Great Pyramid of Giza Facts

Great Pyramid of Giza Facts

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu. It took
approximately 20 years to build and has three burial chambers inside. When it was
originally built (in approximately 2550 BC) it was almost 147 meters tall. Today, because of
erosion, it is only about 139 meters tall. If you visit Egypt today you can enter the Great
Pyramid through the Robbers Tunnel.
Interesting Great Pyramid of Giza Facts:
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of all Seven Wonders of the World.
This pyramid is the largest of all three pyramids that border El Giza, Egypt and it is also
the largest pyramid ever built.
The pyramid was built with about 2.3 million stone blocks and it is thought to weigh 5.9
million tons.
The ancient name of the Great Pyramid of Giza was Khufu's Horizon.
This pyramid is the only one in Egypt known to have passages inside that go up and go
down. If you wanted to visit the kings chamber you would have to walk down, all the way,
bent over.
The Great Pyramid of Giza once had a swivel door at the entrance. It weighed about 20
tons and could easily be pushed open from the inside. On the outside it was very hard to
find because it fit perfectly. There are only two other pyramids known to have had swivel
doors. One was Khufus fathers pyramid and the other was his grandfathers pyramid.
The mortar that was used to build the pyramid cannot be reproduced today. Even though it
has been analyzed they still cant make it. It is stronger than the stone that was used to
build the pyramid and is still in place today.
There has been no writing or hieroglyphics found inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
This pyramid is the only one to have been built with concave sides. This means that all four
side curve in slightly.
If we tried to build an exact replica of this pyramid it would not be possible. We do not
have the precise technology that the ancient Egyptians had that was necessary to build
this pyramid.
There were three burial chambers inside. One of the chambers was built into the bedrock
underground. The queens chamber was higher and the kings chamber was the highest.
Khufu didnt intend to use the queens chamber for any of his wives. It is thought that he
intended to use it for a statue of himself.

The incredible features of the Great Pyramid of Egypt

The amazing pyramid of Khufu is perhaps one of the buildings of antiquity that has aroused most curiosity
among people. Its construction method is unsubstantiated Just how is it possible that the Egyptians were
able to erect something so precise and technically difficult?
According to ancient texts the great pyramid was built by pharaoh Khufu, and was completed in just 20 years,
but that is something that most researchers find very hard to believe. 20 years is just too little time to
complete something so precise, so important and so great.
3 million stone blocks weighing up to 60 tons, were transported from different quarries that were kilometers
away. We cannot forget that they did not have traced roads, and that the wheel had not yet been invented.
Better yet, the ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks with such precision that even the most advanced saws that
we have today would not be able to match the accuracy of ancient Egyptians. Many Egyptologists stress that
there are marks that have been left on the surface of some of the blocks that raise interesting questions. It has
been demonstrated by researchers that the pyramid builders used a material, 50 times stronger than
diamond to cut and shape the giant stone monuments and sarcophagi seen across Egypt, but what kind of
material is 50 times stronger than diamond? Today, researchers are unaware of a material of similar
characteristics. Yet, these giant blocks of stone were so precisely cut and placed into position that we today,
without modern technology are not able to reproduce that ancient Egyptians did thousands of years ago. So
what kind of technology did the ancient Egyptian possess?
The ancient Egyptians flattened the surface of the Giza plateau in such a way that between the ground level
separating a pyramid of the other, there is only one centimeter in error.
But here are more interesting details. In addition to the huge stone blocks, the Egyptian pyramids were
covered by 27,000 tiles of blocks polished to perfection. These tiles were placed one by one on the surface of
the monumental construction. These huge pieces of rock had a weight of around 16 tons each. Now the
question is, how did the ancient Egyptians of the fourth dynasty move so much weight? It would be
interesting to mention that today, in a construction process where you need the transport huge blocks of
stone, giant machines are used which are able to move only certain blocks of stone due to their weight. This
only demonstrates that the original pyramid builders had access to advanced technology that helped them
achieve such incredible feats of engineering, design and architecture.
The accuracy with which the pyramids are oriented north is simply stunning, taking into account that the
ancient Egyptians did not leave any record of such geodetic knowledge in their ancient texts. But if the
ancient Egyptians did not have such knowledge thousands of years ago in different scientific fields, how is it
possible that the pyramids are oriented so well? Archaeologists and scholars have preferred to leave it to
chance, the fact that the margin of error of the orientation of the monuments to north is about 5 minutes and
31 seconds.

There is another feature that makes the Great Pyramid something even more spectacular. The faces are not
smooth, but they form two vertical planes which make up an angle of 27 minutes. Therefore, the great
pyramid of Egypt does not have four sides but eight. With all of these characteristics, the ancient builders of
the Pyramids of Egypt wanted to point out the equinoxes and solstices.
The interior of the pyramid is as incredible as the outside. Inside the Pyramid, the air is very dense, and if you
enter the great pyramid with a flashlight or cameras to record the inside, you would be surprised to find out
that the batteries run out very quickly. All of these incredible aspects make us reconsider whether the ancient
Egyptians were actually capable to erect such monuments. Did they have the necessary knowledge and
technology to calculate and construct these amazing monuments or are we missing something?
The accuracy with which the pyramids are oriented north is simply stunning, taking into account that the
ancient Egyptians did not leave any record of such geodetic knowledge in their ancient texts. But if the
ancient Egyptians did not have such knowledge thousands of years ago in different scientific fields, how is it
possible that the pyramids are oriented so well? Archaeologists and scholars have preferred to leave it to
chance, the fact that the margin of error of the orientation of the monuments to north is about 5 minutes and
31 seconds.
There is another feature that makes the Great Pyramid something even more spectacular. The faces are not
smooth, but they form two vertical planes which make up an angle of 27 minutes. Therefore, the great
pyramid of Egypt does not have four sides but eight. With all of these characteristics, the ancient builders of
the Pyramids of Egypt wanted to point out the equinoxes and solstices.
The interior of the pyramid is as incredible as the outside. Inside the Pyramid, the air is very dense, and if you
enter the great pyramid with a flashlight or cameras to record the inside, you would be surprised to find out
that the batteries run out very quickly. All of these incredible aspects make us reconsider whether the ancient
Egyptians were actually capable to erect such monuments. Did they have the necessary knowledge and
technology to calculate and construct these amazing monuments or are we missing something?

Source: National Geographic