Egypt

Pompay's pillar

Pompay’s pillar

This site is located on a mount known as <Tall Bab Sedra>.this mount where the ancient Sarapeum was constructed was known in antiquity as Alexandrian Acropolis. This is due to its major importance as a cult center of Sarapis from one hand and for embracing a complex of constructions from the other. This region was once part of the national district where the native Egyptians lives in the west side of the ancient city of Alexandria.

Pompay's pillar

Pompey’s Pillar was one of the columns of the ancient Sarapeum. In Arabic it is called <Amoud el Awary> Or <the column of the ship masts> due to its great height among other columns that once stood in the temple. Aside from the Arabic designation the column is mistakenly named after the Roman commander of army Pompay who was murdered under commands of Ptolemy 14 in Egypt. It was thought according to Middle Ages writings that the head of Pompay was kept in a vessel place on top of the capital of the column.

The mistakenly named Pompey’s Pillar was originally one of the 400 columns of the temple of Sarapeum. It is believed that the majority of the columns were thrown in the sea during the time of the Alexandrian governor Asad el Deen quaraja under command of Salah el Deen el Qaluby in 1167 in order to protect the Alexandrian coast from the attack of the crusaders. Other columns of the temple can be seen today on the site ground.

The column is made of one piece of red granite from Aswan with height of 28 m. it consists of one base,a shaft and a capital. The base bears inscriptions that helped us to figure out the dedication of the column. Among the interesting inscriptions is the Greek inscription found in the eastern side of the base that indicates a dedication of a statue of the queen Arsinoe. On the same side is a cartouch bearing the name of the Egyptian king Psmatic of the 26 dynasty. Inside the foundation a flint block was found inscribed with the name Seti 1 of the 19 dynasty besides another one inscribed with the name of Sesostris from the 20 dynasty.

Pompay's pillar

The greek inscription on the western side of the column is the most important as it indicates the precise dedication of the column despite being corroded today. It is four lined inscriotion that indicates the dedication of this memorial to the emperor Diocletian as gratitude. The reason behind this dedication is that the city suffered from the revolt commanded by Locius Domitius .Diocletian had to confront the situation therefore he came to Alexandria at the head of a great military force and suppressed this revolt after eight long months of siege. The emperor to help the Alexandrians to re-reorganize the city returned the annual Roman tribute of grain to be distributed among the Alexandrians and saved them from starvation. Therefore the correct designation of the column should be <Diocletian’s column>.

To the west of the column is a stairway cut in the rock leading down to subterranean galleries. These are a source of depate. For some scholars it is the daughter library of the Sarapeum proved by the cavities made in the walls of the gallery that might have used to keep the papyri rolls. For others they were secret galleried of the temple used for certain secret religious rituals.

Aside from the column of Diocletian the site embraces remains of Pharaonic monuments including a red granite scarb, a sphinx of Hormeheb the Egyptian king from the eighteenth dynasty besides other two red granite sphinxes bearing the name of Ptolemy 5 . there are also remains of Roman bath , a Ptolemaic Nilomater to measure the level of the Nile inundation and ruins of the church of John Baptist.

Temple of Sarapeum

Temple of Sarapeum

Ancient writings and sources indicate that this was the largest and highest temple of Alexandria. Moreover for its elaborate constructionit is called in the Arabian sources <Qasr al Askandria> . this glamour can be judged from the only remaining column of the temple Pompey’s pillar that may draw a picture of the visitor of how the temple that once housed this enormous column looked like. Unfortunately it is now ruins.

The Ptolemaic Sarapeum was most probably constructed under Ptolemy 3. this can be judged from the discovery of foundation deposits in the southeast side inscribed with the name of Ptolemy 3. these deposits were found in three groups each contained ten stelai made of different materials ; gold, silver, bronze, terra cotta, and glass. According to the ancient writings the Ptolemaic temple was designed by the architect Parmenicus. The temple then was built on a rectangular plan inspired by the design of the ancient Greek temples with the main entrance found in the eastern side. It was decorated with the marble, golden leafes, silver and bronze. The temple also housed entrances elaborate passages and columns. The most distinguished part of the temple was the sanctuary that one embraced the most important statue of the god Sarapis represented in the human form.it was made of gold and inlaid with precious and semi precious stones.

Sarapeum

The temple was rebuilt in the Roman period under the emperor Hadrian as the temple had suffered from struggles between the Alexandrians and Jews that reached its peak under the preceding emperor Trajan 89-117 AD. The Roman Sarapeum was constructed on a square plan accessed by a marble staircase in the roman style leading to the main columns and scenes from Greek and Roman myths. The temple was preceded by two Egyptian obelisks and a court centered by a fountain. It was made of stone cased with marble and surrounded by colonnades and vestibules.

Sarapeum

In addition the Sarapeum was not a mere temple it was a complex more like a small independent city. It was also recourse for those who came to seek remedies as the complex of the Sarapeum embraced a sanatarium for this purpose. Finally the temple was largely destroyed in the Christian period particularly under the emperor Theodosius who issued a decree to destroy all pagan temples, the remaining part of the temple was transferred into a church under the name of the saint John the Baptist that stood till the tenth century of our era.

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The Great Pyramid of Khufu

Labels: Cairo

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. The stone was cut by hammering wedges into the stone. Then, the wedges were soaked with water. The wedges expanded, causing the rock to crack. Once they were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures to this day.

Construction Theories


		*The Great Pyramid of Khufu*

The 1^st theory, suggested by the Greeks, posits that slaves were forced to work until the pyramid was done.

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.


		The Great Pyramid of Khufu

The King's Chamber is lined with red granite brought from Aswan 935 km (580 miles) to the south. There are 5 relieving chambers above the kings chamber. The first one is reached through a breach in the wall at the upper end of the Grand Gallery; this was named the Davidson chamber. Howard Vyse suspected there was another chamber above this when he found that he was able to thrust a long reed through a crack in the ceiling. He blasted through to find 4 more relieving chambers. These chambers were named the Wellington, Nelson, Lady Arbuthnot and Cambell's chambers. The kings chamber and the first 4 relieving chambers have roofs made out granite. Each roof includes 8 or 9 granite slabs weighing 25 to 80 tonnes each. Cambell's chamber has a pented roof made of large limestone slabs. Egyptologists believe they were transported on barges down the Nile river.

Queen's Chamber


		The Great Pyramid of Khufu

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


		The Great Pyramid of Khufu

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, which included a cemetery, bakeries, a beer factory and a copper smelting complex.
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.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu

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

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 is about 30 degrees North, if you go into the entrance shaft and look back, you will see a part of the sky centered about 4 degrees from the North Pole in the sky. If you could see through the ground and the Earth as you looked forward going down the Entrance shaft, you would see an area near the South Pole in the sky.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu

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Pompay's pillar

The Great Pyramid of Khufu