Egyptian pyramid appearance. Egyptian pyramids: you need to know. Opening hours of the museum complex in Giza

Precursors of the pyramids

When mentioning the Egyptian pyramids, as a rule, they mean the Great Pyramids, located at Giza, near Cairo. But they are not the only pyramids in Egypt. Many other pyramids are much worse preserved and now resemble hills or heaps of stones.

During the period of the first dynasties, special "houses after life" appeared - mastabs - burial buildings, which consisted of an underground burial chamber and a stone structure above the surface of the earth. The term itself refers already to the Arabian time and is connected with the fact that the shape of these tombs, similar in section to a trapezoid, reminded the Arabs of large benches called "mastaba".

The first pharaohs also built mastabs for themselves. The oldest royal mastabas, dating back to the time of the 1st dynasty, were built from adobas - unbaked bricks from clay and / or river silt. They were built in Nagadeya Abydos in Upper Egypt | Upper Egypt, as well as in Saqqara, where the main necropolis of Memphis, the capital of the rulers of the first dynasties, was located. In the above-ground part of these buildings there were chapels and rooms with burial implements, and in the underground - the actual burial chambers.

The largest pyramids of Egypt

• Pyramid of Cheops (IV dynasty): base size - 230 m (height - 146.6 m);
• Pyramid of Khafre (IV dynasty): 215 m (143 m);
• Pink Pyramid, Sneferu (IV Dynasty): 219 m (105 m);
• Broken pyramid, Sneferu (IV dynasty): 189 m (105 m);
• Pyramid at Meidum, Sneferu (IV dynasty): 144 m (94 m);
• Pyramid of Djoser (III dynasty): 121 × 109 m (62 m).

Dating of the building

Pyramids of the Pharaohs of the III Dynasty

Haba pyramid

In the central part of the pyramid in Zawiet el-Erian, the structure of the masonry is clearly visible - the layers of stone are slightly inclined towards the center and, as it were, lean on it (because of this, it is sometimes also called "Layered"). The building material is roughly hewn small stone and clay mortar. The technology for building the pyramid in Zawiet el-Erian is similar to that used in the construction of the Sehemkhet pyramid and the Step pyramid in Saqqara.

Djoser's pyramid

This is the first step-type pyramid, called the Djoser pyramid. The building dates back to around 2670 BC and looks like several stacked mastabas of decreasing size. Most likely, this was exactly the idea of ​​the architect of this pyramid, Imhotep. Imhotep developed a method of masonry from hewn stone. Subsequently, the Egyptians deeply revered the architect of the first pyramid, and even deified him. He was considered the son of the god Ptah, the patron saint of arts and crafts.

The pyramid of Djoser is located in Saqqara, northeast of ancient Memphis, 15 km from Giza. Its height is 62 m.

The pyramids of the pharaohs of the IV dynasty

Broken pyramid

The historical significance of the Pink Pyramid is that it is the first royal tomb of the correct pyramidal shape. Although the "pink" tomb is considered the first "true" pyramid, it is characterized by an extremely low slope of the walls (only 43 ° 36 "; the base is 218.5 × 221.5 m. At a height of 104.4 m.).

The name is due to the fact that the limestone blocks, of which the pyramid is built, acquire a pink color in the rays of the setting sun. An entrance via an inclined walkway on the north side descends into three adjoining chambers accessible to the public. This pyramid is attributed to Snefer because his name is inscribed in red paint on several panels of the sheathing.

Pyramid at Meidum

Great pyramids

Great Pyramids of Giza

The pyramids of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafren and Mikerin located in Giza are called the great pyramids. Unlike the Djoser pyramid, these pyramids have not a stepped, but a strictly geometric, pyramidal shape. These pyramids date back to the 4th dynasty. The walls of the pyramids rise at an angle from 51 ° (Menkaur's pyramid) to 53 ° (Khafre's pyramid) to the horizon. The edges are precisely oriented to the cardinal points. The pyramid of Cheops was built on a massive natural rocky rise, which turned out to be in the very middle of the base of the pyramid. Its height is about 9 m.

The Pyramid of Cheops

The largest is the Cheops pyramid. Initially, its height was 146.6 m, but due to the fact that now there is no facing of the pyramid, its height has now decreased to 138.8 m. The length of the side of the pyramid is 230 m. The construction of the pyramid dates back to the XXVI century BC. NS. Presumably, the construction took over 20 years.

The pyramid is composed of 2.3 million stone blocks; no cement or other binders were used. On average, the blocks weighed 2.5 tons, but the “Tsar's Chamber” contains granite blocks weighing up to 80 tons. The pyramid is practically a monolithic structure - with the exception of a few chambers and corridors leading to them.

Pyramids of Khafre and Mikerin

Later, the tradition of building pyramids was adopted by the rulers of ancient Sudan.

Userkaf pyramid

Pyramid of Sahur and Neferefra

Finishing

Some of the pyramids, which have retained their lining, allow us to see the quality of the surface treatment of the stone. In addition, large blocks are fitted so that there are no gaps between them, and the aligned outer surface often forms an ideal plane, despite the fact that this plane is at an angle to the base. A striking example of this is the facing of the Broken and Meidum pyramids.

When leveling the surface of the stones at the entrance to the Mikerin pyramid, the extreme stones were not completely aligned, and the edge of the alignment line runs continuously through all the masonry stones, which makes it possible to make the assumption that the surface of the blocks was leveled after the stones were laid. The same assumption is confirmed by the leveling of the floor, not far from the Userkaf pyramid. The lower surface of the floor stones is in sand and has a natural rough shape; the stones are of different heights, but the upper part of the stones forms a single flat surface.

Cladding

In order for the surface of the pyramid to be even, it was lined with cladding slabs (mainly of limestone).

• The pyramid at Meidum is faced with polished slabs of Tours limestone. In our time, the entire cladding and most of the outer layers have not survived.
• The pink pyramid was lined with white limestone, but over time the lining was removed by the local people and now blocks of pink limestone are visible.
• The pyramid of Khafre was covered with limestone, which was preserved only at the top.
• About a third of its height, the pyramid of Mikerin was faced with red Aswan granite, then it was replaced by white slabs of Tours limestone, and the top, in all likelihood, was also of red granite.

Pyramid builders

Discovered in early January 2010, new burials of the pyramid builders allowed scientists to confirm the theory that the pyramids were erected by civilian workers. It is also concluded that up to 10 thousand people were simultaneously employed at the construction site, while the workers worked in shifts for three months.

Burials of the pharaohs

Pyramid texts

Pyramid research

Preservation of the pyramids and restoration

Similarities with other monuments in Egypt and other countries

Egyptian pyramids in popular culture

The Egyptian pyramids have long been a source of folklore legends (for example, among Christians they have long been considered the granaries of Joseph, who, according to the book of Genesis, accumulated grain in Egypt for seven hungry years), and with the growing interest in the East and the occult of the 19th-20th centuries. there were various representations connecting the pyramids with modern esotericism (books

For more than four millennia, the pyramids that inspire respect and even awe have stood in the sands of Egypt. The tombs of the pharaohs look like aliens from another world, they contrast so strongly with the environment and their scale is so great. It seems incredible that thousands of years ago people were able to erect structures of such a height that, with the use of modern technologies at that time, it was possible to surpass only in the 19th century, and have not surpassed in volume until now.

Of course, theories about the "other" origin of the pyramids could not but arise. Gods, aliens, representatives of disappeared civilizations - whoever was not credited with the creation of these magnificent structures, simultaneously attributing the most incredible properties to them.

In fact, the pyramids are the work of human hands. In our age of an atomized society, when joining the efforts of several dozen people for the sake of achieving a common goal already seems like a miracle, even large-scale construction projects of the 20th century look incredible. And to imagine that the ancestors were capable of such a union thousands of years ago, you need to have an imagination at the level of a science fiction writer. It's easier to attribute everything to aliens ...

1. If you still did not know this, the Scythian burial mounds are pyramids for the poor. Or how to look: the pyramids are mounds for the poor in the land. If it was enough for the nomads to drag a pile of earth to the grave, then the Egyptians had to carry thousands of stone blocks - the sand mounds would be blown up by the wind. However, the wind also covered the pyramids with sand. Some had to be dug up. Large pyramids were more fortunate - they were covered with sand too, but only partially. Thus, a Russian traveler at the end of the 19th century noted in his diary that the Sphinx was covered with sand up to his chest. Accordingly, the Pyramid of Khafre, standing next to it, seemed to be lower.

2. The first serious problem in the history of the pyramids is connected with the sand drifts. Herodotus, who described and even measured them, does not mention a word about the Sphinx. Modern researchers explain this by the fact that the figures were covered with sand. However, the measurements of Herodotus, albeit with minor inaccuracies, coincide with the modern ones, made when the pyramids were cleared of sand. It is thanks to Herodotus that we call the largest pyramid the "Pyramid of Cheops". It is much more correct to call it the "Pyramid of Khufu".

3. As often happens with ancient travelers or historians, from the creations of Herodotus one can learn more about his personality than about the countries and phenomena he describes. According to the Greek, Cheops, when he did not have enough money to build his own burial complex, sent his own daughter to a brothel. At the same time, he built a separate small pyramid for his own sister, who combined family responsibilities with the role of one of the wives of Cheops.

Heterodyne

4. The number of pyramids, oddly enough, fluctuates. Some of them, especially small ones, are poorly preserved or even represent a heap of stones, so some scientists refuse to consider them pyramids. Thus, their number varies from 118 to 138.

5. If it were possible to disassemble the six largest pyramids into stones and cut tiles from these stones, it would be enough to pave the road from Moscow to Vladivostok 8 meters wide.

6. Napoleon (then not Bonaparte yet), having estimated the volume of the three pyramids in Giza, calculated that from the available stone it is possible to encircle the perimeter of France with a wall 30 centimeters thick and 3 meters high. And the launch pad of modern space rockets would fit inside the Cheops pyramid.

Napoleon is shown a mummy

7. To match the size of the pyramid-tombs and the territory on which they were located. So, around the Djoser pyramid there was a stone wall (now it is destroyed and covered with sand), which fenced off an area of ​​one and a half hectares.

8. Not all pyramids served as tombs of pharaohs, less than half of them. Others were intended for wives, children, or had a religious purpose.

9. The Pyramid of Cheops is considered to be the highest, but the height of 146.6 meters was assigned to it empirically - this would be the case if the facing had survived. The actual height of the Cheops Pyramid is less than 139 meters. In the crypt of this pyramid, you can completely fit two middle two-room apartments, stacked one on top of the other. The tomb is faced with granite slabs. They fit so well that a needle does not fit into the gap.

The Pyramid of Cheops

10. The oldest pyramid was built for Pharaoh Djoser in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. Its height is 62 meters. 11 tombs were found inside the pyramid - for all members of the pharaoh's family. The robbers stole the mummy of Djoser himself in ancient times (the pyramid was robbed several times), but the remains of family members, including a young child, have survived.

Djoser's pyramid

11. When the ancient Greek civilization was born, the pyramids stood for a thousand years. By the time of the founding of Rome, they were two thousand years old. When Napoleon, on the eve of the Battle of the Pyramids, exclaimed pathetically: “Soldiers! They look at you for 40 centuries! ”, He was mistaken for about 500 years. In the words of the Czechoslovak writer Vojtech Zamarovsky, the pyramids stood when people considered the moon a deity, and continued to stand when people landed on the moon.

12. The ancient Egyptians did not know the compass, but the pyramids at Giza are very clearly oriented to the cardinal points. Deviations are measured in fractions of a degree.

13. The first European entered the pyramids in the 1st century AD. NS. The multi-talented Roman scientist Pliny turned out to be lucky. He described his impressions in the VI volume of his famous "Natural History". Pliny called the pyramids "evidence of senseless vanity." Saw Pliny and the Sphinx.

14. Until the end of the first millennium AD. NS. only three pyramids at Giza were known. The pyramids were opened gradually, and the Menkaur pyramid was unknown until the 15th century.

Pyramid of Menkaur. The trail of the Arab assault is clearly visible

15. Immediately after the construction of the pyramids were white - they were faced with polished white limestone. After the conquest of Egypt, the Arabs appreciated the quality of the cladding. When Baron d'Anglure visited Egypt at the end of the 14th century, he still saw the process of dismantling the facing stone for construction in Cairo. He was told that white limestone had been “mined” in this way for a thousand years. So the cladding did not disappear from the pyramids under the influence of the forces of nature.

16. The Arab ruler of Egypt, Sheikh al-Mamun, deciding to penetrate the pyramid of Cheops, acted as a military leader besieging the fortress - the wall of the pyramid was hollowed out by rams. The pyramid did not give up until the sheikh was told to pour boiling vinegar on the stone. The wall began to gradually move, but it is unlikely that the sheikh's idea would be successful if he was not lucky - the break accidentally coincided with the beginning of the so-called. Great gallery. However, the victory disappointed al-Mansur - he wanted to profit from the treasures of the pharaohs, but found only a few precious stones in the sarcophagus.

17. Rumors are still circulating about a certain "curse of Tutankhamun" - anyone who desecrates the burial of Pharaoh will die in the very near future. They began in the 1920s. Howard Carter, who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun, in a letter to the editorial office of the newspaper, informing that he and several other members of the expedition had died, stated that spiritually, contemporaries did not go far from the ancient Egyptians.

Howard Carter is somewhat surprised by the news of his painful death

18. Giovanni Belzoni, an Italian adventurer who wandered all over Europe, in 1815 concluded an agreement with the British Consul in Egypt, according to which Belzoni was appointed the official representative of the British Museum in Egypt, and the Consul Salt pledged to buy from him the acquired values ​​for the British Museum. The British, as always, pulled the chestnuts out of the fire with someone else's hands. Belzoni went down in history as a grave robber, and was killed in 1823, and the British Museum "preserved for civilization" a lot of Egyptian treasures. It was Belzoni who managed to find the entrance to the Khafre pyramid without breaking the walls. Anticipating prey, he burst into the tomb, opened the sarcophagus and ... made sure that it was empty. Moreover, in good light, he saw the inscription on the wall, made by the Arabs. It followed from it that they did not find the treasures either.

19. For about half a century after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, only the lazy did not plunder the pyramids. Rather, the Egyptians themselves plundered, selling the relics they found for a pittance. Suffice it to say that for a small amount, tourists could watch the colorful spectacle of the fall of the facing slabs from the upper tiers of the pyramids. Only Sultan Khediv Said in 1857 forbade robbing the pyramids without his permission.

20. For a long time, scientists believed that the embalmers who processed the bodies of the pharaohs after death knew some special secrets. Only in the twentieth century, after people began to actively penetrate into the deserts, it became clear that dry hot air preserves corpses much better than embalming solutions. The bodies of the poor, lost in the desert, remained practically the same as the bodies of the pharaohs.

21. Stones for the construction of the pyramids were mined by trivial carving. The use of wooden stakes, which tore the stone when wet, is more a hypothesis than an everyday practice. The resulting blocks were pulled out to the surface and polished. Special craftsmen numbered them near the quarry. Then, in the order determined by the numbers, by the efforts of hundreds of people, the blocks were dragged to the Nile, loaded onto barges and transported to the place where the pyramids were built. The transportation was carried out in full water - an extra hundred meters of transportation by land extended the construction for months. The final grinding of the blocks was carried out while they were in place in the pyramid. Remains of traces of painted boards, which checked the quality of grinding, and numbers on some blocks.

There are still blanks ...

22. There is no evidence of the use of animals to transport blocks and build pyramids. The ancient Egyptians actively raised livestock, but small bulls, donkeys, goats and mules are clearly not animals that can be forced to do the hardest work every day. But the fact that during the construction of the pyramids, animals went for food in herds is quite obvious. According to various estimates, from 10 to 100,000 people worked at the same time on the construction of the pyramids.

23. Either in Stalin's times they knew about the principles of the Egyptians when building the pyramids, or the inhabitants of the Nile Valley developed an optimal scheme for using forced labor, but the breakdown of labor resources looks surprisingly similar. In Egypt, pyramid builders were divided into groups of up to 1,000 people for the most difficult and unskilled jobs (analogous to the GULAG camp). These groups, in turn, were divided into shifts. There was a "free" bosses: architects (civilian specialists), overseers (VOKHR) and priests (political unit). Not without "idiots" - stone cutters and sculptors were in a privileged position.

24. The whistling of whips over the heads of slaves and the terrifying mortality during the construction of the pyramids are the inventions of historians closer to the present. The climate of Egypt allowed free peasants to work in their fields for several months (in the Nile delta they took 4 crops a year), and they were free to use the forced “idle time” for construction. Later, with the increase in the size of the pyramids, they began to be attracted to the construction site without consent, but so that no one would die of hunger. But during the breaks to cultivate the fields and harvest the harvest, slaves worked, they were about a quarter of all employed.

25. Pharaoh of the 6th dynasty Piopi II did not waste his time on trifles. He ordered to build 8 pyramids at once - for himself, for each of the wives and 3 ritual ones. One of the spouses, whose name was Imtes, cheated on the sovereign and was severely punished - she was deprived of her personal pyramid. And Piopi II still surpassed Senusert I, who built 11 tombs.

26. Already in the middle of the 19th century, “pyramidology” and “pyramidography” were born - pseudosciences that open people's eyes to the essence of the pyramids. By interpreting Egyptian texts and various mathematical and algebraic actions with the size of the pyramids, they convincingly proved that people simply could not build pyramids. As of the end of the second decade of the 21st century, the situation has not changed dramatically.

26. Do not follow the pyramidologists and confuse the accuracy of the granite slabs of the tombs and the fit of the outer stone blocks. The granite slabs of the interior claddings (by no means all!) Are fitted very precisely. But the millimeter tolerances in the external masonry are the fantasies of unscrupulous interpreters. There are gaps, and quite significant ones, between the blocks.

27. Having measured the pyramids up and down, the pyramidologists came to an amazing conclusion: the ancient Egyptians knew the number π! Replicating discoveries of this kind, first from book to book, and then from site to site, the experts obviously do not remember, or have not already found the mathematics lessons in one of the elementary grades of the Soviet school. There, children were given round objects of various sizes and a piece of thread. To the surprise of the schoolchildren, the ratio of the length of the thread, which was used to wrap round objects, to the diameter of these objects, almost did not change, and was always slightly more than 3.

28. Above the entrance to the office of the American construction company The Starrett Brothers and Eken hung a slogan in which the company that built the Empire State Building promised to erect a life-size copy of the Cheops Pyramid at the request of the customer.

29. The Luxor entertainment complex in Las Vegas, which often appears in American films and TV series, is not a copy of the Cheops pyramid (although the association “pyramid” - “Cheops” is understandable and forgivable). For the design of Luxor, the parameters of the Pink Pyramid (the third largest) and the Broken Pyramid, known for its characteristic broken edges, were used.

The story associated with the creation of the pyramids in Egypt is covered with a veil of mystery with elements of mysticism, which has worried the inhabitants of our planet for more than one millennium. All buildings were erected over 200 years at sunset on the banks of the Nile. The construction involved 100 thousand Egyptians, and according to the legend, not slaves, but free people. The buildings represent a powerful generator of energy, in addition to their majestic and monumental appearance. There are amazing and interesting facts about the Egyptian pyramids.

1. The large-scale creation consisted of 140 pyramids, but to our time only a few have survived - Cheops, Mikerin and Chefren. During the construction, millions of blocks were used, weighing from 2 tons to 30 tons. Mysterious structures amaze with precise and thoughtful details from the mathematical, astrological, technical side, as well as the speed and methods of construction.
2. Each of the 4 faces of the pyramid is directed exactly towards the direction of the light(they achieved this as a result of observations of the field star) and is curved by 1 m to focus sunlight and heat the walls up to 1000 degrees during the solstice. As a result, the pyramids produced an intimidating rumble. The length of the edges differs from each other by almost 5 cm. The foundation is perfectly even, and the blocks are cut with precision, so that the gap is less than 1 mm.
3. The golden ratio is laid down in the ratios of geometric elements, slope coefficients correspond to modern concepts of trigonometry. The walls are erected at an angle of 52 degrees and keep the number "Pi" - divide the perimeter of the base by double the height. Also, the perimeter is equal to the circumference, and the radius corresponds to the height of the pyramid.

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4. The one who designed the pyramids possessed colossal and inaccessible knowledge at that time about the structure of the planet (which was laid down in the construction) - the circumference, the Earth's orbit and its rotation, the density of the globe, the speed of light, the longitude of the year, etc. If you multiply the volume of the pyramid by the specific gravity of the stone, you get the theoretical weight of our planet. And if you add up the sum of 2 diagonals, expressed in inches, you get the number of years for which the North Pole will make a full revolution.
5. Local material was used - limestone, which was well polished and initially covered the surface. The stones reflected sunlight and the structures produced the effect of a shining gem. They also used imported granite (from Aswan, which was 900 km away), as well as basalt of unknown origin.
6. Three pyramids are located schematically similar to the drawing of 3 stars in the constellation Orion and represent the earthly embodiment of the star map. The complex of pyramids, according to the ancient Egyptians, is a reflection of the place in the sky, where the soul of the pharaoh goes and reaches eternal life after death, like Osirius, therefore there is a close connection of the starry firmament with earthly buildings.
7. The very first pharaoh who wished to express his greatness and power in stone was Djoser and its first pyramid was built in 2670 BC. height 62 m and represented several smaller pyramids decreasing. This effect is achieved thanks to a special way of laying stones.
8. The pyramid of Cheops is considered the largest not only of all the pyramids, but of the buildings all over the world until 1311.(until the construction of the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary in England). This is the 7th wonder of the world created by mankind in 2540 BC. The structure weighs 5 million tons, is almost 147 m high, and has an area of ​​53 thousand square meters. m. and a perimeter of 922 m. The pyramid was erected in 20 years. If we take into account the 2.3 million blocks used in the construction, it turns out that 315 blocks were installed per day (weight on average 5 tons), that is, 13 pieces per hour or 4.5 pieces per minute. How is this possible?

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9. It is hard to believe that such greatness could have been created by a man with his own hands and primitive tools.... Even so, it would take millennia. Therefore, scientists put forward several incredible theories. The creators of this miracle are aliens, and more specifically aliens from the constellation Orion. All this was erected by representatives of a highly developed ancient civilization who inhabited the Earth long before the Egyptians, whose technology and knowledge surpassed the present time. These were people with magical abilities and they did it with the help of some crystals. It is easier to believe in one of the implausible versions than in the fact that a crowd of half-naked people did it with their own hands.

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10. The temperature inside the pyramids is stable - 20 degrees in the hot climate of the area... The pyramidal shape has special properties and a complex structure and accumulates cosmic energy. Researchers have identified 3 energy beams that destroy tumor cells, cause mummification of biological organisms and have a beneficial effect on humans, while the food does not deteriorate for a long time.
11. During the excavations, the remains of a developed infrastructure for workers were discovered - a bakery, a brewery, medicine was developed and a strict urban hierarchy was observed. However, no drawings, diagrams by which they were guided during construction, or hieroglyphs were found, in which there was a mention and the next generations could draw their own conclusions.
12. The Sphinx was erected during the reign of Pharaoh Cheops However, furrows of rain erosion were found on its surface, and there was no rain in Egypt for more than 8 thousand years. Scientists concluded that this building was built earlier, and under the Pharaoh, restoration was carried out and the face of the Sphinx was altered into a more human one.
13. Traces of grinding (with discs at high speed) were found on the stones, holes that are made only with drills with a diamond tip and with computer precision. And no traces of fasteners or technical holes were found, which indicates a non-contact method of moving the blocks.

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14. The construction, which was carried out later than the 3 surviving pyramids, was more modest and smaller in size., and already these structures have collapsed and turned into ruins, do not correspond to high technology, but rather crudely and primitively made. Have the ancient Egyptians forgotten how to build? Or did they not build 3 great creations, but simply restore them?

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15. Maybe this is an astronomical observatory or a shrine for initiation into the highest level of secret knowledge? The purpose of the pyramids themselves and secret passages (where there is no access for tourists) is not clear, but they do not correspond to the ritual structures. Maybe one day humanity will open the veil of secrets, but for now the Egyptian pyramids will keep their secrets and watch how one civilization replaces another.

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It still remains a mystery how the pyramids were built in Egypt in those distant times. Neither the method of building the pyramids, nor who acted in the role of labor force, has been guessed.

The pyramids located in Egypt attract a huge number of tourists to the country's resorts. Everyone wants to see the "seventh wonder of the world" with their own eyes. Without them, it is impossible to form an idea of ​​Egypt as a country as a whole. In terms of popularity, a trip to the pyramids can be compared with diving in Egypt, for the sake of which lovers of the underwater world of the Red Sea travel to the Red Sea.

As a rule, the pyramids in Egypt are associated with the pyramids located in Giza - in a place not far from Cairo, but you should know that these are not the only pyramids found in Egypt. It is in Giza that the three most famous pyramids of Egypt are located - the pyramids of Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin. Currently, there are about 118 pyramids in Egypt. Many of them have not retained their original appearance and open to the eyes of people in the form of hills or shapeless piles of stones.

In Egypt, pyramids of two types can be observed:

• stepped;
• the correct shape.

Stepped are the most ancient representatives of the pyramids in all of Egypt.

The first mention of the pyramids in Egypt was made in the 5th century BC thanks to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. Traveling around the outskirts of Egypt and seeing the pyramids on the Giza plateau, Herodotus immediately called them "the seventh wonder of the world." Herodotus created a legend that the famous Great Sphinx, located not far from the pyramids of Giza, is the peacekeeper of the buried pharaohs.

The internal structure of the pyramids in Egypt

The pyramids in Egypt are one of the stages of the funeral - ritual process for the burial of the pharaohs. The construction of the pyramids during the time of Ancient Egypt followed strict building rules:

• next to each pyramid there were necessarily two temples - one very close, and the second a little lower, so that its foot was washed by the waters of the Nile;
• the pyramids and temples were connected by alleys.

Unfortunately, the pyramids of Giza have not preserved their temples to our time. There is only one temple left - the lower temple of Khafre, which was considered for a very long time the temple of the Great Sphinx. Inside every pyramid in Egypt, a chamber was created to store a sarcophagus with a mummy with carved passages to it. Some cells contained religious texts.

In the 20th century, scientists established that all pyramids in Egypt are structures with correct mathematical proportions.
They were built in several stages:

• alignment of the site for the construction of the pyramid (about 10 years);
• construction of the tomb (sometimes the tomb was enlarged in comparison with the original construction project).

There is still debate about how the stone blocks were brought to the very top of the pyramid.

What pyramids can be seen in Egypt

Pyramids of the Pharaohs of the III Dynasty

The most famous pyramids in Egypt, built during the reign of the Pharaohs of the III dynasty, are the pyramid of Haba and the pyramid of Djoser.

The pyramids of the pharaohs of the IV dynasty

Great pyramids in Egypt

Every evening, a light and music show is held near the pyramids, accompanied by stories about the history of the construction of the pyramids in different languages ​​(including Russian).

One of the Egyptian pyramids - the pyramid of Cheops - is included in the list of the seven wonders of the world. Its construction is still covered with secrets and myths. Many interesting archaeological finds belong to these lands. Read all the most interesting facts about the Egyptian pyramids in this article.

• 1. The crypts of the Egyptian pharaohs are not inside the pyramids, as many mistakenly believe, but not far from them, in the Valley of the Kings.
• 2. According to one theory, the Egyptians mastered the mathematical "principle of leverage" helped to build the majestic pyramids. But, at the same time, in this way it would have been possible to build the Cheops pyramid in a century and a half. Whereas it appeared in just two decades. Mystery!

• 3. According to scientists from Germany, pyramids are very powerful energy generators. In them, the pharaohs were healed and were engaged in energy therapy.
• 4 . Some of the most popular theories of the origins of the Egyptian pyramids are as follows. First: huge monuments of architecture were built by aliens. The second: people who owned a magic crystal moved and stacked stone blocks on top of each other.

• 5. Another mystery of the Egyptian pyramids concerns the time of the construction of the two largest of them. Why did the Egyptians build them in two stages, which made them stop building the first time?
• 6. The Egyptian pyramids were built for about two centuries in a row. While one was being built, another appeared on the sands.
• 7. Today the age of the pyramids of Egypt is about 4 to 10 thousand years (according to different scientists).
• 8. Interesting facts about the Egyptian pyramids relate to the peculiarities of the masonry of their huge blocks. It is surprising how it was possible to arrange large stones so that even a human hair would not pass between them? Moreover, each face of the pyramids is located strictly in the direction of one of the cardinal points.

• 9. The height of the largest Egyptian pyramid of Cheops is 146.6 meters, weight - more than 6 million tons. The area of ​​this giant is about 5 hectares.
• 10. Numerous scenes of their construction are depicted on the walls of the pyramids. According to legend, the pyramids were built by free people, not slaves.
• 11. The edges of the Egyptian pyramids were built curved by one meter. This technique made it possible to focus on the pyramids by sunlight during the solstice and heat the walls up to 1000 degrees. At the same time, the pyramids began to emit a frightening and incomprehensible rumble for people of the past.
• 12. The faces of the Cheops pyramid differ from each other by less than 5 centimeters. And this is with a length of 250 meters each.

• 13. The foundation of the Cheops pyramid is perfectly flat.
• 14. The first Egyptian pyramid - the pyramid of Djoser. Its height is 62 meters. The pyramid was built in 2670 BC. Outwardly, it resembles several pyramids with a decreasing size, placed next to each other. The architect of the pyramid Djoser Imhotep developed a special way of laying the stone, which made it possible to achieve such an effect.

• 15. The Pyramid of Cheops consists of 2.3 million stone blocks matched to each other with mathematical precision.
• 16. The walls of the pyramids in Giza are the embodiment of the mathematical number pi. They rise at an angle of 52 degrees. It is in this case that the ratio of the height and perimeter of the base of the pyramid is equal to the ratio of the diameter of the circle to its length.

• 17. Today, archaeologists have unearthed a settlement of people who built the Egyptian pyramids. The village of ancient times had a brewery, a bakery and even a fish dryer.
• 18. The Egyptian tradition of building pyramids was later adopted by the ancient rulers of Sudan.

Interesting video. Mystical secrets of the Egyptian Pyramids.