It's
756 feet long on each side, 450 feet high and is composed of 2,300,000 blocks
of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight. Despite the makers' limited
surveying tools, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than
another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the
compass. Even in the 19th century, it was the tallest building in the world
and, at the age of 4,500 years, it is the only one of the famous "Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World" that still stands. Even today it remains the
most massive building on Earth. It is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, at Giza, Egypt.
Some of the earliest history of the Pyramid
comes from a Greek the historian and traveler Herodotus of Halicanassus. He
visited Egypt
around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book
he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took twenty years
for a force of 100,000 oppressed slaves to build the pyramid (with another 10
years to build a stone causeway that connected it to a temple in the valley
below). Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. The
purpose of the structure, according to Herodotus's sources, was as a tomb for
the Pharaoh Khufu (whom the Greeks referred to as Cheops).
Herodotus, a Greek from the democratic city
of Athens,
probably found the idea of a single man employing such staggering wealth and
effort on his tomb an incredible act of egotism. He reported that even
thousands of years later the Egyptians still hated Khufu for the burden he had
placed on the people and could hardly bring themselves to speak his name.
However, Khufu's contemporary
Egyptian subjects may have seen the great pyramid in a different light. To them
the pharaoh was not just a king, but a living god who linked their lives with
those of the immortals. The pyramid, as an eternal tomb for the pharaoh's body,
may have offered the people reassurance of his continuing influence with the
gods. The pyramid wasn't just a symbol of regal power, but a visible link
between earth and heaven.
Indeed, many of the stories Herodotus relates
to us are probably false. Engineers calculate that fewer men and less years
were needed than Herodotus suggests to build the structure. It also seems
unlikely that slaves or complicated machines were needed for the pyramid's construction. It isn't
surprising that the Greek historian got it wrong, however. By the time he
visited the site, the structure was already 20 centuries old, and much of the
truth about it was shrouded in the mists of history.
Certainly the idea that it was a tomb for a
Pharaoh, though, seems in line with Egyptian practices. For many centuries
before and after the construction of the Great Pyramid, the Egyptians had
interned their dead Pharaoh-Kings, whom they believed to be living Gods, in
intricate tombs. Some were above-ground structures, like the pyramid, others
were cut in the rock underground. All the dead leaders were outfitted with the
many things it was believed they would need in the afterlife to come. Many were
buried with untold treasures.
The Pyramid Complex
If we were to visit the location of the great
pyramid when it was just finished, it would look very different than we see it
today. Originally, the pyramid itself was encased in highly polished white
limestone with a smooth surface which is now gone. At the very top of the
structure would have been a capstone, which is also now missing. Some sources
suggest that the capstone might have been sheathed in gold. Between the white
limestone and the golden cap the pyramid would have made an impressive sight
shining in the bright Egyptian sun.
Around the base of the great pyramid were
four smaller pyramids, three of which still stand today. On the east side of
the pyramid stood a now missing Funerary temple. Running down the hill into the
valley was a stone causeway, which linked the Funerary temple with a temple in
the valley. Around the pyramid were six boat shaped pits that may have
contained the hulls of vessels that belonged to the pharaoh. Parts of one of
these have been found and reconstructed into a 147 foot long boat that today is
enclosed next to the pyramid in its own museum.
The other two large pyramids at Giza, the Pyramid of
Khafre (Khufu's son) and the Pyramid of Menkaure had not yet been built, so the
Khufu's pyramid and its associated structures stood alone, though surrounded by
the dwelling places and the graves of many of those that helped construct it.
Opening the Pyramid
Even in ancient times, thieves breaking into
the sacred burial places were a major problem and Egyptian architects became
adept at designing solutions to this problem. They built passageways that could
be plugged with impassable granite blocks; created secret, hidden rooms and
made decoy chambers. No matter how clever the designers became, however,
robbers seemed to be even smarter and with almost no exceptions, each of the
great tombs of the Egyptian Kings was plundered.
In 820 A.D. the Arab Caliph Abdullah Al Manum
decided to make his own search for the treasure of Khufu. He gathered a gang of
workmen and, unable to find the location of a reputed secret door, started
burrowing into the side of the monument. After a hundred feet of hard going
they were about to give up when they heard a heavy thud echo through the
interior of the pyramid. Digging in the direction of the sound, they soon came
upon a passageway that descended into the heart of the structure. On the floor
lay a large block that had fallen from the ceiling, apparently causing the
noise they had heard. Back at the beginning of the corridor they found the
secret hinged door to the outside they had missed.
Working their way down the passage they soon
found themselves deep in the natural stone below the pyramid. The corridor
stopped descending and went horizontal for about 50 feet, then ended in a blank
wall. A pit extended downward from there for about 30 feet, but it was empty.
When the workmen examined the fallen block they noticed a large granite plug
above it. Cutting through the softer stone around it they found another
passageway that extended up into the heart of the pyramid. As they followed
this corridor upward, they found several more granite blocks closing off the
tunnel. In each case they cut around them by burrowing through the softer
limestone of the walls. Finally, they found themselves in a low, horizontal
passage that led to a small, square, empty room. This became known as the
"Queen's Chamber," though it seems unlikely that it ever served that
function.
Back at the junction of the ascending and
descending passageways, the workers noticed an open space in the ceiling.
Climbing up they found themselves in a high-roofed, ascending passageway. This
became known as the "Grand Gallery." At the top of the gallery was a
low, horizontal passage that led to a large room, some 34 feet long, 17 feet
wide, and 19 feet high. It became known as the "King's Chamber." In
the center was a huge granite sarcophagus without a lid. Otherwise the room was
completely empty.
The Missing Treasure
The Arabs, as if in revenge for the missing
treasure, stripped the pyramid of its fine white limestone casing and used it
for building in Cairo.
They even attempted to disassemble the great pyramid itself, but after removing
the top 30 feet of stone, they gave up on this impossible task.
So what happened to the treasure of King
Khufu? Conventional wisdom says that, like so many other royal tombs, the
pyramid was the victim of robbers in ancient times. If we believe the accounts
of Manum's men, though, the granite plugs that blocked the passageways were
still in place when they entered the tomb. How did the thieves get in and out?
In 1638 an English mathematician, John
Greaves, visited the pyramid. He discovered a narrow shaft, hidden in the wall
that connected the Grand Gallery with the descending passage. Both ends were
tightly sealed and the bottom was blocked with debris. Some archaeologists have
suggested this route was used by the last of the Pharaoh's men to exit the tomb
after the granite plugs had been put in place and by the thieves to get inside.
Given the small size of the passageway and the amount of debris it seems
unlikely that the massive amount of treasure, including the huge missing
sarcophagus lid, could have been removed this way, however.
Construction
Scientists have long argued about how this
massive structure was built, but the most likely theory seems to be that the
Egyptians built a huge ramp that allowed them to drag the blocks into position.
Because a single straight ramp (as seen in the recent movie 10,000B.C.) would have to be
over a half mile long to reach the top and would need to contain as much
material as the pyramid itself, engineers have suggested that the ramp was in
the shape of a spiral running around the outside of the pyramid. Alternately
the Egyptians may have combined a straight ramp that ran part way up the
pyramid with a spiral ramp to the very top levels. Blocks were probably dragged
up the ramp by a team of men and put into their final position through the use
of levers (For more information on the construction of the Great Pyramid, see
our page How to Build a Pyramid).
French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin advanced
the theory that a spiral ramp was used on the inside of the pyramid to move the
stone blocks. According to Houdin a straight external ramp was used to get
materials to the 140 foot level. From there workers dragged the stones through
a set of gently rising tunnels just inside the outer walls. The last tunnel
would exit on the monument's top. A 1986 microgravity survey of the pyramid
discovered a peculiar anomaly: a less-dense structure in the form of a spiral
within the pyramid that may turn out to be what is left of Houdin's tunnels.
A project management group that studied the
problem of building the Great Pyramid estimated that the project, using
material and methods available at the time, might have required less than ten
years to complete: Two or three years site preparation, five years of actual
construction and two years to remove the ramps and put on the finishing
touches. This could have been done with an average work force of less than
14,000 laborers and a peak force of 40,000. By examining the ruins of dwellings
and workshops in the area, archeologists have estimated between 4,000 and 5,000
of these men were full-time workers committed to the project through most of
the construction.
Egyptian records indicate that the laborers,
while being drafted against their will, were actually well cared for by ancient
standards. Regulations have been found covering the maximum amount of work
allowed per day, the wages received and holidays each worker was entitled to.
Also, by scheduling most of the work to be done during annual flood periods,
the Pharaoh could get a lot done without impacting the normal Egyptian economy.
Was the Pyramid a Tomb?
Some have suggested that the pyramid was
never meant as a tomb, but as an astronomical observatory. The Roman author
Proclus, in fact, states that before the pyramid was completed it did serve in
this function. We can't put too much weight on Proclus words, though,
remembering that when he advanced his theory the pyramid was already over 2000
years old.
Richard Proctor, an astronomer, did observe
that the descending passage could have
been used to observe the transits of
certain stars. He also suggested that the grand gallery, when open at the top
during construction, could have been used for mapping the sky.
Many strange (and some silly) theories have
arisen over the years to explain the pyramid and its passageways. Most
archaeologists, however, accept the theory that the great pyramid was just the
largest of a tradition of tombs used for the Pharaohs of Egypt.
So what happened to Khufu's mummy and
treasure? Nobody knows. Extensive explorations have found no other chambers or
passageways. Still one must wonder if, perhaps in this one case, the King and
his architects outsmarted both the ancient thieves and modern archaeologists
and that somewhere in, or below, the last wonder of the ancient world, rests
Khufu and his sacred gold.
