The great Pyramid of Giza :
white a hight of 147 meters this remained the tallest structure in the world for over 4000 years. heavy stones were used to build the pyramid and its is said to weigh 6 million tonnes. the question that people dumbstruck how was it built?
How was this made possible:
It is estimated that the great Pyramid of Giza was built in the year 2560 Before Christ by the pharaoh khufu. the monarchs of ancient Egypt are known as pharaohs we don't know much about pharaoh khufu except that he was the second monarch of the fourth dynasty of the old kingdom of Egypt. the pyramid is located on the west bank of the river Nile there are said to be a total of 118 pyramid of varying shapes and sizes. many of them have been eroded by the weathering very few are in good condition the most well preserved are great Pyramid of Giza.
What was the reason for building these :
They were built as a tomb. the pharaohs are buried inside the pyramids ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife. the believed that life doesn't end at death after death the soul of the person travels to the underworld were it is then judged by the gods. those who lived a life of goodness remain immortal in the afterlife so to prepare for the afterlife the pharaohs would commission tombs for the selves while they reigned. after they died bodies were mummified and then sealed in a wooden and stone sarcophagus. you might wonder how we are certain that this is why the pyramids were built.
There are two main reasons:
First: we have discovered scripts written on several other pyramids.
Second: a majority of the historical pyramid in Egypt and Sudan. have been used as tombs.
But specifically speaking in the great Pyramid of Giza no substantial evidence was found regarding this so people come up with their own alternative theories. when the archaeologists entered the great Pyramid they found three relics and an empty sarcophagus the sarcophagus is believed to be of khufu and the treasures that must have surrounded it is believed to have been looted before the archaeologists got to it those who disagree with this have come up with bizarre alternative theories.
one popular theory making rounds is that the great Pyramid was a power plant that could generate electricity. as evidence for this theory some of the ancient picture are presented. such conspiracy theorists are cooked up when there's a lack of substantial evidence in a matter. in reality this network depicts an Egyptian mythological story .
now we get to the biggest question:
how were these pyramid built?
Honestly this is the most mysterious aspect of the pyramids. how did the people build a 147 M tall structure, using these enormous rocks that weigh anywhere between 2.5 tonnes to 80 tonnes, each stone is carved so meticulously and evenly when there were no standards tools for carving. how were the stones stacked on top of each other, when people didn't even use wheels, all of this within a period of 20 years. the great Pyramid of Giza is said to have been built in 20 years there are several theories regarding.
Misconceptions that people have regarding the pyramids:
Flims show slave labour being used to build the pyramids. poor slaves forced to work here all day and getting brutally abused and whipped by the supervisors. for a long time people believed that slaves built the pyramids but today we know this to be false people who built these pyramids were highly skilled labourers they weren't starved and abused rather they were given abundant food. they were fed so well that they were stronger and more well fed than the average Egyptian citizens back then they dwelled in cities near the construction site in a way the citizens in the kingdom were united for the success of the national project they were very loyal to their pharaoh about 20,000-30,000 workers were involved in its construction working 10 hour in a day about 5.5 million tonnes of limestone 8000 tonnes of granite and 500,000 tonnes of mortar were used. most of these materials were sourced from the nearby areas. at most they were brought in from the region of southern Egypt that was around 800 km from the site. The question arises how were these rocks cut? copper was the most common metal used then the tools were made of copper. the harder rocks of granite were broken with dolerite.
now a major question is now we're these stones moved?
A plausible theory is that they built rafts that floated on the river to move the stones from the quarries and once the stones were at the pyramids they were stacked on top of each other using sledges over wet ground.
the next question is how were the stones stacked on top of each other and how were these heavy stones lifted up without heavy machinery?
They had built an efficient system of ramps in 2015 a team of English an french archaeologists uncovered a 4,500 year old wooden ramp in a quarry scholars suggest that a ramp must've been built like this a straight slope from the ground to the top to move the stones up the slope they installed a system of wooden pillars of on the sides of the slopes and then they used the ropes around the pillars to pull up the stones. according to this theory after completing a level of the pyramid.
but the inconsistency arises in the from of construction time we know that the pyramid was completed within 20 years if 20,000 people transported each stone like this a stone needs to be placed every 3 minutes each day all around the year it seems quite unlikely that they would've worked so rapidly. this is why this is still a mystery to this day we do know that the layers at the bottom were placed without mortar and then mortar was added to the layers on top that increases the stability of a structure this is why throughout thousands of years the pyramid of Giza still stands despite several earthquakes and the last step of the construction was the outermost layer of the pyramid it was made of fine whitelsh limestone. this was lost over thousands of years the outermost layers have worn off from the pyramids of khufu and menkaure moving on from the construction to the design of the pyramids it is utterly fascinating did you know that the pyramids are designed in a way that the directions point exactly towards north east south and west. the error here is minute an error of merely one fifteen of a degree these are believed to point accurately towards the four directions. how could that be there was no compass back then no modern technology. once again researchers tried to give their theoretical explanations. about how the Egyptians could achieve such a high level of precision a popular theory is said to be by following the autumn equinox when the tilt of the earth allows the day and night to be equal the shadow on the ground is in a straight direction towards east and west using this method the degree of error in the calculations of the pyramid would be the same degree of error in the shadows during the autumn equinox if was important to discuss this theory as it's a classic case where humans try to find patterns even in things that have none when we do not have concrete evidence for something when we lack an exact explanation we create our ideas and if we can find any link anywhere we believe it to be true if you take the same thing to the next level exaggerate it a bit and you'll have bizarre theories some people claim that the pyramids were built by aliens because they believe it wasn't possible for humans to create this.
In my opinion such theories go against the scientific thinking this is the shortcut method of somehow coming up with an answer.
Thank you........
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