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Build 2700 to 2500 B.C the Egyptian pyramids are considered the oldest
and only surviving member of the ancient wonders Of the 10 pyramids of Giza,
the first three are in the highest regard. It has bee said that with the stones
of the three pyramids you can build a wall around France that is 10 feet in
height and 1 feet in width. Believing in life after death the Pharos made sure
that they bury the dead in a dry place away from the Nile and the flood to make
sure that the body will remain intact. So all their tombs were built on the
west bank of the Nile.
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King Cheops (Khufu):
How the great pyramid was built is a question that may never be answered.
Herodotus said that it would have taken 100,000 laborers and 30 years to build
the great pyramid of king Khufu, using an estimated 2.3 million blocks of stone
with average weight of 2.5 tons each. The total weight would have been
6,000,000 tons and height of 482 feet (140 cm). It is the largest and the
oldest of the Giza pyramids.
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Not much is known about Cheops (Khufu). The tomb had been robbed long
before archeologists came upon it. Any information about him was taken with the
objects inside the tomb. He is thought to have been the ruler of a highly
structured society and he must have been buried nearby in smaller mastabas.
The four sides of the pyramid come almost exactly with the four directions
(north, east, west, south) this pyramid has five rooms inside so that thieves
will get lost inside the pyramid and never find the King’s Chamber. The King’s
Chamber walls are made of pink granite. Inside this chamber is the very large
sarcophagus (coffin) made of Aswan red granite, with no lid. The sarcophagus
must have been placed inside the chamber as the pyramid was being built. It is
much too large to have been moved in afterwards, as well the usual custom of
that time. The King’s Chamber is 5.2m x 10.8m x 5.8m high.
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King Khafre’s
Because its apex is in better condition and it is located on an elevation (of
about 10 meters), Khafre’s sometimes appears to be the largest of the three
great Pyramids of the Giza plateau. However, originally it was some three
meters lower than it’s neighboring pyramid belonging to Khafre’s father, Khufu.
In fact, the walls of Khafre’s pyramid are steeper than the Great Pyramid of
Khufu, so it contains considerably less mass.
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King Menkaure
Menkaure apparently intended for his pyramid
on the Giza Plateau to be the last of that specific area as well as the
smallest. On the south-western corner of the Giza Plateau, the Pyramid of
Menkaure (Mycerinus) stands in alignment with its larger neighbours. Menkaure
was Khafre's son and his monument, by far the smallest of the three Giza
pyramids, was called “Menkaure”
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The pyramid appears to have been unfinished at the death of the king and
was completed in mud brick by Menkaure's son Shepseskaf, and later additions
were built to his temples during Dynasties V and VI.
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