Sunday, April 28, 2013

Research Project

      
                                               The Great Pyramid of Giza

 


          Since his appearance on the globe man started making buildings for different reasons. First man made buildings to dwell in and later he assigned some buildings to worship his gods. Besides dwelling and worshipping man made another and different kind of construction to defend himself against his enemies. Believing in life after death, man made special types of tombs to preserve his body for the other life. The Great Pyramid of Giza, which I am going to talk about, is an example of this.

Khufu built the Great Pyramid as to keep his body for the other life as it was the habit of the Pharaos. It took about twenty years to complete building the pyramid. Hemon and also known as Hemiunu was believed to be the man who designed the Great Pyramid. The original height of the Pyramid was 146.8 meters but now and because of erosion it is only 136.5 meters high. The dimensions of the pyramid's workmanship of the sides of the base are so perfect that the error percentage is only 58 millimetres in length. The Great Pyramid is made of about 2.3 million limestone blocks which were brought from nearby quarries across the river from Aswan, more than 800 kilometres away. Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, causing the rock to crack.

The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern studies at Giza showed that it was built by tens of thousands of skilled workers. They say that labours were divided into two groups of 100,000 men, and these were divided into five smaller teams of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.

 Now let us have a look at the pyramid and see how it looks from inside. The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is 17 metres vertically above ground level and 7.29 metres east of the center line of the pyramid. From this original entrance there is a Descending Passage .96 metres high and 1.04 metres wide which goes down at an angle of 26° 31'23". After 105.23 metres the passage becomes leveled. The Queen's Chamber is exactly half-way between the north and south faces of the pyramid and measures 5.75 metres north to south, 5.23 metres east to west and has a pointed roof with an apex 6.23 metres above the floor. At the eastern end of the chamber there is a niche 4.67 metre high. The depth of the niche is 1.04 metres. After it comes the Grand Gallery which continues on the slope of the Ascending Passage for 8.6 metres high and 46.68 metres long. At the base it is 2.06 metres wide, but after 2.29 metres the blocks of stone in the walls are go inwards by 7.6 centimetres on each side. There are seven steps at the top the Grand Gallery which are 1.04 metres wide. It is roofed by slabs of stone laid at a slightly steeper angle than the floor of the gallery, so that each stone fits into a slot cut in the top of the gallery like the teeth of a ratchet. At the upper end of the Gallery on the right-hand side there is a hole near the roof which opens into a short tunnel which leads to the lowest of the Relieving Chambers.

The King's Chamber is 10.47 metres from east to west and 5.234 metres north to south. It has a flat roof 5.974 metres above the floor. 0.91 m above the floor there are two narrow shafts in the north and south walls The King's Chamber is covered with granite. Above the roof, which is formed of nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons, are five rooms known as Relieving Chambers. The first four, like the King's Chamber, have flat roofs formed by the floor of the chamber above, but the final chamber has a pointed roof. The only object in the King's Chamber is a rectangular granite "sarcophagus", one corner of which is broken. The sarcophagus is slightly larger than the Ascending Passage, which shows that it must have been placed in the Chamber before the roof was put in place.

          This is a brief description of the Great Giza Pyramids which stood for thousands of years as one of the world’s greatest miracles and mysteries. I hope one day I will be able to visit Cairo and see it.

 
References:

·        Great Pyramid of Giza - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_

·        Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association. (n.d.). Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.gizapyramid.com/

·        The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. (n.d.). Egypt Pyramids Pharaohs Hieroglyphs - Mark Millmore's Ancient Egypt. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.eyelid.co.uk/pyramid3.htm

·        The Great Pyramid of Giza. (n.d.). www.personal.psu.edu. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.personal.psu.edu/mkw5102/giza

·        The Great Pyramid of Giza. (n.d.). www.personal.psu.edu. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.personal.psu.edu/mkw5102/giza.html

·        Pyramids of Giza (pyramids, Egypt) -- Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/234470/Pyramids-of-Giza

·        Seven Wonder of the Ancient World: Khufu's Great Pyramid. (n.d.). The Museum of UnNatural Mystery. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.unmuseum.org/kpyramid.htm

·        Great Pyramid of Khufu - El Giza, Egypt - Great Buildings Architecture. (n.d.). Architecture Design Architectural Images Drawings History and More - ArchitectureWeek Great Buildings. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Great_Pyramid.html