Mystery of the Egyptian pyramids. Construction of the Great Pyramid

For several centuries, the mysteries of Ancient Egypt are in the center of attention of historians and archaeologists. When it comes to this ancient civilization, first of all remember the grandiose pyramids, many secrets of which have not yet been uncovered. Among such puzzles, which are still far from solution, is the construction of a great building - the largest of all the pyramids of Cheops that have survived to this day .

Famous and mysterious civilization

Of all the oldest civilizations, the culture of Ancient Egypt has been studied, perhaps, most well. And it's not just a matter of the many historical artifacts and architectural monuments that have survived to this day, but also in the abundance of written sources. Even historians and geographers of Antiquity paid attention to this country and, describing the culture and religion of the Egyptians, did not ignore the construction of the great pyramids in ancient Egypt.

And when in the XIX century the Frenchman Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphic letter of this ancient people, the scientists got access to a huge array of information in the form of papyri, stone steles with hieroglyphs and numerous inscriptions on the walls of tombs and temples.

The history of the ancient Egyptian civilization has nearly 40 centuries, and it contains many interesting, vivid and often mysterious pages. But the greatest attention is drawn to the Ancient Kingdom, the great pharaohs, the construction of the pyramids and the riddles associated with them.

When the pyramids were built

The epoch, which Egyptologists call the Ancient Kingdom, lasted from 3000 to 2100 BC. E., just at this time the Egyptian rulers were fond of building the pyramids. All erected earlier or later tombs are much smaller in size, and the quality is worse, which affected their safety. It seems that the heirs of the architects of the great pharaohs at once lost the knowledge of their ancestors. Or were they completely different people who came to replace the incomprehensibly disappeared race?

The pyramids were erected during the Middle Kingdom, and even later, during the Ptolemaic era. But far from all the pharaohs "ordered" their own similar tombs. So, at the present time there are more than one hundred pyramids built over 3 thousand years - since 2630, when the first pyramid was built, until the 4th century AD. E.

The predecessors of the great pyramids

Before the great pyramids of Egypt were erected , the history of the construction of these grandiose buildings numbered more than one hundred years.

According to the generally accepted version, the pyramids performed the function of the burial vaults in which the pharaohs were buried. Long before the construction of these structures, the rulers of Egypt were buried in mastabas - relatively small buildings. But in the XXVI century BC. E. Were built the first real pyramids, the construction of which began with the era of Pharaoh Djoser. The tomb named by his name is 20 km from Cairo and differs in appearance from those called great.

It has a stepped form and gives the impression of several mastabs placed one on the other. True, its dimensions are rather big - more than 120 meters along the perimeter and 62 meters in height. This is a grandiose building for its time, but it does not go to any comparison with the pyramid of Cheops.

On the construction of the tomb of Joser, by the way, we know a lot, there are even written sources that mention the name of the architect - Imhotep. After fifteen hundred years, he became the patron saint of scribes and doctors.

The first of the classical pyramids is the tomb of Pharaoh Snofu, whose construction was completed in 2589. The calcareous blocks of this tomb have a reddish hue, so Egyptologists call it "red" or "pink."

Great Pyramids

This is the name of the three cyclopean tetrahedra, located in Giza, on the left bank of the Nile.

The oldest and largest of them is the pyramid of Khufu, or, as it was called by the ancient Greeks, Cheops. It is often called the Great, which is not surprising, because the length of each of its sides is 230 meters, and height - 146 meters. Now, however, it is slightly lower due to destruction and weathering.

The second largest is the tomb of Khafre, the son of Cheops. Its height is 136 meters, although visually it looks above the pyramid of Khufu, because it is built on a hill. Not far from it you can see the famous sphinx, whose face, according to legend, is a sculptural portrait of Chephren.

The third is the pyramid of the Pharaoh Mikerin - only 66 meters high, and it was built much later. Nevertheless, this pyramid looks very harmonious and is considered the most beautiful of the great.

Modern man is accustomed to grandiose constructions, but his imagination is shaken by the great pyramids of Egypt, the history and secrets of construction.

Secrets and mysteries

Monumental structures in Giza, even in the era of Antiquity, were included in the list of the main wonders of the world, of which the ancient Greeks numbered only seven. Today it is very difficult to comprehend the plan of the ancient rulers who spent enormous resources and human resources on the construction of such giant tombs. Thousands of people for 20-30 years were cut off from the farm and were engaged in erecting a burial vault for their ruler. Such irrational use of the workforce is questionable.

Since the construction of the great pyramids, the secrets of construction have not ceased to attract the attention of scientists.

Maybe the construction of the great pyramid pursued a completely different goal? In the pyramid of Cheops, three chambers, which Egyptologists called funerary, were found, but in no one was found the mummies of the dead and objects that necessarily accompanied a person to the kingdom of Osiris. There are no any decorations or drawings on the walls of funerary cells, or rather, there is only one small portrait in the corridor on the wall.

The sarcophagus found in the pyramid of Khafre is also empty, although many tombs have been found inside this tomb, but there are no things that were put into tombs according to Egyptian customs.

Egyptologists believe that the pyramids were looted. Perhaps, but it is not entirely clear why the robbers needed also the mummies of the buried pharaohs.

There are many mysteries connected with these cyclopean structures in Giza, but the very first question that arises in the person who saw them personally: how did the construction of the great pyramids of ancient Egypt take place?

Amazing facts

Cyclopean buildings demonstrate the phenomenal knowledge of ancient Egyptians in astronomy and geodesy. The faces of the Cheops Pyramid, for example, are precisely oriented to the south, north, west and east, and the diagonal coincides with the direction of the meridian. And this accuracy is higher than that of the Observatory in Paris.

And such an ideal figure from the point of view of geometry is huge, moreover, it is composed of separate blocks!

Therefore, the knowledge of the ancients in the field of building art is even more impressive. The pyramids are built of giant stone monoliths up to 15 tons in weight. The granite blocks with which the walls of the main burial chamber of the pyramid Khufu are lined, weighed 60 tons each. How did such machinations rise if this camera is at an altitude of 43 meters? And some stone blocks of the tomb of Khafre generally reach a weight of 150 tons.

The construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops required from ancient architects to process, drag and lift to a very significant height more than 2 million such boulders. Even modern technology does not make this task simple.

There is quite natural surprise: why did the Egyptians need to haul up to a height of several tens of meters such machinas? Is not it easier to lay down a pyramid of smaller stones? After all, they could somehow "cut out" these blocks from a single solid rock mass, why did not they ease their task by cutting them to pieces?

In addition, there is another mystery. The blocks were not simply packed in rows, but they were so carefully processed and densely brought them to each other, that in some places the gap between the plates was less than 0.5 millimeters.

After the construction of the pyramid was still faced with stone slabs, which, it is true, long ago, the enterprising locals had been dragged out to build houses.

How did the ancient architects manage to solve this incredibly difficult task? There are many theories, but they all have their shortcomings and weaknesses.

Herodotus Version

The well-known historian of Antiquity, Herodotus visited Egypt and saw the Egyptian pyramids. Construction, the description of which left the ancient Greek scientist, looked as follows.

Hundreds of people dragged a stone block to the pyramid under construction, and then, with the help of a wooden gate and a system of levers, raised it to the first platform, equipped on the lower level of the structure. Then the next lifting mechanism came into play. And so, moving from one site to another, the blocks were lifted to the desired height.

It's hard to imagine how much power the great Egyptian pyramids demanded. Construction (photo, according to Herodotus, see below) was really an extremely difficult task.

For a long time this version was held by most Egyptologists, although it raised doubts. It is difficult to imagine such wooden lifts, which could withstand weight of tens of tons. And dragging millions of multi-ton blocks on the scribble seems difficult.

Is it possible to believe Herodotus? Firstly, he was not a witness of the construction of the great pyramids, since he lived much later, although, perhaps, he could observe how the smaller tombs were erected.

Secondly, the famous scholar of Antiquity in his writings often sinned against the truth, trusting the stories of travelers or ancient manuscripts.

The "ramp" theory

In the 20th century, among the Egyptologists, the version proposed by the French explorer Jacques Philippe Luer became popular. He suggested that the stone blocks were moved not on scoops, but on rolls on a special mound-ramp, which gradually became higher and, consequently, longer.

The construction of the great pyramid (photo below), thus, required a huge wit too.

But this version also has its drawbacks. Firstly, one can not but pay attention to the fact that the labor of thousands of workers to drag stone blocks did not make this easier, because the blocks had to be dragged to the mountain, into which the embankment gradually turned. And this is extremely difficult.

Secondly, the slope of the ramp should not be more than 10˚, therefore, its length will be more than a kilometer. To build such a mound, you need work no less than the construction of the tomb itself.

Even if it was not one ramp, but several, built from one tier of the pyramid to another, it is still a colossal work with a dubious result. Especially when you consider that several hundred people are needed to move each block, and there is practically no place to place them on narrow platforms and embankments.

In 1978, admirers of the history of Ancient Egypt from Japan tried to build a pyramid with a height of only 11 meters using a sledgehammer and a mound. They could not finish building the structure, inviting modern technology to help.

It seems that people with the same technique as in antiquity can not do it. Or were not they people? Who built the great pyramids in Giza?

Aliens or Atlanteans?

The version that the great pyramids were built by representatives of a different race, despite its fantasy, has quite rational grounds.

Firstly, it is doubtful that people who lived in the Bronze Age owned tools and technologies that enabled them to process such an array of wild stone and put together from it a perfect, in terms of geometry, structure weighing not one million tons.

Secondly, the claim that the great pyramids were built in the middle of the III millennium BC. E., Controversially. It was expressed by the same Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century. BC. And described the Egyptian pyramids, whose construction was completed almost 2,000 years before his visit. In his writings, he simply retold what the priests told him.

There are suggestions that these cyclopean structures were erected much earlier, perhaps 8-12 thousand years ago, and maybe all 80. These assumptions are based on the fact that, apparently, the pyramids, the Sphinx and the temples near them survived the era of floods. This is evidenced by traces of erosion, which were found on the lower part of the statue of the Sphinx and the lower tiers of the pyramids.

Third, the great pyramids are clearly objects, one way or another related to astronomy and the cosmos. And this is their appointment is more important than the function of the tombs. Suffice it to recall that there are no burials in them, although there is something that Egyptologists call sarcophagi.

The theory of extraterrestrial origin of the pyramids in the 60s was popularized by the Swiss Erich von Deniken. However, all his evidence is, rather, the fruit of the writer's imagination than the result of serious research.

If we assume that alien aliens have organized the construction of a great pyramid, the photo should look something like the picture below.

No less fans have a version of the "Atlanteans". According to this theory, the pyramids long before the emergence of the ancient Egyptian civilization were built by representatives of some other race, possessing either a super-developed technology, or the ability to force the will of colossal blocks of stone through the air. Just like Master Yoda from the famous film "Star Wars."

It is practically impossible to prove, just like to refute these theories, by scientific methods. But, perhaps, to the question of who built the great pyramids, is there a less than fantastic answer? Why could not the ancient Egyptians, who possessed various knowledge in other areas, do this? There is an interesting theory that removes the veil of secrecy surrounding the construction of the great pyramid.

Concrete version

If the displacement and processing of multi-ton stone blocks is so laborious, could the ancient builders have used an easier method of concrete pouring?

This point of view is actively defended and proven by several well-known scientists, and various specialties.

The French chemist Joseph Davidovich, after making a chemical analysis of the material of the blocks from which the Cheops pyramid was built, suggested that this is not a natural stone, but a concrete of complex composition. It is made on the basis of ground rock, and is the so-called geopolymeric concrete. Davidovich's conclusions were also confirmed by a number of American researchers.

Academician A. Fomenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences, having studied the blocks from which the Cheops pyramid was built, believes that the "concrete version" is the most plausible. The builders simply grinded the excess stone, added binding impurities, for example, lime, lifted the base for concrete in baskets to the construction site and was already loaded there into the formwork and diluted with water. When the mixture froze, the formwork was disassembled and transferred to another location.

After decades, the concrete was so pressed that it became indistinguishable from the natural stone.

It turns out that during the construction of the great pyramid, not stone, but concrete blocks were used? It would seem that this version is quite logical and explains many puzzles of the construction of the ancient pyramids, including the complexity of transportation and the quality of processing blocks. But it has its weak points, and it begets questions no less than other theories.

Firstly, it is very difficult to imagine how the ancient builders without using the technology could grind over 6 million tons of rock. After all, this is the weight of the pyramid of Cheops.

Secondly, the possibility of using wooden formwork in Egypt, where the tree was always valued very highly, is questionable. Even the rooks of the pharaohs were made of papyrus.

Thirdly, the ancient architects, of course, could have guessed before the manufacture of concrete. But the question arises: where did this knowledge go? A few centuries after the construction of the Great Pyramid, there was no trace left of them. Tombs of this kind were still being built, but they were all just a pathetic likeness of those who stand on the plateau in Giza. And to date, from the pyramids of the later period, there were often formless piles of stones.

Therefore, it is impossible to say with certainty how the great pyramids were constructed, the secrets of which have not yet been uncovered.

Not only Ancient Egypt, but other civilizations of the past, keep many mysteries, which makes acquaintance with their history an incredibly fascinating journey into the past.