An example of blatant slander.

This information is located on a remote but relatively popular site.

The article is called

"Pyramid "Cheops ": Dimensions in meters."

Green indicates reliable information, red indicates blatant lies. Blue are my comments.
Orange and other shades - dubious information.

The Pyramid of Cheops, one of the three pyramids at Giza, is located near Cairo and built in the shape of a regular pyramid with a square at the base. According to accurate reconstruction (it was partially dismantled into stone by local residents):

1. At the base: Square with sides of 230.35 meters (b=230.35 m)
2. Height of Cheops primum: 146.71 meters (h=146.71 m)
3. The side face of the pyramid isisosceles right triangle - angle at the top is 90 o, two corners at the bottom - 45 o each (A blatant lie, this only happens in a square divided by diagonals, i.e. the height of the pyramid = 0)
4. There are 4 triangular faces in total (naturally, since the base is a square)
5. A pyramid made of cubic limestone blocks, the largest of which has an edge length of 1.5 meters
6. There were probably 210 steps initially leading to the top of the pyramid. (What would this be applied to?)

Golden ratios: Let's denote c the length of the “ladder”, which is formed by the inclined side face of the pyramid. According to the Pythagorean theorem:

c 2 =h 2 +(b/2) 2 ~186.52 meters (the theorem is correct, the numbers are questionable)

(b/2)/c~0.618 golden ratio.

Later, another “golden pattern” was noticed: The area of ​​the base of the pyramid relates to the area of ​​all 4 side faces of the pyramid in the proportion of the “golden ratio”. The area of ​​the side face turned out to be equal to the square of its height (bc/2 = h 2). (property of the golden ratio pyramid)

Question: Who needs such “Information”?

Additional help.

The mathematically exact dimensions of the pyramid of living section of the 3rd order (F 3), corresponding to the Cheops pyramid, with a base length of 230.35 m, has a height h = 146.505 m. With a height h = 146.71 m, the length of the base of the pyramid is b = 230.673 m

Below are data from various measurements by different researchers at different times.

Size	Howard-Vise	Tailor	Smyth	Petrie	Cole	Proskuryakov
A Grounds	232,751	232,867	231,394	230,561	230,365	233,164
H	148,153	148,133	147,113	146,721	146,731	146,595
h	188,395	188,415	187,158	186,592	186,539	187,300
a tilt angle	51°51"	51°49"57"	51°49"	51°50"34"	51°52"06"	51°30"21"
Ф=tg 2a	1,620676	1,618623	1,616799	1,619834	1,622818	1,581158

The discrepancies are mainly due to where the base line was taken. Which point was taken as the top one is also not entirely clear, because the top of the pyramid is truncated. Either this was a real top point, or it was determined by the lines that continued the edges.

In particular, if we take Proskuryakov’s measurements as a basis, it seems that he measured the base along the most achievable bottom line, and the height to the real top. In this case, we obtain the following dimensions of the Cheops pyramid.

At the base b = 233.164 m. The mathematical height of the pyramid is h = 148.295 m.

The height of the pyramid truncated along the third sphere is h_= 146.344 m.

If we take h_= 146.595 m as a basis.

Then b = 233.572 m h= 148.554 m.

Apothem of the full face c= 188.964 m. ((b/2)/c=0.618034, or c/(b/2)=1.618034)

Apothem of the truncated face c_= 186.478 m.

Based on a number of my assumptions, these values ​​seem more correct to me.

The first wonder of the world of all time, one of the main structures of our planet, a place full of secrets and mysteries, a point of constant pilgrimage for tourists - the Egyptian pyramids and in particular the Cheops pyramid.

The construction of giant pyramids, of course, was far from easy. Enormous efforts of a large number of people were made to deliver stone blocks to the Giza or Saqqara plateau, and later to the Valley of the Kings, which became the new necropolis of the pharaohs.

At the moment, there are about a hundred discovered pyramids in Egypt, but discoveries continue, and their number is constantly increasing. At different times, one of the 7 wonders of the world meant different pyramids. Some meant all the pyramids of Egypt as a whole, some the pyramids near Memphis, some the three large pyramids of Giza, and most critics recognized exclusively the largest pyramid of Cheops.

Afterlife of Ancient Egypt

One of the central moments in the life of the ancient Egyptians was religion, which shaped the entire culture as a whole. Particular attention was paid to the afterlife, perceived as a clear continuation of earthly life. That is why preparation for life after death began long before death and was set as one of the main life tasks.

According to ancient Egyptian belief, man had several souls. The soul of Ka acted as a double of the Egyptian, whom he was to meet in the afterlife. The soul of Ba contacted the person himself and left his body after death.

Religious life of the Egyptians and the god Anubis

At first, it was believed that only the pharaoh had the right to life after death, but he could bestow this “immortality” on his entourage, who were usually buried next to the tomb of the ruler. Ordinary people were not destined to enter the world of the dead, the only exceptions being slaves and servants, whom the pharaoh “took” with him, and who were depicted on the walls of the great tomb.

But for a comfortable life after death, the deceased had to be provided with everything necessary: ​​food, household utensils, servants, slaves and much more necessary for the average pharaoh. They also tried to preserve the person’s body so that Ba’s soul could later connect with him again. Therefore, in matters of body preservation, embalming and the creation of complex pyramid tombs were born.

The first pyramid in Egypt. Pyramid of Djoser

Speaking about the construction of pyramids in Ancient Egypt in general, it is worth mentioning the beginning of their history. The very first pyramid in Egypt was built about five thousand years ago on the initiative of Pharaoh Djoser. It is in these 5 thousand years that the age of the pyramids in Egypt is estimated. The construction of the Pyramid of Djoser was led by the famous and legendary Imhotep, who was even deified in later centuries.

Pyramid of Djoser

The entire complex of the building being erected occupied an area of ​​545 by 278 meters. The perimeter was surrounded by a 10-meter wall with 14 gates, only one of which was real. In the center of the complex was the pyramid of Djoser with sides 118 by 140 meters. The height of the Djoser pyramid is 60 meters. Almost at a depth of 30 meters there was a burial chamber, to which corridors with many branches led. The branch rooms contained utensils and sacrifices. Here archaeologists found three bas-reliefs of Pharaoh Djoser himself. Near the eastern wall of Djoser's pyramid, 11 small burial chambers were discovered, intended for the royal family.

Unlike the famous large pyramids of Giza, Djoser's pyramid had a stepped shape, as if intended for the pharaoh's ascension to heaven. Of course, this pyramid is inferior in popularity and size to the Cheops pyramid, but still the contribution of the very first stone pyramid to the culture of Egypt is difficult to overestimate.

The Pyramid of Cheops. History and Brief Description

But still, the most famous for the ordinary population of our planet are the three nearby pyramids of Egypt - Khafre, Mekerin and the largest and tallest pyramid in Egypt - Cheops (Khufu)

Pyramids of Giza

The pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops was built near the city of Giza, currently a suburb of Cairo. At present, it is impossible to say for sure when the Cheops pyramid was built, and research gives a strong scatter. In Egypt, for example, the date of the start of construction of this pyramid is officially celebrated - August 23, 2480 BC.

Pyramid of Cheops and Sphinx

About 100,000 people were simultaneously involved in the construction of the wonder of the world, the Pyramid of Cheops. During the first ten years of work, a road was built along which huge stone blocks were delivered to the river and the underground structures of the pyramid. Work on the construction of the monument itself continued for about 20 years.

The size of the Cheops Pyramid in Giza is amazing. The height of the Cheops pyramid initially reached 147 meters. Over time, due to sand filling and loss of lining, it decreased to 137 meters. But even this figure allowed it to remain the tallest human structure in the world for a long time. The pyramid has a square base with a side of 147 meters. To build this giant, it is estimated that 2,300,000 limestone blocks were required, weighing an average of 2.5 tons.

How were the pyramids built in Egypt?

The technology of building pyramids is still controversial in our time. Versions vary from the invention of concrete in Ancient Egypt to the construction of pyramids by aliens. But it is still believed that the pyramids were built by man solely by his own strength. So, to extract stone blocks, they first marked out a shape in the rock, hollowed out grooves and inserted dry wood into them. Later, the tree was doused with water, it expanded, a crack formed in the rock, and the block was separated. Then it was processed into the desired shape with tools and sent along the river to the construction site.

To lift the blocks up, the Egyptians used gently sloping embankments, along which these megaliths were dragged on wooden sleighs. But even with such a backward technology by our standards, the quality of work is surprising - the blocks fit tightly to each other with minimal mismatches.

We can talk for a long time about the pyramids shrouded in myths and legends, their labyrinths and traps, mummies and treasures, but we’ll leave that to Egyptologists. For us, the Cheops Pyramid is one of the greatest structures of mankind throughout its existence and, of course, the only First Wonder of the World that has survived to this day from the depths of centuries.

Scheme of the Cheops pyramid

Video about the pyramids of Egypt

Video about the Cheops pyramid

During the construction of the most grandiose monument of antiquity, the Pyramid of Cheops, more than one year was spent and a huge number of slaves were involved, many of whom died at the construction site. This was the opinion of the ancient Greeks, among them Herodotus, one of the first historians who described this grandiose structure in detail.

But modern scientists do not agree with this opinion and argue: many free Egyptians wanted to work on construction sites - when agricultural work ended, it was an excellent opportunity to earn extra money (here they provided food, clothing and housing).

For any Egyptian, participating in the construction of a tomb for their ruler was a duty and a matter of honor, since each of them hoped that he would also be touched by a piece of pharaonic immortality: it was believed that the Egyptian ruler had the right not only to life after death, but could also take with him their loved ones (usually they were buried in tombs adjacent to the pyramid).

Ordinary people, however, were not destined to go to the afterlife - the exception was slaves and servants, who were buried with the ruler. But everyone had the right to hope - and therefore, when housework was finished, for many years the Egyptians rushed to Cairo, to the rocky plateau.

The Pyramid of Cheops (or as it was also called, Khufu) is located near Cairo, on the Giza plateau, on the left side of the Nile, and is the largest tomb located there.

This tomb is the tallest pyramid on our planet; it took many years to build and has a non-standard layout. A rather interesting fact is that during the autopsy, the ruler’s body was not found in it.

For many years now, it has been exciting the minds of researchers and admirers of Egyptian culture, who ask themselves the question: were ancient people able to build such a structure and is the pyramid not the work of representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations who erected it for only one clear purpose?

• The fact that this tomb of stunning size almost immediately entered the list of the ancient seven wonders of the world does not surprise anyone: the size of the Cheops pyramid is amazing, and this, despite the fact that over the past millennia it has become smaller, and scientists cannot determine the exact proportions of the Cheops pyramid condition, since its edges and surfaces were dismantled for their needs by more than one generation of Egyptians:
• The height of the pyramid is about 138 m (interestingly, in the year it was built, it was eleven meters higher);
• The foundation has a square shape, the length of each side is about 230 meters;
• The foundation area is about 5.4 hectares (thus, the five largest cathedrals of our planet will fit on it);

The length of the foundation along the perimeter is 922 m.

If earlier scientists believed that the construction of the Cheops pyramid took the Egyptians about twenty years, in our time, Egyptologists, having studied the records of the priests in more detail, and, taking into account the parameters of the pyramid, as well as the fact that Cheops ruled for about fifty years, refuted this fact and came to I conclude that it took at least thirty, and maybe even forty, years to build it.

Despite the fact that the exact date of construction of this grandiose tomb is unknown, it is believed that it was built by order of Pharaoh Cheops, who allegedly reigned from 2589 to 2566 BC. e., and his nephew and vizier Hemion was responsible for the construction work, using the latest technologies of his time, the solution of which many scientific minds have been struggling for many centuries. He approached the matter with all care and meticulousness.

Preparation for construction

More than 4 thousand workers were involved in the preliminary work, which took about ten years. It was necessary to find a place for construction, the soil of which would be strong enough to support a structure of this scale - so the decision was made to stop on a rocky site near Cairo.

To level the site, the Egyptians, using stones and sand, built a waterproof square shaft. They cut out channels intersecting at right angles in the shaft, and the construction site began to resemble a large chessboard.

After that, water was released into the trenches, with the help of which the builders determined the height of the water level and made the necessary notches on the side walls of the channels, after which the water was released. The workers cut down all the stones that were above the water level, after which the trenches were filled with stones, thus creating the foundation of the tomb.

Works with stone

The building material for the tomb was obtained from a quarry located on the other side of the Nile. To obtain a block of the required size, the stone was cut down from the rock and hewn to the required size - from 0.8 to 1.5 m. Although on average one stone block weighed about 2.5 tons, the Egyptians also made heavier specimens, for example, the heaviest the block that was installed above the entrance to the “Pharaoh’s Room” weighed 35 tons.

Using thick ropes and levers, the builders secured the block on wooden runners and dragged it along a deck of logs to the Nile, loaded it onto a boat and transported it across the river. And then they again dragged it along the logs to the construction site, after which the most difficult stage began: the huge block had to be pulled to the very top platform of the tomb. How exactly they did this and what technologies they used is one of the mysteries of the Cheops pyramid.

One of the versions proposed by scientists implies the following option. Along a 20 m wide brick rise located at an angle, the block lying on skids was pulled upward with the help of ropes and levers, where it was placed in a clearly designated place. The higher the Cheops pyramid became, the longer and steeper the climb became, and the upper platform became smaller - so it became more and more difficult and dangerous to lift the boulders.

The workers had the hardest time when it was necessary to install the “pyramidon” - the topmost block 9 meters high (not preserved to this day). Since the huge boulder had to be lifted almost vertically, the work turned out to be deadly, and many people died at this stage of the work. As a result, the Cheops pyramid, after construction was completed, had more than 200 steps leading up and looked like a huge stepped mountain.

In total, it took the ancient Egyptians at least twenty years to build the body of the pyramid. The work on the “box” was not finished yet - they still had to lay them with stones and make sure that the outer parts of the blocks became more or less smooth. And at the final stage, the Egyptians completely lined the pyramid from the outside with slabs of white limestone polished to a shine - and it sparkled in the sun like a huge shiny crystal.

The slabs have not survived to this day on the pyramid: the residents of Cairo, after the Arabs plundered their capital (1168), used them to build new houses and temples (some of them can be seen on mosques today).

Drawings on the pyramid

Interesting fact: the outer side of the pyramid body is covered with curvilinear grooves of different sizes. If you look at them from a certain angle, you can see the image of a man 150 m high (possibly a portrait of one of the ancient gods). This drawing is not alone: ​​on the northern wall of the tomb one can also distinguish a man and a woman with their heads bowed to each other.

Scientists claim that these Egyptians made the grooves several years before they finished building the pyramid body and installed the top stone. True, the question remains open: why did they do this, because the slabs with which the pyramid was subsequently decorated hid these portraits.

What the Great Pyramid looked like from the inside

A detailed study of the Cheops Pyramid showed that, contrary to popular belief, there are practically no inscriptions or any other decorations inside the tomb, except for a small portrait in the corridor leading to the Queen's Room.

The entrance to the tomb is located on the north side at a height exceeding fifteen meters. After burial, it was closed with a granite plug, so tourists get inside through a gap located about ten meters below - it was cut down by the Caliph of Baghdad Abdullah al-Mamun (820 AD) - the man who first entered the tomb with the aim of robbing it. The attempt failed because he found nothing here except a thick layer of dust.

The Cheops Pyramid is the only pyramid where there are corridors leading both down and up. The main corridor first goes down, then branches into two tunnels - one leads down to the unfinished funeral chamber, the second leads up, first to the Great Gallery, from which you can get to the Queen's Room and the main tomb.

From the central entrance, through a tunnel leading down (its length is 105 meters), you can get into a burial pit located below ground level, the height of which is 14 m, width - 8.1 m, height - 3.5 m. Inside the room, near Egyptologists discovered a well on the southern wall, the depth of which is about three meters (a narrow tunnel stretches from it to the south, leading to a dead end).

Researchers believe that this particular room was originally intended for the crypt of Cheops, but then the pharaoh changed his mind and decided to build a tomb higher for himself, so this room remained unfinished.

You can also get to the unfinished funeral room from the Great Gallery - at its very entrance a narrow, almost vertical shaft 60 meters high begins. Interestingly, in the middle of this tunnel there is a small grotto (most likely of natural origin, since it is located at the point of contact between the stonework of the pyramid and a small hump of limestone), which could accommodate several people.

According to one hypothesis, the architects took this grotto into account when designing the pyramid and initially intended it to evacuate builders or priests who were completing the “sealing” ceremony of the central passage leading to the tomb of the pharaoh.

The Pyramid of Cheops has another mysterious room with an unclear purpose - the “Queen's Chamber” (like the lowest room, this room is not completed, as evidenced by the floor on which they began to lay tiles, but did not complete the work).

This room can be reached by first going down the corridor 18 meters from the main entrance, and then going up a long tunnel (40 m). This room is the smallest of all, located in the very center of the pyramid, has an almost square shape (5.73 x 5.23 m, height - 6.22 m), and a niche is built into one of its walls.

Despite the fact that the second burial pit is called the “queen’s room,” the name is a misnomer, since the wives of Egyptian rulers were always buried in separate small pyramids (there are three such tombs near the tomb of the pharaoh).

Previously, it was not easy to get into the “Queen’s Chamber”, because at the very beginning of the corridor that led to the Great Gallery, three granite blocks were installed, disguised with limestone - so it was previously believed that this room did not exist. Al-Mamunu guessed about its presence and, being unable to remove the blocks, hollowed out a passage in the softer limestone (this passage is still in use today).

It is not known exactly at what stage of construction the plugs were installed, and therefore there are several hypotheses. According to one of them, they were installed even before the funeral, during construction work. Another claims that they were not there at all in this place before, and they appeared here after the earthquake, rolling down from the Great Gallery, where they were installed after the funeral of the ruler.

Another secret of the Cheops pyramid is that exactly where the plugs are located, there are not two, as in other pyramids, but three tunnels - the third is a vertical hole (though no one knows where it leads, since granite blocks with no one has moved the seats yet).

You can get to the tomb of the pharaoh through the Great Gallery, which is almost 50 meters long. It is a continuation of the upward corridor from the main entrance. Its height is 8.5 meters, with the walls narrowing slightly at the top. In front of the tomb of the Egyptian ruler there is a “hallway” - the so-called Antechamber.

From the Antechamber, a hole leads to the “Pharaoh's Chamber,” built from monolithic polished granite blocks, in which there is an empty sarcophagus made from a red piece of Aswan granite. (interesting fact: scientists have not yet found any traces or evidence that there was a burial here).

Apparently, the sarcophagus was brought here even before construction began, since its dimensions did not allow it to be placed here after the completion of construction work. The length of the tomb is 10.5 m, width – 5.4 m, height – 5.8 m.

The biggest mystery of the Cheops pyramid (as well as its feature) is its 20 cm wide shafts, which scientists call ventilation ducts. They start inside the two upper rooms, first go horizontally, and then go out at an angle.

While these channels in the Pharaoh’s room are through, in the “Queen’s Chambers” they begin only at a distance of 13 cm from the wall and do not reach the surface at the same distance (at the same time, at the top they are closed with stones with copper handles, the so-called “Ganterbrink doors”). .

Despite the fact that some researchers suggest that these were ventilation ducts (for example, they were intended to prevent workers from suffocating during work due to the lack of oxygen), most Egyptologists are still inclined to think that these narrow channels had religious significance and were able to prove that they were built taking into account the location of astronomical bodies. The presence of canals may well be related to the Egyptian belief about the gods and souls of the dead who live in the starry sky.

At the foot of the Great Pyramid there are several underground structures - in one of them, archaeologists (1954) found the oldest ship on our planet: a wooden cedar boat disassembled into 1224 parts, the total length of which when assembled was 43.6 meters (apparently , it was on it that the pharaoh had to go to the Kingdom of the Dead).

Is this tomb Cheops?

Over the past few years, Egyptologists have increasingly questioned the fact that this pyramid was actually intended for Cheops. This is evidenced by the fact that there is absolutely no decoration in the burial chamber.

The pharaoh's mummy was not found in the tomb, and the sarcophagus itself, in which it was supposed to be located, was not completely finished by the builders: it was hewn rather roughly, and the lid was missing altogether. These interesting facts make it possible for fans of theories of the alien origin of this grandiose structure to claim that the pyramid was built by representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations, using technologies unknown to science and for a purpose incomprehensible to us.

Achet-Chufu
3ḫtḫwfw
"Horizon of Khufu" Characteristics Location Giza Customer Pharaoh Cheops (Χέωψ or Σοῦφις) Construction time IV Dynasty 2600 BC e. Type pyramid Base size 230 Height (original) 146,60 Height (today) 138,75 Incline 51° 50" Pyramids of Queens 3 Pyramid of Cheops at Wikimedia Commons

Age of the pyramid

The architect of the Great Pyramid is considered to be Hemiun, the vizier and nephew of Cheops. He also bore the title "Manager of all Pharaoh's construction projects." It is assumed that the construction, which lasted twenty years (during the reign of Cheops), ended around 2540 BC. e. .

Existing methods for dating the time when construction of the pyramid began are divided into historical, astronomical and radiocarbon. In Egypt, the date for the start of construction of the Cheops Pyramid was officially established (2009) and celebrated - August 23, 2560 BC. e. This date was obtained using the astronomical method of Kate Spence (University of Cambridge). However, this method and the dates obtained with it have been criticized by many Egyptologists. Dates according to other dating methods: 2720 BC. e. (Stephen Hack, University of Nebraska), 2577 BC. e. (Juan Antonio Belmonte, University of Astrophysics in Canaris) and 2708 BC. e. (Pollux, Bauman University). Radiocarbon dating gives a range from 2680 BC. e. to 2850 BC e. Therefore, there is no serious confirmation of the established “birthday” of the pyramid, since Egyptologists cannot agree on exactly what year construction began.

First mention of the pyramid

The complete absence of mention of the pyramid in Egyptian papyri remains a mystery. The first descriptions are found in the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) and in ancient Arab legends [ ] . Herodotus reported (at least 2 millennia after the appearance of the Great Pyramid) that it was built under a despot pharaoh named Cheops (Greek: Cheops). Koufou), who ruled for 50 years, that 100 thousand people were employed in construction. for twenty years, and that the pyramid is in honor of Cheops, but not his grave. The real grave is a burial near the pyramid. Herodotus gave erroneous information about the size of the pyramid, and also mentioned about the middle pyramid of the Giza plateau that it was built by the daughter of Cheops, who sold herself, and that each building stone corresponded to the man to whom she was given.

Appearance

The pyramid is called "Akhet-Khufu" - "Horizon of Khufu" (or more accurately "Related to the firmament - (it is) Khufu"). Consists of limestone and granite blocks. It was built on a natural limestone hill. After the pyramid has lost several layers of cladding, this hill is partially visible on the eastern, northern and southern sides of the pyramid. Despite the fact that the Cheops pyramid is the tallest and most voluminous of all the Egyptian pyramids, Pharaoh Sneferu built the pyramids in Meidum and Dakhshut (Broken Pyramid and Pink Pyramid), the total mass of which is estimated at 8.4 million tons.

Initially, the pyramid was lined with white limestone, which was harder than the main blocks. The top of the pyramid was crowned with a gilded stone - pyramidion (ancient Egyptian - “Benben”). The cladding shone in the sun with a peach color, like “a shining miracle to which the sun god Ra himself seemed to give all his rays.” In 1168, the Arabs sacked and burned Cairo. Residents of Cairo removed the cladding from the pyramid in order to build new houses.

Statistical data

• Height (today): ≈ 136.5 m
• Side angle (current): 51° 50"
• Side rib length (original): 230.33 m (calculated) or about 440 royal cubits
• Side rib length (current): about 225 m
• The length of the sides of the base of the pyramid: south - 230.454 m; north - 230.253 m; west - 230.357 m; east - 230.394 m
• Foundation area (initially): ≈ 53,000 m2 (5.3 ha)
• Lateral surface area of ​​the pyramid (initially): ≈ 85,500 m2
• Base perimeter: 922 m
• Total volume of the pyramid without deducting the cavities inside the pyramid (initially): ≈ 2.58 million m3
• Total volume of the pyramid minus all known cavities (initially): 2.50 million m 3
• Average volume of stone blocks: 1,147 m3
• Average weight of stone blocks: 2.5 tons
• The heaviest stone block: about 35 tons - is located above the entrance to the “King’s Chamber”.
• The number of blocks of average volume does not exceed 1.65 million (2.50 million m³ - 0.6 million m³ of rock base inside the pyramid = 1.9 million m 3 /1.147 m 3 = 1.65 million blocks of the specified volume can physically fit in the pyramid , without taking into account the volume of mortar in interblock joints); referring to a 20-year construction period * 300 working days per year * 10 working hours per day * 60 minutes per hour leads to a speed of laying (and delivery to the construction site) of about a block of two minutes.
• According to estimates, the total weight of the pyramid is about 4 million tons (1.65 million blocks x 2.5 tons)
• The base of the pyramid rests on a natural rocky elevation about 12-14 m high in the center and, according to the latest data, occupies at least 23% of the original volume of the pyramid
• The number of layers (tiers) of stone blocks is 210 (at the time of construction). Now there are 203 layers.

Concavity of the sides

When the sun moves around the pyramid, you can notice the unevenness of the walls - the concavity of the central part of the walls. This may be due to erosion or damage from falling stone cladding. It is also possible that this was specially done during construction. As Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi note, the pyramid of Mycerinus no longer has such concave sides. I.E.S. Edwards explains this feature by saying that the central part of each side was simply pressed inward over time by the large mass of stone blocks. [ ]

As in the 18th century, when this phenomenon was discovered, today there is still no satisfactory explanation for this architectural feature.

Tilt angle

It is not possible to accurately determine the original parameters of the pyramid, since its edges and surfaces are currently mostly dismantled and destroyed. This makes it difficult to calculate the exact angle of inclination. In addition, its symmetry itself is not ideal, so deviations in the numbers are observed with different measurements.

A study of the geometry of the Great Pyramid does not provide a clear answer to the question of the original proportions of this structure. It is assumed that the Egyptians had an idea about the “Golden ratio" and the number pi, which were reflected in the proportions of the pyramid: thus, the ratio of the height to half the perimeter of the base is 14/22 (height = 280 cubits, and the base = 220 cubits, semi-perimeter of the base = 2 ×220 cubits; 280/440 = 14/22). For the first time in world history, these quantities were used in the construction of the pyramid at Meidum. However, for pyramids of later eras, these proportions were not used anywhere else, as, for example, some have height-to-base ratios, such as 6/5 (Pink Pyramid), 4/3 (Pyramid of Khafre) or 7/5 (Broken Pyramid).

Some of the theories consider the pyramid to be an astronomical observatory. It is argued that the corridors of the pyramid accurately point towards the “pole star” of that time - Thuban, the ventilation corridors on the south side point to the star Sirius, and on the north side to the star Alnitak.

Internal structure

Inside the Cheops pyramid there are three burial chambers, located one above the other.

Funeral "pit"

A 105 m long descending corridor running at an inclination of 26° 26'46 leads to an 8.9 m long horizontal corridor leading to the chamber 5 . Situated below ground level in a limestone bedrock, it remained unfinished. The dimensions of the chamber are 14x8.1 m, it extends from east to west. The height reaches 3.5 m, the ceiling has a large crack. At the southern wall of the chamber there is a well about 3 m deep, from which a narrow manhole (0.7 × 0.7 m in cross-section) stretches in a southern direction for 16 m, ending in a dead end. At the beginning of the 19th century, engineers John Shae Perring and Richard William Howard Vyse cleared the floor of the chamber and dug a well 11.6 m deep, in which they hoped to discover a hidden burial chamber. They were based on the testimony of Herodotus, who claimed that the body of Cheops was on an island surrounded by a canal in a hidden underground chamber. Their excavations came to nothing. Later studies showed that the chamber was abandoned unfinished, and it was decided to build the burial chambers in the center of the pyramid itself.

• Several photographs taken in 1910

Ascending Corridor and Queen's Chambers

From the first third of the descending passage (18 m from the main entrance), an ascending passage goes south at the same angle of 26.5° ( 6 ) about 40 m long, ending at the bottom of the Great Gallery ( 9 ).

At its beginning, the ascending passage contains 3 large cubic granite “plugs”, which from the outside, from the descending passage, were masked by a block of limestone that fell out during the work of al-Mamun. Thus, for the previous approximately 3 thousand years it was believed that there were no rooms in the Great Pyramid other than the descending passage and the underground chamber. Al-Mamun was unable to break through these plugs and simply hollowed out a bypass to the right of them in the softer limestone. This passage is still in use today. There are two main theories about the traffic jams, one of them is based on the fact that the ascending passage has traffic jams installed at the beginning of construction and thus this passage was sealed by them from the very beginning. The second argues that the current narrowing of the walls was caused by an earthquake, and the plugs were previously located within the Great Gallery and were used to seal the passage only after the funeral of the pharaoh.

An important mystery of this section of the ascending passage is that in the place where the traffic jams are now located, in the full-size, albeit shortened model of the pyramid passages - the so-called test corridors north of the Great Pyramid - there is a junction of not two, but three corridors at once, the third of which is a vertical tunnel. Since no one has yet been able to move the plugs, the question of whether there is a vertical hole above them remains open.

In the middle of the ascending passage, the design of the walls has a peculiarity: in three places the so-called “frame stones” are installed - that is, the passage, square along its entire length, pierces through three monoliths. The purpose of these stones is unknown. In the area of ​​the frame stones, the walls of the passage have several small niches.

A horizontal corridor 35 m long and 1.75 m high leads to the second burial chamber from the lower part of the Great Gallery in a southerly direction. The walls of this horizontal corridor are made of very large limestone blocks, on which false “seams” are applied, imitating masonry from smaller blocks . Behind the western wall of the passage there are cavities filled with sand. The second chamber is traditionally called the “Queen’s Chamber,” although according to the ritual, the wives of the pharaohs were buried in separate small pyramids. The Queen's Chamber, lined with limestone, measures 5.74 meters from east to west and 5.23 meters from north to south; its maximum height is 6.22 meters. There is a high niche in the eastern wall of the chamber.

Grotto, Grand Gallery and Pharaoh's Chambers

Another branch from the lower part of the Great Gallery is a narrow, almost vertical shaft about 60 m high, leading to the lower part of the descending passage. There is an assumption that it was intended to evacuate workers or priests who were completing the “sealing” of the main passage to the “King’s Chamber.” Approximately in the middle of it there is a small, most likely natural extension - the “Grotto” (Grotto) of irregular shape, in which several people could fit at most. Grotto ( 12 ) is located at the “junction” of the masonry of the pyramid and a small, about 9 meters high, hill on the limestone plateau lying at the base of the Great Pyramid. The walls of the Grotto are partially reinforced by ancient masonry, and since some of its stones are too large, there is an assumption that the Grotto existed on the Giza plateau as an independent structure long before the construction of the pyramids, and the evacuation shaft itself was built taking into account the location of the Grotto. However, taking into account the fact that the shaft was hollowed out in the already laid masonry, and not laid out, as evidenced by its irregular circular cross-section, the question arises of how the builders managed to accurately reach the Grotto.

The large gallery continues the ascending passage. Its height is 8.53 m, it is rectangular in cross-section, with walls slightly tapering upward (the so-called “false vault”), a high inclined tunnel 46.6 m long. In the middle of the Great Gallery along almost the entire length there is a square recess with a regular cross-section measuring 1 meter wide and 60 cm deep, and on both side protrusions there are 27 pairs of recesses of unknown purpose. The recess ends with the so-called. “Big step” - a high horizontal ledge, a 1x2 meter platform at the end of the Great Gallery, immediately before the hole into the “hallway” - the Antechamber. The platform has a pair of ramp recesses similar to those in the corners near the wall (the 28th and last pair of BG recesses). Through the “hallway” a hole leads to the funeral “Tsar’s Chamber” lined with black granite, where an empty granite sarcophagus is located. The sarcophagus lid is missing. Ventilation shafts have mouths in the “King’s Chamber” on the southern and northern walls at a height of about a meter from the floor level. The mouth of the southern ventilation shaft is severely damaged, the northern one appears intact. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the chamber do not have any decorations or holes or fastening elements of anything dating back to the construction of the pyramid. The ceiling slabs have all burst along the southern wall and are not falling into the room only due to the pressure from the weight of the overlying blocks.

Above the “Tsar’s Chamber” there are five unloading cavities with a total height of 17 m discovered in the 19th century, between which lie monolithic granite slabs about 2 m thick, and above there is a gable roof made of limestone. It is believed that their purpose is to distribute the weight of the overlying layers of the pyramid (about a million tons) to protect the “King's Chamber” from pressure. In these voids, graffiti was discovered, probably left by workers.

Ventilation ducts

So-called “ventilation” channels 20-25 cm wide extend from the “Tsar’s Chamber” and “Queen’s Chamber” in the northern and southern directions (first horizontally, then obliquely upward). At the same time, the channels of the “Tsar’s Chamber,” known since the 17th century, through, they are open both below and above (on the edges of the pyramid), while the lower ends of the channels of the “Queen’s Chamber” are separated from the surface of the wall by about 13 cm; they were discovered by tapping in 1872. The upper ends of these channels do not reach the surface by about 12 meters. The upper ends of the channels of the Queen's Chamber are closed by stone Gantenbrink Doors, each with two copper handles. The copper handles were sealed with plaster seals (not preserved, but traces remain). In the southern ventilation shaft, a “door” was discovered in 1993 with the help of a remote-controlled robot “Upout II”; the bend of the northern shaft did not allow this robot to detect the same “door” in it. In 2002, using a new modification of the robot, a hole was drilled in the southern “door,” but behind it a small cavity 18 centimeters long and another stone “door” were discovered. What lies next is still unknown. This robot confirmed the presence of a similar “door” at the end of the northern channel, but they did not drill it. In 2010, a new robot was able to insert a serpentine television camera into a drilled hole in the southern “door” and discovered that the copper “handles” on that side of the “door” were designed in the form of neat hinges, and individual red ocher icons were painted on the floor of the “ventilation” shaft. Currently, the most common version is that the purpose of the “ventilation” ducts was of a religious nature and is associated with the Egyptian ideas about the afterlife journey of the soul. And the “door” at the end of the channel is nothing more than a door to the afterlife. That is why it does not reach the surface of the pyramid.

The Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu (in the Greek version of Cheops), or the Great Pyramid, is the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, the oldest of the seven wonders of the world of antiquity and the only one of them that has survived to our time. For over four thousand years, the pyramid was the largest building in the world.

The Pyramid of Cheops is located in the far suburb of Cairo, Giza. Nearby there are two more pyramids of the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure (Khefre and Mikerin), according to ancient historians, the sons and successors of Khufu. These are the three largest pyramids in Egypt.

Following ancient authors, most modern historians consider the pyramids to be funerary structures of ancient Egyptian monarchs. Some scientists believe that these were astronomical observatories. There is no direct evidence that pharaohs were buried in the pyramids, but other versions of their purpose are less convincing.

When was the Cheops pyramid built?

Based on ancient “royal lists”, it has been established that Cheops reigned around 2585-2566. BC. Construction of the "Sacred Height" lasted 20 years and ended after the death of Khufu, around 2560 BC.

Other versions of the construction dates, based on astronomical methods, give dates from 2720 to 2577. BC. Radiocarbon dating shows a scatter of 170 years, from 2850 to 2680. BC.

There are also exotic opinions expressed by supporters of theories of aliens visiting the Earth, the existence of ancient civilizations, or adherents of occult movements. They determine the age of the Cheops pyramid from 6-7 to tens of thousands of years.

How the pyramid was built

The Pyramid of Cheops is still the largest stone building on the planet. Its height is 137 m, the length of the base side is 230.38 m, the angle of inclination of the edge is 51°50", the total volume is about 2.5 million cubic meters. At the time of completion, the height was 9.5 m higher, and the base side was 2 m longer, however, over the past centuries, almost all of the cladding of the pyramid was dismantled. Natural factors also did their job - temperature changes and winds from the desert, carrying clouds of sand.

Ancient Greek historians reported that the construction involved the labor of millions of slaves. Modern researchers believe that with the correct organization of work and engineering, the Egyptians would have had enough tens of thousands of workers to build it. Temporary workers were hired to transport materials, the number of which, according to Herodotus, reached 100 thousand. Modern scientists fully agree with this, as well as with the reality of a 20-year construction period.

The construction of the pyramid was supervised by the head of the royal works, Hemiun. Hemiun's tomb is located next to his creation, and a statue of the architect was discovered in it.

The main material for the construction was gray limestone, which was cut down in nearby quarries or brought from the other bank of the Nile. The pyramid was lined with light sandstone, which is why it literally shone in the sunlight. For interior decoration, granite was used, which was delivered a thousand kilometers away, from the area of ​​​​present-day Aswan. The structure was crowned with a hewn gilded granite block - a pyramidion.

In total, the construction of the pyramid took about 2.3 million limestone blocks and 115 thousand facing slabs. The total weight of the building, according to modern estimates, is almost 6 million tons.

The sizes of the blocks vary. The largest ones are placed at the base, their height is one and a half meters. The blocks are smaller the higher they are located. The height of the block at the top is 55 cm. The length of the facing slabs ranged from 1.5 to 0.75 m.

The work of the pyramid builders was extremely hard. A lot of time and effort required quarrying stone, cutting blocks and adjusting them to the required size. In those days, neither iron nor bronze was known in Egypt. The tools were made of relatively soft copper, so they were quickly ground down and were very expensive. Tools made of flint - saws, drills, hammers - were widely used. Many of them were found during excavations.

The materials were delivered by river, and the stone was transported to the construction site on wooden sleds or rollers. It was hellish work, because the average weight of one block is 2.5 tons, and some of them weighed up to 50 tons.

A variety of devices were used to lift and install the monoliths, and inclined embankments were erected to drag up the most massive elements that make up the lower rows. Images of construction work have been found in a number of Egyptian temples and tombs.

Recently, an original theory has emerged regarding the construction methods of the Egyptians. Scientists who examined the microstructure of the blocks in order to establish their origin discovered foreign inclusions. According to experts, these are the remains of animal hair and human hair, from which scientists concluded that the limestone at the mining sites was crushed and delivered in crushed form to the construction site. Directly at the laying site, blocks were made from the limestone mass, which were thus a semblance of modern concrete structures, and the traces of tools on the blocks are actually the imprints of the formwork.

Be that as it may, the construction was completed, and the grandiose dimensions of the pyramid fully justify supporters of the theories of Atlanteans and aliens who do not believe in the possibilities of human genius.

What's inside the pyramid

The entrance to the pyramid was made at a height of almost 16 meters in the form of an arch made of granite slabs. It was later sealed with granite plug and covered with cladding. The current entrance, 10 meters below, was made in 831 by order of Caliph Al-Mamun, who hoped to find gold here, but did not find anything valuable.

The main rooms are the Pharaoh's chamber, the queen's chamber, the Great Gallery and the underground chamber. The passage made by Al-Mamun leads to a 105-meter inclined corridor, ending in a chamber carved into the rock below the base of the pyramid. Its dimensions are 14x8 m, height 3.5 m. Work here was not completed for unknown reasons.

At 18 meters from the entrance, an ascending corridor 40 meters long, ending in the Great Gallery, separates from the descending corridor. The Gallery itself is a high (8.5 m) tunnel 46.6 m long, leading to the Pharaoh's chamber. The corridor to the queen's chamber branches off from the Gallery at its very beginning. A rectangular ditch, 60 cm deep and 1 m wide, has been punched into the floor of the Gallery; its purpose is unknown.

The length of the pharaoh's chamber is 10.5 m, width 5.4, height 5.84 m. It is lined with black granite slabs. There is an empty granite sarcophagus here. The queen's chamber is more modest - 5.76 x 5.23 x 6.26 m.

Channels 20-25 cm wide lead from the burial chambers to the surface of the pyramid. The channels of the king’s chamber open at one end into the room, and at the other onto the surface of the pyramid. The channels of the queen's chamber begin 13 cm from the wall and do not reach 12 m to the surface, and both ends of the channels are closed with stone doors with handles. It is assumed that the channels were made to ventilate the premises during work. Another version, associated with the beliefs of the Egyptians, claims that this is the path to the afterlife that the souls of the deceased had to go through.

No less mysterious is another small room, the Grotto, to which an almost vertical passage leads from the beginning of the Great Gallery. The grotto is located at the junction of the base of the pyramid and the hill on which it stands. The walls of the Grotto are reinforced with rather roughly processed stone. It is assumed that this is part of some structure more ancient than the pyramid.

It is necessary to mention one discovery related to the pyramid. In 1954, two stone-lined pits were discovered near the southern edge, in which there were pharaoh's boats made of Lebanese cedar. One of the rooks has been restored and is now in a special pavilion next to the pyramid. Its length is 43.5 m, width 5.6 m.

The study of the Cheops pyramid continues. Research using the latest methods used in exploration of the earth's interior shows with a high degree of probability the existence of unknown caverns inside the pyramid. So it is quite possible that scientists can expect new interesting finds and discoveries.

In the meantime, the Great Pyramid keeps its secrets, standing proudly in the middle of the desert, just like thousands of years ago. After all, as the ancient Arabic proverb states, everything in the world is afraid of time, but time is afraid of the pyramids.