The Giza Pyramids, built to endure an eternity, have done just that. The monumental tombs define Egypt’s olden days’ culture and emphasize the importance of the Royals and Monarchs.
These royals, commonly known as ‘pharaohs’, were believed to become gods after their deaths. In order to take a second life, only this time as a god, the pharaohs built large tombs such as the pyramids and filled them with wealth, food and every other necessity for sustenance.
Pharaoh Khufu built the first Giza pyramid around 2550 B.C. The details of the height, weight and dimensions of this pyramid will be told later in the blog. Khufu’s son, Pharaoh Khafre, built the second pyramid around 2520 B.C. He, however, lavished his pyramid by also including the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a lion and a pharaoh’s head. The third of the Giza Pyramids is considerably smaller than the first two. Built by Pharaoh Menkaure around 2490 B.C.
In the image below, you can see Pharaoh Khafre’s Sphinx.
In the image below, the architectural plan of pharaoh Khufu’s pyramid is shown where it can be noticed that advanced scientific studies have been put in place and the planning of routes is thorough.
Some interesting facts about the Great Pyramids of Giza are shared below:
- The pyramids are about 455 ft tall today, which is about 25ft shorter than their original height. The major reason for height shortening has been erosion.
- The pyramids have 3 chambers, as shown in the image above.
- Chambers of the pyramids are mostly empty. Though once filled with gold and ornaments and wealthy objects, most of it got looted over a period of time.
- Extremely skilled masons built the pyramids. Experts say, approximately a force of a million people including masons, engineers, craftsmen, labour etc were used.
- Pyramids are the oldest wonder of the world
- Pharaoh Khufu’s pyramid has an invisible door – It is believed that the pyramid once had a swivel door that weighed up to 20 tons. One could only push open the door from the inside and was not detectable from the outside. The doors were so heavy that the opening mechanism was only discovered when the Great Pyramid was being studied by scientists. They realized that they were two hue swivel doors. The Egyptians’ ability to balance the 20-tonne doors in order to create this effect has remained a mystery to date.
- Extremely heavy stones were used for the construction of these pyramids – Historians believe that the Giza pyramids were constructed using more than two million stones ranging from 2 tons to 50 tons. It is still unknown how they transported and lifted the stones during construction. The pyramids stood at about 203 steps and each of the stones had been placed with impressive preciseness and still stands strong today.
Ali Akbar – Mathematics / Physics