Pyramids of Giza

The pyramids of Giza are one of the most famous monuments in Egypt and the world. Many people do not know that there are many pyramids in Egypt and not only the 3 widely recognized and popular ones. The pyramids extend from the city of Giza to the city of Fayoum, where the remains of thirty-five pyramids are located close to the Nile River. The pyramids are located on the west bank of the Nile outside Cairo, and inside the pyramids there are secret rooms full of gold and treasures where the Egyptian kings are buried. The pyramids were built in a way that the sun rises directly behind them. Ancient Egyptians believed that the spirit of the king when he dies goes to heaven when the sun rises, and when the sun sets, his spirit returns to the cemetery again to find itself there.

The three pyramids of Giza are among the greatest works of ancient Egyptians and they are considered one of the seven wonders of the world. The largest of them is King Khufu, which contains more than two million stone blocks, and its height is 147 meters. Its base covers an area of ​​five hectares. The pyramid of Khafra is smaller than the Khufu pyramid, but it was built at a higher altitude.

There is also a huge statue called the Sphinx near King Khafra pyramid. Many scholars believe that Khafra is one of the builders of the Sphinx, and that the face of the Sphinx is only a representation of Pharaoh Khafre. The Pharaoh of the third pyramid is Menkaure, and he chose his pyramid to be small, 65 meters high.

The ancient Egyptians built the pyramids because they believed that these pyramids protected them after death; they buried their dead in the fetal position like in the mother’s womb, to facilitate the process of rebirth, and over time, they expanded the cemetery to add a room and sometimes two or more rooms. The pyramids were only specific to kings in Ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptian artists painted Hieroglyphics on the walls of the burial chamber of the royal mummy; they wrote texts to recite them before the gods to protect the dead after death.

A recent research concluded that ancient Egyptians used a complex system to implement the construction process of the pyramids through creating channels of an internal port on the Nile to reach the base of the pyramid. The pyramids were built with mud bricks or clay, and thousands of skilled workers were able to transport 170,000 tons of limestone in wooden boats along the Nile by rope.

An old papyrus was found in Wadi Al-Jarf port in Suez giving a new view that the boats played an important role in the construction of the pyramids. Stones were shipped from Tora to Giza via the water by opening giant dams to divert the Nile River through man-made channels, although it was long known that the granite in the inner chambers of the pyramids came from Aswan, limestone and precious stones came from Tora, but archaeologists had differed views on how these stones were transferred. Archaeologist Mark Lenner, a leading expert in the field, revealed a missing waterway under the Giza plateau. “We have identified the central canal basin, which is believed to be the main delivery area, to the foot of the Giza plateau” he said.

Finally, the pyramids are a great example of how to cooperate with different groups of people to achieve a specific goal. The completion of the construction process in this way is absolutely dazzling and immortal throughout the ages, and will remain an engineering miracle that puzzles the world with its secrets and greatness.