Last time we stopped at the fact that … it is difficult to be the son of a great father. From childhood, it seems that those around you treat you worse than they do him, laughing behind your back - they say, the young man on the throne, in a word, “does not respect”. So you need to show that you are no worse. And his son Sneferu had opportunities for this, because it was not for nothing that he made military campaigns to the "country of the Asians". And so he decided to build himself such a pyramid, which has never existed in the world, and… he built it!
The pyramid of Cheops and the upper memorial temple located in front of it.
It was built on a plateau in Giza, in an area that today is a stone's throw from Cairo, so that Pyramids Avenue literally rests against its pyramid and the other two. Now everything is tidied up here, landscaped in the interests of tourists, so it's a pleasure to be here, if not for the crowds of these same tourists from all over the world! The guides, many of whom are Russians, broadcast on the topics of who is closer to what … "It is believed (by whom, when, from where) that under the pyramid of Cheops there is an entrance to the underworld, where even today the descendants of the Atlanteans live!"; “It is not clear how the Cheops pyramid was built. This is a unique creation! " etc. By the way, the fact that it is unique is "yes", but … why did the guide not say about all the previous pyramids, including those that fell apart, according to which the construction technology was read like a book a long time ago? After such statements, all sorts of firefighters from Mokshan write that these are breakwaters from the flood, and make surprised eyes when they are asked about the pyramids in Sakkara, Medum and Dashur. They have not heard such names, but they have an opinion - because … people have a right to it.
This is how the complex of structures of the Cheops pyramid looked like immediately after the completion of the work.
Well, we will try to consider this official (and for today the only) wonder of the world that has come down to us from the era of the Ancient World. Today, its height is 137.3 m, but it was 146.7 m. 2,250,000 stone blocks, a little more than a cubic meter, were used for its construction, and its weight exceeds the tonnage of the entire (total!) US Navy, including its aircraft carriers!
Plan of the territory around the pyramid. Small rectangles are mastabas.
It was built by order of the Pharaoh Khufu (in Greek he is Cheops), the second pharaoh of the IV dynasty of the era of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, who ruled in 2589-2566 BC. NS. or 2551-2528 BC BC, the son of Pharaoh Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres.
His full name was "Khnum-Khufu", which means "Khnum he protects me." Had many children: sons Djedefra, Djedefkhor, Kawab, Khafra (Khefren) - the builder of the second great pyramid, Banefra, Khufuhaef, and daughters Hetepkheres II, Meresankh II, Hamerernebti I, whose numbers, of course, were already attributed by scientists, since they coincide with the names other queens and princesses.
Cartouche with the name Khufu.
Khufu spent at least 27 years on the throne, which is confirmed in the form of an inscription in Dakhla and also papyri found near the Red Sea, dated to the 27th year of his reign. It is believed that he was a cruel tyrant and oppressor of his people, who, under him, was only engaged in building a pyramid for him, but lifetime sources report that Cheops also built many cities and settlements along the banks of the Nile, that he sent a military expedition to the Sinai Peninsula to combat the Bedouins who robbed merchants, and to develop the local deposits of turquoise. There is an inscription on a stone on the island of Elephantine near Aswan, indicating that he was also interested in the southern borders of the country, where the famous pink Aswan granite was mined.
Reconstruction of the appearance of the territory of the Great Pyramids. In the foreground is the pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre and the famous Sphinx. Behind it is the pyramid of his father Khufu.
Now about the construction itself. The head of construction and the main architect of the pyramid was Hemiun, or Hemenui - most likely either a cousin or nephew of Pharaoh Khufu. They built the pyramid according to a single plan, but at the same time - and this is very interesting, in such a way that the king could find a worthy rest in it at any time. Therefore, there are three successively erected burial chambers in it. Until the very first, unfinished one, you have to walk 120 meters along an inclined underground corridor to the base of the pyramid and there is nothing interesting except dust and bats, so tourists are not taken there.
The second, on the contrary, is 20 meters above the base. Finally, the third, in which the sarcophagus was found, is located above everyone else and it is precisely there that tourists are taken, electric lighting is installed there and railings and wooden stairs are made. The sarcophagus is wider than the entrance to the cell, which means that it was taken there before the roof was erected over it.
Layout of the Khufu pyramid in section. Interestingly, the layout is designed as a drop-down, two side parts of the pyramid are hinged, and if these doors are closed, the pyramid looks intact, and if you open it, you can see its structure. And why shouldn't such manuals for history lessons be released in the form of homemade products for school history circles? Here you have both history and technical creativity skills!
And this is how it looks together with the sashes and the podium.
Several times the pyramid was shone through with various beams, up to neutrinos, trying to find internal secret voids and "Atlantean revelations", but they did not find anything except two narrow ventilation ducts.
Inside the Great Gallery.
Around the pyramid, as usual, a fence was built - a wall 10 m high and 3 meters thick, burial temples and tombs of dignitaries - mastabas, numbering more than 150 - stood up. I must say that it was in these mastabs that many interesting finds were made. Three companion pyramids were also built here, which belonged to Hetepheres, Meritites, and Henutsen, who could be both sisters and wives of Khufu.
The two companion pyramids from left to right are Hetepheres, Meritites, and Henutsen.
Inside the Henutsen pyramid. If you have time, it is worth going down to the companion pyramids. There are very few or no tourists there, and you can appreciate how it is to be alone inside such a pyramid!
Also, next to the pyramid, they found as many as five (five!) "Docks" for "solar boats" on which the body of the pharaoh was transported to his resting place. Three turned out to be empty, but in two in 1954, archaeologists found two disassembled boats. One was collected and now it is exhibited in the museum at the foot of the pyramid, and the other is being collected and studied. By the way, both swam. A characteristic silt was found among the cedar planks from which they were made.
Pharaoh's boat museum.
Here, not far from the pyramid of Khufu, in 1925, the mine of the tomb of his mother, Queen Hetepheres, was found, from which gold and silver items were then taken out for three months.
Mine Tomb Heteferes G 7000X. Photo of 1926.
Even Herodotus reported on the construction of the pyramid, referring to the data he received from the priests: it took 10 years to build a paved road from the lower temple in the valley to the funeral temple near the pyramid, 20 years to the pyramid itself. Moreover, he reports that only radishes, onions and garlic were consumed by the workers for 1600 talents of silver, or about 7.5 million dollars at current prices for silver. About the embankments ("homa" in Greek), along which stones were delivered to the top during the construction of the pyramid, was written by Diodorus of Siculus, and later (about this was in previous articles), archaeologists discovered their remains. He also reported that 360,000 Egyptians were employed in the construction. They worked in brigades or teams that lived in barracks-type barracks near the pyramid itself. Their remains were found, and thanks to the inscriptions that have come down to us, it is known that such teams as "Khufu awakens love", "Khufu's white crown is mighty" worked on the construction of the Khufu pyramid, but a team worked on the construction of the neighboring Menkaur pyramid (about which the story is ahead) "Menkaura the Drunkard". Moreover, Herodotus also wrote about the latter's addiction to drinking …
Bas-relief on a rock in Wadi Magara by Lepsius.
However, Egyptologists were really lucky only in April 2013, when it was announced that more than 40 papyri were found dating back to the 27th year of the reign of Pharaoh Khufu. Among them was found something like a diary of an official named Merrer, who kept it for three months and in which he wrote about his participation in the construction of the Khufu pyramid in Giza. He reported how he went to the Tours limestone quarry for stone blocks, which were cut there and from there transported to the pyramid. That is, what one could have guessed about before was confirmed …
Pyramidion, which once crowned the pyramid of Cheops.
And this is a passage punched into it by the ill-fated Arab caliph Al-Mamun in 820. He looked for treasures, but found nothing!
Really mysterious is the site found to the east of the Cheops pyramid for another pyramid, moreover, large. They began to level it, but then they abandoned it, and the question is, who was it intended for and why was it abandoned? By the way, Napoleon visited the Cheops pyramid and, of course, she made an impression on him!
