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The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid
of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the
three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now
El Giza,
Egypt.
It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
and the only one to remain largely intact.
Based on a mark in an interior chamber naming the work
gang and a reference to fourth dynasty Egyptian
Pharaoh Khufu,
Egyptologists
believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb over a 10 to 20-year period
concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 metres (481 feet), the Great
Pyramid was the tallest
man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth
outer surface; 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. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the
Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses
are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry
and dragging and lifting them into place.
There are three known chambers inside the Great
Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was
built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's
Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The main part of the Giza
complex is a setting of buildings that included two mortuary
temples in honour 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.MATERIALSThe Great Pyramid consists of an estimated
2.3 million blocks which most believe to have been transported from nearby
quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing
was quarried across the river. The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found
in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes
and were transported from Aswan, more than 800 km
(500 mi) away. Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by
hammering into them some wooden wedges, which were then soaked with water. As
the water was absorbed, 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. It is estimated that 5.5 million
tonnes of limestone, 8,000 tonnes of granite (imported from Aswan), and 500,000
tonnes of mortar were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.
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CASING STONE | At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white
"casing stones" – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly
polished white limestone. These were
carefully cut to what is approximately a face slope with a seked
of 5½ palms to give the required dimensions. Visibly, all that remains is the
underlying stepped core structure seen today. In AD 1303, a massive earthquake
loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in
1356 to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo.
Many more casing stones were removed from the great pyramids by Muhammad Ali
Pasha in the early 19th century to build the upper portion of his Alabaster Mosque in Cairo not far from Giza.
These limestone casings can still be seen as parts of these structures. Later
explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left
over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently
cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of
the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ
around the base of the Great Pyramid, and display the same workmanship and
precision that has been reported for centuries. Petrie also
found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring
193 centimetres ± 25 centimetres. He suggested a redetermination of north
was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the
casing was built with a different orientation. Petrie related the precision of the
casing stones as to being "equal to opticians' work of the present day,
but on a scale of acres" and "to place such stones in exact contact
would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the joints seems almost
impossible". It has been suggested it was the
mortar (Petrie's "cement") that made this seemingly impossible task
possible, providing a level bed, which enabled the masons to set the stones
exactly. | ![](Khufu_seal.jpg)
CLAY SEAL | Clay seal bearing the name of Khufu from the great pyramid. On display at
the Musée du Louvre.
Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have
been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques.Many disagree on whether the blocks
were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but
modern discoveries made at nearby workers' camps associated with construction
at Giza suggest that it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled
workers. Verner posited that the labour was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of
100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each,
which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.
One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its
planning. John Romer
suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and
later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1-to-1
scale. He writes that "such a working diagram would also serve to generate
the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other
means". He also argues for a 14-year time span
for its construction.
A modern construction management study, in association
with Mark Lehner and other Egyptologists, estimated
that the total project required an average workforce of 14,567 people and a
peak workforce of 40,000. Without the use of pulleys, wheels, or iron tools,
they used critical path analysis
to suggest that the Great Pyramid was completed from start to finish in
approximately 10 years. |
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