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The Pyramids of Giza
Among the major tourist sites, there is only
one considered to be “The major” and
on top of any list - The Pyramids of Giza.
There are three main Pyramids here, which
were built in the 4th Dynasty
(circa 4650 B.C). The Pyramids of Ancient
Egypt were built as tombs for Kings (and
Queens), and it was the exclusive privilege
to have a Pyramid tomb. However, this
tradition only applied in the Old and Middle
Kingdoms. Today there are more than 93
Pyramids in Egypt; the most famous ones are
those at Giza.
Click on the winged serpent icon to download
a 3D panoramic view of the Pyramids of
Giza, and the Sphinx.
Click on the winged serpent.
(PLEASE NOTE: YOU
WILL NEED MOVIE PLAYER TO PLAY THE FILE)
Now let’s go for a little
tour around the site of the Pyramids and try
to explore the magnificence of the area:
The Great Pyramid of Khufu
 The
Great Pyramid of Khufu is by far the most
famous Pyramid in Egypt, the biggest,
tallest, and most intact. After its
construction it became one of the “Seven
Wonders Of The World”, and today, it is the
only one of them remaining. For a period of
4300
years, the Pyramid was also the tallest
building on earth, until the French built
the Eiffel Tower in 1889 to take that
accolade.
Khufu’s Pyramid is built entirely of
limestone, and is considered an
architectural masterpiece. It contains
around 1,300,000 blocks ranging in weight
from 2.5 tons to 15 tons and is built on a
square base with sides measuring about 230m
(755ft), covering 13 acres! Its four sides
face the four cardinal points precisely and
it has an angle of 52 degrees. The original
height of the Pyramid was 146.5m (488ft),
but today it is only 137m (455ft) high, the
9m (33ft) that is missing is due to the
theft of the fine quality limestone
covering, or casing stones, by the Ottoman
Turks in the 15 Century A.D, to build houses
and Mosques in Cairo.
You will find that the entrance of the
Pyramid is located at the northern side, the
same as almost every Pyramid in Egypt. On
this side there are actually 2
entrances, one is the original, and is 17m
(55ft) above ground level, and the other
one is a man-made forced entrance located
below it. Created in the 9th
Century A.D by Khalif El-Mamoun, who was
seeking the treasures that he thought might
have been kept inside the Pyramid. He sent
out stonemasons to open up an entrance, and
they cut it midway across the centre of the
northern side. Their tunnel goes almost
35m into the Pyramid, and was crudely cut,
and at the end it connects with the original
inner corridors of the Pyramid. Nothing was
found inside, as it was plundered in
antiquity. Nowadays visitors, to the site,
use Mamoun’s entrance to gain access into
the Pyramid, as it is actually considered to
be a shortcut.
Please Note:
If
you attempt to go inside the Pyramid, you
will have to bend down all the way till you
reach the burial chamber!
From the main entrance of the Pyramid there
is a long narrow corridor with low roof that
descends for more than 100m (330ft), which
takes you to a chamber, located about 24m
(79ft) below ground level, which is an
unfinished burial chamber with very little
fresh air inside, and is inaccessible today.
Almost 20m (66ft) from that descending
corridor there is another corridor connected
to it, which takes you up into the heart of
the Pyramid. This ascending corridor ends up
at one the great parts of the Great Pyramid,
the “Grand Gallery”! It is a large, long,
rectangular hall, which is 49m (161ft) long,
and 15m (49ft) high, with a long tunnel, at
the bottom, that takes you the 2nd chamber,
which is famously known as the “Queens
Chamber”. It actually has nothing to do with
a Queen, and was given this name by the
early Arabs, who went inside the
Pyramids and gave it its name. It is
commonly believed that it served as a
magazine, or a storeroom, inside the
Pyramid.
When you ascend the “Grand Gallery”, you
will find, at its end, an entrance to the 3rd
chamber, which was the real burial
chamber of King Khufu, and this is where you
will find his stone sarcophagus, which was
made out of one block of granite. You will
find this chamber to be really amazing, it
is rectangular in form, has a flat roof, and
is built out of granite that was brought
from the city of Aswan, which is located
1000Km (625 miles) away. The roof consists
of 9 slabs of granite; each one estimated to
be around 50 tons in weight! Above the roof
of the burial chamber, the Ancient Egyptians
built 5 small relieving chambers so that the
huge pressure, of the weight above, would
not cause the burial chamber to collapse.
These 5 chambers are also made of granite,
and are about 1m (3 ft) above each
other. The tops of the first 4 are flat, the
5th one having a pointed top to
divert the enormous pressure of weight away
from the burial chamber.
Both the northern and southern walls of the
burial chamber have two small tunnels with
rectangular entrances. They are small, and
once were thought to go all the way through
the outer sides of the Pyramid, though no
exterior openings have been found, and are
believed to be “star shafts” that served a
certain purpose in the ancient cult
connecting the King with the stars.
If you need to know more about these small
tunnels, and their connection to the stars,
it is a long story! I guess you will need
to come to one of my lectures!!!
One last point! The Great Pyramid is the
Pyramid of the great Egyptian King, Khufu.
The name “Cheops” is also associated with
this King and his Pyramid, the name being
given to him by the Greeks. Though both
names are generally accepted, Khufu was used
in this description because it was his birth
name! The same goes for Khafre (Chephren in
Greek) and Menkaure (Mycerinus), and their
Pyramids are described below.
The
Pyramid of Khafre
Khafre’s Pyramid, or the 2nd
Pyramid, is easily recognisable by the
layers of its original casing stones that
still remain near its summit and this, along
with the fact that it actually stands on a
higher part of the plateau, gives the
impression that it is taller than the Great
Pyramid. An optical illusion, as it is only
136m (446 ft) tall, with sides of 214.5m
(704ft), a surface area of 11 acres and an
angle of 53 degrees. It also has lost some
of its original height through the years,
once being 143.5m (471ft) tall.
The only similarity to his father’s Pyramid
is the entrance in the same, north facing
side. There are no corridors leading into
the heart of this Pyramid, the burial
chamber being underground, and a long
descending passageway has to be negotiated
to reach it. This entrance is 50 feet (15m)
above ground level, leading to the narrow
passage, which descends at a 25-degree angle
into the large burial chamber, which
measures 14.2m by 5m by 6.9m (46.5ft by
16.5ft by 22.5ft). To take the weight of the
pyramid, the roof of the chamber is set at
the same angles as the pyramid face. A
large, black sarcophagus is found in this
room.
A lower
corridor is directly under the upper
corridor, and once contained a portcullis
that could be lowered to prevent entry as
well as an unfinished burial chamber, which
was cut from the bedrock and, it is thought,
unused. Like the upper corridor, this one
has a 25-degree slope, it then levels out,
climbs slightly, and eventually the 2 of
them join together. The united passageway
then leads to the burial chamber.
The Pyramid of Menkaure:
Khafre’s son, Menkaure, built the smallest
of the 3 main Pyramids on the Giza Plateau.
This one was only a mere 65.5m (215ft) tall,
nowadays 62m (203ft), with sides of only
105m (344ft) and an angle of 51.3 degrees.
It is thought that this Pyramid was altered
during its construction, and made a lot
bigger than originally planned. The
original, smaller Pyramid had a simple
descending corridor and burial chamber, but
when it was enlarged, a new corridor was
built with 3 portcullises and a small
panelled chamber. Later still, another
burial chamber, along with a storeroom were
added at a lower level. This Pyramid, like
its 2 neighbours, has a north facing
entrance.
Apart from the size,
Menkaure’s Pyramid differed from the other 2
in the choice of casing stones. Whereas the
Pyramids of his father and grandfather were
completely cased in fine, white, Turah
limestone, Menkaure’s Pyramid was only
partly cased in Turah limestone, from about
15m up! The first 15 metres was cased with
pink granite, which had come from Aswan, the
last of which was taken by Muhammad Ali
Pasha (1805-1848) who used them to construct
his arsenal in Alexandria.
The
Great Sphinx
The Great Sphinx, or as
the ancients knew it, “Shesib Ankh” or “the
living image”, has to be one of the most
recognisable constructions in history. Think
of the Sphinx and you automatically think of
Egypt and the Giza Plateau.
Sculpted from soft sandstone, many believe
that it would have disappeared long ago had
it not been buried in the sand for so many
long periods in its lifetime. The body is
60m (200ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall. Its
face is 4m (13ft) wide with eyes measuring
2m (6 ft) high. It faces the rising sun, and
was revered so much by the ancients, that
they built a temple in front of it.
The 18th Dynasty King, Thutmose IV
installed a stele between its front paws,
describing how, when Thutmose was a young
Prince, he had gone hunting and fell asleep
in the shade of the Sphinx ‘s head. Thutmose
had a dream where Ra Hor-Akhty the sun God,
talking through the Sphinx, spoke to him,
telling the young Prince to clear away the
sand because the Sphinx was choking on it.
The Sphinx said him that if he did this, he
would become King. Thutmose cleared away all
the sand and soon afterwards, as in his
dream, he became King.
Today, part of the “uraeus” (the sacred
cobra), and the nose are missing (not shot
off by Napoleon’s men as many believe, but
by Muhammad Sa'im Al-Dahr, a Sufi fanatic
from the Khanqah of Sa'id Al-Su'ada. In
1378, upon finding the Egyptian peasants
making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope
of increasing their harvest, Sa'im Al-Dahr
was so outraged that he destroyed the
nose!). There are parts of a beard in the
Cairo and British Museums, which reputedly
belong to the Sphinx, but many Egyptologists
deny this, as the style of beard found, does
not relate to the “nemes” that The Sphinx
wears – different Dynasties!
Because of the soft sandstone, the Sphinx
has been repaired many times; sometimes the
repairs causing even more damage! Also, due
to the wind, humidity, and pollution from
modern Cairo, its condition is still
deteriorating, and the present renovations
are a never-ending task.
I hope this gave you a glimpse of
information about the Pyramids of Giza.
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