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The Great Pyramid of Khufu also called Cheops (in Greek), is the largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now Cairo, Egypt, and is the only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth dynasty and constructed
over a 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC.
The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Originally that Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface, and what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. We have many theories regarding the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted once are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.
Building the Pyramid
The pyramid was just as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and constructed over a 14 to 20 year around 2560 BC.
The cubits tall, 146.6 meters, (480.97 feet) but with erosion and the loss of its pyramid ion, its current height is 138.8 m (455 feet). Each base side was 440 royal cubits, with each royal cubit measuring 0.524 meters.
The total mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is believed to be roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters.
Based on these estimates building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day.
The pyramid remained the tallest structure in the world for over 3,800 years,
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| The Great Pyramid of Khufu |
The Pyramid consists of more than 2.3 million limestone blocks. The Egyptians got these blocks from quarries all along the Nile River Nile River
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| The Great Pyramid of Khufu |
This theory is no longer accepted in the modern era, however. Egyptologists believe that the Great Pyramid was built by tens of thousands of skilled workers who camped near the pyramids.
The worker's cemeteries were discovered in 1990 One of the mysteries of the pyramid's construction is how they planned its construction
King's Chamber
the King's Chamber. Some believe that this is consistent with the geometric methods for determining the Golden Ratio (phi), which can be derived from other dimensions of the pyramid, such that if had been the design objective,then automatically follows to 'square the circle'.
The sarcophagus of the King's Chamber was hollowed out of a single piece of Red Aswan granite and has been found to be too large to fit through the passageway leading to the chamber. Whether the sarcophagus was ever intended to house a body is unknown. It is too short to accommodate a medium height individual without the bending of the knees, a technique not practiced in Egyptian burial, and no lid was ever found. The King's Chamber contains two small shafts that ascend out of the pyramid. These shafts were once thought to have been used for ventilation, but this idea was eventually abandoned, which left Egyptologists to conclude they were instead used for ceremonial purposes. It is now thought that they were to allow the Pharaoh's spirit to rise up and out to heaven.
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The King's Chamber is lined with red granite brought from Aswan Wellington Nile river.
Queen's Chamber
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The Queen's Chamber is the middle and the smallest, measuring approximately 5.74 by 5.23 meters, and 4.57 meters in height. The chamber is lined with fine limestone blocks and the pented roof is made of large limestone slabs. Its eastern wall has a large angular doorway or niche. Egyptologist Mark Lehner believes that the Queen's chamber was intended as a serdab, a structure found in several other Egyptian pyramids, and that the niche would have contained a statue of the interred. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the statue would serve as a "back up" vessel for the Ka of the Pharaoh, should the original mummified body be destroyed. The true purpose of the chamber, however, remains uncertain.
The Queens Chamber has a pair of shafts similar to those in the King's Chamber, which were explored using a robot, Upuaut 2, created by the German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink. In 1992, Upuaut
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The "unfinished chamber" lies 27.5 meters below ground level and is rough-hewn, lacking the precision of the other chambers. Egyptologists suggest the chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but that King Khufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the main part of a complex setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. One of the small pyramids contains the tomb of queen Hetepheres (discovered in 1925), sister and wife of Sneferu and the mother of Khufu. There was a town for the workers of Giza
A few hundred meters south-west of the Great Pyramid lies the slightly smaller Pyramid of Khafre, one of Khufu's successors who is also commonly considered the builder of the Great Sphinx, and a few hundred meters further south-west is the Pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre's successor, which is about half as tall. In May 1954, 41 blocking stones were uncovered close to the south side of the Great Pyramid. They covered a 30.8 meter long rock-cut pit that contained the remains of a 43 meter long ship of cedar wood. In antiquity, it had been dismantled into 650 parts comprising 1224 pieces. This funeral boat of Khufu has been reconstructed and is now housed in a museum on the site of its discovery. A second boat pit was later discovered nearby.
The Grand Gallery
The Grand Gallery has 7-step corbeled side walls. Some parts of the Grand Gallery walls contain salt deposits, but not as much as in the Mid Chamber. The length of the Grand Gallery is 1881.5985600+ PI, and its width just above the ramp stones is 82.41 PI. The Grand Gallery is 28 feet high by
1881-1/3 PI long.
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The length of the horizontal passage to the Queen's Chamber is 1521.31136 PI. The name "Queen's Chamber" is considered a misnomer by Egyptologists since no queens have ever been found in pharaoh's pyramids. The volume of the Queen's Chamber is 9,963,200 cubic PI. The Grand Gallery contains two grooves, one in the east wall and one in the west wall. They are 7 inches high, 1 inch deep, and 5 inches up from the 3rd overlapping corbel. They run the entire length of the gallery. The Queen's Chamber has a gabled roof.
Dead End of Passageway
Lesser Subterranean Chamber and Passage
Subterranean Chamber showing contour
round the Pit and entrance doorway
round the Pit and entrance doorway
The Pit in the Subterranean Chamber
The western half of the Subterranean Chamber
The Pyramid contains two interior chambers and a number of interior shafts. The interior shafts all generally lie in a north-south vertical plane section of the pyramid, displaced a little east of the center of the pyramid:
The Entrance shaft starts at an entrance on the north face, a little above ground level, and descends at an angle of about 26 degrees. Since the latitude of Giza
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