Pyramids of Pharaoh Cheops. Who built the Cheops pyramid and how? Stages of pyramid construction

Age of the pyramid

The architect of the Great Pyramid is considered to be Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also bore the title "Manager of all Pharaoh's construction projects." It is assumed that the construction, which lasted twenty years (during the reign of Cheops), ended around 2540 BC. e. .

Existing methods for dating the start of construction of the pyramid are divided into historical, astronomical and radiocarbon. In Egypt, the date for the start of construction of the Cheops Pyramid was officially established (2009) and celebrated - August 23, 2560 BC. e. This date was obtained using the astronomical method of Kate Spence (University of Cambridge). However, this method and the dates obtained with it have been criticized by many Egyptologists. Dates according to other dating methods: 2720 BC. e. (Stephen Hack, University of Nebraska), 2577 BC. e. (Juan Antonio Belmonte, University of Astrophysics in Canaris) and 2708 BC. e. (Pollux, Bauman University). Radiocarbon dating gives a range from 2680 BC. e. to 2850 BC e. Therefore, there is no serious confirmation of the established “birthday” of the pyramid, since Egyptologists cannot agree on exactly what year construction began.

First mention of the pyramid

The complete absence of mention of the pyramid in Egyptian papyri remains a mystery. The first descriptions are found in the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) and in ancient Arab legends [ ] . Herodotus reported (at least 2 millennia after the appearance of the Great Pyramid) that it was built under a despot pharaoh named Cheops (Greek: Cheops). Koufou), who ruled for 50 years, that 100 thousand people were employed in construction. for twenty years, and that the pyramid is in honor of Cheops, but not his grave. The real grave is a burial near the pyramid. Herodotus gave erroneous information about the size of the pyramid, and also mentioned about the middle pyramid of the Giza plateau that it was built by the daughter of Cheops, who sold herself, and that each building stone corresponded to the man to whom she was given. According to Herodotus, if “to lift the stone, a long winding path to the grave was revealed,” without specifying which pyramid he was talking about; however, the pyramids of the Giza plateau did not have “winding” paths to the tomb at the time Herodotus visited them; on the contrary, the Descending Passage of BP Cheops is distinguished by careful straightforwardness. At that time, no other premises were known in the BP.

Appearance

Surviving fragments of the pyramid's cladding and the remains of the pavement surrounding the building

The pyramid is called "Akhet-Khufu" - "Horizon of Khufu" (or more accurately "Related to the firmament - (it is) Khufu"). Consists of limestone and granite blocks. It was built on a natural limestone hill. After the pyramid has lost several layers of cladding, this hill is partially visible on the eastern, northern and southern sides of the pyramid. Despite the fact that the Cheops pyramid is the tallest and most voluminous of all the Egyptian pyramids, Pharaoh Sneferu built the pyramids in Meidum and Dakhshut (Broken Pyramid and Pink Pyramid), the total mass of which is estimated at 8.4 million tons.

Initially, the pyramid was lined with white limestone, which was harder than the main blocks. The top of the pyramid was crowned with a gilded stone - pyramidion (ancient Egyptian - “Benben”). The cladding shone in the sun with a peach color, like “a shining miracle to which the sun god Ra himself seemed to give all his rays.” In 1168, the Arabs sacked and burned Cairo. Residents of Cairo removed the cladding from the pyramid in order to build new houses.

Statistical data

Pyramid of Cheops in the 19th century

Map of the necropolis near the Cheops pyramid

• Height (today): ≈ 136.5 m
• Side angle (current): 51° 50"
• Side rib length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 royal cubits
• Side fin length (current): approx. 225 m
• The length of the sides of the base of the pyramid: south - 230.454 m; north - 230.253 m; west - 230.357 m; east - 230.394 m
• Foundation area (initially): ≈ 53,000 m2 (5.3 ha)
• Lateral surface area of ​​the pyramid (initially): ≈ 85,500 m2
• Base perimeter: 922 m
• Total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m3
• Total volume of the pyramid minus all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m 3
• Average volume of stone blocks: 1,147 m3
• Average weight of stone blocks: 2.5 tons
• The heaviest stone block: about 35 tons - is located above the entrance to the “King’s Chamber”.
• The number of blocks of average volume does not exceed 1.65 million (2.50 million m³ - 0.6 million m³ of rock base inside the pyramid = 1.9 million m 3 /1.147 m 3 = 1.65 million blocks of the specified volume can physically fit in the pyramid , without taking into account the volume of mortar in interblock joints); referring to a 20-year construction period * 300 working days per year * 10 working hours per day * 60 minutes per hour leads to a speed of laying (and delivery to the construction site) of about a block of two minutes.
• According to estimates, the total weight of the pyramid is about 4 million tons (1.65 million blocks x 2.5 tons)
• The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation about 12-14 m high in the center and, according to the latest data, occupies at least 23% of the original volume of the pyramid
• The number of layers (tiers) of stone blocks is 210 (at the time of construction). Now there are 203 layers.

Concavity of the sides

Concavity of the sides of the Cheops pyramid

When the sun moves around the pyramid, you can notice the unevenness of the walls - the concavity of the central part of the walls. This may be due to erosion or damage from falling stone cladding. It is also possible that this was specially done during construction. As Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi note, the pyramid of Mycerinus no longer has such concave sides. I.E.S. Edwards explains this feature by saying that the central part of each side was simply pressed inward over time by the large mass of stone blocks. [ ]

As in the 18th century, when this phenomenon was discovered, today there is still no satisfactory explanation for this architectural feature.

Observation of the concavity of the sides at the end of the 19th century, Description of Egypt

Tilt angle

It is not possible to accurately determine the original parameters of the pyramid, since its edges and surfaces are currently mostly dismantled and destroyed. This makes it difficult to calculate the exact angle of inclination. In addition, its symmetry itself is not ideal, so deviations in the numbers are observed with different measurements.

Geometric study of ventilation tunnels

A study of the geometry of the Great Pyramid does not provide a clear answer to the question of the original proportions of this structure. It is assumed that the Egyptians had an idea about the “Golden ratio" and the number pi, which were reflected in the proportions of the pyramid: thus, the ratio of height to base is 14/22 (height = 280 cubits, and base = 440 cubits, 280/440 = 14/ 22). For the first time in world history, these quantities were used in the construction of the pyramid at Meidum. However, for pyramids of later eras, these proportions were not used anywhere else, as, for example, some have height-to-base ratios, such as 6/5 (Pink Pyramid), 4/3 (Pyramid of Khafre) or 7/5 (Broken Pyramid).

Some of the theories consider the pyramid to be an astronomical observatory. It is argued that the corridors of the pyramid accurately point towards the “pole star” of that time - Thuban, the ventilation corridors on the south side point to the star Sirius, and on the north side to the star Alnitak.

Internal structure

Cross section of the Cheops pyramid:

The entrance to the pyramid is at an altitude of 15.63 meters on the north side. The entrance is formed by stone slabs laid in the form of an arch, but this is the structure that was inside the pyramid - the true entrance has not been preserved. The true entrance to the pyramid was most likely closed with a stone plug. A description of such a plug can be found in Strabo, and its appearance can also be imagined based on the preserved slab that covered the upper entrance to the Bent Pyramid of Snefru, the father of Cheops. Today, tourists get inside the pyramid through a 17-meter gap, which was made 10 meters lower by the Baghdad caliph Abdullah al-Mamun in 820. He hoped to find the pharaoh's countless treasures there, but found there only a layer of dust half a cubit thick.

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

Funeral "pit"

Underground Chamber Maps

A 105 m long descending corridor running at an inclination of 26° 26'46 leads to an 8.9 m long horizontal corridor leading to the chamber 5 . Situated below ground level in a limestone bedrock, it remained unfinished. The dimensions of the chamber are 14x8.1 m, it extends from east to west. The height reaches 3.5 m, the ceiling has a large crack. At the southern wall of the chamber there is a well about 3 m deep, from which a narrow manhole (0.7 × 0.7 m in cross-section) stretches in a southern direction for 16 m, ending in a dead end. At the beginning of the 19th century, engineers John Shae Perring and Richard William Howard Vyse cleared the floor of the chamber and dug a well 11.6 m deep, in which they hoped to discover a hidden burial chamber. They were based on the testimony of Herodotus, who claimed that the body of Cheops was on an island surrounded by a canal in a hidden underground chamber. Their excavations came to nothing. Later studies showed that the chamber was abandoned unfinished, and it was decided to build the burial chambers in the center of the pyramid itself.

Ascending Corridor and Queen's Chambers

From the first third of the descending passage (18 m from the main entrance), an ascending passage goes south at the same angle of 26.5° ( 6 ) about 40 m long, ending at the bottom of the Great Gallery ( 9 ).

At its beginning, the ascending passage contains 3 large cubic granite “plugs”, which from the outside, from the descending passage, were masked by a block of limestone that fell out during the work of al-Mamun. Thus, for the first 3000 years from the construction of the pyramid (including during the era of its active visits in Antiquity), it was believed that there were no other rooms in the Great Pyramid other than the descending passage and the underground chamber. Al-Mamun was unable to break through these plugs and simply hollowed out a bypass to the right of them in the softer limestone. This passage is still in use today. There are two main theories about the traffic jams, one of them is based on the fact that the ascending passage has traffic jams installed at the beginning of construction and thus this passage was sealed by them from the very beginning. The second argues that the current narrowing of the walls was caused by an earthquake, and the plugs were previously located within the Great Gallery and were used to seal the passage only after the funeral of the pharaoh.

An important mystery of this section of the ascending passage is that in the place where the traffic jams are now located, in the full-size, albeit shortened model of the pyramid passages - the so-called test corridors north of the Great Pyramid - there is a junction of not two, but three corridors at once, the third of which is a vertical tunnel. Since no one has yet been able to move the plugs, the question of whether there is a vertical hole above them remains open.

In the middle of the ascending passage, the design of the walls has a peculiarity: in three places the so-called “frame stones” are installed - that is, the passage, square along its entire length, pierces through three monoliths. The purpose of these stones is unknown. In the area of ​​the frame stones, the walls of the passage have several small niches.

A horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high leads to the second burial chamber from the lower part of the Great Gallery in a southerly direction. The walls of this horizontal corridor are made of very large limestone blocks, on which false “seams” are applied, imitating masonry from smaller blocks . Behind the western wall of the passage there are cavities filled with sand. The second chamber is traditionally called the “Queen’s Chamber,” although according to the ritual, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids. The Queen's Chamber, lined with limestone, measures 5.74 meters from east to west and 5.23 meters from north to south; her maximum height 6.22 meters. There is a high niche in the eastern wall of the chamber.

Drawing of the Queen's Chamber ( 7 )

Niche in the wall of the Queen's Chamber

Corridor at the entrance to the queen's hall (1910)

Entrance to the Queen's Chamber (1910)

Niche in the Queen's Chamber (1910)

Ventilation duct in the queen's chamber (1910)

Corridor to the ascending tunnel ( 12 )

Granite plug (1910)

Corridor to the ascending tunnel (on the left are closing blocks)

Grotto, Grand Gallery and Pharaoh's Chambers

Another branch from the lower part of the Great Gallery is a narrow, almost vertical shaft about 60 m high, leading to the lower part of the descending passage. There is an assumption that it was intended to evacuate workers or priests who were completing the “sealing” of the main passage to the “King’s Chamber.” Approximately in the middle of it there is a small, most likely natural extension - the “Grotto” (Grotto) of irregular shape, in which several people could fit at most. Grotto ( 12 ) is located at the “junction” of the masonry of the pyramid and a small, about 9 meters high, hill on the limestone plateau lying at the base of the Great Pyramid. The walls of the Grotto are partially reinforced by ancient masonry, and since some of its stones are too large, there is an assumption that the Grotto existed on the Giza plateau as an independent structure long before the construction of the pyramids, and the evacuation shaft itself was built taking into account the location of the Grotto. However, taking into account the fact that the shaft was hollowed out in the already laid masonry, and not laid out, as evidenced by its irregular circular cross-section, the question arises of how the builders managed to accurately reach the Grotto.

The large gallery continues the ascending passage. Its height is 8.53 m, it is rectangular in cross-section, with walls slightly tapering upward (the so-called “false vault”), a high inclined tunnel 46.6 m long. In the middle of the Great Gallery along almost the entire length there is a square recess with a regular cross-section measuring 1 meter wide and 60 cm deep, and on both side protrusions there are 27 pairs of recesses of unknown purpose. The recess ends with the so-called. “Big step” - a high horizontal ledge, a 1x2 meter platform at the end of the Great Gallery, immediately before the hole into the “hallway” - the Antechamber. The platform has a pair of ramp recesses similar to those in the corners near the wall (the 28th and last pair of BG recesses). Through the “hallway” a hole leads into the funeral “Tsar’s Chamber” lined with black granite, where an empty granite sarcophagus is located. The sarcophagus lid is missing. Ventilation shafts have mouths in the “King’s Chamber” on the southern and northern walls at a height of about a meter from the floor level. The mouth of the southern ventilation shaft is severely damaged, the northern one appears intact. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the chamber do not have any decorations or holes or fastening elements of anything dating back to the construction of the pyramid. The ceiling slabs have all burst along the southern wall and are not falling into the room only due to the pressure from the weight of the overlying blocks.

Above the “Tsar’s Chamber” there are five unloading cavities discovered in the 19th century. total height 17 m, between which lie monolithic granite slabs about 2 m thick, and above there is a gable limestone ceiling. It is believed that their purpose is to distribute the weight of the overlying layers of the pyramid (about a million tons) to protect the “King's Chamber” from pressure. In these voids, graffiti was discovered, probably left by workers.

Interior of the Grotto (1910)

Drawing of a Grotto (1910)

Drawing of the connection of the Grotto with the Great Gallery (1910)

Entrance to the Tunnel (1910)

View of the Great Gallery from the entrance to the room

Large gallery

Grand Gallery (1910)

Drawing of the Pharaoh's Chamber

Pharaoh's chamber

Pharaoh's Chamber (1910)

Interior of the vestibule in front of the Tsar's chamber (1910)

"Ventilation" channel at the southern wall of the king's room (1910)

Ventilation ducts

So-called “ventilation” channels 20-25 cm wide extend from the “Tsar’s Chamber” and “Queen’s Chamber” in the northern and southern directions (first horizontally, then obliquely upward). At the same time, the channels of the “Tsar’s Chamber,” known since the 17th century, through, they are open both below and above (on the edges of the pyramid), while the lower ends of the channels of the “Queen’s Chamber” are separated from the surface of the wall by about 13 cm; they were discovered by tapping in 1872. The upper ends of the Queen's Chamber shafts do not reach the surface by about 12 meters, and are closed by stone Gantenbrink Doors, each with two copper handles. The copper handles were sealed with plaster seals (not preserved, but traces remain). In the southern ventilation shaft, the “door” was discovered in 1993 with the help of the remote-controlled robot “Upout II”; the bend of the northern shaft did not allow Then detect the same “door” in it by this robot. In 2002, using a new modification of the robot, a hole was drilled in the southern “door,” but behind it a small cavity 18 centimeters long and another stone “door” were discovered. What lies next is still unknown. This robot confirmed the presence of a similar “door” at the end of the northern channel, but they did not drill it. In 2010, a new robot was able to insert a serpentine television camera into a drilled hole in the southern “door” and discovered that the copper “handles” on that side of the “door” were designed in the form of neat hinges, and individual red ocher icons were painted on the floor of the “ventilation” shaft. Currently, the most common version is that the purpose of the “ventilation” ducts was of a religious nature and is associated with the Egyptian ideas about the afterlife journey of the soul. And the “door” at the end of the channel is nothing more than a door to afterworld. That is why it does not reach the surface of the pyramid. At the same time, the shafts of the upper burial chamber have through exits to the outside and inside the room; it is unclear whether this is due to some change in ritual; Since the outer few meters of the pyramid's lining have been destroyed, it is unclear whether there were "Gantenbrink Doors" in the upper shafts. (could have been in a place where the mine was not preserved). In the southern upper shaft there is a so-called “Cheops niches” are strange extensions and grooves that may have contained a “door”. There are no “niches” at all in the northern upper one.

Pyramid of Cheops - a legacy of the ancient Egyptian civilization, all tourists coming to Egypt try to see it. It amazes the imagination with its grandiose size. The weight of the pyramid is about 4 million tons, its height is 139 meters, and its age is 4.5 thousand years. It still remains a mystery how people built the pyramids in those ancient times. It is not known for certain why these majestic structures were erected.

Legends of the Cheops Pyramid

Shrouded in mystery, ancient Egypt was once the most powerful country on Earth. Perhaps his people knew secrets that are still inaccessible to modern humanity. Looking at the huge stone blocks of the pyramid, which are laid with perfect precision, you begin to believe in miracles.

According to one legend, the pyramid served as a grain storage facility during the great famine. These events are described in the Bible (Book of Exodus). Pharaoh had a prophetic dream, warning of a series of lean years. Joseph, the son of Jacob, sold into slavery by his brothers, managed to unravel Pharaoh's dream. The ruler of Egypt instructed Joseph to organize the procurement of grain, appointing him as his first adviser. The storage facilities must have been huge, given that they fed many nations for seven years when there was famine on Earth. The slight discrepancy in dates - about 1 thousand years old - is explained by adherents of this theory by the inaccuracy of carbon analysis, through which archaeologists determine the age of ancient buildings.

According to another legend, the pyramid served to transfer the material body of the pharaoh into upper world Gods. Amazing fact is that inside the pyramid where the sarcophagus for the body is located, the mummy of the pharaoh was not found, which the robbers could not take. Why did the rulers of Egypt build such huge tombs for themselves? Was their goal really to build a beautiful mausoleum that testified to greatness and power? If the construction process took several decades and required enormous amounts of labor, it means that the final goal of constructing the pyramid was vitally important to the pharaoh. Some researchers believe that we know very little about the level of development ancient civilization, the mysteries of which are yet to be discovered. The Egyptians knew the secret of eternal life. It was acquired by the pharaohs after death, thanks to technology that was hidden inside the pyramids.

Some researchers believe that the Cheops pyramid was built by a great civilization even more ancient than the Egyptian one, about which we know nothing. And the Egyptians only restored existing ancient buildings and used them at their own discretion. They themselves did not know the intention of the forerunners who built the pyramids. The Forerunners could be giants of the Antediluvian civilization or inhabitants of other planets who flew to Earth in search of a new homeland. The gigantic size of the blocks from which the pyramid is built is easier to imagine as a convenient building material for ten-meter giants than for ordinary people.

One more interesting legend I would like to mention the Cheops pyramid. They say that inside the monolithic structure there is a secret room in which there is a portal that opens paths to other dimensions. Thanks to the portal, you can instantly find yourself at a selected point in time or on another inhabited planet of the Universe. It was carefully hidden by the builders for the benefit of people, but will soon be found. The question remains whether modern scientists will understand the ancient technologies to take advantage of the discovery. In the meantime, archaeological research in the pyramid continues.

In the era of antiquity, when the Greco-Roman civilization began to flourish, ancient philosophers compiled a description of the most outstanding architectural monuments on Earth. They were called the "Seven Wonders of the World." They included Hanging Gardens Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes and other majestic buildings built before our era. The Pyramid of Cheops, as the oldest, is in first place on this list. This wonder of the world is the only one that has survived to this day; all the others were destroyed many centuries ago.

According to the descriptions of ancient Greek historians, the large pyramid shone in the rays of the sun, casting a warm golden sheen. It was lined with meter-thick limestone slabs. The smooth white limestone, decorated with hieroglyphs and designs, reflected the sands of the surrounding desert. Later local residents dismantled the cladding for their homes, which they lost as a result of devastating fires. Perhaps the top of the pyramid was decorated with a special triangular block made of precious material.

Around the Cheops pyramid in the valley there is a whole City of dead. Dilapidated buildings of mortuary temples, two other large pyramids and several smaller tombs. A huge statue of a sphinx with a broken nose, which was recently restored, is carved from a monolithic block of gigantic proportions. It was taken from the same quarry as the stones used to build the tombs. Once upon a time, ten meters from the pyramid there was a three-meter thick wall. Perhaps it was intended to protect the royal treasures, but it could not stop the robbers.

History of construction

Scientists still cannot come to a consensus on how ancient people built the Cheops pyramid from huge blocks of stone. Based on the drawings found on the walls of others, it was assumed that workers cut each block into the rocks and then dragged it to the construction site along a ramp made of cedar. History does not have a consensus on who was involved in the work - peasants for whom there was no other work during the Nile flood, slaves of the pharaoh or hired workers.

The difficulty is that the blocks had to not only be delivered to the construction site, but also raised to a great height. Before its construction, the Cheops Pyramid was the tallest structure on Earth. Modern architects see the solution to this problem differently. By official version Primitive mechanical blocks were used for lifting. It’s scary to imagine how many people died during construction using this method. When the ropes and straps holding the block broke, it could crush dozens of people with its weight. It was especially difficult to install the upper block of the building at a height of 140 meters above the ground.

Some scientists suggest that ancient people had the technology to control Earth's gravity. The blocks weighing more than 2 tons, from which the Cheops pyramid was built, could be moved with ease using this method. The construction was carried out by hired workers who knew all the secrets of the craft, under the leadership of the nephew of Pharaoh Cheops. There were no human sacrifices, backbreaking labor of slaves, only the art of construction, which reached the highest technologies that are inaccessible to our civilization.

The pyramid has the same base on each side. Its length is 230 meters and 40 centimeters. Amazing accuracy for ancient uneducated builders. The density of the stones is so great that it is impossible to insert a razor blade between them. An area of ​​five hectares is occupied by one monolithic structure, the blocks of which are connected with a special solution. There are several passages and chambers inside the pyramid. There are ventilation holes facing different directions of the world. The purpose of many interior spaces remains a mystery. The robbers took away everything valuable long before the first archaeologists entered the tomb.

Currently, the pyramid is included in the UNESCO cultural heritage list. Her photo adorns many Egyptian tourist brochures. In the 19th century, Egyptian authorities wanted to dismantle the huge monolithic blocks of ancient structures to build dams on the Nile River. But labor costs far outweighed the benefits of work, so monuments ancient architecture stand to this day, delighting pilgrims in the Giza Valley.

Every year, articles appear in the press revealing the secrets of the Great Pyramid. However, every time new questions arise to which scientists have no answer. Now everyone is hearing a new hypothesis, which, if not completely revealing, then comes close to this mystery.

The Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) took 20 years to build

It is known that the pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) was built over a period of 20 years. Basically, about 14 thousand people took part in its construction. However, at some stages up to 40 thousand took part in the construction.

Of course, experts have a very definite idea of ​​how the Great Pyramids were built. However, scientific minds do not want to stop there. In their opinion, the simplest versions are not able to explain how the masterpiece of ancient architecture was actually built: it makes too much of an impression.

Thus, the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin offers his own version of the construction technique. In 2006, he proposed an original hypothesis: the upper part of the pyramid (which is about 70% of the height) was built by the ancient Egyptians from the inside.

To understand why this hypothesis is relevant today, you should first do small excursion into history.

IN last years There are so many versions that even simply listing them would take a lot of time. Of course, aliens with their anti-gravity technology occupy a special place. However, even in the 26th century BC there were many opportunities.

The most likely scheme is also the simplest. According to one hypothesis, workers dragged blocks of limestone using ropes and blocks along long embankments to the top. As an option, there is a spiral stone “path” laid out on the walls of the pyramid itself, along which the stones were delivered to the top. This scheme is characterized by a huge volume of earthworks.

Variant of the construction technique of the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin

In both cases, quite a lot of wooden levers with ropes were used - lifting mechanisms, with the help of which the Egyptians installed multi-ton blocks in the right place and lifted them from tier to tier.

You can also find a description of these simple devices in Herodotus. True, he believed that the Egyptians used “cranes”, lifting blocks from level to level one by one. However, most Egyptologists believe that during construction they combined ramps with levers.

However, there are a number of alternative versions

It is possible that the pyramid was made of concrete (scientific experiments have proven that the ancients knew how to make it). Therefore, there was simply no problem with how to lift the stone. Unfortunately, this version does not take into account the granite monoliths located in the pyramid, many of which are incomparably heavier in weight than the limestone ones.

There was a hypothesis that the stone blocks were raised using wooden gateways, which were built on the growing walls. In addition, many of the described methods were built based on the “basic” laws of physics and mechanics.

However, weaknesses can be found in all hypotheses. For example, the construction of a straight embankment requires work comparable to the construction of the pyramid itself, and the length of such an ascent must exceed one and a half kilometers (at the end of construction), and it must also be based on stone blocks.

During the construction of the Cheops pyramid, ancient Egyptian engineers used a system of internal ramps and tunnels to construct the upper part of this structure...

According to Egyptologist Bob Brier, it's like building two pyramids. Moreover, the remains of such a ramp have not been found anywhere. Brier, by the way, is familiar to us from the recent discovery of construction defects in the Cheops pyramid.

Some traces of former ramps in the vicinity of the pyramid have long been discovered. But, according to calculations, they cannot be fully responsible for the construction of this grandiose monument. That is why “official” Egyptologists are inclined to the mentioned scheme of the combined use of ramps and lifting mechanisms built of wood.

As Bob explains, the spiral road running along the outer walls could hide during construction the corners and edges of the structure itself, constant measurements of which were necessary - without this it would not have been possible to achieve the accuracy of proportions and lines of the Great Pyramid, which still delights architects today. Consequently, "geodetic survey" would be impossible.

However, Jean-Pierre paints a different picture

The lower third of the pyramid, which contains most of its mass, was erected using the already discussed external ramp method, which, given the height of the structure, was not yet too bulky. But then the tactics were radically changed.

Houdin believes that the limestone blocks that formed the ramp for the lower third of the Cheops Pyramid were largely dismantled and reused to build the upper levels of the pyramid itself. Therefore, no traces of the original ramp have been found anywhere.

Construction of the Cheops pyramid

In addition, during the construction of new tiers, workers left a large corridor inside the walls, which spiraled upward. Along this corridor, new blocks were raised to the top of the structure. After the work was completed, the tunnel itself was completely hidden from view. Therefore, the road did not even have to be dismantled.

Houdin argues that the paradigm of conventional hypotheses was flawed. The pyramid could not have been built from the outside.

Using computer simulations last year, Houdin visualized his method of building a pyramid and proved that it works. It is interesting that indirect evidence of Jean-Pierre’s correctness was also found in Egypt, directly in the most ancient monument.

At approximately 90 meters in height on the northeastern edge of the Khufu pyramid, near the corner, there is a hole discovered by archaeologists an umpteenth time ago. Of course, Egyptologists are well aware of it, but they cannot say anything specific about the purpose of the room located behind the hole.

Recently, Bob Brier, who became a supporter of Houdin's hypothesis, climbed inside this hole with his team National Geographic(for the first time carrying out detailed shooting). What he saw surprisingly fit into the pattern with an internal inclined corridor.

The fact is that in order to rotate the lifted blocks by 90 degrees, when moving from one side of the pyramid to another, the builders had to leave in the corners of the structure open spaces— where the secret ramps intersected.

Only after the construction of the pharaoh's tomb was completed would it be possible to sequentially fill these openings with new blocks drawn along the same corkscrew-shaped corridor.

The corner sections of the spiral corridor, which were open until the last moment, allowed workers, using simple levers and ropes, to turn the blocks raised along the slope 90 degrees in order to push them into the next tunnel. It's like a train depot with a turntable that helps diesel locomotives turn around in cramped conditions to go in a new direction.

The corner sections of the spiral corridor, which were open until the last moment, allowed workers to turn the blocks being lifted 90 degrees using simple levers and ropes.

Brier saw behind the hole an L-shaped hall - the remnant of one such turn. It is located in the very place that Houdin's computer model predicted.

There should be two walled portals located at an angle of 90 degrees to one another. Behind them could well be those same tunnels, running not so deep under the surface of the walls. According to the French architect, the secret of the entire structure is kept in the massive blocks that sealed the tunnels thousands of years ago.

However, for quite a long time this emptiness in the corner remained unnoticed. The fact is that the meaning of the building can only be deciphered by having a general plan in mind. If you simply climbed into this room without thinking about internal ramps and recesses, it will mean nothing to you.

This angular twist may well be the missing link in the Great Pyramid puzzle. Moreover, there is another trace in this story.

French archaeologists visited Giza in 1986 and 1998. They searched for hidden cavities in the Cheops pyramid using microgravimetry. Among other things, the researchers found a void under the queen’s chamber. This cavity, according to their assumption, is the beginning of a corridor leading to the true burial place of Cheops. But in this case we are interested in another involuntary discovery of theirs.

This find did not fit into existing theories, so the researchers did not explain it in any way. But a few years ago, at a certain conference dedicated to the pyramids, Houdin approached one of the members of the “gravimetricians” team, engineer Hui Don Bui. He showed him diagrams showing fluctuations in the density of the material inside the pyramid. One of the drawings showed a spiral-shaped structure running along the outer walls at some depth. Jean-Pierre immediately understood what it was.

According to Bob Brier, if he had not seen that diagram, he would have thought that construction using a twisted tunnel was just another theory. The information obtained by the French forced him to support Houdin's hypothesis.

And to find new hard evidence, says Jean-Pierre, you don’t need to drill into the pyramid or even get inside. To begin with, it will be enough to show these “phantom” corridors in thermal images of the pyramid.

Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu(Cheops is the Greek version of this Egyptian name) is the most famous and most famous Egyptian pyramid.

First of all, because she - tallest pyramid ever built in the world. Secondly, she became a kind of standard and example for other pharaohs of Ancient Egypt in the construction of their own tombs.

Of course, tombs are a rather arbitrary term, since there is no evidence that they directly served as graves for the mummies of pharaohs, but at the same time, there is every reason to consider them part of funerary-ritual complexes.

Where is the Cheops pyramid located?

It was erected on a stone plateau near the village of Giza, which has now become a suburb of the capital of modern Egypt - Cairo. It is this building that first comes to mind when we hear the words: “Egyptian pyramids”, “pyramids of Egypt”, “great pyramids”, “wonder of the world”.

Many people who have never been to Egypt before believe that the great pyramids of Giza (Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin) are located somewhere far away in the desert, and therefore, when heading west along the Sharia al-Ahram road (“Avenue of the Pyramids”) for the first time, they are surprised to see giant figures towering against the backdrop of distant buildings.

The ancient monuments are now actually located within Greater Cairo. On the recommendation of scientists, certain measures are being taken to stop further expansion of the city in this direction in order to preserve the famous pyramid complex.

When was the Cheops pyramid built?

The question is when was this great pyramid of giza built, has been one of the widely discussed issues for a long time - from the very beginning of the birth of Egyptology as a science.

At first, Egyptologists - historians and archaeologists - had serious differences of opinion about her age. However, as scientific knowledge accumulated as a result of archaeological excavations, analysis of found artifacts, and study of the entire complex of documents in professional Egyptology, the following point of view began to prevail. This amazing architectural object - the tallest pyramid in the world - was built during the reign of Pharaoh Cheops of the 4th dynasty (c. 2585-2566 BC).

Some scientific schools believe that the reign of Cheops falls on the 27th century BC. Despite certain discrepancies in the matter of dating, it can be stated that, according to historical science, it was built in the 27th or 26th centuries BC. That is, the age of the Cheops pyramid is about 4600 years.

It would be strange if such an opinion prevailed among the general public, which became keenly interested in Egyptian antiquities, starting with the first publications of Egyptologists of the 19th century. This interest continues even after 200 years.

Among fans of the history of Ancient Egypt, two large groups can be distinguished - those who rely on the conclusions of professional Egyptologists, and those who focus on more “exotic theories” of the origin of these structures, including the Cheops pyramid. The second group of views is based not on a comprehensive and systematic analysis of all the vast material accumulated by Egyptology as a science (this requires a lot of time and preparation), but on the inherent thirst for miracles in human nature.

The pyramids themselves, especially Cheops, are perceived by them as a miracle without any quotation marks. The arguments of scientists seem to them, on the one hand, too complex, on the other, too “down-to-earth”, and therefore not convincing. Much cooler to them seems to be the theories of the creation of ancient megastructures by aliens or, for example, by some mysterious civilization that lived long before the times of the Egyptian pharaohs, possessing technical capabilities that are incomprehensible to the mind.

The paradox of the human psyche lies in the fact that it is much easier to believe in a miracle than to admit things that are more or less ordinary. But that's a separate conversation. It only remains to note that there are many non-scientific theories regarding the history and monuments of Ancient Egypt. They call the age of the Cheops pyramid from many tens of thousands of years to 6-7 thousand years, that is, according to these theories, this structure was built much earlier than traditional Egyptology believes.

Despite all the attractiveness and, of course, interestingness, all these concepts have one global drawback - they are based on some assumptions, which, in turn, are not supported by anything. That is, they are suitable for fantasy novels, but not for more or less serious consideration.

Pyramid dimensions

What are dimensions of the Cheops pyramid? It would seem that the answer to this is very easy to get, you just need to take a longer ruler and just try everything on. However, in reality it is not so simple.

Over the almost five thousand years that have passed since its construction, the structure has suffered greatly both from natural disasters and from the barbaric actions of the people themselves. The top of this architectural and construction miracle was originally crowned with a pyramidion - a stone also of a pyramidal shape, presumably carved from red granite. It is gone now, just as the overwhelming number of facing slabs that covered its walls are gone. These polished slabs gave the tallest pyramid, according to Herodotus, a gray-yellow color and shine.

Measurements made using modern equipment showed that its height after completion was 146.5 meters, but even having lost 9 meters in height, it remains the tallest stone structure on earth.

The main dimensions of the Cheops pyramid and its parts:

Height: 146.5 m (currently 137 m)

Side length: 230.38 m (originally 232.5 m).

Side tilt: 51° 50"

Big Gallery:

Height: 8.48 to 8.74 m

Length 47.85 m

Tilt: 26°16" 40"

Queen's Chamber:

Height: 6.26 m

Length: 5.76 m

Width: 5.23 m

King's Chamber:

Height: 5.84 m

Length: 10.49 m

Width: 5.42 m

Road:

Length: 825 m

Boat pits (on the northeast and southeast corners of the pyramid):

Depth: 8 m

Length 52 m

Width: 7.5 m

Inside the pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops

The Tomb of Cheops, like all the pyramids of the III and IV dynasties, is an almost solid monolith made of stone blocks. The interior of the pyramid occupies a completely insignificant volume compared to the volume of the pyramid itself. Nevertheless, internal structure of the Cheops pyramid also surprises with its engineering solutions and craftsmanship. It is more complex than the internal structure of the pyramids of Egypt, which were built after it.

Inside the structure there are 4 main rooms, which received the following names in Egyptological literature: the chamber of the king (king), the chamber of the queen (queen), the underground chamber (unfinished) and the Great Gallery.

The entrance is located on its northern side, at a height of 16 meters above the ground. When the first Egyptian antiquity researchers - the French - measured the height, they came up with 12 meters - the base of the pyramid was heavily covered with sand at the end of the 19th century. The original entrance is located above the entrance that tourists now use (it was broken through by the Mamluks of Caliph Al-Mamun in the 9th century AD, because for a long time they could not find the entrance, then hidden under the existing facing slabs).

Boat of Cheops

The tomb of Cheops, like all the pyramid complexes of Ancient Egypt, was surrounded by a wall, of which only ruins now remain. In a southern direction, not far from the wall, in 1954, two large pits lined with stone were found, in which disassembled wooden boats were stored - the sacred Solar Boats of the Pharaoh.

The pits with boats were closed with huge stone blocks of limestone weighing up to 16 tons. One of the boats was restored (it took 16 years of painstaking work) and put on display in a pavilion specially built for this purpose next to the ancient object.

The boat is made mainly from Lebanese cedar using selected local wood species. Its length is 43.5 meters and its width is 9 meters. The second boat was left in its place, preserved from further destruction. Later, three empty docks were also found, repeating the shape of a boat.

Construction of the pyramid complex

With the exception of a few internal chambers and corridors, the tomb of Cheops is built entirely of dense stone, mainly limestone. Its construction - unique phenomenon in the history of human civilization.

It is precisely oriented to the cardinal points. The deviation is only 3"43"! And modern builders could be proud of such precision.

Now the creation of Cheops contains 201 rows of stone blocks, but once there were from 215 to 220 rows. The height of the very first row is the largest - it is 1.5 meters, the second row is already smaller in height - 1.25 m, the third - 1.2 m, the fourth - 1.1 m. Further, the height of the rows is even smaller, as a rule, from 65 to 90 cm. Closer to the top the height of the blocks is reduced to 55 cm.

According to modern estimates (and the first person to do such calculations was Napoleon), about 2,300,000 (2 million 300 thousand) stone blocks and slabs were used for the great construction. The stone blocks necessary for construction were cut down both near the construction site and in the limestone cliffs rising on the eastern (opposite) bank of the Nile.

To clad the main object of the Cheops memorial, sandstone slabs were used, which were mined in quarries, also relatively close to limestone mining. The length of the cladding slabs in the lower rows reached 1.5 m and decreased to 75 cm in subsequent rows. According to estimates, about 115,500 slabs were required for the cladding.

Sand and limestone blocks were transported across the Nile on transport ships, and overland they were dragged on large wooden sleds and moved on stone rollers and balls. Granite, used in the construction and decoration of internal corridors and chambers, was also delivered along the Nile, but from afar - from the south, from the outskirts of present-day Aswan, located at a distance of about one thousand kilometers from the construction site.

To build such a colossus, ancient builders had to move and raise to a height a volume of stones that weighs approximately 6 (six) million tons. To transport such cargo today railway it would take 100 thousand railway platforms(such as a 4-axle platform for heavy-duty containers, model 13-470, with a lifting capacity of 60 tons), loaded to the maximum.

And yet, the most difficult and difficult work was not the delivery and transportation of stone blocks to the construction site, but their direct extraction in quarries by cutting down and further polishing to exact dimensions. At that time, they had not yet learned how to make iron and steel tools - the Iron Age was ahead. Egyptians in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. they didn’t even know bronze. They made their tools from almost pure copper, so the tools quickly became dull and became unusable. And, of course, copper was expensive. Judging by archaeological finds Therefore, stone tools made of flint were widely used: knife blades, drills, saw teeth, etc. That is, the stone was processed with stone, although it was harder than the one being processed.

The average volume of the blocks from which the tomb of Cheops is made is approximately equal to one cubic meter, weight - about 2.5 tons. But there were, as an exception, some blocks weighing 50 tons. For comparison, this is the weight of the modern T-90 Vladimir tank. It is impossible to lift and drag even the smallest of these blocks with your bare hands: this requires so many people that they simply cannot all fit together. Certain technical means were needed to lift and carry these blocks: all kinds of levers and rollers, goats and sleds, strong ropes and, of course, a huge number of people who had to pull these ropes, straining all their strength. But the unlimited power of Pharaoh Cheops, the resources that the ruler of Egypt had at his disposal - human and material - allowed him to attract tens of thousands of people to the construction of his own tomb at the same time.

How many years did it take to build the tomb of Cheops?

According to Herodotus, it took about twenty years to build. Modern research and calculations show that the ancient Greek thinker and historian named a very real figure for the duration of construction of the tallest stone structure in the world.

Who built it

Fantastic hypotheses about mythical giants, aliens from outer space and even residents mysterious Atlantis we'll leave you alone. Who built the pyramid of Cheops according to historical science? Somehow it happened that there is a fairly widespread opinion that it was built by slaves (this opinion usually extends to other pyramids in Egypt).

However, scientific data allows us to say quite confidently that these objects are largely the result of the labor of Egyptians, who were not slaves. Of course, they also cannot be called free in the full sense of the word - they were forced people, under the authority of dignitaries, priests and, of course, the pharaoh.

During the construction process there were cyclical periods associated with the annual flood of the Nile. At this time, thousands and thousands of peasants were involved in the construction, who performed unskilled work dragging and moving stone blocks.

Craftsmen who worked in quarries, stone carvers and polishers worked constantly, all year round. This was the work that they knew how to do, for which they received food, shelter, clothing, etc. Construction experience, skills and work techniques were passed on from generation to generation.

The total number of builders of such an important object for Cheops during the Nile flood period reached 100 thousand people. This figure was first cited by Herodotus, but modern calculations and archaeological finds show that it is quite plausible.

But in whose head was the architectural design of such a grandiose structure born? Who was able to organize the work of thousands and thousands of people over several decades? From the depths of centuries the name of this great man has reached us. His name was Hemiun. He was a dignitary and vizier under Pharaoh Cheops.

His tomb is located near the western side of the tomb of Cheops himself. A statue of this architect has reached us, which was found in his tomb. It is interesting that both Hemiun and the other pyramid builders were, so to speak, part-time architects. Along with construction management, they performed a host of other duties. The profession of an architect in Ancient Egypt never acquired the status of an independent activity.

An example of construction excellence and creative genius

The ancient builders of both this and other pyramids took care of everything. For example, crypts located deep in masonry or underground had ventilation ducts. The interior of the pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops was supplied with air through two small sections of the channel, which passed through the entire thickness of the structure, and went outside on the eighty-fifth layer of masonry on the southern and northern sides of this wonder of the world.

Although the first Europeans who explored the pyramids were faced with the fact that underground passages in the tomb of Cheops it was difficult to breathe due to the stale and suffocating air; this happened not because there was no ventilation, but because over the past almost five thousand years the ventilation passages became clogged with dust and waste from bats and other living organisms - insects, bacteria who have found suitable conditions for themselves here. One of the still unsolved mysteries of the Cheops pyramid is that similar channels go from the queen’s chamber, but... they do not go outside (see diagram of the interior above).

Protection from water was also carefully thought out. For facing masonry, the blocks were selected especially carefully. If necessary, the stone was additionally cut on site and then polished. Therefore, the stones were adjacent to each other so tightly that water simply could not get between them. All the water running down the lining was collected in the ditches below. The ditches are made with a slope towards the deeper ditches with which the ditches are connected. In this way, water was diverted away from the tombs and their foundations. Only about three of the most great pyramids About 300 such ditches and ditches for receiving rainwater were discovered in Giza.

For many centuries, the pyramid complexes of Giza have stood with damaged cladding due primarily to human vandalism rather than natural disasters. And one can only be amazed at the margin of safety that the ancient builders put into their creations.

The ritual-funeral memorial of Cheops has remained, in many ways, an unsurpassed example of “pyramid architecture” for the entire era of the construction of such objects.

In a word, it was not without reason that the Great Pyramid of Giza was recognized as one of the main wonders of the world back in ancient times. Without any technical supervision, the ancient Egyptians built their amazing creations in such a way that they still stand today, which cannot be said about many, many relatively modern structures, whose construction and engineering miscalculations and shortcomings led to death and destruction.

For several centuries now, the mysteries of Ancient Egypt have been the focus of attention of historians and archaeologists. When it comes to this ancient civilization, the first thing that comes to mind is the grandiose pyramids, many of whose secrets have not yet been revealed. Among such mysteries, which are still far from being solved, is the construction of a great structure - the largest of all the Cheops pyramids that have survived to our time.

Famous and mysterious civilization

Of all the oldest civilizations, the culture of Ancient Egypt is perhaps the most well studied. And the point here is not only in the many historical artifacts that have survived to this day and architectural monuments, but also in an abundance of written sources. Historians and geographers of Antiquity also paid attention to this country and, while describing the culture and religion of the Egyptians, did not ignore the construction of the great pyramids in Ancient Egypt.

And when in the 19th century the Frenchman Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphic letter of this ancient people, scientists gained access to a huge amount of information in the form of papyri, stone steles with hieroglyphs and numerous inscriptions on the walls of tombs and temples.

The history of ancient Egyptian civilization goes back almost 40 centuries, and there are many interesting, vibrant and often mysterious pages in it. But the greatest attention is drawn to the Ancient Kingdom, the great pharaohs, the construction of the pyramids and the mysteries associated with them.

When were the pyramids built

The era that Egyptologists call the Old Kingdom lasted from 3000 to 2100 BC. e., just at this time the Egyptian rulers were keen on building pyramids. All the tombs erected earlier or later are much smaller in size and worse in quality, which affected their preservation. It seems that the heirs of the architects of the great pharaohs immediately lost the knowledge of their ancestors. Or were they completely different people who came to replace a race that had disappeared inexplicably?

Pyramids were built during the period and even later, during the Ptolemaic era. But not all pharaohs “ordered” such tombs for themselves. Thus, currently more than a hundred pyramids are known, built over 3 thousand years - from 2630, when the first pyramid was erected, to the 4th century AD. e.

Predecessors of the Great Pyramids

Before the great ones were erected, the history of the construction of these grandiose buildings spanned hundreds of years.

According to the generally accepted version, the pyramids served as tombs in which pharaohs were buried. Long before the construction of these structures, the rulers of Egypt were buried in mastabas - relatively small buildings. But in the 26th century BC. e. The first real pyramids were built, the construction of which began in the era of Pharaoh Djoser. The tomb named after him is located 20 km from Cairo and is very different in appearance from those called great.

It has a stepped shape and gives the impression of several mastabas placed one on top of the other. True, its dimensions are rather large - more than 120 meters around the perimeter and 62 meters in height. This is a grandiose building for its time, but it cannot be compared with the Cheops Pyramid.

By the way, a lot is known about the construction of Djoser’s tomb; even written sources have been preserved that mention the name of the architect - Imhotep. Fifteen hundred years later he became the patron saint of scribes and doctors.

The first of the classical pyramids is the tomb of Pharaoh Snofu, the construction of which was completed in 2589. The limestone blocks of this tomb have a reddish tint, which is why Egyptologists call it “red” or “pink.”

Great Pyramids

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

The oldest and largest of them is the pyramid of Khufu, or, as the ancient Greeks called him, Cheops. It is the one that is most often called the Great, which is not surprising, because the length of each of its sides is 230 meters and the height is 146 meters. Now, however, it is a little 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 taller than Khufu's pyramid 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 Khafre.

The third - the pyramid of Pharaoh Mikerin - is 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 ones.

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

Secrets and riddles

Even in the era of Antiquity, monumental buildings in Giza 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 intention of the ancient rulers, who spent enormous amounts of money and human resources on the construction of such gigantic tombs. Thousands of people were cut off from the economy for 20-30 years and were engaged in the construction of a tomb for their ruler. Such irrational use of labor is questionable.

Since the time the great pyramids were built, the mysteries of construction have never ceased to attract the attention of scientists.

Perhaps the construction of the Great Pyramid had a completely different purpose? Three chambers were discovered in the Cheops pyramid, which Egyptologists called funerary, but in none of them were mummies of the dead or objects that necessarily accompanied a person to the kingdom of Osiris found. There are also no decorations or drawings on the walls of the burial chambers; more precisely, there is only one small portrait in the corridor on the wall.

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

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

There are many mysteries associated with these cyclopean structures in Giza, but the very first question that arises in the mind of a person who saw them with his own eyes: how was the construction of the great pyramids of Ancient Egypt?

Amazing facts

Cyclopean structures demonstrate the phenomenal knowledge of the 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. Moreover, this accuracy is higher than that of the observatory in Paris.

And such a geometrically ideal figure has enormous dimensions, and is even made up of separate blocks!

Therefore, the knowledge of the ancients in the field of construction art is even more impressive. The pyramids are built from giant stone monoliths weighing up to 15 tons. The granite blocks that lined the walls of the main burial chamber of Khufu's pyramid weighed 60 tons each. How did such colossuses rise if this camera is at a height of 43 meters? And some stone blocks of Khafre’s tomb generally weigh 150 tons.

The construction of the great pyramid of Cheops required the ancient architects to process, drag and raise more than 2 million such blocks to a very significant height. Even modern technology does not make this task easy.

A completely natural surprise arises: why did the Egyptians need to drag such colossuses to a height of several tens of meters? Wouldn't it be easier to build a pyramid of smaller stones? After all, they were able to somehow “cut” these blocks out of a solid rock mass, so why didn’t they make their task easier by sawing them into pieces?

Besides this, there is another mystery. The blocks were not just laid in rows, but were so carefully processed and pressed tightly together that in some places the gap between the slabs was less than 0.5 millimeters.

After its construction, the pyramid was still covered with stone slabs, which, however, had long been stolen by enterprising locals to build houses.

How were ancient architects able to solve this incredibly difficult problem? There are many theories, but they all have their shortcomings and weaknesses.

Herodotus' version

The famous historian of Antiquity Herodotus visited Egypt and saw Egyptian pyramids. The construction, described by the ancient Greek scientist, looked like this.

Hundreds of people on drags dragged the stone block to the pyramid under construction, and then, using a wooden gate and a system of levers, lifted it to the first platform, equipped at 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 raised to the required height.

It’s hard to even imagine how much effort the great Egyptian pyramids required. Their construction (photo, according to Herodotus, see below) was indeed an extremely difficult task.

For a long time, most Egyptologists adhered to this version, although it raised doubts. It is difficult to imagine such wooden lifts that could withstand a weight of tens of tons. And dragging millions of multi-ton blocks on drag nets seems difficult.

Can Herodotus be trusted? Firstly, he did not witness the construction of the great pyramids, since he lived much later, although he may have been able to observe how smaller tombs were erected.

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

"Ramp" theory

In the 20th century, a version proposed by the French researcher Jacques Philippe Louer became popular among Egyptologists. He suggested that the stone blocks were moved not on drags, but on rollers along a special embankment-ramp, which gradually became higher and, accordingly, longer.

The construction of the great pyramid (photo image below), thus, also required enormous ingenuity.

But this version also has its drawbacks. Firstly, one cannot help but pay attention to the fact that this method did not make the work of thousands of workers dragging blocks of stone easier at all, because the blocks had to be dragged up the mountain, into which the embankment gradually turned. And this is extremely difficult.

Secondly, the slope of the ramp should be no more than 10˚, therefore its length will be more than a kilometer. To build such a mound requires no less labor 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 from Japan attempted to build a pyramid only 11 meters high using drag and mound. They were never able to complete the construction, inviting modern technology to help.

It seems that people with the technology that was in ancient times cannot do this. Or were they not people? Who built the great pyramids at Giza?

Aliens or Atlanteans?

The version that the great pyramids were built by representatives of another race, despite its fantastic nature, has completely rational grounds.

Firstly, it is doubtful that people who lived in the Bronze Age owned the tools and technologies that allowed them to process such an array of wild stone and put it together into a geometrically perfect structure weighing more than one million tons.

Secondly, the assertion that the great pyramids were built in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. uh, debatable. It was expressed by the same Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century. BC. and described the Egyptian pyramids, the construction of which was completed almost 2 thousand 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, or maybe as many as 80. These assumptions are based on the fact that, apparently, the pyramids, the sphinx and the temples around them survived the era of floods. This is evidenced by traces of erosion that were found on the lower part of the sphinx statue and the lower tiers of the pyramids.

Thirdly, the great pyramids are clearly objects related in one way or another to astronomy and space. Moreover, this purpose is more important than the function of the tombs. Suffice it to remember that there are no burials in them, although there are what Egyptologists call sarcophagi.

The theory of the alien origin of the pyramids was popularized by the Swiss Erich von Däniken in the 60s. However, all his evidence is rather a figment of the writer’s imagination than the result of serious research.

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

The Atlantean version has no less fans. According to this theory, the pyramids, long before the emergence of the ancient Egyptian civilization, were built by representatives of some other race, who had either super-advanced technology or the ability to move colossal blocks of stone through the air by force of will. Just like Master Yoda from the famous movie "Star Wars".

It is almost impossible to prove, as well as refute, these theories using scientific methods. But perhaps there is a less fantastic answer to the question of who built the great pyramids? Why couldn’t the ancient Egyptians, who had a variety of knowledge in other areas, do this? There is one that removes the shroud of secrecy surrounding the construction of the Great Pyramid.

Concrete version

If moving and processing multi-ton stone blocks is so labor-intensive, couldn't ancient builders have used an easier method of pouring concrete?

This point of view is actively defended and proven by several famous scientists, from different specialties.

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

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.G. Fomenko, having examined the blocks from which the Cheops pyramid was built, believes that the “concrete version” is the most plausible. The builders simply ground up the abundant stone, added binding admixtures, such as lime, lifted the concrete base in baskets to the construction site and loaded it into formwork and diluted it with water. When the mixture hardened, the formwork was dismantled and moved to another place.

Over the decades, the concrete became so compacted that it became indistinguishable from natural stone.

It turns out that concrete blocks, not stone, were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid? It would seem that this version is quite logical and explains many of the mysteries of the construction of ancient pyramids, including the difficulties of transportation and the quality of processing of the blocks. But it has its weaknesses, and it raises no fewer questions than other theories.

Firstly, it is very difficult to imagine how ancient builders were able to grind more than 6 million tons of rock without the use of technology. After all, this is exactly the weight of the Cheops pyramid.

Secondly, the possibility of using wooden formwork in Egypt, where wood has always been highly valued, is questionable. Even the boats of the pharaohs were made from papyrus.

Thirdly, the ancient architects undoubtedly could have thought of making concrete. But the question arises: where did this knowledge go? A few centuries after the construction of the great pyramid, not a trace remained of them. Tombs of this type were still being erected, but they were all only a pitiful semblance of those that stand on the plateau at Giza. And to this day, what remains of the pyramids of a later period are most often shapeless piles of stones.

Consequently, it is impossible to say with certainty how the great pyramids were built, the secrets of which have not yet been revealed.

Not only Ancient Egypt, but other civilizations of the past also hold many mysteries, which makes learning about their history incredible an exciting journey to the past.