The Mystery of the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt
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There are so many unanswered questions in Ancient Egypt as if inspired and blessed by the gods.
"The sky extends its light to you so that you may pass into the heavens as if it were the eye of a god." --Pyramid Inscriptions
The mystery of the pyramids, curious to the world, has been the object of exploration and research by archaeologists since ancient times. People want to know how the pyramids were built and why the bodies of the pharaohs were placed in the pyramids? What was its effect on mankind? Did it lead to a more abundant life? In addition, Egypt has some mysteries, even the mystery of the mystery, causing the world to pursue the interest of exploration.
Pyramids
The Egyptian pyramids were built in remote antiquity and are the "granddaddy" of Western architecture. It is the "grandfather" of Western architecture. People attribute the origin of classical architecture to ancient Egypt. After 5000 years, the important architectural monuments of Ancient Egypt are still admired and studied by people today.
In the early history of Ancient Egypt, there was a period known as the "Ancient Kingdom", which was a time of great prosperity. During this time, pharaohs were so keen to erect monuments to themselves that they built the pyramids, the first magnificent monumental structures in human history. To this day, after 4,500 years, there are still more than 60 pyramids lining the barren sands around Cairo, Egypt. The most famous of these are the three great pyramids of Giza. They tower above the clear sky like peaks among the mountains. They are very tall. Taller and bigger than the largest Christian church in the world, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Since ancient times, the pyramids have been known as one of the seven wonders of the world. People can not imagine in so far away, in the era of only crude level of engineering technology, the ancient Egyptians how to build this rare and magnificent project. At that time the builders neither lifting equipment, nor pulleys, not even wheels, how they will be equivalent to the weight of 10 cars of large stones to lift the pyramid on it? That's why some people suspect that the pyramid is a landing mark abandoned by aliens.
In addition to the precise number-crunching system embodied in the pyramid's regular shape, the precision of the pyramid's construction technology has been studied, praised, and marveled at time and again. As far as the Great Pyramid is concerned, the side length of its base is 755 feet, and the average deviation between the actual dimensions and the design drawings is less than 5 inches, with a deviation rate of only 0.01%, which is smaller than the error of modern construction, so how can it not be amazing? It is hard to imagine that in the long ago primitive stone age, people have created such a great architectural miracle.
According to Egyptology scholars, the construction of the pyramid originated in ancient Egyptian mythology: the ancient Egyptian king Osiris was killed by his own evil brother, and the broken body was thrown into the Nile River. Queen Isis was so grief-stricken that she found the remains and wept over them, which moved the sun god. The god then helped her to reduce the body parts to a corpse and make it into a dry body, i.e. a mummy. Osiris was then regenerated and became the lord of the underworld. From then on, each pharaoh died, the Osiris myth to perform once, made of mummies into the sarcophagus, and then sent into the "permanent residence" - pyramid. Ancient Egyptians believe that, in this way, the pharaohs' souls will be able to live forever, and resurrected after 3,000 years in Elysium.
This ancient Egyptian belief in immortality after death dictated the form of the pyramid: it had to be able to properly preserve the remains, especially the funerary objects that accompanied them. To the ancient Egyptians, life in the underworld was similar to the earthly world, and the dead had to have everything they used in life. That's why each pharaoh's tomb gathered great wealth and became a coveted target for generations of grave robbers. Ancient Egyptian pharaohs' tombs changed again and again in order to maneuver and fight with grave robbers. In order to make the pharaoh's "soul" not to be disturbed, but also in order to meet the pharaoh's expanding desire for power. The form of the pyramid has evolved from small to large, from brick to monolith.
The famous Step Pyramid is the tomb of Pharaoh Zhaosel. It was the earliest stone pyramid and the prototype of the later famous Pyramids of Giza. "The Pyramid of Djoser was the work of Imhotep, Djoser's minister and chief architect. Because of his outstanding construction, Imhotep was considered to be the most honored sage in Egypt, and his deeds were so widely recounted in Egypt that he was later even deified as the son of the god Fuptaah. The Greeks worshipped him and compared him to the Greek god of medicine. Imhotep, like all the giants of ancient culture, was skilled in several trades, for example, he was also an astronomer and a physician.
The pyramid of Zhaosel set an example for the later perfect pyramids of Giza. For quite some time after this, the pharaohs expended their major energies and financial resources on the construction of the pyramids. The pyramids became more and more massive and simple, approaching the character of stone. It is this effort, which has been poured out by generations of nations, that enables the world to see these wonders to this day.
Between the 27th and 26th centuries BC, the ancient Egyptians built the three largest pyramids at Giza. The Great Pyramid was the tomb of Khufu, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty. It was built around 2690 BC, the original height of 146.5 meters, due to weathering over the years, the top peeled off 10 meters, is now 136.5 meters high; the base of each side of the length of more than 230 meters, triangular face slope of 51 degrees, the bottom of the tower of the area of 52,900 square meters; the tower body is made of 2.3 million pieces of stone, each piece of stone weighs an average of 10 tons. It is said to have taken 100,000 people 30 years to build. The inner passage of this pyramid is open to the public, which is admirably designed and precisely calculated.
The second pyramid is the mausoleum of King Khufu's son, King Khafra. Built in 2650 BC, it is 3 meters lower than its predecessor, but the architectural form is more perfect and spectacular, with outbuildings such as temples and the famous Sphinx in front of the tower. Sphinx face reference to Hafra, the body of a lion, 22 meters high, 57 meters long, only one of the statue's ears is 2 meters high. The entire statue, except for the lion's paw, all carved from a natural rock. Due to the loose stone, and after more than four thousand years of age, the whole statue weathering is serious. In addition, the face is seriously damaged, some say it is Mamluk used it as a target to practice shooting caused by, and some say it is the 18th century Napoleon invasion of Egypt when the shelling left traces.
The third pyramid belonged to King Menkaura, grandson of Khufu, and was built around 2600 BC. It was during the decline of the Fourth Dynasty, and the pyramid's architecture began to decline. The height of the pyramid of Menkaura was suddenly reduced to 66 meters, and the internal structure was in disarray.
On the south side of Khufu's pyramid is a famous museum, the Sun Ship Museum. Legend has it that Khufu's son used the Sun Boat to transport Khufu's mummy to the pyramid for burial back then. The ship was then dismantled and buried in the ground. The museum was built on the site of the excavated sun boat. The hull of the ship is a purely wooden structure, lashed together with ropes.
All three pyramids are precise square cones, with the pyramid at Khufu being the most massive. The pyramid of Khufu is so precise that it is said to have no more than a man's thumb's worth of error in the length and angle of its sides, and the megaliths are so tightly spliced that not even a coin can be inserted into them. This is a testament to the high technology and extraordinary design work that went into the construction of the pyramid. And it couldn't have been done with just slaves and simple handiwork. So how the pyramids were built is a mystery for the ages. Hafra and Menkaura two pyramids arranged next to each other, their four sides are facing the east-west, north-south, north and south of the four directions of the base, and each other to the diagonal, forming a blue sky and yellow sand between the staggering, magnificent man-made peaks.
In the endless sandy seashore, about 30 meters high on the plateau, the pyramid group solemn, simple, solemn, transcendent. The image of the pyramids leaves a deep and indelible impression on those who have seen them. They express the most sublime themes although they are the purest geometric forms. The ancient Egyptians gave eternal life to these monoliths that once lay dormant on the shores of the sandy coast. 4,000 years later, Napoleon, with the dream of creating a great empire, led his army to set foot on the mysterious land of Egypt. At this time, Egypt has been the possession of the Turks, the ancient Egyptian civilization has long been obliterated. But the pyramids of Giza, half hidden in the sand, still aroused the passion of the invaders. Legend has it that Napoleon, facing the Muslim cavalry that came to meet him, pointed his finger at the old and eternal pyramids and said to his soldiers, "4000 years of history are defying you!"
With the decline of ancient Egyptian civilization, the pyramid has long since lost its mystical significance in the face of the underworld, and has become a symbol of humanity's ancient civilization. But at the time it brought to the Egyptian people, but endless disaster. Earlier than Napoleon 2000 years, the ancient Greek traveler and historian Herodotus once roamed Egypt, according to his records, in order to complete the huge project of the Pyramid of Khufu, there were 100,000 people in the Nile River during the high water season worked continuously for 30 years. The pyramid's millions of monoliths were built by human strength in a time when there was no engineering equipment, and it depleted the resources of three long Egyptian dynasties, leaving Egypt a desolate place "as if it had experienced the holocaust of a war." That's just a figure of speech, of course.
After this, the tradition of building pyramids changed, and later pyramids were much less impressive. As the enthusiasm for building pyramids waned, the pharaohs devoted their "excess" energy to building and decorating temples. Like the pyramids, which they had built on an oversized scale, the temples of ancient Egypt were on an oversized scale. They were low, depressing, dim, and especially crowded with unusually thick and bloated giant columns. The giant columns filled the space in the temples to the point of exhaustion. Giant columns and pyramids actually appeared in the same era, but its influence on Western architecture is more enormous and far-reaching, it later not only throughout the history of ancient Egypt, but also directly affect the Greek architectural form.
The civilization of God
Who built the pyramids
The pyramids have always been regarded as the crystallization of the wisdom of the working people of Ancient Egypt. 2000 years ago, the "father of Western history" Herodotus has recorded that: in the construction of the pyramids, Huff forced all the Egyptians to do his work, 100,000 people in a group, 100,000 people in a group, 100,000 people in a group, 100,000 people in a group, 100,000 people in a group, 100,000 people in a group. Huff forced all the Egyptians to work for him, 100,000 people for a group, each group of people to labor for three months. Countless ancient Egyptian slaves so from the Arabian mountains to pull the boulders, with the help of animal power and rolling logs, the boulders to the building site, and then the site around the natural sand piled up into a slope, the boulders along the slope on the pyramid, piled a layer of slopes, laying a layer of stone, and gradually raise the pyramid. In this way, it took a full 30 years to pile up a miracle that will make future generations stare.
However, in recent years, archaeologists have found a large number of tools for measuring, calculating, and processing stone tools in the pyramid burials, which suggests that these burials are the pyramid builders. Also found were a number of primitive metal surgical instruments and evidence that the deceased had been treated for broken bones, suggesting that they had received excellent medical treatment during their lives. Such a discovery naturally calls into question the earlier belief that the builders of the pyramids were ancient Egyptian slaves. This is because in ancient Egypt, slaves of low status were unlikely to have had access to medical treatment, and even less likely to have been buried after death. In addition, some have made the calculation that the pyramids were built with at least 2.3 million blocks of stone weighing about 10 tons each. At the time of the construction of the Pyramid of Khufu, there were no lifting tools in the world. If all of this was done by the manpower of close to 10,000 masonry workers, then even if the workers were able to push up 10 boulders weighing 10 tons a day, it would have taken nearly 700 years. Such a simple number, I'm sure Pharaoh could have worked it out. And why did they build this tomb that they could not enjoy during their lifetime?
Just who were the creators of the miracle of the pyramids? And how was such a miracle created? Some people say it is the masterpiece of the mysterious extraterrestrial civilization, some people insist that it is the work of the ancient Egyptian slaves, which is true or not now can not come to a conclusion. The pyramids have become a huge cloud of doubt in the sky of human civilization, waiting for people to continue to explore.
"What animals walk on four legs in the morning, walk on two legs at noon, and walk on three legs at night", which is the Greek myth of the sphinx Sphinx left people the problem. She asked the same question over and over again to travelers passing by. If the person being asked could not answer, she would eat the traveler. One day, Oedipus passed by, and the sphinx quizzed him on this riddle as usual. But Oedipus' answer was quickly revealed to be "man". For man crawls on his hands and feet when he is a baby, and when he grows up he walks on two legs, and in his old age he has to use a walking stick. Oedipus' wisdom frustrated the sphinx, and she killed herself after hearing this answer.
But in ancient Egyptian mythology, the sphinx has a very different symbolism. In ancient Egypt, the lion was the guardian of the earth and the underworld. When the pharaoh died and became a god, he had to be protected from the outside world, so the sphinx became the best gatekeeper.
Ancient Egyptian murals - the story of the Pharaoh
The original face of the Sphinx
According to tradition, the Sphinx is a huge stone statue with the body of a lion and the face of the Pharaoh, Khafra, and was built 4,500 years ago, during the reign of King Khafra. Historically, however, it was buried in yellow sand for a long time until it was excavated and cleaned by Dudmoshe IV of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt around 1400 BC. Legend has it that when Dudemusi IV was a prince, he was tired of hunting in the desert one day and slept on the head of the Sphinx, which had been buried in the yellow sand. In his sleep he dreamed that the Sphinx promised him that if he could save it from the yellow sand he would become Pharaoh. He woke up and immediately set about digging out the Sphinx. Later he did become Pharaoh. This event is recorded on a tablet between the huge front palms of the Sphinx.
One of the proofs that the Sphinx was built by Khafra is that in 1400 BC, Dudemus IV left an inscription on a tablet placed between the Sphinx's paws, which is now only a single line of text, vaguely recognizable as the word "khaf", which has led to the following conjectures It is assumed that the word "Hav" refers to the Pharaoh Havra. Another piece of evidence lies in the fact that when the Riverside Temple, located near the Sphinx, was unearthed, it was found that there was a statue depicting Havra himself as a sphinx god.
But by 1905, the direct relationship between the Sphinx and Havra became untenable. Archaeology has revealed that the names of all the rulers of ancient Egypt, without exception, have been documented with a rectangular frame now known as the "coat of arms". However, there is no such "seal" on the outside of the word "Haf", so "Haf" may not refer to the name of a pharaoh. Instead, the word "haf" simply means "to rise" in ancient Egyptian writing.
In 1992, New York forensic science expert Frank Dominguez conducted an in-depth study of the head of the Egyptian statue of the pharaoh Hafra and the Sphinx's "human face", which proved that the two are very different, and therefore cannot be the same person, that is to say, "human face" is not Hafra. That is to say, the "human face" is not Hafra. Therefore, it is clear that the previous judgment of archaeologists on its face was wrong.
The Sahara used to be rainy
In August 1992, Dr. Sauch, a doctor of geology from Boston University, based on the characteristics and extent of the erosion of the Sphinx, he came to the astonishingly convincing conclusion that the Sphinx appeared at the latest in the early part of the last rainy season of the history of Egypt, that is, it was built in the period from 7000 BC to 5000 BC. His evidence lies in the fact that the eroded edges of the Sphinx are more rounded, in the form of sinuous curved downward waves, and that some of the erosion marks are very deep, up to a maximum depth of 2 meters. Also the upper part is more eroded and the lower part is not as eroded. The Sphinx was exposed to the air for a maximum of no more than 1,000 years, the rest of the time buried in sand and gravel. If it was built during the Hafra dynasty in Egypt and eroded by the sand, then other limestone buildings of the same era would have been eroded to the same extent, but none of the buildings of the ancient dynastic era have been eroded as much as the Sphinx.
It can be concluded that the erosion marks on the Sphinx are typical of rainwater erosion. But the hardest part of this assertion to accept is that the Sahara Desert has existed for thousands of years, and in fact there has not been enough rain on the Giza Plateau to cause erosion of the Sphinx since 3000 BC. Could the erosion marks on the Sphinx be the imprint of the historical flooding of the Nile? But archaeologists immediately dismissed such speculation, because floods and rain erode in markedly different ways, with floods eroding the bottom much more than the top. And in fact, the top of the pyramid was clearly eroded a bit more. So there seems to be only one possibility: the Sphinx was indeed subjected to severe rain erosion at one time.
At some point in history, Egypt was subjected to constant torrential rains. Amazingly, this time was 10,500 BC. During this period in human history, the Earth experienced tremendous climate change - melting glaciers and flooding. Because the last ice age ended 12,500 years ago, climatic conditions had been stable for 50,000 consecutive years before this period. At that time, Northern Europe and North America were covered by millions of square kilometers of glaciers. But suddenly, the glaciers melted and continued to do so for 2,000 years, thus triggering an unimaginable flood, perhaps the very flood described in the Bible.
If the Sphinx dates back to the end of the Ice Age in 10,500 BC, why is its head the face and decoration of a pharaoh? Upon looking at the head of the statue, it is clear that the head is much better preserved than the body, and although the gray stone material used for the head is a bit stronger, it is a far cry from the wear and tear of the body. The proportions of the head to the body are also somewhat incongruous. The head is small in proportion to the body. When viewed from the air, its head resembles a miniature pinhead, while the body appears long, flat, and clearly shows signs of water erosion. We seem to be able to deduce from this that the head of the Sphinx was not the original fitting, but that it was simply modified and reconstructed by certain craftsmen at a particular stage in history.
All this may have happened in this way: before Egypt became a desert, Giza was a fertile steppe; its outer edges were beds of rock, where a group of stonemasons carved out a gigantic head, that is, the head of a deity, or rather of a lion. Huge pieces of limestone were neatly cut and transported piece by piece, some surprisingly weighing over 200 tons. The stones were lifted and placed onto the pyramid seemingly effortlessly. Just like the Sphinx, the temple in front of it bears the marks of an earlier period. At the end of the Ice Age, tens of thousands of years before the pyramids were built, they withstood weathering and erosion by rain. Floodwaters flowed over the lions, creating the shapes we see today.