The Great Pyramid of Giza

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A massive earthquake loosened many of this outer casing stones in the year AD 1301. These stones were carted away to Cairo by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in the year 1356. The stones was used to build mosques and fortresses. The stones can still be seen as part of those mosques and fortresses that was built in Cairo. There are many theories regarding the pyramid’s construction. It was believed that the block of stone were being quarried or could be casted.

Most experts believed that the block of stones were move from a quarry. Experts still unable to explain clearly whether the blocks of stones were dragged, lifted or rolled in place. The Ancient Greeks believe that Egyptians used slave laborers to built the pyramid. Egyptologist and experts in contrast, believe that the pyramid was built not by the slaved laborers but by thousands of skilled workers. These skilled workers camped near the pyramid. They worked for the pyramid for a salary or in order for them to pay taxes. The cemeteries of these workers were discovered by the archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehn in the year 1990.

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Expert say that the laborers were organized into hierarchy. They were consisted of two gangs of about 100,000 men. They were further divided into five phyle (zaa) of 20,000 men. It is further divide according to the worker’s skills. These great pyramid had two passages, the ascending passage and the descending passage and contains three known chambers.Today’s entrance of the pyramid was a forced tunnel, dug around 820 A.D by Caliph Al-’mum together with his men. The forced tunnel is about 30 meters and meets the descending passage which where by then blocked with a series of massive granite plugs. As the workmen were unable to remove the block successfully, they tunneled around the plugs and they discovered the Ascending Passage.

The passage leads them to the Grand Gallery and to the interior chamber and found them empty.The pyramids original entrance was unknown at that time. They are several meters above the forced entry and probably, it was also blocked with a granite plugs. The main chamber of this pyramid is the King’s chamber. A lenghty series of entrance ways leads its location. It is originally 10 x 20 11.4 cubits, or 5.235 m x 10.47 m x 5.974 m and comprising a double 10 x 10 cubit square floor. It has a height equal to the half the double square diagonal.

There are two small shafts that ascend out of the pyramid discovered closed off at both ends originally. Expert once believed that they were used for the ventilation purposes. Later some expert say that these shafts were used for ceremonial purposes.It was being thought that the ancient Egyptians believed that there Pharaoh’s spirit would rise up to heaven.The Egyptians lined the King’s Chamber with granites These granites were brought from Aswan to the south.

Aswan has a distance of 935 kilometers or 580 miles. The smallest chamber is the Queen’s chamber. it measured approximately 5.74 by 5.23 meters. It has a height of 4.57 meters in height These chamber is lined with limestone. Its roof is made of large limestone slabs. There is a large angular doorway or niche on its eastern wall.Lies within 27.5 meters below the ground level and is rough-hewn is the unfinished chamber. It is lacking the precision of the other chamber.

Experts believe that this chamber was originally intended to be the original burial chamber and then the Pharaoh Khufu changed his mind and wanted the burial place to be higher up in the pyramid.Pyramid building continued until the end of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, although these succeeding pyramids were smaller.