The Great Pyramid Of Khufu
The Great Pyramid Of Khufu
The Great Pyramid Of Khufu
The name of Khufu, the second king of the 4th Dynasty, in the
ancient Egyptian meaning He "The god" protects me ", the
derived Greek form being Cheops.
We know very little of this King likewise, few images have
come down to us. Paradoxically, all that remains of the
builder of the world's largest, pyramid is a tiny ivory statuette,
just 7cm "2.76 inches" high, bearing the features of the man
Herodotus described as an evil, cruel ruler who even went, so
far as to force his daughter into prostitution to obtain
financing for construction of his monument.
The Great Pyramid, which the ancient Egyptians called
"Khufu" belongs to the Horizon, was built 45 centuries ago
and is the largest at Giza.
Our notions of its history come mainly from the historian and
"journalist" Herodotus, who visited Egypt in 460-455 BC.
He tells us that the pyramid was "twenty years in the making"
and that work was continuous with groups of hundreds of
men at a time working for three months, he also relates that
1,600 silver talents were spent.
Herodotus talks of one hundred thousand workmen altogether
but we must remember that Herodotus saw the pyramids 2700
years after their completion and in many cases he was he was
only repeating hearsay.
The estimates by today '
The architect was apparently a certain Hermiunu who, in building
his creation, used 2.300.000 blocks of limestone averaging about
2.5 tons each, for a total weight of approximately 5.750.000 tons,
The outer facing has disappeared since, from the 13th century
onwards , the beautiful slabs of limestone were removed for reuse
in building the homes and the mosques of the new city of Cairo,
thus exposing the gigantic structural blocks.
1) - Entrance to the Pyramid at
25m, above ground level, on the
north side.
2) - Sloping corridor leading
down to the subterranean
chamber.
3) - Original burial chamber, at
30m, below ground level.
4) - Descending passage, probably used to permit the workers to
leave the pyramid after the king's chamber had been sealed.
5) - Ascending passage, a little over 1m, in height, leading to the
queen's chamber.
6) - The queen's chamber or middle chamber, lying exactly on the
axis of the pyramid. Measuring 6.7m, 5.7m, long and 5.2mm it
was never completed.
7) - The Grand Gallery, the architectural masterpiece of ancient
Egypt. It is 47m, long and 8m, high with a ceiling formed of
massive blocks fitted together with astonishing precision.
8) - Three red granite "shutters" that slid vertically and
hermetically sealed the burial chamber.
9) - The burial chamber or king's chamber 5.85m, in height,
10.45m long and 5.22m wide, at 48m from the ground level,
completely faced in blocks of pink granite. The ceiling is
composed of nine slabs each weighing 400 tons. On the west side
of the chamber is the red granite sarcophagus of the king, with
no cover and no inscriptions. It is 2.24m long and 1.03m high.
Nothing was found inside it neither mummy nor ornaments.
10) - The construction chambers a system of five small, empty
compartments, one above the other and extremely low, the top
one having a double sloped roof. The first of these chambers was
discovered by Nathanial Davision in 1765, the others by Perring
and Vyse in1837, They were thought to be mainly designed to
relieve the enormous pressure exerted by the overlying mass of
the pyramid on the ceiling of the king's Chamber.
11) - ventilation shafts. These two ducts, which open at a height of
76m. on the north and south faces of the pyramid carry fresh air
to the interior of the burial chamber.
Khufu and the Stars
The fifth century philosopher Proclus of Byzantium stated that,
the great gallery of Khufu's pyramid was originally an
astronomical observatory that the king only later used as his
tomb.
This view was shared by a number of 18th century
astronomers.
In any event, scholars have demonstrated that at the time of
construction of the pyramids the ventilation shafts of the Royal
Chamber, which communicate with the outside, were aligned
with quite specific stars, the north shaft with the stars of
Thuban, and the south shaft with the three stars of Orion's belt.
The construction and purpose of the pyramid have been
explained in the most disparate ways, an astronomical
observatory, a magical temple, a work by aliens or the people of
the fabled Atlantis, and many others.
In fact, the pyramid is a magnificent transposition of the sun's
rays into stone, and today we with all our sophisticated
technology can only continue to ask ourselves how was it ever
possible to transport two and a half million blocks of stone to
such heights in an age when the wheel, the pully, and the winch
were unknown.
Napoleon Ponparte was one of the many visitors to have
ventured inside the Great Pyramid. He entered it on 12 August
1799, the chronicles of the time recount that when he emerged,
he was visibly shaken and refused to speak of his experiences to
anyone. It is said that even much later, as he lay on his deathbed
on Saint Helena, all Napoleon would say to his faithful valet, who
insisted on knowing what, had happened was that it was useless
to tell "since no one would believe it anyway ".
The pyramid of the Queens
The three monuments known as the Pyramids of the Queens are located to the eastern side of the great pyramid of Khufu. Like the Great Pyramid, they were built of blocks of limestone and covered with a casing. They all have an inclination of 52 dg, and a simple corridor giving access to the rock hewn burial chamber. Standing before the eastern face of each was a mortuary temple similar to that of Khufu.
Tradition has it that the southern most pyramid belonged to
Queen Henutsen, Khufu's wife and half sister and mother of
Khafre. The central pyramid is attributed to Queen Meritites,
mother of Redjedef, and the last pyramid to Queen Hetepheres,
wife of Senferu and mother of Khufu.During the reign of
Psusennes I, a king of the 21st Dynasty, the mortuary temple of
the pyramid of Henutsen was transformed into a chapel
dedicated to the cult of Isis, the "Lady of the pyramids" Despite
the legends, the attribution of the three small pyramids to the
three queens is supported only by one inscription found in this
chapel, we must therefore at least consider the hypothesis that
the three monuments may have had another purpose. A polish
scholar has advanced the intriguing theory that these pyramids
were models, in about 1: 5 scale.
