The largest Egyptian pyramid of Cheops. Why and how were the pyramids built in ancient Egypt

The Pyramid of Cheops is one of the seven wonders of the world and the only one that has survived to this day. Cheops is an ancient Greek name Egyptian pharaoh for whom the pyramid was erected as a tomb in 2580 BC. The ancient Egyptian name for this pharaoh was Chufu. The pyramid is called Akhet-Khufu" which means "Horizon of Khufu". Became an architect Hemiun who was the nephew of Cheops. Construction took twenty years.

Location of the pyramid of Cheops

The first of the seven wonders of the world located southwest of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The Pyramid of Cheops is one of the pyramids of the Giza Necropolis. Giza is a rocky plateau on which a large necropolis was built during the 4th Dynasty. The necropolis included several cemeteries, rock tombs, temples, village builders and Sphinx. The three great pyramids of Giza are worn names of pharaohsCheops, Khafre and Menkaure.

Description and dimensions

The pyramid has a square base. The sides of the pyramid were originally 230 meters and the height 150 meters. Currently, due to erosion, the size of the pyramid has slightly decreased. This pyramid is the largest of all the pyramids ever built on Earth, regardless of civilization and time. The total weight of the Cheops pyramid is estimated at about 6.25 million tons. The burial chamber is located below ground level and a 105-meter inclined corridor leads to it. Chamber size 14*8.1 meters, height 3.5 meters.

Construction work and materials

The stones of the Cheops pyramid are composed of basalt, limestone or granite. They were originally covered with a top layer of polished Tura limestone, which, however, for the most part has not survived to this day. The pyramid is built from cuboid stone blocks of various sizes, each of which weighs an average of 2.5 tons. In total, to create such an impressive structure, it took near2.3 million stone blocks. The work was carried out without any complicated mechanisms.

Inside, the pyramid is very different from its sister pyramids at Giza, as well as from other pyramids in Egypt. P Iramid of Cheops is the only pyramid with three burial chambers. In addition, this Egyptian pyramid has ventilation duct around which many myths have formed.

Side concavity

The pyramid has four sides that look perfectly straight, but in fact each of them is divided from top to bottom into two equal parts. Therefore, the pyramid of Cheops has eight sides. But this feature is very weakly expressed and is visible only at a time when the sun's rays illuminate both sides from the north and south. At these moments it can be seen that these one half of the side of the pyramid is in the shade, and the other in the sun.

Today the pyramid of Cheops is included in UNESCO heritage list and attracts the attention of tourists and archaeologists from all over the world. It is still fraught with a lot of secrets and mysteries. There are narrow tunnels inside the pyramid, the purpose of which is still unknown..

The Pyramid of Cheops is a monumental structure, fraught with many facts and mysteries. Here are fifteen of them, most of which you've probably never heard of. We will not touch on myths and legends - the most interesting facts about the pyramid of Cheops based on real research

For about three thousand years, the pyramid of Cheops was the tallest creation human hands in the world. Only when in 1311 Lincoln was built Cathedral, this building became the second tallest.
The construction of the pyramid was carried out for 20 years. It remains a mystery how, with an archaic level of building knowledge and disgusting logistics, such a monumental structure was built so quickly. The construction of other burial structures took much longer - from 50 to 200 years.
Pyramid of Cheops - an accurate compass. The faces of the pyramid of Cheops are oriented to the cardinal points. The error is only 5 degrees. Such conformity is not easy to achieve even with the current level of construction development. At first, the fit was perfect, and only constant movement north pole The earth allowed a slight deviation to appear.
3
Pyramids of Cheops seen from space. The construction of the structure took more than 2.2 million blocks of limestone. This friable building material would certainly have collapsed over time if it had not been lined with granite. There are no gaps between the facing plates, they are perfectly polished. When the lining was in place, the sunlight reflected from it was so bright that the structure of Cheops was probably visible from space.
4
Constant temperature inside the building - 20⁰С. The Pyramid of Cheops is a giant isothermal chamber - when outside the air temperature reaches 50⁰С, it does not rise above 20⁰С in this structure.
5
The Pyramid of Cheops Never Had a Pharaoh's Burial. Many consider the pyramid of Cheops to be the burial place of the pharaoh. In fact, the remains of the rulers were buried in the Valley of the Kings. And inside the thick walls were kept the necessary things, which, according to the ancient Egyptians, helped the ruler in the afterlife.
6
The delivery of building materials was carried out in a way unknown to science.. The construction methods of stone monsters can be explained by the high level of construction organization. Huge stones were cut in quarries located on the Mediterranean coast. It remains a mystery how they were transported a hundred kilometers from the quarry to the construction site - the condition of the horse-drawn and water transport did not allow moving heavy stones over considerable distances.
7
The Pyramid of Cheops was built by free people. This building was built by free architects and masons who came to the place of construction from all over the Egyptian state. It is possible that slaves were used as labor force, but there is evidence that most of the workers were free and built for money. By the way, this ancient temple death erected about 100,000 people.
The composition of the mortar used to fasten the blocks of the pyramid has not yet been unraveled.. Limestone and granite slabs are held together by a mysterious mortar that has no modern analogues. The gripping material was developed in the early Predynastic period. After cooling, the solution became stronger than stone and was not afraid of heat, dry winds, or time. Scientists do not know how and from what it was prepared.
9
Even a blade cannot be inserted between the facing of the pyramid. The craftsmanship of the builders is admirable, as they were able to fit the cladding so tightly that even the blade of a knife could not be inserted between the cladding slabs. Few modern buildings can boast of such a quality of laying building materials.
10
The number pi and other oddities. The existence of the pyramid confirms the fact that the Egyptians knew about the "golden ratio", the number π and other constants used in geometry and architecture. Scientific proofs of these formulas were developed by ancient Greek mathematicians a thousand years later.
11
The walls of the pyramid of Cheops from the inside are not covered with drawings or hieroglyphs. The walls of the corridors of the pyramid of Cheops are empty - they do not have numerous inscriptions and drawings. Egyptologists have found dozens of cartouches and inscriptions indicating the names of the builders who took part in the construction of the tomb. There were inscriptions of a technical nature that shed light on the technology of erecting this religious building.
12
The ancient Greeks and Arabs knew about the pyramid of Cheops. The first explorers of Egyptian antiquities were the Greeks. The mathematician Thales was well aware of the existence of the structure of Cheops, and even measured the length of its shadow. Arab scientist Abdullah Al Mamun made an attempt to penetrate the forbidden walls. He managed to do this, but did not find any treasures or secret knowledge.
Napoleon was interested in ancient structures and during the Egyptian campaign he wished to visit the tomb of Cheops. But after the first minutes spent inside the ancient building, Napoleon felt so bad that he no longer returned to the issue of visiting the ancient tombs. But he supported the interest of scientists in uncovering Egyptian mysteries and sponsored several scientific expeditions.
14
The birthday of the Cheops pyramid is a national holiday in Egypt. Modern Egyptians receive a good income from tourists visiting ancient monuments. They even approved the birthday of the Cheops pyramid - it is celebrated on August 23rd. Despite the fact that this date is very controversial, the Egyptians on this day celebrate the beginning of the construction of the tomb of Cheops.

We hope you enjoyed the selection of pictures - Interesting Facts about the pyramid of Cheops (15 photos) online of good quality. Please leave your opinion in the comments! Every opinion matters to us.

world famous Egyptian pyramid Cheops inside, like a "Russian nesting doll" and consists of three pyramids of three pharaohs. The veil of mystery is lifted over one of the seven wonders of the world. Every creation of human hands has a meaning.

“Everything that arises must have some reason for its occurrence, for it is absolutely impossible to arise without a cause.” So said the ancient Greek philosopher and sage Plato in the 4th century BC. e. in his book Timaeus.

All mysteries are overcome by knowledge. Knowledge can be acquired or created. As a “tool for creation”, let's take our common sense, the logic of thinking and the knowledge of ancient people who used the ideas about the world at that distant time.

“What is comprehended with the help of reflection and reasoning is obvious, and there is an eternally identical being; but what is subject to opinion ... arises and perishes, but never really exists. (IV century BC, Plato, "Timaeus").

Russian doll

What does it say that the pyramid of Cheops is a kind of “Russian nesting doll”, containing two more pyramids inside, one inside the other? To confirm the conclusion about the trinity of the pyramid of Cheops, let's start with the facts and consider the scheme of the pyramid in section.

First, in the pyramid of Cheops there are three burial chambers. Three! From this fact it follows that the pyramid in different time there were three masters (three pharaohs). And each had its own separate burial chamber. After all, few of the living people come up with the idea of preparing a tomb for themselves in three “copies”. In addition (as can be seen from the size of the pyramids), their construction is quite laborious for our time. Moreover? archaeologists have already established that the pharaohs built pyramids-tombs for their wives separately and much smaller.

Egyptian historians have established that long before the construction of the pyramids in ancient Egypt in the 4th millennium BC. and earlier pharaohs were buried in structures called mastabas. Below in the picture is the appearance of the ancient crypt (mastaba) of Shepseskaf in Saqqara. It consists of underground and ground parts.

The pharaoh's mummy was located deep underground in an underground hall. In the ground part there was a prayer room with a statue of the pharaoh. In this statue after death (according to the ancient Egyptian priests) the soul of the deceased pharaoh moved. The halls in the mastaba above ground could be interconnected (or isolated from each other). Above these underground halls, a low, trapezoid, truncated pyramid was built from stone blocks.

Under the pyramid of Cheops there is underground passage(4) at the end of which is a vast unfinished underground hall (5). From the hall there is also an exit (12) upward, which was made according to the theory of burial for the passage of the soul of the pharaoh to the above-ground part of the mastaba.

According to the section plan of the Cheops pyramid, it can be concluded that if there is an underground hall (5) and there is a passage upward from it (12), then the upper prayer room of the mastaba should be in the center and slightly lower than the middle burial chamber (7). Unless, of course, by the beginning of the construction of his pyramid over the mastaba by the second pharaoh, these premises were not littered with stone, destroyed and survived to this day.

This conclusion (about the presence of internal mastaba halls in the center of the Cheops pyramid) is confirmed by the observations of French researchers - Gilles Dormayon and Jean-Yves Verdhart. In August 2004, while examining the floor in the middle burial chamber (7) with sensitive gravitational instruments, they discovered an unknown void below the floor at a depth of about four meters of impressive size, about the purpose of which at that time they had no versions.

According to the plan of the pyramid section, a narrow inclined almost vertical shaft (12) goes up from the underground burial pit (5). This passage should be connected to the above-ground prayer room of the mastaba. At the exit from the mine, at ground level under the base of the pyramid, there is a small grotto (expansion up to 5 meters in length). Apparently, in ancient times, when digging this grotto, they were already looking for a passage to the inner halls of the mastaba. It has been established that its walls consist of more ancient masonry that does not belong to the pyramid of Cheops. The passage ascending from the underground hall and the ancient masonry are nothing but the property of the first mastaba. From the expansion in the shaft (12) to the center of the pyramid, there should be a passage to the ground halls of the mastaba. This passage was most likely walled up by the builders of the second inner pyramid.

By appearance and according to archaeologists, the underground burial chamber (5) remained unfinished. In what condition are the prayer rooms in the upper above-ground part of the mastaba (which is the first of three in the pyramid of Cheops) and it remains to be seen by opening a passage in them.

The height of the first internal truncated pyramid (mastaba) according to the scheme of the section of the pyramid should be no more than 15 meters.

The presence of an unfinished burial structure (mastaba), located in the most advantageous place (on top of a stone plateau in the town of Giza), served as an excuse for the second (before Cheops) unknown pharaoh to use this mastaba to build his pyramid over it.

In favor of the fact that the plateau in Giza was previously "settled" by ancient mastabas, the fact of the presence of the "Sphinx" there also speaks. The purpose of the Sphinx is to have a tomb (mastaba) in the form of a sculpture of a lion. The age of the "Sphinx" (the deity in which, according to the theory, the soul of the pharaoh should move) is estimated much older than the pyramids (about 5 - 10 thousand years).

In Egypt, by the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, the Egyptian priests had a new worldview about the place of residence of the soul after death.

In this regard, the burials of the pharaohs in mastabas were replaced by more majestic structures - stepped pyramids, and later to "smooth" hewn pyramids. According to the ideas of the priests, after death, the soul of a person flew to life on the stars related to their souls. “The one who lives the time measured out to him properly will return to the abode of the star of his name.” Plato, Timaeus.

The burial chamber (7) belonging to the second inner pyramid (on the plan of the cross section) is located above the prayer part of the first mastaba. The corridor ascending to it (6) is laid along the wall of the mastaba, and the horizontal corridor (8) along its roof. Thus, these two corridors to the chamber (7) show the approximate overall dimensions of the first ancient internal truncated trapezoidal mastaba pyramid.

Second and third pyramids

This can be judged by the length of the two outgoing from the chamber (7) in opposite directions, the so-called (in modern terms) "ventilation ducts". These channels (one to the north and the other to the south) in a section of 20 by 25 cm, approximately 10-12 meters do not reach the border of the outer walls of the third pyramid.

The modern name of the channels "air ducts", of course, is incorrect. The deceased pharaoh did not need ventilation ducts. The canals had a completely different purpose. Channels - a path that points to the sky, oriented with great accuracy (up to a degree) to the stars, where, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the soul of the pharaoh will settle after death.

The northern channel was oriented to the star "Kokhab" in the constellation "Ursa Minor". At that time, due to the precession (shift of the Earth's axis), "Kochab" was the "Polar Star", around which the sky revolved. It was assumed that after death the pharaoh becomes one of the stars in her environment in the northern part of the sky.

The southern channel was aimed at the star "Sirius". In Egyptian mythology, "Sirius" was associated with the name of the goddess Sopdet (protector and patroness of all the dead).

At the time when the second pyramid was built, both channels from the burial room (7) reached the edge of the outer walls and were open to the sky. The burial chamber of the second inner pyramid of the pharaoh may also have been unfinished (judging by the lack of its interior design).

It is possible that the top of the second pyramid was not completed to the end (for example, there was a war, the pharaoh was killed, died prematurely from illness, an accident, etc.). But, in any case, the second pyramid was erected no lower than the height of the channels ("air ducts") emanating from the burial chamber (7) to the outer walls.

The second inner pyramid reveals itself not only with tightly closed channels and its own separate burial chamber, but most of all it is revealed to the outside by the bricked-up central entrance (1) to the pyramid of Cheops.

Obviously, it immediately catches the eye that the entrance, tightly walled up with huge granite blocks, is buried in the body of the third pyramid (approximately the same 10-12 meters as the channels from the second burial chamber).

During the construction of the third pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops, there was no point in lengthening this external entrance to the second pyramid. Therefore, after an increase along the perimeter of the walls at the third pyramid, the entrance turned out to be “drowned” inside.

The entrance gates of all buildings are always made out of several structures, and not buried in the depths of the structure. Approximately the same entrance, but taken out, is also at the pyramid of Khafre.

Cheops - the third owner of the pyramid

Archaeologists and historians, according to the decoding of hieroglyphs, found that the pyramid of Cheops was built not by slaves (as was previously thought), but by civilian builders, who, of course, had to be well paid for hard work. And since the volume of construction was huge, it was more profitable for Cheops to take an unfinished pyramid than to build a new one from scratch. The favorable location of the unfinished second pyramid, which was located at the very top of the plateau, also mattered.

Cheops began the construction of the third pyramid by dismantling central part second pyramid. In the resulting "crater" at a height of about 40 meters from the ground, an antechamber (11) and a third burial chamber of the pharaoh (10) were built. The passage to the third burial chamber only needed to be extended. The ascending tunnel (6) was continued in the form of a large 8-meter high cone-shaped gallery (9).

The cone-shaped form of the gallery is not similar to the initial part of the ascending narrow passage. This indicates that the tunnel was not made at the same time and according to different external conditions.

After the third pyramid of Cheops was expanded on the sides, adding 10-12 meters on each side, the outgoing channels of the second pyramid from the chamber (7) turned out to be closed, respectively.

If the burial chamber (7) turned out to be empty, then the builders of the third pyramid had no reason to lengthen the old channels. From the outside, the channels were laid with new rows of wall blocks of the third pyramid, and from the inside, in the chamber (7), the outgoing channels were also walled up. In the burial chamber (7), the walled canals were discovered by treasure hunters (researchers) when they tapped the walls only in 1872.

In September 2010, English and German researchers launched a caterpillar robot into one of the narrow “air ducts” from the second burial chamber (7). Having risen to the end, he rested against a limestone slab 13 cm thick, drilled through it, inserted a video camera into the hole, and on the other side of the slab at a distance of 18 cm, the robot saw another stone barrier. Resting on a dead end, the search for scientists ended in nothing. The stone barrier is nothing but the blocks of the third pyramid.

The builders of the third pyramid of Cheops from the third burial chamber of the pharaoh laid new channels (10) for the "flight of the soul" to the stars.

If you carefully look at the section of the pyramid, then two pairs of channels (to the north and south) from the second and third chambers are not parallel! This is one of the "keys" to unraveling the mystery of the pyramid of Cheops.

The channels of the upper third chamber relative to the channels of the second chamber are rotated clockwise by 5 degrees. The northern pair of channels has inclinations of 32° and 37° (5° difference). The southern pair of channels, oriented towards the star Sirius, has inclinations of 45° and 39° (a difference of 6°). Here, an increase of 1 degree can be attributed to the own movement of the planet "Sirius" in its orbit. The discrepancy in the angles of inclination of the channels by 5 degrees is not accidental. Egyptian priests and builders very accurately recorded the position of the stars in the sky and clearly laid the direction of the channels to the stars (with an accuracy of minutes and seconds).

Then what's the matter

And the point here is that the axis of rotation of the Earth every 72 years is shifted by 1 degree, and every 25,920 years the axis of the Earth, rotating at an angle, like a "spinning top", makes a full circle of 360 degrees. This astronomical phenomenon is called precession. Plato called the total time of rotation of the Earth's axis in 25,920 years - "The Great Year".

When the Earth's axis shifts by 1 degree in 72 years, the angle of view towards all the stars (including the Sun) also changes by 1 degree. If the displacement of each pair of channels differs by 5 degrees, then it can be easily calculated that between the construction of the second pyramid (of an unknown pharaoh) and the third pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops, the difference is 5 x 72 = 360 years.

Egyptian historians say that Pharaoh Cheops (another pronunciation is Khufu) ruled in 2540-2560 BC. Counting "degree" years ago, we can say exactly when the second inner pyramid was built. Thus, the second pyramid was built in 2800-2820 BC.

In the pyramid of Cheops the only place under the ceiling (on powerful vaulted granite slabs like a roof above the third burial chamber) there is a nominal hieroglyph made by workers who left their mark: “Builders, friends of Pharaoh Khufu”. No other mention of the name of Cheops (Khufu) or the belonging of other pharaohs to the pyramid has yet been found.

Most likely, the third pyramid of Cheops was completed and used for its intended purpose. Otherwise, the pyramid of Cheops would not have been “sealed”. That is, a cork from several granite cubes would not be lowered into the ascending passage (6) from above and from the inside along an inclined plane. With these stone cubes, the pyramid was tightly closed for everyone for more than three thousand years (until 820 AD).

The ancient Egyptian name of the pyramid of Cheops is read in hieroglyphs as - "Horizon of Khufu". The name is literal. The angle of inclination of the side face of the pyramid is 51° 50'. This is the angle at which the Sun rose exactly at noon on the days of the autumn-spring equinox. The sun at noon, like a golden "crown", crowned the pyramid. Throughout the year, the Sun (ancient Egyptian God - Ra) walks in the sky in the summer above, in the winter below (just like the pharaoh in his possessions) and always the Sun (pharaoh) returns to his "home". Therefore, the angle of inclination of the walls of the pyramid indicates the path to the house of the "God of the Sun", to the "house of the pyramid" of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) - "the son of the God of the Sun."

The sides of the walls are arranged at the angle of view of the Sun, not only in this pyramid. In the pyramid of Khafre, the angle of inclination of the sides of the walls is slightly more than 52-53 degrees (it is known that it was built later). In the pyramid of Menkaure, the slope of the faces is 51 ° 20′25 ″ (less than that of Cheops). Until now, historians did not know whether it was built before the pyramid Cheops or later. Now, given the open "degree time" of the Earth's precession, the smaller angle of inclination of the walls indicates that the Mycerinus pyramid was built not later, but earlier. In relation to the "degree age scale", the difference in the slope of the walls in 30 minutes corresponds to 36 years. In later Egyptian pyramids, for example, the pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre, respectively, the slope of the faces should be greater.

In Sudan (see the picture) there are many pyramids, the angle of inclination of the faces of which is much steeper. Sudan is south of Egypt and the Sun on the day of the spring-autumn equinox is higher above the horizon there. This explains the great steepness of the walls of the Sudanese pyramids.

In 820 AD Caliph Abu Jafar al-Mamun of Baghdad, in search of the innumerable treasures of the pharaoh at the base of the pyramid of Cheops, made a horizontal gap (2), which is currently used by tourists to enter the pyramid. The break was broken through to the beginning of the ascending corridor (6), where they ran into granite cubes, which went around to the right and thus penetrated the pyramid. But, according to historians, they did not find anything but “dust in half a palm” inside. If there was anything of value in the pyramid, then the caliph's servants took it. And what was left, everything was taken out for the subsequent time - 1200 years.

Judging by the appearance of the gallery (9), 28 pairs of ritual statues stood along its walls in rectangular recesses. However, the exact purpose of the recesses is not known. Two facts speak about the fact that there were statues. The first - the eight-meter height of the gallery made it possible to install statues. The second - on the walls there were large round peeling imprints from the solution with which the statues were attached to the walls.

I will disappoint those who were determined to find “miracles” in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids.

More than a hundred pyramids have been discovered in Egypt today, and they are all different from each other. The pyramids have different angles of inclination of the faces oriented to the Sun (because they were built at different times), there is a pyramid with a “broken side” at a double angle, there are stone and brick pyramids, smoothly lined and stepped, there are with a base that is not square, but rectangular shape, for example, Pharaoh Djoser.

There is no unity even among the neighboring pyramids in Giza. The Pyramid of Menkaure (the smallest of the three) at the base is not oriented strictly to the cardinal points. The exact orientation of the sides is not given importance. In the main pyramid of Cheops, the third (topmost) burial chamber is located not in the geometric center of the pyramid and not even on the axis of the pyramid. In the pyramids of Khafre and Mykerin, the burial chambers are also not in the center. If the pyramids had some kind of secret secret, law or knowledge, the "golden section" and so on, then all the pyramids would have uniformity. But there is nothing like that in the pyramids. Below in the pictures are Egyptian pyramids of various shapes.

Former Egyptian minister of archeology and current chief expert on ancient Egyptian pyramids, Zahi Hawass, says: “Like any practitioner, I decided to test the assertion that food does not spoil in the pyramid. Divided a kilo of meat in half. I left one part in the office, and the other in the pyramid of Cheops. The part in the pyramid deteriorated even faster than in the office.”

What else can you look for in the pyramid of Cheops

Perhaps you can find the above-ground prayer room of the first pyramid - the mastaba. It would be worth drilling down several holes in the floor of the second (7) burial chamber until an internal cavity is found at the bottom.

Then from the grotto (12) find a walled passage to the halls (or lay it). For the pyramid, this will not have any damage, since there was originally a connecting entrance from the underground burial chamber to the mastaba's aboveground room. And you just have to find it. After the discovery of the interior of the mastaba, perhaps it will become known about the pharaoh - the owner of the first truncated trapezoidal mastaba pyramid.

Of great interest on the plateau in Giza is the mastaba-Sphinx. stone body ancient Sphinx, located from west to east. Funeral burials were also made from west to east. Presumably, the Sphinx is an integral part of the elevated structure (mastaba) - the tomb of an unknown pharaoh.

Searches in this direction would expand the boundaries of knowledge of the history of ancient Egypt. It is possible that even an earlier civilization, for example, the Atlanteans, whom the Egyptians deified, considering them to be progenitors, and referred to their ancient ancestors, as to the predecessor gods.

An identification study by American forensic scientists concluded that the face of the Sphinx does not look like the faces of the statues of the Egyptian pharaohs, but has distinct Negroid features. That is, the ancient ancestors of the Egyptians, including the legendary Atlanteans, had Negroid facial features and African origin.

It should be noted here that the Egyptian legend about the ancestors of the Atlanteans is indirect evidence of proximity to Egypt.

Probably, the burial chamber and the mummy of the ancient pharaoh of Negro origin is under the front paws of the Sphinx, as the American psychic Edgar Cayce said about this. In this case, there should be a passage upward from the underground hall - the path for the resettlement of the “soul” of the pharaoh and subsequent life in the body of the Sphinx statue (according to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians).

The Sphinx is a lion (a symbol of royal power) with a human head and the face of a pharaoh. It is possible that the face of the discovered mummy of the pharaoh (after plastic restoration) will turn out to be like “two drops of water” similar to the face of the Sphinx.

By analogy with the construction (of the later pyramids over the early ones), we can say that many other Egyptian pyramids had more than one owner. In this regard, confusion is revealed with the time of the life of the pharaohs and the time of the construction of their pyramids.

For example, Pharaoh Menkaure ruled later than Cheops, but his pyramid, according to the angle of the walls, in accordance with the calculations for the “years of precession”, was started 36 years earlier than the pyramid of Cheops. How can this be? The answer to this question is that the pyramid began to be built earlier (before Mykerin), but it was completed later, when the angle of inclination of the lower walls that had been begun could no longer be changed.

On one of the side walls of the Menkaure pyramid there is a large vertical gap. Getting to the treasures of the pharaoh in the burial chamber inside the pyramid, the robbers dismantled part of the wall from top to bottom. In the thus formed "vertical section" of the section of the inner blocks of the pyramid, the following was revealed - with a certain, clearly defined boundary, the upper blocks were not stacked tightly and not as neatly as the lower ones. This confirms that the pyramid was being completed and that later builders did not carefully monitor the quality of laying the internal blocks.

At the same time, judging by the two underground halls under the pyramid of Menkaure (which belong to the tombs of the pharaohs during the construction of mastabas), the funerary structure was begun many centuries earlier. Such a confusion of times suggests that inside the pyramid of Menkaure, as well as in the pyramid of Cheops, there should have been ground-based prayer rooms of the original mastaba belonging to the more ancient burial of the pharaoh. And in the body of the pyramid there should also be a chamber-tomb of the later burial of Pharaoh Mykerin.

The "curtain" of the centuries-old mystery over the secret of the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops is lifted. It remains to enter the open door.
This requires permission from the Egyptian authorities, which they give to research scientists with great reluctance.
The secret loses its attractive power when it is revealed.

But, despite this, the interest of tourists in the majestic buildings does not disappear. ancient world that have survived to this day.

How the pyramid of Cheops was built

Another confirmation of the trinity of the pyramid of Cheops. In 2009, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, and later with the support of Egyptologist Bob Brier of the American University of Long Island, observed how roads were built in the mountains, put forward a similar erroneous assumption. about the construction technology of the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops. About the fact that stone blocks were delivered to the pyramid by dragging, around its walls along inclined ramps and corridors, as if along a serpentine mountain road. This is a long and laborious journey. Following this, Jean-Pierre Houdin began to look for evidence for his hypothesis.

In support of his assumption, he accepted the research of a group of engineers from the French Academy of Sciences, who in 1986 scanned the interior of the Cheops pyramid for several months in order to find hidden cavities inside it. French researchers found wide bands around the perimeter of the pyramid at different heights with a density lower, by about 15% (see the Cheops pyramid gravimetry picture above). Areas with a density of 1.85 to 2.3 tons per 1 cubic meter are highlighted in different colors.

The French scientists could not explain why there are rarefied bands along the walls of the pyramid, and therefore the results of the study in the subsequent scientific world did not receive any discussion.

In June 2012, engineer Vladimir Garmatyuk uncovered the “secret” of the Cheops pyramid in Russia. Obvious evidence is given that the pyramid, like a kind of "Russian matryoshka" inside, consists of three pyramids of three pharaohs of different times. When it became known that inside the pyramid of Cheops (the third from the beginning of construction) there is an older (360 years earlier) second pyramid (see the picture - a recessed entrance to the second closed pyramid).

And there is an even more ancient first truncated pyramid (a mastaba that reveals itself in the underground hall under the pyramid and other signs), then the strips of material with a lower density inside the pyramid of Cheops found their explanation. The stripes show and confirm the separation of the bodies of the second and third pyramids.

How and how to explain it

The outer layer of the pyramid for the strength of the structure was laid out from hewn tightly packed blocks. Hence the high density of the outer layer of the walls. Whereas the inner rows of the pyramids consist of roughly fitted unhewn blocks. Therefore, the density of the inner rows of the pyramid is less.

See, for example, the picture below - the "insides" of the pyramid of Pepi II from South Saqqara. Outside the pyramid are tightly packed hewn blocks, and inside are ordinary stones mined from a horizontal cleavage of layered limestone deposits.

It is possible that the same thing happened inside the pyramid of Cheops (of course, not in the central part, where the burial chambers of the pharaohs are located) as a filler of the volume, a mound of stones, rubble and sand, delivered to the pyramid in baskets, was used. After all, this significantly reduced the cost and accelerated the construction of the pyramids. A mound of stones easily explains the same vast spaces rarefied in density that were discovered in 2017 by French and Japanese physicists when studying the interior of the pyramid with muon telescopes.

With an accurate measurement of the plane of the side faces of the pyramid of Cheops, it is noticeable that they have some concavity inward (to a depth of one meter). Indeed, for 4.5 thousand years since the construction of the pyramid, there have been many earthquakes, which over and over again gradually shook its contents. And because of this, the walls (since there is loose material inside the pyramid), due to their lower density, somewhat fell inward.

According to the gravimetry of the pyramid of Cheops (white) stripes along the perimeter of the walls of the second pyramid have a density of 1.85-2.05 tons per cubic meter. This just says that there is a mound of stone.

The third (outer visible today) pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops increased the second (inner) pyramid on the sides and in height by 10-12 meters. The inner unhewn blocks of the third pyramid are laid along the dense, hewn outer walls of the second pyramid. Therefore, French researchers of gravimetry in 1986 recorded a difference in the density of the material inside the pyramid, it is this (density difference) that creates the appearance of a "serpentine". This circumstance was noted by French researchers, but they could not explain.

Other arguments by Jean-Per Houdin and Bob Bryer, given in support of the assumption of the "serpentine" construction of the pyramid, each separately has its own explanation. Researchers in 2009 did not yet know that the Cheops pyramid consists of three different pyramids. For example, longitudinal stripes of stone blocks of the same color on the faces of the pyramid of Cheops, interpreted by them as “dusty roads” from transporting blocks, are explained by the uniform color of the stones mined in the quarry from one layer of rock.

The third pyramid was built up with stone blocks evenly in height and perimeter on the walls of the second pyramid, like “cream on a cake”. The stone was mined in one place, and therefore there is a similarity of blocks in color. In what order the stone blocks were mined, in such a sequence they were laid into the walls. When they took the blocks in another place, their color was somewhat different.

Or their other argument is a small pothole-depression on the edge near the top of the pyramid, which they called the transport corridor. The pothole may have been made after the pyramid was built, for example, as an unsuccessful attempt to get inside. Or the pothole could be made like:

the guardhouse of the guards for giving a signal,

as a guard post for religious, ascetic, cult or other purposes.

The fact that the Cheops pyramid consists of three different pyramids, separated by hundreds of years of construction time, means that it was built by more than one generation of people, and there was no such great construction “in one breath”.

This significantly alleviates the troublesome problem of the complexity of building a pyramid, but does not cancel and does not in any way reduce the grandeur of the undoubtedly greatest building of the ancient Egyptian civilization in the history of mankind.

The only 7 wonders of the world that have survived to this day is the pyramid of Cheops, or the pyramid of Khufu, as the Egyptians themselves call it, unlike the rest of the world, which uses the Greek pronunciation of the name of the pharaoh.

In order to fully realize how far from us those times when the Cheops pyramid was built, one has only to think that for the contemporaries of the other six wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid at Giza was so old that they no longer knew the solution to its secret.

Despite the fact that the most great pyramid in the world has an age of more than four thousand years, it is quite well preserved to our times. Today, excursions to the Egyptian pyramids can be ordered from almost any hotel in Cairo.

History and construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops

It is believed that a certain Hemion, the nephew and vizier of the pharaoh, and, by compatibility, also a court architect, was engaged in the embodiment of royal ambitions. The pyramid of Cheops was built around 2540 BC, and its construction began twenty years earlier - somewhere in 2560 BC.

More than two million huge stones were needed to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. The largest blocks weighed several tens of tons. For the construction weighing 6.4 million tons, so that it does not go underground under its own weight, solid rocky soil was chosen. Granite blocks were delivered from a quarry, which was located at a distance of 1000 km. Scientists still cannot find an answer to the question of how these stones were transported and how the Cheops pyramid was built.

The purpose of the tallest pyramid in ancient Egypt also causes a lot of controversy. According to the most common opinion, this is indeed the tomb of Cheops (the second pharaoh of the IV dynasty of rulers) and members of his family. Nevertheless, discussions around the riddle of the pyramid do not subside. For example, from the point of view of some astronomers, a kind of observatory was equipped here, since the ventilation ducts and corridors point to the stars Sirius, Tuban, and Alnitak with amazing accuracy. It is also interesting that during the construction of the pyramid of Cheops, the coordinates of the Earth's magnetic poles were also taken into account.

Geometry and description of Khufu's pyramid

The dimensions of the pyramid of Cheops surprise even modern man. Its base occupies a huge area of 53 thousand square meters, which is proportional to ten football fields. Other parameters are no less striking: the length of the base is 230 m, the length of the side rib is the same, and the area of the side surface is 85.5 thousand square meters.

Now the height of the Cheops pyramid is 138 meters, but initially it reached 147 meters, which can be compared with a fifty-story skyscraper. The years have left their mark on the safety of the pyramid. Numerous earthquakes over thousands of years brought down the stone top of the structure, and the smooth stone that lined the outer walls crumbled. Nevertheless, the interior of the attraction, despite the many robbery and vandal invasions, remained almost unchanged.

The entrance to the pyramid, located from the north, was originally at a height of almost 16 meters and was sealed with a granite plug. Now tourists get inside through a huge gap made ten meters below, left in 1820 by the Arabs, led by Caliph Abdullah al-Mamun, who attempted to find the treasures supposedly hidden here.

Inside the pyramid of Cheops there are three tombs located one above the other. The lowest, unfinished underground chamber is located at the base of the rock. Above it are the burial chambers of the queen and the pharaoh, to which the ascending Grand Gallery. Those who built the pyramid created a complex system of corridors and shafts, the plan of which is still being studied by scientists. Egyptologists put forward a whole theory of understanding the afterlife of people of that time. These arguments explain the secret doors and other design features.

For many years now, the Pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops in Giza, like the Great Sphinx, is in no hurry to reveal all its secrets. For tourists, it remains the most striking attraction of Egypt. It is impossible to fully comprehend the secrets of its corridors, shafts and ventilation ducts. Only one thing is clear: the Great Pyramid is the fruit of a brilliant design idea.

There are many opinions about when the Cheops pyramid was built and who did it. The most original assumptions are various versions about the construction completed long before the Flood by civilizations that did not survive it, as well as hypotheses about alien creators.
Despite the fact that no one knows the exact time when the Cheops pyramid was built, in Egypt, the date of the start of its construction is celebrated at the official level - August 23, 2560 BC.
The latest excavations carried out at the beginning of the 21st century show that the work of the pyramid builders was hard, but at the same time they were well taken care of. They had a high-calorie diet of meat and fish and comfortable sleeping places. Many Egyptologists are of the opinion that they were not even slaves.
Studying the ideal proportions of the Great Pyramid at Giza, scientists came to the conclusion that already in those days the ancient Egyptians knew very well what the golden ratio was, and actively used its principle when creating a drawing.

Inside the pyramid of Cheops there are no decorative paintings and historical inscriptions, except for a small portrait in the passage to the queen's chamber. There is not even any evidence that the pyramid belonged to Pharaoh Khufu at all.
Until 1300, for three millennia, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure on the planet, until the Lincoln Cathedral was built to exceed it.
The heaviest stone block used in the construction of the pyramid weighs 35 tons and is placed above the entrance to the pharaoh's burial chamber.
Before the Arab vandal invasion of Egypt, the outer slabs of the Cairo pyramid were so carefully polished that they radiated a mysterious shimmer in the light of the moon, and in the rays of the sun their lining shone with a soft peach light.
To study rooms that are difficult for a person to reach, scientists used a special robot.
From 6 to 10 thousand tourists visit the pyramids daily, and about 3 million a year.

Useful information for tourists

Currently, in the museum on the south side of the pyramid, you can get acquainted with the exhibits that were found during excavations and in the pyramid itself. There is an opportunity to see the restored unique cedar boat (Sun Boat), which was built by the ancient Egyptians. You can also buy souvenirs here. And the next point of view on the territory will be the Great Sphinx.

In the evenings, a light and sound show is shown in Giza: alternate floodlighting of local attractions is accompanied by a fascinating story, including in Russian and in English.

Opening hours of the museum complex in Giza

daily from 8.00 to 17.00;
in winter - until 16.30;
during Ramadan - until 15.00.

Ticket prices

entrance ticket to the Giza zone for foreigners - $ 8;
entrance to the pyramid of Cheops - $16;
inspection of the Solar Boat - $ 7.

For children and students, prices are usually two times lower.

To visit the pyramid of Cheops, only 300 tickets are sold per day: 150 at 8.00 and 150 at 13.00.
It is best to go to the pyramids in the morning in order to grab a ticket and protect yourself from the midday heat.
The entrance to the pyramid is very low, you have to walk 100 meters bent over, besides, it is very dry, hot and slightly dusty inside. People suffering from claustrophobia, diseases of the respiratory tract and heart of the waters are undesirable.
Photo and video shooting is prohibited inside. As for photographs against the background of the Great Pyramid, it is better not to give your camera into the wrong hands, as there are frequent cases of theft.
It is better to take a photo of the Cheops pyramid (as well as other pyramids) in the morning or in the evening, when the sun does not shine too brightly, otherwise the image will turn out to be flat.
Climbing the pyramid is strictly prohibited.
For local residents tourists are the main and often the only source of income, so you will constantly be offered something to buy. Therefore, think carefully whether you need certain offers, and in any case, be sure to bargain. Tipping is given only to those who really deserve it.
Be careful: there are a lot of pickpockets around.

How to get to the pyramid of Cheops

The address: Egypt, Cairo, El Giza District, El Haram Street

Arriving from Cairo:

By metro (line number 2) - to Giza station. Then transfer to bus number 900 or number 997 and drive along Al-Haram avenue for 15–20 minutes.
By bus number 355 and number 357 from the airport and Heliopolis. Runs every 20 minutes.
By taxi to Al Haram.

From Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh: on the tourist bus or taxi.

Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu)

The Pyramid of Cheops is part of the complex of the largest Egyptian pyramids located on the Giza plateau. This grand structure, together with the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, as well as the majestic Sphinx, makes up the so-called Giza pyramid complex. As many scientists believe, the location of the pyramids and the Sphinx within this complex is by no means accidental, and is due not only to the desire of the ancient builders to create an integral composition of these grandiose structures.

One of the earliest hypotheses considered the Egyptian (and other) pyramids as tombs, hence the names: the king's (pharaoh's) chamber and the queen's chamber. However, according to many modern Egyptologists, The pyramid of Cheops was never used as a tomb, but had a completely different purpose.

Some Egyptologists believe that the pyramid is a repository of ancient weights and measures, as well as a model of known linear and temporal measurements that are characteristic of the Earth and are based on the principle of rotation of the polar axis. It is considered confirmed that the one (or those) who led the construction of the pyramid had absolutely accurate knowledge of such things that were discovered by mankind much later. These include: circumference the globe, longitude of the year, the average value of the Earth's orbit as it rotates around the Sun, the specific density of the globe, the acceleration of gravity, the speed of light, and much more. And all this knowledge, one way or another, is allegedly laid down in a pyramid.

It is believed that the pyramid is a kind of calendar. It has almost been proved that it serves as both a theodolite and a compass, and of such accuracy that the most modern compasses can be compared with it.

Another hypothesis believes that not only the parameters of the pyramid itself, but also its individual structures contain many important mathematical quantities and relationships, for example, the number "pi", and the parameters of the king's chamber combine "sacred" triangles with sides 3-4-5 . It is believed that the angles and slopes of the pyramid reflect the most modern ideas about trigonometric values, and the contours of the pyramid with practical accuracy include the proportions of the "golden section".

There is a hypothesis that considers the pyramid of Cheops as astronomical observatory, and according to another hypothesis, the Great Pyramid was used for initiation into the highest levels of secret knowledge, as well as for storing this knowledge. At the same time, a person initiated into secret knowledge was located in a sarcophagus.

The official theory says that the architect of the Great Pyramid is Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also held the title of "Manager of all construction sites of the pharaoh." Construction under his leadership lasted twenty years and ended around 2540 BC. e. In Egypt, the date of the start of the construction of the pyramid of Cheops is officially established and celebrated - August 23, 2470 BC. e.

However, there are other assumptions. Thus, the Arab historian Ibrahim ben ibn Wassuff Shah believed that the pyramids of Giza were erected by an antediluvian king named Saurid. Abu Zeid el Bahi writes about an inscription which says that Great Pyramid Cheops was built about 73,000 years ago. Ibn Batuta claimed (and not only him) that the pyramids were built by Hermes Trismegistus, etc. The hypothesis of the Russian scientist Sergei Proskuryakov is very interesting, who believes that the pyramids were built by Aliens from Sirius and that the architect Hemiun himself was from Sirius. Vladimir Babanin also believes that the pyramids were built by Aliens from Sirius, and possibly from Dessa of the Cygnus constellation in ancient times, but during the time of Cheops the pyramids were restored.

It seems logical that in any case the Pyramids were erected after the pole shift occurred on Earth, otherwise it would be impossible to orient the Pyramids with such incredible accuracy as they are located today.

Initially, the height of the Cheops pyramid was 146.6 meters. But time mercilessly dissolved 7 meters and 85 centimeters of this majestic structure. Simple calculations will show that now the pyramid has a height of 138 meters and 75 centimeters.

The perimeter of the pyramid is 922 meters, the base area is 53,000 square meters (comparable to the area of 10 football fields). Scientists calculated the total weight of the pyramid, which amounted to more than 5 million tons.

The pyramid is made up of over 2.2 million large stone blocks of limestone, granite and basalt, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons. There are 210 rows of blocks in the pyramid. The heaviest block weighs about 15 tons. The base is a rocky elevation, the height of which is 9 meters. Initially, the surface of the pyramid was a smooth surface, because. covered with a special material.

The entrance to the pyramid is at a height of 15.63 meters on the north side. Entrance form stone slabs laid in the form of an arch. This entrance to the pyramid was sealed with a granite plug.

Today, tourists enter the pyramid through the 17th gap, which was made in 820 by Caliph Abu Jafar al-Ma'mun. He hoped to find the pharaoh's innumerable treasures there, but found only a layer of dust half a cubit thick.

Inside the pyramid of Cheops there are three burial chambers located one above the other.

When the sun moves around the pyramid, you can notice the unevenness of the walls - the concavity of the central part of the walls. Perhaps the reason for this is erosion or damage resulting from the fall of the stone cladding. It is also possible that this was deliberately done during construction.