Contacts

( )

( )

Volume 15 issue 4 February 2015

ANCIENT EGYPT explores the WORLD WIDE WEB ...

THE GREAT PYRAMID AND ITS CONSTRUCTION

This month NETFISHING continues its look at the history of Egypt by seeing what the World Wide Web has to say about ‘The Great Pyramid’ of Giza.

The Great Pyramid, the last of the ‘Seven Wonders’ of the ancient world, still stands at Giza. Although stripped of its outer casing blocks, it still dwarfs the onlooker and it remains a fitting tribute to the skills of the ancient Egyptians. At 481 feet high it is simply so big that one fails to comprehend its dimensions when standing next to it and one can only contemplate how such a remarkable edifice could have been constructed using the simple building methods available at the time. Refer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza

http://www.guardians.net/egypt/pyramids/GreatPyramid.htm

http://www.cheops-pyramide.ch/khufu-pyramid/cheops-great-pyramid.html

https://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/pyramid-of-khufu/

THE PYRAMID BUILDER’S VILLAGE

Whilst certain web-sites would advance the theory that the pyramids were built by a) extra-terrestrials or b) an earlier (as yet) undiscovered civilisation, all the evidence clearly shows these views to be false. Indeed it is a slur and insult to the Egyptians themselves to suggest that they could not have built these monuments themselves without outside assistance. There is a clear archaeological development, stemming from the earliest mastaba tombs to the pyramids of Giza, which shows that the Egyptians learned to construct these monuments over hundreds of years, and at Giza the fact that the village where the workmen lived whilst they worked on the pyramids has been discovered tends to show that it was the Egyptians themselves who constructed these extraordinary monuments and not anyone else. Information about this ‘workmen’s village’ is provided at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/excavation/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/who-built-the-pyramids.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/lehner-giza.html

http://www.guardians.net/hawass/buildtomb.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_builders_01.shtml

http://www.aeraweb.org/projects/lost-city/

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsa/ci.thedietofpyramidbuilders_ci.detail

CONSTRUCTION METHODS

There are various views on how the pyramids were constructed and to make matters even more confusing it seems that pyramids were built using different building techniques at different periods of Egyptian history. Most of the construction ideas revolve around the Egyptians’ using either levers or ramps (of various designs) to build the pyramids. It is clear that levers were used in positioning some of the outer casing blocks of the Great Pyramid because the lever sockets still exist in the remaining casing blocks found near ground level, but the question remains as to how the blocks were lifted up to higher levels. Every few years new ‘alternative views’ of construction is offered, some of which are believable whilst others have a more tenuous grasp on reality. The truth is that no one really knows what methods were used in constructing the Great Pyramid and so all the suggestions need to be looked at and assessed. Refer:

http://touregypt.net/construction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-05-16-pyramid-theory_N.htm

http://www.cheops-pyramide.ch/khufu-pyramid/rope-roll.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1y8N0ePuF8

http://www.3ds.com/passion-for-innovation/khufu-reborn/khufu-reborn/

THE ‘AIR SHAFTS’

Much has been written about the ‘air-shafts’ found within the Great Pyramid. It has been suggested that these actually line up with certain stars, although as the shafts are not straight, in reality they do not appear to point to any particular stars at all (as certain authors would have us believe) and so it is still probably best to describe them as ‘air-shafts’ at this time. Indeed many of the drawings of the shafts are oversimplified and misleading to the general public. To gain a more detailed understanding of the design of these shafts visit The Upuaut Project web-site (named after the robot which explored these shafts) at: www.cheops.org/

These pages make use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) features to enable you to fully explore the pyramid in great detail – although the system does require some effort to gain familiarity with it:

– Click on ‘the panel’ with the hieroglyphs on it to enter the site.

– Click on THE FINDINGS, and click on your desired air shaft (scroll down the pages).

– Click on CYBER DRAWINGS (this is a CAD Package which enables you to explore the Pyramid).

– Scroll down the page and click on CHEOPS SHAFTS (wait for the page to load fully).

– To move around the image, hold down the mouse button and drag the picture.

– To enlarge/reduce the picture detail, click the + and - buttons on the toolbar.

Have fun exploring the site!

Victor Blunden

Back to Ancient Egypt Magazine - Volume 15 Issue 4 contents

( )

Return to Home 

e- mail to: [email protected]

with questions or comments about Ancient Egypt Magazine.

or for sales, subscriptions, back numbers and advertising