The first wonder of the world of all time, one of the main structures of our planet, a place full of secrets and mysteries, a point of constant pilgrimage for tourists - the Egyptian pyramids and in particular the Cheops pyramid.

The construction of giant pyramids, of course, was far from easy. Huge effort large number people were exerted to deliver stone blocks to the Giza or Saqqara plateau, and later to the Valley of the Kings, which became the new necropolis of the pharaohs.

IN present moment There are about a hundred pyramids found in Egypt, but discoveries continue and their number is constantly increasing. At different times, one of the 7 wonders of the world meant different pyramids. Some meant all the pyramids of Egypt as a whole, some the pyramids near Memphis, some the three large pyramids of Giza, and most critics recognized exclusively the largest pyramid of Cheops.

Afterlife of Ancient Egypt

One of the central moments in the life of the ancient Egyptians was religion, which shaped the entire culture as a whole. Particular attention was paid to the afterlife, perceived as a clear continuation of earthly life. That is why preparation for life after death began long before death and was set as one of the main life tasks.

According to ancient Egyptian belief, man had several souls. The soul of Ka acted as a double of the Egyptian, whom he was to meet in the afterlife. The soul of Ba contacted the person himself and left his body after death.

Religious life of the Egyptians and the god Anubis

At first, it was believed that only the pharaoh had the right to life after death, but he could bestow this “immortality” on his entourage, who were usually buried next to the tomb of the ruler. Ordinary people get into world of the dead was not destined to happen, the only exception being the slaves and servants whom the pharaoh “took” with him, and who were depicted on the walls of the great tomb.

But for a comfortable life after death, the deceased had to be provided with everything necessary: ​​food, household utensils, servants, slaves and much more necessary for the average pharaoh. They also tried to preserve the person’s body so that Ba’s soul could later connect with him again. Therefore, in matters of body preservation, embalming and the creation of complex pyramid tombs were born.

The first pyramid in Egypt. Pyramid of Djoser

Speaking about the construction of pyramids in Ancient Egypt in general, it is worth mentioning the beginning of their history. The very first pyramid in Egypt was built about five thousand years ago on the initiative of Pharaoh Djoser. It is in these 5 thousand years that the age of the pyramids in Egypt is estimated. The construction of the Pyramid of Djoser was led by the famous and legendary Imhotep, who was even deified in later centuries.

Pyramid of Djoser

The entire complex of the building being erected occupied an area of ​​545 by 278 meters. The perimeter was surrounded by a 10-meter wall with 14 gates, only one of which was real. In the center of the complex was the pyramid of Djoser with sides 118 by 140 meters. The height of the Djoser pyramid is 60 meters. Almost at a depth of 30 meters there was a burial chamber, to which corridors with many branches led. The branch rooms contained utensils and sacrifices. Here archaeologists found three bas-reliefs of Pharaoh Djoser himself. Near the eastern wall of Djoser's pyramid, 11 small burial chambers were discovered, intended for the royal family.

Unlike the famous large pyramids of Giza, Djoser's pyramid had a stepped shape, as if intended for the pharaoh's ascension to heaven. Of course, this pyramid is inferior in popularity and size to the Cheops pyramid, but still the contribution of the very first stone pyramid to the culture of Egypt is difficult to overestimate.

Pyramid of Cheops. History and Brief Description

But still, the most famous for the ordinary population of our planet are the three nearby pyramids of Egypt - Khafre, Mekerin and the largest and tallest pyramid in Egypt - Cheops (Khufu)

Pyramids of Giza

The pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops was built near the city of Giza, currently a suburb of Cairo. At present, it is impossible to say for sure when the Cheops pyramid was built, and research gives a strong scatter. In Egypt, for example, the date of the start of construction of this pyramid is officially celebrated - August 23, 2480 BC.

Pyramid of Cheops and Sphinx

About 100,000 people were simultaneously involved in the construction of the wonder of the world, the Pyramid of Cheops. During the first ten years of work, a road was built along which huge stone blocks were delivered to the river and the underground structures of the pyramid. Work on the construction of the monument itself continued for about 20 years.

The size of the Cheops Pyramid in Giza is amazing. The height of the Cheops pyramid initially reached 147 meters. Over time, due to sand filling and loss of lining, it decreased to 137 meters. But even this figure allowed it to remain the tallest human structure in the world for a long time. The pyramid has a square base with a side of 147 meters. To build this giant, it is estimated that 2,300,000 limestone blocks were required, weighing an average of 2.5 tons.

How were the pyramids built in Egypt?

The technology of building pyramids is still controversial in our time. Versions vary from the invention of concrete in Ancient Egypt to the construction of pyramids by aliens. But it is still believed that the pyramids were built by man solely by his own strength. So, to extract stone blocks, they first marked out a shape in the rock, hollowed out grooves and inserted dry wood into them. Later, the tree was doused with water, it expanded, a crack formed in the rock, and the block was separated. Then it was processed into the desired shape with tools and sent along the river to the construction site.

The magic of mysterious countries still exists. Palm trees sway in the warm wind, the Nile floats through the desert, surrounded by a green valley, the sun illuminates the Karnak temple and mysterious pyramids Egypt, and bright schools of fish flash in the Red Sea.

Funerary culture of Ancient Egypt

Pyramids are grandiose structures in the form of a regular geometric polyhedron. In the construction of funerary buildings or mastabas, this form, according to Egyptologists, began to be used because of its resemblance to a funeral pie. If you ask about how many pyramids there are in Egypt, you can hear the answer that to date about 120 buildings have been found and described, which are located in different areas along the banks of the Nile.

The first mastabas can be seen in Saqqara, Upper Egypt, Memphis, Abusir, El Lahun, Giza, Hawar, Abu Rawash, Meidum. They were built from clay bricks with river silt - adobe, in a traditional architectural form. The pyramid housed a prayer room and a funeral “dowry” for traveling in the afterlife. The underground part stored the remains. The pyramids had different appearances. They evolved from a stepped form to a true, geometrically correct form.

Evolution of the shape of the pyramids

Tourists are often interested in how to see all the pyramids of Egypt and in which city they are located. There are many such places. For example, Meiduma is the most mysterious point, where the oldest of all the great funerary buildings are located. When Sneferu came to the throne (c. 2575 BC), Saqqara had the only large, fully completed royal pyramid of Djoser.

Ancients local residents They called it "el-haram-el-kaddab", which means "false pyramid". Because of its shape, it attracted the attention of travelers back in the Middle Ages.

The step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is known as the earliest form of funerary building in Egypt. Its appearance dates back to the period of the third dynasty. Narrowing passages from the north lead to the burial chamber. Underground galleries surround the pyramid on all sides except the south. This is the only completed building with huge steps that were lined with stone. But her form was different from the ideal. First regular pyramids appeared at the beginning of the reign of the 4th dynasty of the pharaohs. The true form arose as a result of the natural development and improvement of the architectural design of the stepped building. The structure of a real pyramid is almost the same. The building blocks were laid to the required shapes and sizes of the object, and then they were finished with limestone or stone.

Pyramids of Dahshur

Dahshur forms the southern area of ​​the necropolis at Memphis and contains a number of pyramidal complexes and monuments. Dahshur has only recently been opened to the public. In the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, alone on the edge of the Western Desert, above the lush green fields of Meidum, lies a remarkable area where the transition from a stepped to a regular pyramid shape can be seen. The transformation occurred during the change from the third dynasty of pharaohs to the fourth. During the reign of the 3rd Dynasty, Pharaoh Huni organized the construction of the first regular pyramid in Egypt, using the stepped structures from Meidum as a base for construction. The funerary structure was intended for the son of Huni, the first pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, Snefru (2613-2589 BC). The heir completed work on his father's pyramids, then built his own - a stepped one. But the pharaoh's construction plans were scrapped because construction did not go according to plan. Reducing the angle of the side plane resulted in a diamond-shaped curved silhouette. This structure is called the Bent Pyramid, but it still has its outer shell intact.

Oldest pyramids at Saqqara

Saqqara is one of the huge necropolises of the ancient city, which is known today as Memphis. The ancient Egyptians called this place "White Walls". The pyramids of Egypt at Saqqara are represented by the first oldest step pyramid, Djosera. It was here that the history of the construction of these burial structures began. The first writing on the walls, known as the Pyramid Texts, was found in Saqqara. The architect of these projects is called Imhotep, who invented hewn stone masonry. Thanks to construction developments, the ancient architect was considered a deity. Imhotep is considered the son of the patron of crafts, Ptah. Saqqara is home to many tombs belonging to important ancient Egyptian officials.

A true gem represents the great pyramids of Egypt in the Sneferu complex. Dissatisfied with the Bent Pyramid, which did not allow him to go to heaven with dignity, he began construction about two kilometers to the north. This was the famous Pink Pyramid, so named because of the red limestone used in its construction. This is one of the oldest buildings in Egypt, which is created in the correct form. It has an inclination angle of 43 degrees and is the second largest, second only to the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was built by Sneferu's son in Khufu. In fact, the Great Pyramid is only 10 meters from the Pink Pyramid. Other major monuments at Dahshur date from the 12th and 13th dynasties and are not comparable in scale to the work of Huni and Sneferu.

Late pyramids in the Sneferu complex

There are later pyramids at Meidum. In Egypt, where the White Pyramid of Amenemhat II, the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III and the structure of Senusret III are located, smaller monuments for funerary purposes for minor rulers, nobles and officials dominate.

They talk about a fairly stable and peaceful period in Egyptian history. Interestingly, the Black Pyramid and the structure of Senwosret III were built not of stone, but of brick. Why this material was used is unknown, but in those days new methods of construction penetrated into Egypt from other countries, thanks to trade and international relations. Unfortunately, although brick was much easier to work with, compared to granite blocks, which weighed many tons, this material did not stand the test of time. Although the Black Pyramid is quite well preserved, the White Pyramid is very damaged. Tourists who are little aware of the huge number of pyramidal burials are confused. They ask: "Where are the pyramids in Egypt?" While everyone knows about the great funerary structures of Egypt, there are many lesser examples of similar structures. Scattered along the Nile from Selium on the edge of the oasis to the island of Elephantine in Aswan, in the village of Naga el-Khalifa, about five miles south of Abydos, in the city of Minya and many other unexplored places.

Pyramids of Giza and necropolis

For all tourists who come to Egypt, an excursion to the pyramids becomes almost a ritual. The buildings of Giza are the only surviving ones of the Seven Wonders Ancient World and the most famous attractions. This sacred place impresses with its antiquity, the scale of the necropolis, the unreality of the structures and the Great Sphinx. The mysteries of the construction and supposed symbolism of the Giza pyramids only add to the appeal of these ancient wonders. Many modern people Giza is still considered a spiritual place. A number of fascinating theories have been proposed to explain the "mystery of the pyramids." The author of the project of the Great Pyramid in Egypt is called the adviser of Cheops and his relative - Hemiun. Giza is the most important place on earth for many researchers who are trying to unravel the geometric perfection of funerary structures in ancient sources. But even great skeptics are in awe of the great antiquity, scale and absolute harmony of the Giza pyramids.

History of the Pyramids of Giza

Situated on the west bank of the Nile River, approximately 12 miles southwest of downtown Cairo, Giza (el-Gizah in Arabic) is the third largest city in Egypt with a population of almost 3 million. It is a famous necropolis on the Giza Plateau and contains the most popular monuments in Egypt. The Great Pyramids of Giza were built in 2500 BC as burial grounds for the pharaohs. Together they constitute the only ancient wonder of the world still in existence today. Many tourists are attracted by Egypt (Hurghada). They can see the Pyramids of Giza in half an hour, which it takes to travel. You can admire this wonderful ancient sacred place to your heart's content.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu, or Cheops as the Greeks called it (it is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza), and the necropolis bordering Cairo have remained virtually untouched by time. It is believed that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs Khufu. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. It was originally covered with casing stones, which created a smooth outer surface. Some of them can be seen around the base and at the very top. There are various scientific and alternative theories about how the pyramids were built. Ancient Egypt, and about the methods of construction of the Great itself. Most accepted theories of construction are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and lifting them into place. It covers an area of ​​just over 5 hectares. The original height was 146 m in height, but the pyramid is still an impressive 137 m high. The main losses are due to the destruction of the smooth limestone surface.

Herodotus on Egypt

When the Greek historian Herodotus visited Giza, around 450 BC, he described the pyramids in Egypt. He learned from Egyptian priests that the Great Pyramid was built for Pharaoh Khufu, who was the second king of the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2575-2465 BC). The priests told Herodotus that it was built by 400,000 people over 20 years. During construction, 100,000 people were employed at a time to move the blocks. But archaeologists consider this implausible and tend to think that the labor force was more limited. Perhaps 20,000 workers with accompanying support staff of bakers, doctors, priests and others would be sufficient to complete this task.

The most famous pyramid was carefully laid out using 2.3 million processed stone blocks. These blocks had an impressive weight from two to fifteen tons. After completion of construction, the burial structure was amazing in weight, which was approximately 6 million tons. All the famous cathedrals in Europe combined have this weight! The Pyramid of Cheops has been recorded for thousands of years as the tallest structure in the world.

Only the graceful spiers of the unusually majestic Lincoln Cathedral, built in England, 160 m high, were able to break the record, but they collapsed in 1549.

Pyramid of Khafre

Among the pyramids of Giza, the second largest is the structure built for the afterlife journey of Khafre (Khefre), the son of Pharaoh Khufu. He inherited power after the death of his elder brother and was the fourth ruler in the fourth dynasty. Of his high-born relatives and predecessors on the throne, many were buried in penny tombs. But the grandeur of Khafre’s pyramid is almost as striking as the “last house” of his father.

The Pyramid of Khafre visually reaches towards the sky and seems higher than the first pyramid of Giza - the funerary building of Cheops, because it stands on a higher part of the plateau. It is characterized by a steeper slope with a preserved smooth limestone surface. The second pyramid had each side measuring 216 m and was originally 143 m high. Its limestone and granite blocks weigh about 2.5 tons each.

The ancient pyramids of Egypt, for example Cheops, like the building of Khafre, each include five burial pits connected by passages. Together with the mortuary, the Valley of the Temples and the connecting causeway, it is 430 meters long, carved into the rock. The burial chamber, which is located underground, contained a red granite sarcophagus with a lid. Nearby there is a square cavity where the chest with the entrails of the pharaoh was located. The Great Sphinx near Khafre's pyramid is considered to be his royal portrait.

Pyramid of Mikerin

The last of the pyramids of Giza is the pyramid of Mikerin, located to the south. It was intended for the son of Khafre, the fifth king of the fourth dynasty. Each side measures 109 m, and the height of the structure is 66 m. In addition to these three monuments, small pyramids were built for Khufu's three wives and a series of flat-topped pyramids for the remains of his beloved children. At the end of the long causeway, small tombs of the courtiers were lined up, the temple and morgue were built only for the mummification of the pharaoh's body.

Like all the pyramids of Egypt, created for the pharaohs, the burial chambers of these buildings were filled with everything necessary for the next life: furniture, statues of slaves, niches for canopic jars.

Theories about the construction of the Egyptian giants

The centuries-old history of Egypt conceals many mysteries. The pyramids, built without modern devices, only increase curiosity about these places. Herodotus assumed that the foundation was laid from huge blocks weighing about seven tons. And then, like children’s cubes, all 203 layers were lifted up step by step. But this cannot be done, as evidenced by the Japanese attempt in the 1980s to duplicate the actions of Egyptian builders. The most plausible explanation is that the Egyptians used ramps to tow stone blocks down a ramp using sleds, rollers, and levers. And the base was a natural plateau. The majestic structures have withstood not only the crushing work of time, but also numerous attacks by grave robbers. They robbed the pyramids in ancient times. The burial chamber of Khafre, discovered by the Italians in 1818, was empty; there was no longer any gold or other treasures there.

There is a possibility that there are still undiscovered pyramids of Egypt or are now completely destroyed. Many people express fantastic theories about extraterrestrial intervention from another civilization, for which such construction is child's play. The Egyptians are only proud of the perfect knowledge of their ancestors in the field of mechanics and dynamics, thanks to which the construction business developed.

One of the greatest mysteries in human history is the engineering feat of the ancients that led to the creation of the great pyramids of Egypt. For thousands of years, historians, architects and scientists have tried to find an explanation for the appearance of these gigantic structures. To this day, the mystery has not been fully solved, and no one knows exactly how it was done. Unsurprisingly, many different explanations have emerged, and here are the 10 most viable theories for the construction of the Great Pyramids.

1. Ancient machines

Naturally, the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about constructing a building is the need to use cranes to lift and transport heavy pieces of metal or stone. The first pyramids were step pyramids with large flat surfaces on which heavy cranes could stand and operate. Of course, ancient cultures knew about levers and pulley systems, and they likely used something similar to create the first pyramids. However, the idea of ​​cranes or so-called "cranes" is not particularly plausible in the case of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, since the surfaces were too small to accommodate lifting mechanisms of this scale.

2. The pyramids were originally hills

An interesting but bizarre explanation for the appearance of the pyramids is that they originally appeared as natural rock formations, and then stone blocks were laid out on the slopes of these hills from top to bottom. A similar idea was first proposed in 1884 in The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette at a conference of scientists. Perhaps this is what Herodotus meant when he said that the pyramids were built “from top to bottom.”

3. Polishing and leveling by hand

One of the most difficult and mysterious facts associated with the construction of the pyramids is the way in which the Egyptians were able to cut stones with such extreme precision that they could be laid with virtually no gaps between them. It is impossible to squeeze even a sheet of paper into the joint between two stones. Therefore, scientists are perplexed how the Egyptians achieved such precision in stone processing. Even today it is impossible to recreate this using diamond-coated cutters, let alone the most primitive hand tools. The next theory suggests that the Egyptians did not have better tools than they have now. They just made much better use of what they had. For example, they allegedly leveled blocks of stone using two poles of the same height, connected by a narrow rope, under which they placed the stone. If the rope touched the surface somewhere, the area was marked with red ochre, and then the roughness was scraped off using a flint scraper.

4. Limestone concrete

Perhaps an even more plausible way of achieving perfectly smooth stone surfaces was that the stones were made by pouring liquid limestone concrete into molds. There seems to be some evidence to support this theory. Under a microscope, Egyptologist Jean-Philippe Lauer discovered air bubbles on the surface of the stones, indicating that air may have entered the liquid concrete. According to the findings of the American Ceramic Society, it appears that the internal structure of the stones was formed in a process that happened very quickly, like the hardening of concrete.

5. Zigzag ramps

This is the first of various sloping ramp theories. The theory of a straight ramp was not considered, since such a ramp would have to be larger than the pyramid itself and extend outward from it by 1.6 kilometers, given the estimated slope of 7 degrees. For the ramp to be meaningful, it would have to be built throughout the process of creating the pyramid. Although a zigzag ramp would require less material than a straight ramp, it is almost as implausible since it would have to be constantly adjusted as the pyramid got taller. Therefore, such theories were widely discredited.

6. Wet sand

Today, some proponents of the following theory believe that the stones for the pyramid were dragged over piles of sand, which were pre-wetted to make the stones easier to move. This theory explains the transport of stones from quarries hundreds of kilometers from the construction site, as well as how workers moved the stones upward using some kind of ramp. But would a wet ramp provide sufficient stability for stones weighing up to 20 tons that needed to be lifted to the top? Another question is how suitable wet sand can be as a support for the feet of the people who dragged it all. At best, this theory can only explain the transportation of stones. As a method of lifting stones, it fails.

While trying to develop a plausible ramp theory, people eventually began to realize that a spiral ramp could be built at the same time as a pyramid. It will run along the outer part of the pyramid and rise continuously as it is built. Proponents of this outer spiral ramp theory include Mark Lehner, an archaeologist at Yale University. The main challenge when using a spiral ramp is maneuvering the rocks. It's hard enough to drag huge rocks up a hill, but having to constantly turn them to spiral up creates an even greater challenge. This is why the outer spiral ramp theory is implausible.

8. Water mine theory

How about building a long underground dam underwater from a local water source at a reasonable distance from the quarry, and then using water "shafts" to lift the rocks up. This theory suggests that a water dam was used to transport the stones, and that the stones were cut and ground in the water. After precise grinding of the stone, pieces of light material were attached to it, which provided buoyancy. Thus, the stone floated up, and its surface was protected from impacts with other stones.

There is some evidence that similar water shafts were used to build structures in other parts of the world (for example, canals are thought to have been used to build Angkor Wat in Cambodia). However, if such a canal was used to build the Great Pyramid of Giza, where did it go and why was it destroyed? Supposedly, it took 10 years to build and the length of the canal was supposed to be 10 kilometers, since this is the distance from the Nile River to the site of the pyramid at Giza. Also, even if this theory is correct, it still doesn't explain some of the other nuances in the pyramid.

9. Extraterrestrial Intervention

The more time is spent trying to figure out how the pyramids were built by man, the more the answer seems to suggest something else. Although extraterrestrial intervention is generally dismissed by scientists, many Egyptologists and historians believe that the pyramids were built by aliens. Upon hearing this theory, many will immediately laugh at it. However, extraterrestrial intervention is no more "wild" theory than many others. Given everything that is known about the pyramids, it may be reasonable to conclude that ancient cultures could not have built these incredible structures themselves. Even taking into account everyone modern technologies people today are completely incapable of building pyramids like those in Egypt. It therefore seems inconceivable that an ancient primitive civilization had both the technology and ingenuity to construct the pyramids with such extreme precision.

The Great Pyramid of Giza faces almost exactly north, with a deviation of only 3/60 of a degree. It is even more accurately aligned than the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, which points north at 9/60 of a degree. Another remarkable mathematical feature of the Great Pyramid is that the perimeter divided by the height is 2π (deviations are negligible). A whole range of other precise mathematical numbers associated with the pyramids, but most importantly, you need to take into account the speed with which they were built.

Taking into account 2.3 million stones weighing an average of 2.5 tons each, it is estimated that one stone had to be placed every two minutes. This includes all the time it takes to cut the stones perfectly, move them miles across the desert, climb the side of the pyramid, and then place them in place. It is very difficult to believe that primitive people did all this.

10. Jean-Pierre Houdin on the internal ramp theory

Lately, one man has been trying, independently of everyone else, to unravel the mystery of how the pyramids were built. This is a French architect named Jean-Pierre Houdin. Since the 1990s, he devoted all his time to studying the Great Pyramid and was able to develop the most brilliant theory of pyramid construction ever created.

According to Gooden's theory, the Great Pyramid was built using two separate spiral ramps. The first was an outer spiral ramp going up about 30 percent, and the second was an inner spiral ramp through which heavy stones were pulled all the way to the end. Gooden calculated that this inner slope had a slope of 7 degrees. This spiral ramp also included open sections at the corners for workers to turn the blocks (it is believed that cranes were also used here). In addition to the internal ramp, Gooden was also able to explain how the King's Chamber was built, as well as the most mysterious room in the Great Pyramid, the Great Gallery.

The massive granite blocks to the King's Chamber were pulled through the Great Gallery using a long system of pulleys. Thus, the Big Gallery exists for very practical purposes. Inside are signs that support this theory, such as wedge holes in the rocks. It is believed that they were used to support the pulley system. Using digital technology, a team of programmers was able to test this idea. They were able to confirm that Gooden's drawings of the pyramid were mathematically correct and that the internal ramp was plausible.

However, the most surprising thing is that they were able to find evidence of the actual existence of the ramp through a scan of the pyramid, which revealed a spiral-shaped image. These may well be the remains of an internal ramp. By far, this theory provides the most plausible explanation for how the pyramids were built.