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:
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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_
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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
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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
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