The Great Pyramids of Giza

The Great Pyramids of Giza

Egypt is an Arab nation in the northeastern corner of Africa. A small part of Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, extends into Asia. Most of the country is covered by dry windswept deserts. They receive little rainfall and depend on the Nile River. The story of Egypt dates back more than 5,000 years to about to 3100 B.C. In prehistoric times, they had cities and kingdoms that grew up along the Nile. They developed systems of government, mathematics, and science. They remained under various forms of royal rule until the 1950s

 The Egyptians believed that the pharaohs would become gods in the afterlife, so they had pyramids to prepare them for it. Once they were ready, they placed the ruler's needs inside. Part of the construction was the decoration of the structures to provide information about how the pharaoh lived and died.

All three of Giza's famed pyramids and elaborate burial complexes from around 2500 B.C., during the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The pyramids are oriented to face the four cardinal directions: true north, south, east, and west on the left bank of the Nile, towards the west, associated with the world of the dead, and the east with that of the living. Each massive pyramid is but one part of a larger complex, including a palace, temples, solar boat pits, and other features. in the decades around 2500 B.C., during a period called the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.

Pyramids did not stand alone but were part of a building group, including temples, chapels, other tombs, and massive walls. Giza also had the best-preserved Remnants of funerary boats.

The pyramids have square bases with four corners. Some of them, like the famous Great Pyramid of Giza, have each corner facing a different cardinal direction: North, East, South, and West. The alignment at the Great Pyramid is nearly perfect, only 0.067 degrees counterclockwise from perfect cardinal alignment.

Tombs of early Egyptian kings were bench-shaped mounds called mastabas. Around 2780 BCE, King Djoser's architect, Imhotep, built the first pyramid by placing six mastabas, each smaller than the one beneath, in a stack to form a pyramid rising in steps. This Step Pyramid is on the west bank of the Nile River at Sakkara near Memphis.

The transition from the Step Pyramid to an authentic, smooth-sided pyramid took place during the reign of King Snefru, founder of the Fourth Dynasty (2680–2560 BCE). At Medum, a step pyramid was built, then filled with stone and covered with a limestone casing, in a stack to form a pyramid rising in steps. This Step Pyramid stands on the west bank of the Nile River at Sakkara near Memphis.

Nearby, Bahshur has a pyramid planned to have smooth sides. About halfway up, however, the incline angle decreases from over 51 degrees to about 43 degrees, and the sides rise less steeply, causing it to be known as the Bent Pyramid. Changing the angle was made during construction to give the building more stability. Another pyramid built at Dahshur, with its sides rising somewhat over 43 degrees, resulted in a proper but squat-looking pyramid. The pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the sun's rays and helped the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra.

The Great Pyramid is the largest and oldest pyramid of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The tomb was constructed for Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu in the 26th century B.C. on the northernmost part of the field and is the only one to remain largely intact. The length of each side at the base averages 755.75 feet (230 meters); its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters). Family members such as his daughter, Nefertiabet, were buried beside the sovereign's pyramid.

Khafre, the second king of the fourth dynasty, built the middle pyramid, which is 707.75 feet (216 meters) and was initially 471 feet (143 meters) high. A Sphinx, a limestone monument with the body of a lion and a pharaoh's head, stands sentinel for the entire complex.

The southernmost and last pyramid to be built was that of Menkaure, the fifth king of the 4th dynasty; each side measures 356.5 feet (109 meters), and the structure's completed height was 218 feet (66 meters). It featured a much more complex mortuary temple.

Nearby at Bahshur began on a pyramid planned to have smooth sides. About halfway up, however, the incline angle decreases from over 51 degrees to about 43 degrees, and the sides rise less steeply, causing it to be known as the Bent Pyramid. The change in the angle was to give the building more stability. Another Bent Pyramid at Dahshur, its sides rose somewhat over 43 degrees, resulting in a proper but squat-looking pyramid.

"Craftsman-gang.” They were part-time crews who worked on the pyramids, using Cooper tools such as chisels, drills, and saws to cut the soft stone. Hard granite, used for burial chamber walls and some exterior casing, would have been harder to use. They used an abrasive powder, such as sand, with the drills and saws. Up to 100.00 men were employed for three months a year to build the Great Pyramid for twenty years.

Mummified remains of at least 50 people were in the center and three side chambers. Based on inscriptions on storage jars, Egyptologists identified and named over 30 people during this year's field season. Titles such as "Prince" and "Princess" distinguish the buried as members of the families of the pharaohs Thutmosis IV and Amenhotep III. Both pharaohs belonged to the 18th dynasty (New Kingdom) and ruled in the 14th century B.C.

Between around 664BC and 250AD, it was common practice for the Ibis birds to be sacrificed or much more rarely worshipped in ritual service to the god Thoth and subsequently mummified. In ancient sites across Egypt, these mummified birds are stacked floor to ceiling along kilometers of catacombs, totaling many millions of birds. But how the Egyptians got access to so many birds is unknown; some ancient texts indicate that they used long-term farming and domestication.

Studies involving six mummified Sacred ibis and 26 modern specimens from Africa showed that the birds were not the result of centralized farming but short-term farming. The birds were raised in their natural habitat only when used for sacrifice.