial chamber was cut out of the rock foundation, but was never completed. A narrow corridor about 120 m long leads to the unfinished cell. To connect the 1st and 2nd cells, a low (about 175 cm) 35-meter corridor was made. The next burial chamber of the Cheops pyramid is traditionally called the “queen’s chamber,” although according to ancient Egyptian custom, the wives of rulers found their final refuge in their own pyramids of more modest size.

The history of the “Queen’s Chamber” is very interesting. According to legend, in ancient times the pyramid was the main temple of the so-called. Supreme Deity. Special religious ceremonies were held here, shrouded in darkness and mystery. According to legend, inside the pyramid lived an unknown creature with the body of a man and the face of a lion. And the keys of Eternity were constantly in the hands of this creature. Only people who had undergone a series of purification procedures could see the “lion-faced” one. Only they received the magical Divine Name from the High Priest. And the person who learned the secret of the name was endowed with great magical power, not inferior to the power of the pyramid itself.

The main ceremony was carried out in the royal chamber. The initiate was tied to a ritual cross and placed in a large sarcophagus. While staying in it, the candidate found himself in the space between the material and divine worlds, where knowledge came to him that was inaccessible to mere mortals.

Inside the Cheops pyramid there is a vault above the pharaoh's chamber)

Another one branches off from the previously mentioned corridor, leading directly to the pharaoh’s chamber.

Pyramid of Cheops - tomb of the pharaoh

The internal structure of the pyramid is not limited to chambers and corridors alone. There are ventilation shafts and additional rooms. For example, in one of these rooms there is a table, and on it there is a book telling about the development of events in the country and the main achievements of civilization during the construction of the monument. The purpose of many other rooms and passages still remains unknown.

The purpose of the underground structures located at the foot of the building has not been fully determined. Some of them were opened at different periods of time. So, for example, archaeologists who studied the pyramid in 1954 found a wooden boat in one of the underground chambers - this is the oldest known ship created by man. No nails were used to build the boat. Traces of silt found on the ship led to the conclusion that before the death of the pharaoh, the ship managed to sail along the Nile.

When planning an excursion to the Cheops Pyramid, remember: this is a very exhausting journey. It is recommended to go on such a tour only during relatively cool periods of the year: from October to April. If possible, do not take children. It is unlikely that little tourists will be interested in when the pharaoh ruled and what he became famous for. There is no entertainment waiting for them inside the pyramid either.

If possible, avoid cooperation with local excursion companies: reviews from travelers indicate the extreme irresponsibility of such organizations. It is better to pay for the excursion at your travel agency. This way, you will overpay a little, but you can be sure that if necessary, you will have someone to file a claim with.

Try to find out as much information as possible about the tour guide. The best informants are hotel employees and guests. The qualifications of the guide on such trips are very important. With an inexperienced guide who barely speaks Russian, you will simply not be interested.

And one last word of advice: don’t expect anything extraordinary from your trip to the Cheops pyramid. Treat the excursion as one of the points on your route. Listen to the guide's stories, examine parts of the building open to travelers, and do a few beautiful photos and add a visit to the Cheops Pyramid to your personal travel bucket list.

Have a nice holiday!

Table – Transfer cost to Giza (Cairo)

Video – Cheops Pyramid Egypt

) and Heliopolis millennia before the founding of Cairo. For over three thousand years (before the construction of the cathedral in Lincoln, England, ca. 1300)

Great Pyramid was the tallest building on Earth. Since 1979, like many other pyramids of the complex " Memphis and its necropolises - the pyramid area from Giza to Dahshur", is a part World Heritage UNESCO.

Age of the pyramid

The architect of the Great Pyramid is considered to be Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also bore the title "Manager of all Pharaoh's construction projects." It is assumed that the construction, which lasted twenty years (during the reign of Cheops), ended around 2540 BC. e.

unknown, Public Domain

Existing methods for dating the start of construction of the pyramid are divided into historical, astronomical and radiocarbon. In Egypt, the date for the start of construction of the Cheops Pyramid was officially established (2009) and celebrated - August 23, 2560 BC. e. This date was obtained using the astronomical method of Kate Spence (University of Cambridge). However, this method and the dates obtained with it have been criticized by many Egyptologists.

Dates according to other dating methods: 2720 BC. e. (Stephen Hack, University of Nebraska), 2577 BC. e. (Juan Antonio Belmonte, University of Astrophysics in Canaris) and 2708 BC. e. (Pollux, Bauman University). Radiocarbon dating gives a range from 2680 BC. e. to 2850 BC e. Therefore, there is no serious confirmation of the established “birthday” of the pyramid, since Egyptologists cannot agree on exactly what year construction began.

First mention of the pyramid

The complete absence of mention of the pyramid in Egyptian papyri remains a mystery. The first descriptions are found in the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) and in ancient Arab legends. Herodotus reported (at least 2 millennia after the appearance of the Great Pyramid) that it was built under a despot pharaoh named Cheops (Greek: Cheops). Koufou), who ruled for 50 years, that 100 thousand people were employed in construction. for twenty years, and that the pyramid is in honor of Cheops, but not his grave. The real grave is a burial near the pyramid. Herodotus gave erroneous information about the size of the pyramid, and also mentioned about the middle pyramid of the Giza plateau that it was built by the daughter of Cheops, who sold herself, and that each building stone corresponded to the man to whom she was given.

Appearance

The pyramid is called "Akhet-Khufu" - "Horizon of Khufu" (or more accurately "Related to the firmament - (it is) Khufu"). Consists of limestone and granite blocks. It was built on a natural limestone hill. After the pyramid has lost several layers of cladding, this hill is partially visible on the eastern, northern and southern sides of the pyramid.

Despite the fact that the Cheops pyramid is the tallest and most voluminous of all the Egyptian pyramids, Pharaoh Sneferu built the pyramids in Meidum and Dakhshut (Broken Pyramid and), the total mass of which is estimated at 8.4 million tons.

Rigelus, CC BY-SA 3.0

Initially, the pyramid was lined with white limestone, which was harder than the main blocks. The top of the pyramid was crowned with a gilded stone - pyramidion (ancient Egyptian - “Benben”). The cladding shone in the sun with a peach color, like “a shining miracle to which the sun god Ra himself seemed to give all his rays.”

In 1168, the Arabs sacked and burned Cairo. Residents of Cairo removed the cladding from the pyramid in order to build new houses.

Franck Monnier, Public Domain

Concavity of the sides

When the sun moves around the pyramid, you can notice the unevenness of the walls - the concavity of the central part of the walls. This may be due to erosion or damage from falling stone cladding. It is also possible that this was specially done during construction.

Franck Monnier, Public Domain

As Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi note, the pyramid of Mycerinus no longer has such concave sides. I.E.S. Edwards explains this feature by saying that the central part of each side was simply pressed inward over time by the large mass of stone blocks.

Vivant Denon, Dominique, Public Domain

As in the 18th century, when this phenomenon was discovered, today there is still no satisfactory explanation for this architectural feature.

Tilt angle

It is not possible to accurately determine the initial parameters of the pyramid, since its edges and surfaces are currently for the most part dismantled and destroyed. This makes it difficult to calculate the exact angle of inclination. In addition, its symmetry itself is not ideal, so deviations in the numbers are observed with different measurements.

In the literature on Egyptology, Peter Janosi, Mark Lehner, Miroslav Werner, Zahi Hawass, Alberto Scigliotti came to the same results in measurements, who believe that the length of the sides can be from 230.33 to 230.37 m. Knowing the length of the side and the angle at the base, they calculated the height of the pyramid - from 146.59 to 146.60 m. The slope of the pyramid is 51° 50", which corresponds to a seked (ancient Egyptian unit of measurement of slope, which is defined as the ratio of half the base to the height) of 5 ½ palms. Taking into account the fact that in one cubit (cubit) there are 7 palms, it turns out that with such a chosen seked, the double ratio of the base to the height is equal to 22/7, a well-known approximation of the number pi from ancient times, which, apparently, happened by chance, since other pyramids were chosen other meanings for seked.

Franck Monnier, Public Domain

A study of the geometry of the Great Pyramid does not provide a clear answer to the question of the original proportions of this structure. It is assumed that the Egyptians had an idea of ​​​​the “Golden Section” and the number pi, which were reflected in the proportions of the pyramid: thus, the ratio of the height to half the perimeter of the base is 14/22 (height = 280 cubits, and the base = 220 cubits, semi-perimeter of the base = 2 ×220 cubits; 280/440 = 14/22). For the first time in world history, these values ​​were used in the construction of the pyramid at Meidum. However, for the pyramids later eras These proportions were not used anywhere else, as, for example, some have height to base ratios like 6/5 ( Pink pyramid), 4/3 (Pyramid of Khafre) or 7/5 (Bent Pyramid).

Some theories consider the pyramid to be an astronomical observatory. It is argued that the corridors of the pyramid accurately point towards the “polar star” of that time - Thuban, the ventilation corridors on the south side - to the star Sirius, and on the north side - to the star Alnitak.

Internal structure

The entrance to the pyramid is at an altitude of 15.63 meters on the north side. The entrance is formed by stone slabs laid in the form of an arch, but this is the structure that was inside the pyramid - the true entrance has not been preserved. The true entrance to the pyramid was most likely closed with a stone plug. A description of such a plug can be found in Strabo, and its appearance can also be imagined based on the preserved slab that covered the upper entrance to the Bent Pyramid of Snefru, the father of Cheops. Today, tourists get inside the pyramid through a 17-meter gap, which was made 10 meters lower by the Baghdad caliph Abdullah al-Mamun in 820. He hoped to find the pharaoh's countless treasures there, but found there only a layer of dust half a cubit thick.

Inside the Cheops pyramid there are three burial chambers, located one above the other.

Yucatan, CC BY-SA 4.0

Funeral "pit"

A 105 m long descending corridor running at an inclination of 26° 26'46 leads to an 8.9 m long horizontal corridor leading to the chamber 5 . Situated below ground level in a limestone bedrock, it remained unfinished. The dimensions of the chamber are 14x8.1 m, it extends from east to west. The height reaches 3.5 m, the ceiling has a large crack. At the southern wall of the chamber there is a well about 3 m deep, from which a narrow manhole (0.7 × 0.7 m in cross-section) stretches in a southern direction for 16 m, ending in a dead end.

John and Edgar Morton, Public Domain

At the beginning of the 19th century, engineers John Shae Perring and Richard William Howard Vyse cleared the floor of the chamber and dug a well 11.6 m deep, in which they hoped to discover a hidden burial chamber. They were based on the testimony of Herodotus, who claimed that the body of Cheops was on an island surrounded by a canal in a hidden underground chamber.

Their excavations came to nothing. Later studies showed that the chamber was abandoned unfinished, and it was decided to build the burial chambers in the center of the pyramid itself.

Photos taken in 1910

John and Edgar Morton, Public Domain

John and Edgar Morton, Public Domain

Ascending Corridor and Queen's Chambers

From the first third of the descending passage (18 m from the main entrance), an ascending passage goes south at the same angle of 26.5° ( 6 ) about 40 m long, ending at the bottom of the Great Gallery ( 9 ).

At its beginning, the ascending passage contains 3 large cubic granite “plugs”, which from the outside, from the descending passage, were masked by a block of limestone that fell out during the work of al-Mamun. Thus, for the previous approximately 3 thousand years, it was believed that there were no rooms in the Great Pyramid other than the descending passage and the underground chamber. Al-Mamun was unable to break through these plugs and simply hollowed out a bypass to the right of them in the softer limestone. This passage is still in use today. There are two main theories about the traffic jams, one of them is based on the fact that the ascending passage has traffic jams installed at the beginning of construction and thus this passage was sealed by them from the very beginning. The second argues that the current narrowing of the walls was caused by an earthquake, and the plugs were previously located within the Great Gallery and were used to seal the passage only after the funeral of the pharaoh.

Franck Monnier, GNU 1.2

An important mystery of this section of the ascending passage is that in the place where the traffic jams are now located, in the full-size, albeit shortened model of the pyramid passages - the so-called test corridors north of the Great Pyramid - there is a junction of not two, but three corridors at once, the third of which is a vertical tunnel. Since no one has yet been able to move the plugs, the question of whether there is a vertical hole above them remains open.

Jon Bodsworth, Green Copyright

In the middle of the ascending passage, the design of the walls has a peculiarity: in three places the so-called “frame stones” are installed - that is, the passage, square along its entire length, pierces through three monoliths. The purpose of these stones is unknown. In the area of ​​the frame stones, the walls of the passage have several small niches.

John and Edgar Morton, Public Domain

A horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high leads to the second burial chamber from the lower part of the Great Gallery in a southerly direction. The walls of this horizontal corridor are made of very large limestone blocks, on which false “seams” are applied, imitating masonry from smaller blocks . Behind the western wall of the passage there are cavities filled with sand.

The second chamber is traditionally called the “Queen’s Chamber,” although according to the ritual, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids. The Queen's Chamber, lined with limestone, measures 5.74 meters from east to west and 5.23 meters from north to south; its maximum height is 6.22 meters. There is a high niche in the eastern wall of the chamber.

Grotto, Grand Gallery and Pharaoh's Chambers

Another branch from the lower part of the Great Gallery is a narrow, almost vertical shaft about 60 m high, leading to the lower part of the descending passage. There is an assumption that it was intended to evacuate workers or priests who were completing the “sealing” of the main passage to the “King’s Chamber.” Approximately in the middle of it there is a small, most likely natural extension - the “Grotto” (Grotto) of irregular shape, in which several people could fit at most.

Jon Bodsworth, Green Copyright

Grotto ( 12 ) is located at the “junction” of the masonry of the pyramid and a small, about 9 meters high, hill on the limestone plateau lying at the base of the Great Pyramid. The walls of the Grotto are partially reinforced by ancient masonry, and since some of its stones are too large, there is an assumption that the Grotto existed on the Giza plateau as an independent structure long before the construction of the pyramids, and the evacuation shaft itself was built taking into account the location of the Grotto. However, taking into account the fact that the shaft was hollowed out in the already laid masonry, and not laid out, as evidenced by its irregular circular cross-section, the question arises of how the builders managed to accurately reach the Grotto.

Jon Bodsworth, Green Copyright

The large gallery continues the ascending passage. Its height is 8.53 m, it is rectangular in cross-section, with walls slightly tapering upward (the so-called “false vault”), a high inclined tunnel 46.6 m long. In the middle of the Great Gallery along almost the entire length there is a square recess with a regular cross-section measuring 1 meter wide and 60 cm deep, and on both side protrusions there are 27 pairs of recesses of unknown purpose. The recess ends with the so-called. “Big step” - a high horizontal ledge, a 1x2 meter platform at the end of the Great Gallery, immediately before the hole into the “hallway” - the Antechamber. The platform has a pair of ramp recesses similar to those in the corners near the wall (the 28th and last pair of BG recesses). Through the “hallway” a hole leads into the funeral “Tsar’s Chamber” lined with black granite, where an empty granite sarcophagus is located. The sarcophagus lid is missing. Ventilation shafts have mouths in the “King’s Chamber” on the southern and northern walls at a height of about a meter from the floor level. The mouth of the southern ventilation shaft is severely damaged, the northern one appears intact. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the chamber do not have any decorations or holes or fastening elements of anything dating back to the construction of the pyramid. The ceiling slabs have all burst along the southern wall and are not falling into the room only due to the pressure from the weight of the overlying blocks.

John and Edgar Morton, Public Domain

Above the “Tsar’s Chamber” there are five unloading cavities with a total height of 17 m discovered in the 19th century, between which lie monolithic granite slabs about 2 m thick, and above there is a gable roof made of limestone. It is believed that their purpose is to distribute the weight of the overlying layers of the pyramid (about a million tons) to protect the “King's Chamber” from pressure. In these voids, graffiti was found, probably left by workers.

Ventilation ducts

From the "King's Chamber" and "Queen's Chamber" in the northern and south directions(first horizontally, then obliquely upward) the so-called “ventilation” channels 20-25 cm wide extend off. At the same time, the channels of the “Tsar’s Chamber”, known since the 17th century, are end-to-end, they are open both below and above (on the edges of the pyramid), then As the lower ends of the channels of the “Queen's Chamber” are separated from the surface of the wall by about 13 cm, they were discovered by tapping in 1872. The upper ends of these channels do not reach the surface by about 12 meters. The upper ends of the channels of the Queen's Chamber are closed by stone Gantenbrink Doors, each with two copper handles. The copper handles were sealed with plaster seals (not preserved, but traces remain). In the southern ventilation shaft, the “door” was discovered in 1993 with the help of the remote-controlled robot “Upout II”; the bend of the northern shaft did not allow this robot to detect the same “door” in it. In 2002, using a new modification of the robot, a hole was drilled in the southern “door,” but behind it a small cavity 18 centimeters long and another stone “door” were discovered. What lies next is still unknown. This robot confirmed the presence of a similar “door” at the end of the northern channel, but they did not drill it. In 2010, a new robot was able to insert a serpentine television camera into a drilled hole in the southern “door” and discovered that the copper “handles” on that side of the “door” were designed in the form of neat hinges, and individual red ocher icons were painted on the floor of the “ventilation” shaft. Currently, the most common version is that the purpose of the “ventilation” ducts was of a religious nature and is associated with the Egyptian ideas about the afterlife journey of the soul. And the “door” at the end of the channel is nothing more than a door to the afterlife. That is why it does not reach the surface of the pyramid. Pyramid of Queen Meritites (G1b)

Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu)
Great Pyramid of Giza
Arab. الهرم الأكبر or هرم خوفو
English Great Pyramid of Giza, Pyramid of Khufu or Pyramid of Cheops

Statistical data

• Height (today): ≈ 138.75 m
• Side angle (current): 51° 50"
• Side rib length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 royal cubits
• Side fin length (current): approx. 225 m
• The length of the sides of the base of the pyramid: south - 230.454 m; north - 230.253 m; west - 230.357 m; east - 230.394 m
• Foundation area (initially): ≈ 53,000 m² (5.3 ha)
• Lateral surface area of ​​the pyramid (initially): ≈ 85,500 m²
• Base perimeter: 922 m
• Total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m³
• Total volume of the pyramid minus all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m³
• Average volume of stone blocks: 1,147 m³
• Average weight of stone blocks: 2.5 tons
• The heaviest stone block: about 35 tons - is located above the entrance to the “King’s Chamber”.
• The number of blocks of average volume does not exceed 1.65 million (2.50 million m³ - 0.6 million m³ of rock base inside the pyramid = 1.9 million m³/1.147 m³ = 1.65 million blocks of the specified volume can physically fit in the pyramid, without taking into account the volume of mortar in interblock joints); referring to a 20-year construction period * 300 working days per year * 10 working hours per day * 60 minutes per hour leads to a speed of laying (and delivery to the construction site) of about a block of two minutes.
• According to estimates, the total weight of the pyramid is about 4 million tons (1.65 million blocks x 2.5 tons)
• The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation about 12-14 m high in the center and, according to the latest data, occupies at least 23% of the original volume of the pyramid

History of research

Recent Research

There is a version that tries to explain the precise fit of individual blocks during the construction of the pyramid by the fact that the blocks were created from a concrete-like material by gradually raising the formwork and making the blocks on the spot - hence the precision of the fit. This version was proposed by the French chemist, Professor J. Davidovits. Professor Davidovits in the mid-twentieth century developed a method for creating so-called geopolymer concrete. Davidovits suggested that his discovery might have been known to the creators of the pyramids. Subsequent studies refuted this theory.

There are also non-scientific works on the pyramids by some researchers, such as Erich von Däniken and Christopher Dunn (The Mystery of the Ancient Egyptian Machines, 1984), based on outdated information from Sir William Flinders Petrie from the book The Pyramids and Temples of Giza (1883).

Around the pyramid

Pharaoh's boats

Near the pyramids, seven pits with real ancient Egyptian boats, dismantled into pieces, were discovered.

The first of these vessels, called "" or "Sun Boats", was discovered in 1954 by Egyptian architect Kamal el-Mallah and archaeologist Zaki Nour.

The boat was made of cedar and did not have a single trace of nails for fastening the elements. The boat consisted of 1224 parts; they were assembled by restorer Ahmed Youssef Mustafa only in 1968.

Boat dimensions: length - 43.3 m, width - 5.6 m, and draft - 1.50 m. south side Cheops Pyramid opened a museum of this boat.

Therefore, this article will present only the main general facts and figures relating to the Great Pyramid as a whole.

Date of construction and geometric dimensions

According to generally accepted opinion, the Great Pyramid was built in the 2560-2580s BC as a tomb for the reigning pharaoh of the IV dynasty Cheops (Khufu) at that time. Despite some difficulties in explaining the possibility of its construction in the required time frame using the technology available at that time, this version is nevertheless considered the main one and has quite numerous confirmations in the form of inscriptions discovered inside the Pyramid and the Pit of the Solar Boat with it.

The Pyramid of Cheops is the largest of the Egyptian pyramids.

• Height (today): ≈ 138.75 m
• Height (original): ≈ 146.5 m
• Angle: 51° 50"
• Side length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 Royal cubits
• Side length (currently): about 225 m
• The length of the sides of the base of the pyramid: south - 230.454 m; north - 230.253 m; west - 230.357 m; east - 230.394 m.
• Foundation area (initially): ≈ 53,000 m² (5.3 ha)
• Area of ​​the pyramid: (initially) ≈ 85,500 m²
• Perimeter: 922 m.
• Total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m³
• Total volume of the pyramid, after subtracting all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m³
• The average size of the observed stone blocks of rough masonry: 1.27 m in width and depth, 71 cm in height (according to Petrie)
• Average weight of rough masonry stone blocks: 2.5 t
• The heaviest stone block of rough masonry: 15 t
• Heaviest stone block (known; granite; above the entrance to the King's Chamber): 90 t
• Number of blocks: about 2.5 million (provided that the pyramid is not a backfill type)
• Estimated total weight of the pyramid: about 6.25 million tons (possibly about 6 million tons according to microgravimetry)
• The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation in the center (in the Grotto area) more than 9 m high.
• Materials used in construction (from known ones): limestone from the Giza Plateau - rough masonry, Tour white limestone - internal walls, ventilation shafts and external cladding, Aswan granite - Antechamber, King's Chamber, unloading chambers (partially), plugs; Sinai - sarcophagus. Quartz sand was also found inside.
• The pyramidion of the pyramid was not found, nor were its fastening stones.
• The True Entrance is located traditionally, i.e., on the north side. He is the only one known.

Difference in thickness of pyramid masonry layers

Despite the fact that the pyramid is built in layers, the thickness of the layers is different and varies from 60 cm to one and a half meters.

The reasons for this are not exactly known, there are several hypotheses, the simplest one says that large blocks were laid in eras when there was an excess amount of labor for laying layers of rough masonry. Which may be connected, for example, with its release after the completion of a certain labor-intensive stage in the construction of some complex internal infrastructure or a season for the procurement of blocks, etc. The scheme requires careful analysis.

Current state of affairs and appearance after the disappearance of the cladding

The Great Pyramid now has edges concave inwards. This often gives rise to various theories and speculations, but it should be remembered that the structure has lost several meters of cladding on each side, and the nature of its looting for stone does not give reason to believe that the original faces were not flat.

Perhaps the observed picture is simply a consequence of the most profitable extraction of stone.

Question about using the pyramid for its intended purpose

Since ancient times, the question has been acutely raised: was the Cheops pyramid used for its intended purpose? There is still no clear answer to this question. On the one hand, there is almost complete confidence that the pyramid was completely completed by the builders. On the other hand, what we see inside it, for example, a sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber that is clearly not of the best quality, an unfinished floor in the Queen’s Chamber, or a picture of complete incompleteness in the Underground Chamber - everything suggests that the pharaoh in these famous premises could hardly have been buried at all. Herodotus also claimed that Cheops was buried in another place, on an island surrounded on all sides by water. On the third hand, traces of obvious hacking of the plugs and dampers of the Antechamber indicate that the pyramid was for some reason carefully sealed. The official point of view of science on this matter suggests that the burglars visited the pyramid no later than the first 500-600 years from the moment of its construction. But what they found, who they were and whether they found anything at all is completely unknown. In the volume of the Great Pyramid, the volume of all known and explored rooms is less than 1 percent, and it is already known that in addition to the explored ones, there are several unknown sealed rooms in it.

Blocks and Quarries

Egyptologists believe that the pyramids of Giza were built from natural stone, which was mined in three quarries. The actual construction of the pyramids is made of nummulitic limestone of the Mokattam formation. The quarries were located in close proximity from the pyramids. The lower parts of the pyramids of Khafre and Mikerin were lined with granite from the Aswan quarry, which is located in Southern Egypt at a distance of 934 kilometers along the Nile (700 kilometers in a straight line). Several rows of granite cladding have been preserved at the pyramid of Mikerin. Middle and upper parts of two great pyramids were lined with limestone from the Tours quarry, which is located on the eastern bank of the Nile south of Cairo at a distance of 13-17 kilometers from the pyramids. The number of pyramid facing blocks (granite and limestone) that have reached us is relatively small. Therefore, we can simply agree that stone from the Tours and Aswan quarries was used in the construction of the pyramids. The opinion that the pyramids were built from nummulitic limestone does not fully correspond to reality. The lower rows of the pyramids are made of hard limestone from the Moqattam formation. Higher up, blocks of soft limestone, which do not contain nummulites, predominate. It is fundamentally. That is, when describing the blocks of pyramids in specialized literature, it seems to remain “behind the scenes” that most of them are carved out of soft limestone.

The bottom rows of the pyramids (approximately 1-7/10 rows) are made of blocks cut from solid limestone. The first row of the Cheops pyramid (thickness 1.5 m) is carved from a layer of strong limestone, which has the greatest thickness - 1.5 m. The upper rows of the pyramids are dominated by blocks cut from soft limestone (or cast blocks indistinguishable from them - this statement requires evidence, Supervisor 03:05, 22 May 2011 (UTC)). When developing the quarry, it was necessary to fulfill one condition: the time elapsed from the opening of soft limestones to the cutting of building blocks from them should be minimal. That is, soft limestones had to be cut into blocks before they hardened from contact with air. In addition, after cutting the soft limestone blocks, it took some time for them to harden and not crumble during transportation. The cyclical nature of quarry development meets these requirements. Its site was being developed, the area of ​​which was approximately 1.5 times larger than the area of ​​the row of blocks where the construction of the pyramid was stopped. The blocks were cut from layers of hard and soft limestone and stored “layer by layer,” that is, according to their vertical dimensions. After all the limestone had been removed from the area, its laying into the body of the pyramid began. The order of laying blocks of different thicknesses (and, accordingly, different weights) was determined by the ratio of labor costs for lifting them. This ensured that the rows of blocks were ranked according to their thickness.

Base of the pyramid

The rocky base of the Cheops pyramid, according to modern calculations, occupies 23% of the volume of the pyramid, or about 600,000 cubic meters. The minimum figures were obtained by determining the height of the rock in terms of an average level of 12.5 meters. But the authors of the study do not exclude the possibility of using medium height 20 meters. In any case, new geological exploration work is required to clarify these data. A revision of most old works with calculations of the stone used during construction is also required. In addition, there are estimates of 10-12% of the volume of the pyramid, which is occupied by the mortar holding the blocks together.

The directions to the north of the side faces were kept so precisely that due to the sphericity of the Earth and the colossal size of the Pyramid, its northern side turned out to be 20 cm shorter than the southern one. ( exact dimensions the pyramids are known from the preserved pits of the supporting corner stones)

Sources

[http://supernovum.ru/public/index.php?doc=171 | Mining and geological aspect of the technology of construction of the pyramids of Giza]

[http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/31/95/86/PDF/PyramidsSR.pdf Geological and Geomorphological study of the original hill at the base of Fourth Dynasty Egyptian monuments.]

Continuing the series of stories about the wonders of antiquity on LifeGlobe, I will tell you about the largest of Egyptian pyramids- Pyramid of Cheops, located in Giza. It is also called the Pyramid of Khufu, or simply the Great Pyramid.

This is the oldest of the seven wonders of the world, moreover, perfectly preserved to our times, unlike the Colossus of Rhodes or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Cheops. Construction of the pyramid lasted about 20 years and was completed in 2560 BC. The giant pyramid, 146.5 meters high, has been the largest structure in the world for more than 4 millennia, which is an absolute record that is unlikely to ever be broken. Initially, it was completely covered with smooth stone, which crumbled over time. There are many scientific and alternative theories about the methods of building the great pyramid, from alien intervention to generally accepted ones, based on the fact that huge blocks of stone were moved from quarries by special mechanisms

Inside the Cheops pyramid there are three chambers - tombs. The lowest one is carved into the base of the rock on which the pyramid is built. For unknown reasons, its construction was not completed. Above it are the Queen's chamber and the Pharaoh's chamber. The Great Pyramid is the only one in Egypt that has both ascending and descending corridors. It is the central key element of the Giza complex, around which several more pyramids were built for the pharaoh's wives, as well as other temples and tombs


The Great Pyramid consists of approximately 2.3 million stone blocks. The largest stones were found in the Pharaoh's chamber, and weigh 25-80 tons each. These granite blocks were delivered from a quarry almost 1000 kilometers away. According to general estimates, 5.5 million tons of limestone and 8,000 tons of granite were spent on the construction of the pyramid.
Let us turn to the theories of pyramid construction, many of which often contradict each other. Scientists cannot agree on whether the blocks were pulled, rolled, or even transported. The Greeks believed that the slave labor of millions of Egyptians was used, while modern research proved that several tens of thousands of skilled workers, divided into teams according to their qualifications and skills, worked on construction

Initially, the entrance to the pyramid was at a height of 15.63 meters (#1 in the diagram below), on the north side, assembled from stone slabs in the form of arches. Later it was sealed with granite blocks, making a new passage 17 meters high (#2 on the diagram). This passage was carved out in 820 by Caliph Abu Ja'far in an attempt to plunder the pyramid (it is worth noting that he never found any treasure). Currently, it is through it that tourists get inside the pyramid.

Below is a cross-sectional diagram of the pyramid, where all the corridors and chambers are marked:

Immediately after entering the pyramid, a descending corridor 105 meters long begins (No. 4 on the diagram above), flowing into a small horizontal corridor leading to the lower chamber (No. 5 on the map). A narrow passage leading from the chamber ends in a dead end. as well as a small well 3 meters deep. As mentioned above, for some reason this chamber was abandoned unfinished, and the main chambers were later built higher, in the very center of the pyramid

From the descending corridor there is an ascending passage, at the same angle of 26.5°. Its length is 40 meters and it leads to the Great Gallery (No. 9 on the diagram), from where there are passages to the Pharaoh's chamber (No. 10) and the Queen's chamber (No. 7).
At the very beginning of the large gallery, a narrow, almost vertical chamber is hollowed out, with a small extension in the middle, which is called the Grotto (No. 12). Presumably, the grotto already existed before the construction of the pyramid, as a separate structure

From the Chamber of the Pharaoh and the Chamber of the Queen, ventilation ducts 20 centimeters wide diverge evenly, in the direction of north and south. The purpose of these channels is unknown - either they were used specifically for ventilation, or traditional Egyptian ideas about the afterlife are associated with them

There is an opinion that the ancient Egyptians were fluent in geometry, and knew about the “number Pi” and the “Golden Ratio”, which was reflected in the proportions of the Cheops pyramid and the angle of inclination. The same angle of inclination was used for the pyramid at Meidum. But it is possible that this is a simple accident, since this angle was not repeated anywhere else; all subsequent pyramids had different angles of inclination. Particularly fanatical supporters of mystical theories suggest that this particular pyramid was built by representatives of alien civilizations, and the rest were actually built by the Egyptians, trying to copy it

According to some astronomers, the Great Pyramid is astronomical observatory ancient Egyptians, since the corridors and ventilation ducts accurately point to the stars Thuban, Sirius and Alnitak. Opponents of this theory claim that this is a mere coincidence. During excavations near the pyramid, pits were discovered with ancient Egyptian boats made of cedar without the use of nails or fasteners. This boat was dismantled into 1,224 parts, which were assembled by restorer Ahmed Yussuf Mustafa, which took him 14 years. Currently, a museum is open on the southern side of the pyramid, where you can see this boat (the museum building itself in the photo below looks quite original, it’s worth noting), as well as buy a lot of souvenirs

Currently, it is the most visited tourist attraction in Egypt. You can read more about other ancient wonders in the article "Seven Ancient Wonders of the World"