The Great Pyramid

Humans have always been instinctively obsessed with owning the biggest and tallest material objects available. It follows that the great pharaoh Khufu, whom the Greeks called Cheops, ordered the construction of a massive funerary monument to commemorate his life after death. The ensuing project would prove to be the greatest engineering feat of the ancient world. At 481 feet high, the Great Pyramid stood as the tallest man-made structure on earth from its time of construction around 2500 BC until the erection of the Eiffel Tower in 1889 AD (Jackson 13). Throughout its existence the pyramid perplexed historians, archeologists, and mathematicians the world over. Intellectuals have questioned how the Egyptians built the structure, what was its purpose, and does the pyramid hold many more secrets of ancient mathematics and science than initially meet the eye?

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1. Statue of Khufu(link to Photo Credits)

Khufu was not the first pharaoh to order the construction of a burial monument, as such structures endured a long evolution before the realization of the first true pyramid. The first records of Egyptian burials occurred during the Predynastic Period (ca. 4500 – 3100 BC). The bodies were simply laid, resting on their left side in the fetal position, into shallow rectangular or ovular pits. As the era progressed so too did the funerary rituals. The dead were often put to rest upon reed or goat skin mats, flanked by shells, pots, ornaments, jars, and other offerings to denote the deceased’s standing in the community. At times, the walls of the pit were lined with sun-baked mud or plaster bricks (Hawass 3-5). During the early Dynastic Period (3100 – 2750 BC) the first aboveground burial construction occurred. The Egyptians began to erect mastabas, rectangular structures with flat roofs and mud-brick walls. The bodies were placed in wooden coffins and once again buried along side their valuable possessions ( Bell 21). Dynasties III through VI (2750 – 2250 BC) saw the first mummification and the largest advances in the creation of the pyramid. King Djoser, the progenitor of Dynasty III, built a structure consisting of series of six progressively smaller mastabas on top of each other. The 204 foot structure consisted of small, locally quarried stone and came to be known as the Step Pyramid. Djoser’s pyramid is the oldest standing stone monument in the world. Later kings built similar step pyramids and filled in the jagged sides to create the first true pyramids.

The pyramids built at Giza by Khufu and other members of Dynasty IV were the first to bypass the step pyramid phase of building. They instead were constructed of thousands, or in the Great Pyramid’s case millions, of large stone blocks and finished with a coating of limestone from Turah. Over 90 large pyramids were built throughout Egypt from the Dynasty III until Dynasty XX and the ruins of hundreds of smaller pyramidal structures have been found along the Nile. The finest craftsmanship, however took place during the Fourth Dynasty at Giza and these great monuments have interested scientists more than any other ruins in the world for hundreds of years(Hawass 7-10). The “pyramid texts” are the only solid evidence offering a hint of how the pyramids were built. While excavating the tombs of several Vth dynasty kings in 1881, Emile and Heinrich Brugsch found over 700 of these old religious texts. The processes described in the “pyramid texts” are generally applied to the construction of all Egyptian pyramids; however, we cannot be sure that the building of the Great Pyramid occurred in exactly the same manner as the other structures (Jackson 98). So what process did Khufu follow to ensure he would have a proper burial and afterlife?

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2. Pit Burial, 3. Mastaba, 4. Step Pyramid, 5. True Pyramid

Long before construction could begin, Khufu faced the daunting task of selecting a location for his entombment. Many factors influenced his choosing of Giza. The position of the Nile played a huge role in the selection of a building site. Of the 93 large pyramids built in Egypt, all but one lie on the western shore of the river, believed to be home to the western god of the setting sun and afterlife (Hawass 1). The site had to be located at an elevation higher than the Nile’s flood plain in order to avoid the destruction of the annual rising waters. The pyramid, however, could not be far from the river, as the Nile played a vital route in the transportation of building materials and workers. The site also had to be based on solid, level bedrock to support the immense weight of the pyramid over thousands of years. Giza is located on a geographical feature known as the Mokkatam Formation which satisfies all these demands. The formation is a plate of limestone nearly 1200 meters across and positioned 60 meters above the level of the Nile ( Jackson 23, 24). Within this bedrock workers created the Khufu Quarry. The quarry was mined to a depth of about 30 meters and an estimated 97.5 million cubic feet of stone were removed for the building of the Great Pyramid as well as other construction on the Giza Plateau ( Jackson 50, 51).

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6. Map of Giza

With the site selected, the pharaoh needed to assemble a workforce large enough to complete the massive task. The number of laborers necessary has long been a topic of controversy, with estimates ranging from as few as 2000 by modern studies, to as many as 100,000 according to the not always reliable Greek historian Herodotus. The most widely respected estimates resulted from the studies done by Dr. Mark Lehner of Harvard University. Dr. Lehner assembled a team of “workers” to reenact the cutting, transporting, and setting of stones similar to those used in the pyramid construction. Using the most commonly accepted figure that the pyramids took 23 years to build, he was then able to calculate that on any given day there were about 1360 cutters, 1212 haulers, and 680 setters for a total workforce of approximately 3250 laborers. According to the aforementioned pyramid texts and contrary to common belief, none of these workers were slaves. Instead, the king conscripted a small army of able-bodied men from across Egypt. Their work was seen as a necessary service to the king, but they were always repaid for their labor. Khufu commissioned a ranch with the sole purpose of raising meat, a rare and precious commodity in ancient Egypt, for all his workers. They often enjoyed wine and other delicacies that would have been unavailable had they not been part of the king’s workforce. The workers saw their task as an enormous challenge but also as an incredible honor ( Jackson 31-62).

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7,8. Reenacted Workers

No matter how large and committed the workforce, positioning 2.3 million stones that weigh an average of 2.5 tons is an intimidating task. How did the Egyptians complete this project, and even more troubling, how did they create the pyramid with such mathematical accuracy? There are several theories as to how the pyramids were constructed, and almost all the hypotheses that do not include some sort of extraterrestrial assistance make use of ramps. The ramps were most likely made of gypsum, tafla, and limestone and built up as the pyramid grew. When construction was complete the ramps were stripped away and deposited in the quarry. Archeologists are not exactly sure what type of incline would have been used but generally agree on one of four theories. The straight-on ramp would have been built against just one side of the pyramid and could have either covered the entire face or just a small enough portion to move the stones up to the level of construction. Opponents of this theory argue that in order for the ramp to have a manageable slope, it would have extended far beyond the quarry in the later stages of the building. The spiral ramp would have hugged the sides of the structure and wrapped around the pyramid until it reached the top. This could have been one continuous ramp or four separate inclines starting at each corner of the base. The zig-zag ramp was a series of switchbacks on one side of the pyramid only. While each of these theories has its strengths and weaknesses the most commonly accepted method includes the use of several types of ramps. Perhaps a straight-on ramp was used for the first third of the construction and then a spiral ramp continued to the summit. This concept is known as the multiple ramp theory (BBC History Online).

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9. a. Straight-on Ramp Covering Only Part of the Face, b. Stright-on Ramp Covering Entire Face, c. Spiral Ramp, d. Multiple Ramps (Straight-on and Spiral)

Even with the use of a system of inclines, the Egyptians had to transport nearly 6 million tons of stone from the quarry, over a half mile away from the base of the pyramid. Again, the issue of how the heavy stones were moved is a topic of controversy. Almost every theory has the workers divided into teams of 15 to 30 men who would engage in friendly competition as they dragged stones to the work site. Some assume that the stones were placed on wooden sleds and dragged over the great distance. Others think the stones were rolled on logs, as the workers constantly moved the back log to the front in order to continue rolling. The most common theory, however, is that a system of parallel pieces of timber were laid in the ground similar to railroad ties. The stones were then pulled across these logs as workers lubricated the surface with water. While no such “railroad” has been found in Giza, similar structures have been discovered at other pyramid sites in Egypt. Dr. Lehner reenacted this theory and found that the workers could have transported and set about 1000 tons of stone a day using this method ( Jackson 68).

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10. Workers Using "Railroad" Technique

More impressive perhaps than how the pyramid was built is how the pyramid was built so accurately. The base of the pyramid is level to within less than an inch. The four corners are all within only 3 minutes 6 seconds, a fraction of a degree, of aligning with the four cardinal directions and all form nearly perfect right angles. A slope of exactly 51 degrees 50 minutes 40 seconds continues for the entire height of the structure. The sides, which are over 755 feet long, were somehow all kept identical to within 2 inches of each other, making the base a nearly perfect square. This near perfection has led many to believe that aliens, not the Egyptians, built the pyramids ( Jackson 12, 13). Years of research have produced tools and techniques which prove that the feat was in fact accomplished by humans nearly 4000 years ago. Evidence suggests that the Egyptians prepared wooden right triangle and L-square guides which were used in making the final cuts on stones in order to ensure a constant slope and perfect right angles. They used a form of measurement known as the cubit, which was equal to about 25 standard English inches, and again was most likely standardized using wooden tools prior to the beginning of building (Rossi 194-196). For matters of alignment, the workers used the stars. Egyptian astronomers noticed a specific spot in the night sky which seemed to never move and because of the orbit of the earth, which they were unaware of, appeared to be the center point of all the stars. This spot represented eternity and was believed to be heaven. From each of the pyramids’ three burial chambers there is a small shaft, which runs to the outer northern edge of the structure and always points directly to the circumpolar stars which revolve around this point. Similar shafts extend from the southern side of the pyramid and are always directed at the constellation Orion. The Egyptians used these stars and a series of tools resembling pendulums to ensure surfaces were level and to find the cardinal directions ( Jackson 79, 80).

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11. Egyptians using allignment tool, 12.Cross section of Great Pyramid (shafts oriented at the stars are drawn as dotted lines)

The skill and accuracy involved in the construction prove without question that the Egyptians were an advanced culture, but did they know more than history gives them credit for? In the second half of the nineteenth century an Egyptology craze swept over the world as scholars tried to answer this very question. While almost every conclusion the “pyramaniacs” reached is considered completely absurd by today’s scientific community, at the time the theories attracted widespread attention. In 1859, John Taylor published The Great Pyramid: Why Was It Built & Who Built It? Taylor divided the perimeter of the base by twice the height and yielded a figure of 3.144, roughly the value of pi. He suggested that the Egyptians knew the world was a sphere and had built the perimeter of the base to represent the circumference of earth at the equator ( Jackson 163-165). Piazzi Smyth recalculated Taylor’s numbers and determined the value to be 3.141259, even closer to pi. He then found that the pyramid rises from its base in the proportion of ten units of height to nine units of width. Smyth multiplied the height by ten to the power of nine, which resulted in 91,840,000 miles- the approximate average distance between the earth and the sun (Smyth 51-78). David Davidson took Taylor and Smyth’s findings a step further. Davidson ridiculously suggested that if the Egyptians knew of pi and the size and shape of the world, then they surely knew the exact speed of light and the specific gravity of earth and used a series of calculations to back up his claim. He insisted that the pyramid was built “to preserve a highly advanced form of natural science through a coming Dark Age, until such a time as human beings were once again advanced enough to decode its teachings and come again into the full knowledge that they had once enjoyed.” Even today, Egyptologists are still creating theories of the true meaning of the pyramids. In 1995, Robert Bauval and Adrian Gillbert wrote The Orion Mystery, in which they argued that the three pyramids at Giza were built to correspond to the three stars in Orion’s belt, which they very nearly do (Jackson 169-181). While many of these theories are dismissed as ridiculous, we may never know of all the secrets Khufu incorporated into his great monument.

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13. Piazzi Smyth, 14. The Giza Pyramids and Orion's Belt

Our understanding of the Great Pyramid at Giza is changing almost continuously. One fact remains steady: the sheer size and accuracy of the construction project make Khufu’s tomb is the greatest engineering accomplishment of the human race prior to the industrial revolution. At over 4000 years old, it is the only remaining wonder of the ancient world and appears to be the only constant in a history full of changes and invariability. While its builder’s passed away many millennia ago, the mysteries of the Egyptian culture seem to live on in the pyramid forever.

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