Pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops and the history of the Egyptian pyramids. Mystery of the Egyptian pyramids

13.02.2022

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Proverb. Of the seven wonders of the world included in, compiled by the ancient Greeks, they turned out to be the most durable.

The Egyptians had several stone pyramids that served as tombs for the pharaohs. More than two million stone blocks were used to build the famous pyramid of Cheops, whose height was originally 146 meters. The average weight of each of them reaches two and a half tons. Once it was lined with polished stone slabs, which were later used for other structures.

Thus spoke Herodotus

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus told a legend that for 10 years they built roads along which stones were carried. The construction of the pyramid itself lasted another 20 years. In total, 100 thousand people took part in the construction of the pyramids, replacing each other every 3 months. The Egyptians did not leave any information about the methods of building the pyramids.

The most common version says that huge stone blocks were dragged along specially erected inclined embankments. The road along the embankment was reinforced with a wooden deck. At the end of construction work, it became necessary to remove the mountain of sand that had become unnecessary somewhere.

Modern versions of the construction of the pyramids

However, modern researchers believe that the Egyptians had more rational ways of lifting stone blocks. In particular, there is a version that the blocks were lifted simultaneously from four sides of the pyramid with the help of specially constructed wooden machines. For this kind of work, 50-60 people were required, who climbed the pyramids once a day, and then, controlling the wooden structure with the help of stretched ropes, lifted many blocks during the day. Thus, the construction time of the pyramids was significantly reduced.

The pyramids were aligned according to the stars Mizar and Kokhab in the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Due to the displacement of the earth's axis, these stars in different centuries pointed to different directions of the world. During the construction of the pyramids, they "looked" to the north. It is well established that the Egyptians aligned the pyramids to the north, as they believed that the deceased pharaoh turns into a star in the northern sky.

Centuries pass, the deeds of the pharaohs who once lived are long forgotten, and the majestic Egyptian pyramids stand in their places, forcing people to think about eternity.

Ancient Egypt Zgurskaya Maria Pavlovna

How were the pyramids built?

This question haunts more than one generation of researchers. How did ancient builders raise huge stone blocks? In other words, what engineering solution was found by the ancient architects, who managed to lift and install millions of blocks in their place in a relatively short period of time? This is not an exaggeration: the pyramid of Cheops alone contains 2,300,000 of them. Limestone blocks weigh from 2.5 to 15 tons. From ancient times to the present day, many researchers have been looking for an answer to this question.

In the question of the construction of the pyramids, of course, one cannot do without the testimony of a visitor to Egypt in 425 BC. e. "father of history" Herodotus. He suggested that the pyramids were built using wooden machines that lifted blocks from ledge to ledge. “The method used was to build in steps, or, as some call it, rows or terraces. When the base was completed, the blocks for the next row above the base were raised from the base level by fixtures made from short wooden levers; on this first row there was another that raised the blocks one level higher, so that step by step the blocks were raised higher and higher. Each row or level had its own set of mechanisms of the same type that easily moved loads from level to level. The completion of the construction of the pyramid began from the top, from the uppermost level, continued down and ended with the lowest levels closer to the ground.

Herodotus' mention of "wooden machines" gave impetus to one of the lines of research. The Italian Egyptologist Osvaldo Falestiedi believes that the remains of one of these machines were found in the 19th century during excavations of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. He managed to restore the ancient device, and it worked!

The machine designed by Falestiedi resembles a cradle: a stone block tied with ropes is placed inside a wooden frame, which is swayed with the help of special wedges. With the help of such rocking, the inventor is convinced, the ancient Egyptians raised multi-ton stones. Falestiedi's discovery was tested by Japanese and American engineers and archaeologists, who confirmed the Italian was right. Now Falestiedi, together with engineers from the Turin Polytechnic Institute, is going to create a working model of a device that can lift stones weighing up to forty tons.

But not only Falestiedi was inspired by the words of Herodotus. American Ron Wyatt designed his own version of the lifting machine. The obvious simplicity of the device, the very principle of operation and many other properties of this design make this mechanism extremely similar to the one described by Herodotus and which was used by the ancient Egyptians when building the pyramids.

An interesting hypothesis is the version of "the oldest concrete in the world." In the 1710s, the Frenchman Paul Lucas claimed that the pyramids were lined with cement, not stone. The Englishman R. Pocock in 1745 suggested that the pyramids were like mountains lined with stone slabs. And in our time, the hypothesis of cement (concrete) lining and blocks made of concrete has been revived again. The thesis about the use of concrete in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids has been seriously put forward since 1979, since the II International Congress of Egyptologists in Grenoble; its main "adept" is the French chemist Professor Josef Davidovich. On this subject, he published the book "How the god Khnum took care of Cheops, the builder of the pyramid." At the same time, the Frenchman began to assert that some ancient Egyptian vases were not made of natural stone, but were produced using the “stone casting” method.

But these are all assumptions. Most Egyptologists believe that the giant pyramid of Cheops was built during the 4th dynasty from large precisely fitted blocks, and the next dynasty built primitive small pyramids from blocks of irregular size roughly cut in quarries that did not connect to each other and did not fit one to one . This style of construction can be called "primitive megalithic".

There is another chronological paradox: the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom, who had at their disposal only primitive, mostly stone tools, built pyramids allegedly from relatively hard limestone, and in the period of the Middle Kingdom, when bronze tools were already widely used, the main building material became relatively soft sandstone.

J. Davidovich defends the opinion that some Egyptian pyramids and individual temples were built from one of the varieties of the so-called natural or geopolymer concrete. Various petrified deposits, such as limestone or sandstone, can be considered as natural concrete. So from the streams of mud of volcanic or other origin, as a result of drying and setting, natural concrete arises. Whenever the mixing of sand and other mineral sediments with organic components (marine organics, microbial waste products, etc.) resulted in layers of petrification, we actually encountered natural concrete with organic additives. In the case of the Egyptian pyramids, we are talking about the repetition of these natural processes by a person with minor changes: due to organic additives to natural mineral materials dissolved in water, natural concrete with good properties is obtained.

At the same time, Davidovich refers not only to the results of his own chemical analyzes, but also to several ancient texts, according to which Pharaoh Djoser was instructed by a certain divine being to grind blocks of rocks and mix them to produce building materials.

Based on the results of the analyzes that Josef Davidovich conducted on samples of materials from three pyramids and from two quarries, he came to the conclusion that concrete was apparently used in the construction of these pyramids. In samples of material from the blocks of the pyramid of Cheops, the scientist found, for example, traces of zeolites. These substances are not found in limestone of natural origin. Zeolites arise mainly in the final stage of the hydrothermal process at high temperatures (up to 600 °C and above) and pressures up to several thousand atmospheres. They, as a rule, are found in volcanogenic strata, in which they fill voids and form tuff cement, i.e., they act as binders. The best binding (cement) qualities are exhibited by zeolites, which arose at not very high, but still elevated temperatures of the order of 250–300 °C. As a result of erosion of rocks of volcanic origin, zeolites enter rivers and are deposited in river silt. They are also found in large quantities in the Nile silt. Quantitative studies of samples of material from the pyramid of Cheops showed that the proportion of zeolites and other, as Davidovich puts it, "binding polymeric agents" in them is about 13%. The analyzes also showed that the physical parameters (density, porosity, moisture) of the samples were very different from the parameters of ordinary limestone.

Microscopic studies of limestone from quarries revealed the presence of calcium structures with clear crystal lattices at a constant density and, at the same time, calcareous fragments of shells. On the contrary, the building materials of the pyramid of Cheops contained, along with fragments of shells, admixtures of lime, soda, and substances of organic origin. Density fluctuations and even inclusions of air bubbles were observed in them. In the samples from the quarries, the limestone shells and other “details” were intact, while in the pyramidal blocks they were damaged and crushed.

Davidovich's explanation for these differences is as follows: stone materials of shell rock softened in water from nearby dry channels were mixed with Nile silt and binders (soda, lime, organic additives) necessary for the formation of geopolymer concrete, and then this mass hardened. In addition, casting concrete blocks would explain the tight fit of the blocks. At the same time, it must be said that individual external blocks, at least visible from the outside, do not at all adjoin each other so tightly as blocks of internal passages and rooms. The outer blocks of the pyramids are subject to the destructive influence of the forces of nature and "civilizational" forces. Unlike the blocks inside the pyramid, the outer blocks get very hot during the summer days and cool down very much at night. Strong winds blow away broken pieces, and the resulting cracks are used by tourists to get samples of the pyramid stones as souvenirs.

The transport of heavy blocks from the quarries to the Nile and from the Nile to the pyramid building site remains one of the major obstacles to a credible description of pyramid building technology. Modern Egyptology comes from a drawing on the tomb of Pharaoh Jehutihotep depicting the transport of a huge statue on a sleigh of massive logs pulled by hundreds of people. But it is one thing to transport a statue once, and another to organize the mass transportation of stone blocks, the number of which is in the millions. Egyptologists believe that the corresponding roads were paved with dried clay bricks and then watered over them to improve the sliding of the sleigh. However, with this technique, the road will be destroyed each time by skids, and its canvas will turn into a strip of mud. That is, after each transported block, it will be necessary to repair the road along its entire length, which could be measured in tens and even hundreds of kilometers. Geopolymer concrete technology explains how these difficulties were overcome.

But Zahi Hawass called the hypothesis about the use of concrete in the construction of the pyramids of Giza "idiotic and offensive." He was also outraged by the fact that he did not know how the samples of the rock got to the French chemists who put forward the "concrete theory" without the permission of the Egyptian government. The chief archaeologist of Egypt is convinced that the pyramids are entirely built of blocks of limestone and granite. Supporters of traditional views on the technology of building pyramids, including Zahi Hawass, believe that the ancient Egyptians used only simple mechanical devices and transported blocks of limestone and granite from quarries.

For construction, ancient Egyptian engineers built a harbor 800 meters east of the recently discovered Cheops Valley Temple. This harbor was used to transport stone from other quarries in the country to the plateau, such as the granite used for the burial chamber of Cheops and the fine white limestone with which the pyramid was lined. The harbor was also used to bring workers from their homes in Memphis and other nearby cities. Food from farms on the banks of the Nile was sacrificed for the temples and used to feed the inhabitants of nearby cities, responsible for maintaining the cult of the deceased king. South of the pyramid of Cheops, the American Egyptologist Mark Lehner discovered a quarry in which stone was mined for its construction. The remains of a ramp made of crushed stone and silt were also found nearby. This ramp went from the quarries to the southeast corner of the Cheops pyramid. Most likely, blocks were raised along it.

A compatriot of Mark Lehner, a certain engineer by the name of Bush, expressed the original opinion that stone blocks were equipped with segments on both sides and thus turned from rectangles into cylinders. Bush successfully tested his method by rolling an almost three-ton cylinder down an inclined plane with the efforts of four people.

Another possible way to build the pyramids tried to demonstrate the Japanese researchers. In 1978, they wanted to build a mere 11-meter pyramid, using a sloping mound and drags to lift stone blocks, but failed. The embankment turned out to be too steep to drag drags with cargo along it, and it was necessary to complete the pyramid with the help of modern technology.

Here, perhaps, are all of the methods known today, and any of them is in doubt for one more reason. Herodotus writes about 100 thousand people who worked for 20 years on the construction of the pyramid of Cheops. How were they placed on a site of only 5 hectares? Even if we assume that they were not all there at the same time, the crowding during the work was incredible. After all, people did not just stand, they worked and had to have free space for maneuvering. On the embankment and on the site itself, at the same time there should have been a lot of people pulling drags with blocks. This is indirectly indicated by the data of an experiment conducted in 1954 by British archaeologists. Studying the famous Stonehenge, they reproduced the transportation of one and a half ton stone blocks. Tied to a simple wooden sled, a block of 32 strong young men was barely dragged up an inclined plane with a slope of 4 °. Things improved when rollers began to be placed under the sled: it took only 24 people. From this it was concluded that 16 people are needed for 1 ton of block weight. Consequently, the Egyptians needed 40 people to transport a block weighing 2.5 tons along an inclined plane. And if we also take into account the number of stacked blocks, the drags had to continuously follow each other. In addition, to the complexity of transportation, one should add the laboriousness of making mounds, the volume of which could reach a quarter of the volume of the pyramid itself.

It is unlikely that other methods were easier: one way or another, tens of thousands of builders had to either crush tens of thousands of tons of limestone to produce cement, or roll millions of huge stone cylinders along an inclined plane, risking being crushed every second. And all this under the hot Egyptian sun.

Well, not aliens, in fact, built the great pyramids with the help of anti-gravity installations! True, there are a great many various pseudoscientific theories on this subject. But for obvious reasons, we will not consider them.

However, there is another theory based on hydroweightlessness. Recall that hydroweightlessness occurs when the force of Archimedes pushing the body out is balanced by the weight of the body itself. But equilibrium can come either when the body is lighter than water - it will float on top, or if its weight is equal to the weight of water - then it will hang freely in the water column, not rising to the surface and not sinking to the bottom. This second case is hydroweightlessness. However, the specific gravity of the stone is much greater than the weight of water. How could the Egyptians use hydroweightlessness? Could they have known and used the law later formulated by Archimedes to lift stone blocks? Here we ask ourselves one more question: what did the Egyptians know how to do by the time the pyramids began to be built?

They managed to complete the construction of networks of irrigation canals and protective dams. They used irrigated agriculture, learned to raise water with the help of water-drawing structures, pump it from one level to another. They have long used shaduf - a lever water-lifting device: a bucket was attached to one arm of the lever on a long stick, and a stone was attached to the other arm as a counterweight. The Egyptians knew water distribution structures such as shields and valves, transported building materials along the Nile and canals on oared and sailing ships made of papyrus or wood, and knew how to calculate the carrying capacity of their ships.

Based on this, it is quite possible to assume that the ancient Egyptians did not need to carry multi-ton stones on themselves, they could easily get by with a system of water locks from the foot of the pyramid to the continuously rising construction site.

But what about the specific gravity of the stone in this case? Perhaps the Egyptians could get around this problem by using floats made from tarred empty containers, boxes, and a system of locks for transportation. It is known that with the help of locks it is possible to transport goods along the ascending line. The water rising along with the load is drained through the same chain of locks located nearby. Without delving into complex calculations, one can refer to hydraulic engineers who calculated the scientific possibility of such a method. So, this is theoretically possible. Ukrainian hydraulic engineer Alexander Grigoriev conducted a whole system of complex calculations and, based on them, claims that from a mathematical point of view, there is nothing impossible in the ancient Egyptian hydraulic lift.

One of the paintings of the tomb in Thebes depicts a boat with oars, in the boat there is a strange stepped structure, and all this is supported by a column of water. What is encrypted in the picture, what idea does it contain? Maybe lifting the boat through a system of locks?

And here is a quote from the works on the history of the construction of the pyramids and their creators by the Arab writer of the late XII century, Ibrahim ibn Vazif Shah: western regions and to Said".

However, not everyone is of the opinion that the "bricks" for the pyramids were unbearable. Zahi Hawass, from the height of his authority, claims that reports of the large weight of stone blocks are nothing more than speculation. According to him, the weight of the blocks from which the pyramids were built did not exceed half a ton.

And the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin believes that he solved the mystery of the pyramids, putting forward the theory that the great pyramids of Egypt were built ... from the inside, not the outside. Scientists around the world for a long time could not understand how the ancient Egyptians were able to raise stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each to such a height. Jean-Pierre Houdin denied one of the most common versions, according to which an external inclined ramp was used to build the Cheops pyramid. According to the scientist, this design should have been inside the pyramid. According to Houdin, to build the first 40 meters of the pyramid, the Egyptians first erected an external inclined ramp, and then built the same slope inside the pyramid, with which they built another 137 meters. “This theory is better than others because it is the only one that works,” said the French researcher. To prove his point, Houdin teamed up with a French company that builds 3D models for car and aircraft designers. Perhaps the results of this experiment will shed light on some of the secrets of the pyramids.

The researchers are also haunted by the mysteries of stone processing. For example, in order to carve out the internal cavity of a granite box from the chamber of the king of the Cheops pyramid, drills with diamond nozzles operating under a pressure of 2 tons were needed. With the tools with which these incredible products were allegedly created, it is physically impossible to even come close to their production. Many of the objects showed traces of processing methods such as sawing, turning on a lathe, milling and, most incredible, trepanning. This method is used to gouge a cavity in a block of hard stone, for which it is first drilled out and then the "core" is knocked out. There are spiral grooves on the stone - evidence that the drill penetrated the stone by 2.54 mm per revolution.

According to these technical data, it turned out that the ancient Egyptians drilled granite at a speed 500 times greater than what could be done at the end of the 20th century! The only possible method that explains all the discovered facts is the use of ultrasonic equipment. And this, in turn, means that we are dealing with another mystery.

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Introduction

In the fall of 2017, Japanese scientists using muon scanning discovered a room in the pyramid of Cheops. This caused a new surge of interest in the pyramids. These majestic buildings are the first and oldest of the wonders of the world. They still raise a lot of questions in people. Who, how and why built the pyramids - these are the most important questions.

Egyptologists gave answers to them already in the 20th century, but one can still hear assumptions about the unearthly origin of the pyramids or about the huge growth of their creators.

The study of the History of the Ancient East is included in the 5th grade history program. In the lessons, the question of building pyramids is only briefly considered, therefore the purpose of this message is to find out, as H.A. Kink, the author of the book “How the Egyptian pyramids were built”, explains, from what, how, with what tools the pyramids were built.

To solve the tasks set, the book of the candidate of historical sciences, Egyptologist Hilda Augustovna Kink "How the Egyptian pyramids were built" was used. Hilda Avgustovna carried out her research in the 60s of the XX century, but her book remains in demand to this day. It was republished in 2016 in the Academy of Basic Research series.

II. How the Egyptian pyramids were built

Construction equipment of the ancient Egyptians

The era of pyramid building begins with the tomb of Djoser (3rd millennium BC). The pyramid was usually the center of a whole complex of buildings - it was surrounded by temples, pavilions, tombs, altars and other structures. According to H.A. Kink, during the construction of the pyramids, the building practice of the previous period (V-IV millennia BC) was used - the stems of plants were coated with a mixture of silt and clay, they could use wood or raw (unbaked brick).

The Egyptians believed in life after death, so the tombs for the dead were built in the same way as houses. They had sleeping rooms (crypts), pantries for food storage, rooms for washing, for servants. After the burial, the entrance to the crypt was walled up.

During the period of the Early and Old Kingdoms (see Appendix) in the region of the Libyan plateau, tombs could be carved into the rock. In the III millennium began to build pyramids of stone (Pyramid of Djoser). To mark the buildings, ropes and stakes were used, or square grooves were cut down. The Egyptians used such measures of length as the elbow, palm and finger.

The tomb had a ground and an underground part. The ground part was built of raw brick and was from 3 to 6 meters high. This building is called mastaba. The crypt was underground. It was a granite box, which was first collected on the surface and numbered, so that later it could be correctly assembled below, and then lowered under the pyramid.

The dungeon began to be built with the construction of a well in the rock. Building materials were brought down the inclined stepped plane.

Large slabs served as doors in the pyramid. The stones were marked with red paint and indicated the exact location of certain details in the pyramid and the name of its owner. Since the name of the pyramid was found on the stones: "Cheops is the one who belongs to the horizon."

After the construction of the crypt, the ground part of the tomb (pyramid) was erected. The passage to the crypt began in the open air, and then led into the depths of the pyramid and was accompanied by various branches. This made him look like an anthill.

In the tombs, due to the mistakes of the builders, collapses were not uncommon. The ceilings between the rooms built one above the other could collapse under the weight of things or because of the fragility of the rock. Perhaps because of this, the builders had to abandon the construction of rock burial chambers. First, the crypts were placed flush with the earth's surface, and then in the thickness of the masonry (the pyramid of Cheops).

Features of masonry

Pyramids belonging to the first dynasty have a stepped shape. H.A. King believes that this shape is an imitation of the shape of a hill. 1 A stone in the III millennium was laid on the same mortar as a brick. But the mortar did not always hold the slabs firmly enough, and therefore the builders used the technique that was used in the construction of wood.

During the construction of the pyramids, the Egyptians had to protect them from the damaging effects of rainwater. In the pyramid of Djoser, the builders made the top of the steps not horizontal, but sloping. Thanks to this, the water on the pyramid did not linger, but cascaded down. On later pyramids, the stone for construction was chosen very carefully, so the stones fit so closely together that water could not penetrate inside. All the water that ran down was collected in ditches, which were connected to deeper ditches.

The value of wood in the construction of the pyramids

In the III millennium BC. wood was widely used in the construction of tombs. Ceilings, columns and their parts were made from it. Wood was also used to make tools - hoes, mallets. Ancient craftsmen made magnificent furniture from wood.

The felling of the forest, the hewing of logs, beams was carried out with copper axes. Boards were sawn with thin copper and small flint saws, which resembled a large knife in shape. With the help of such primitive tools, skilled craftsmen achieved a board thickness of 8 mm. Various recesses and cuts were made in the tree with a chisel-chisel from 9 to 30 cm long. 2

In the time of Djoser, veneered wood was used. Layers of plywood (up to 6 mm in thickness), tightly adjacent to each other, were connected to each other with wooden nails, drilling holes with a drill and a beam. The final processing of wood (grinding) was carried out using grinding stones.

For the manufacture of rounded roofs and niches in the walls, the Egyptians used bent wooden beams.

During the period of the Old Kingdom, when building stone structures, craftsmen widely used the traditions of wooden construction, so the walls and ceilings resembled wooden buildings. Giving such a shape to the stone was a very laborious task. Later, having achieved higher craftsmanship, the builders fully mastered the processing of stone and refused to imitate wooden structures.

Mining and processing of stone

The first scientists who studied the pyramids of the Old Kingdom assumed that the tools for mining and processing stone were iron. 1 H.A. Kink believes that this is not the case. Soft rocks of stone in the III millennium were processed with the help of copper tools and sand. It was more difficult to process hard rock, for this, ferruginous sandstone was used.

Pyramids were built from soft coarse-grained quartz, only more valuable grades of stone were used for facing. The Egyptians also used alabaster and sandstone.

When working with stone, the Egyptians used copper chisels, wooden mallets, stone nodules, chisels, and other flint tools (axes, drills, knives, scrapers, picks, hammers), etc. At the same time, they continued to widely use flint, because. copper was very expensive, and flint tools were not difficult to make.

During the construction of pyramids and temples, various stone building forms were created (columns, beams, cornices, reliefs, statues, etc.). Such techniques as hewing, upholstering, polishing, and drilling stone were widely used. 1 The drilling process required special skill. This is evidenced by the fact that the hieroglyph meaning "drill", "artisan", "artist", "skillful", "skill", was an image of a drilling device. 2

The method of stone extraction throughout the entire III millennium remained the same, and the size of the blocks and the volume of stone extraction increased. The scale of the rock used can be judged from the calculations made by Napoleon Bonaparte at the end of the 18th century - the stone from the three Giza pyramids would be enough to build a wall around France more than three meters high and 30 cm thick. 3

Vehicles

Such a stone as granite and diorite was mined far away, on the opposite bank of the Nile and even in the Sinai, so it was delivered along the Nile in boats. Small stones were carried by hand, and large ones were rolled up. To do this, stone rollers-cylinders up to 80 cm long or stone balls were placed under the stone. But this required a smooth stone platform or road. They could also use a sled with two skids made of thick beams.

When laying stone, the Egyptians used devices that consisted of beams fastened with ropes with copper hooks to hold the blocks. Perhaps since the 4th millennium, builders have used wooden rocking chairs to lift stone from step to step. To install columns, statues and heavy ceilings, ancient builders used ropes, struts and wooden scaffolding. Facing blocks before laying were covered with a layer of a special solution, which not only bound the stones, but also served as a lubricant.

Making tools and building parts from copper

Copper for the manufacture of tools was mined by the Egyptians in an open pit in the Sinai. First, hammer-shaped and pick-shaped stone tools and copper chisels beat off, loosened, crushed rock rich in ore. Then they were smelted in round brick furnaces, which were heated with charcoal. And then they melted in clay crucibles with the help of blowpipes, which made it possible to achieve a high temperature (1053 ° C).

Molten copper was poured from the crucible into a mold, and after it solidified, the blanks were processed by forging. Axes, adzes, chisels, chisels, chisels, long rods with a diameter of 7 cm for door bolts, large staples for fastening building structures, and possibly claws for lifting devices were made by forging. Nails, hooks and other small connecting devices were made from wire stock. The points and blades were sharpened with the help of grindstones, small tiles, and whetstones. Ancient masters of the III millennium BC used the method of cold forging, were familiar with the technique of riveting and soldering.

According to H. A. Kink, little copper was used (10,000 tons from the 4th millennium to the 17th century BC). Firstly, this can be explained by the high cost of copper (farmers did not use copper at all). Secondly, copper was spent very economically (only those tools were made from it that could not be replaced by stone or wooden ones).

The delivery of copper to Egypt was also difficult and expensive. For this, detachments were equipped, consisting not only of specialists in the extraction of metal, but also of scribes and guards. Each expedition, according to scientists, could deliver only hundreds of kilograms of copper, and the costs of organizing such an expedition were so great that only the state could afford it.

Number of employees involved

in the construction of the pyramids

All work on the construction of the pyramid - the extraction and processing of stone, its delivery and laying in place - required a lot of physical strength, patience and endurance. For the work, they used both the labor of skilled craftsmen (masons, sculptors, woodworkers, tool makers, etc.) and unskilled workers (mainly the lower strata of the population of ancient Egypt were engaged in construction).

To establish the approximate number of workers, H.A. Kink used the work of Herodotus, who, retelling the legend about the construction of the pyramid of Cheops, indicates that every three months a hundred thousand people were involved in the construction of the pyramid. 1 Where this figure came from, scientists can only speculate.

So, for the construction of the Cheops pyramid, 2300 thousand blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were required. To move one such block required the efforts of eight people. 2 Perhaps all the workers were divided into groups. Thus, there were 12 thousand detachments, eight people each. A total of 96 thousand. In the season of work, they dragged 115 thousand stones. It turns out that the pyramid was built for about twenty years.

Workers were also required in the extraction of stone - about two thousand people were involved there. About two thousand more people were probably involved in the construction of the tomb and the processing of stone during laying. If these 4,000 are added to 96,000, then you get about 100,000 people involved in the construction of stone masses.

III.Conclusion

After reading the book by H.A. Kink “How the Egyptian pyramids were built”, we can draw the following conclusions:

Pyramids in Egypt began to be built in the III millennium BC. At first, building practices of the 5th-4th millennia BC were used for their construction. - equipped the tomb as a dwelling using plant stems, clay, wood and mud bricks. The tomb contained everything needed for the afterlife. The same traditions were used in the construction of stone pyramids. Ancient builders constantly improved their skills and sought to improve the design of the tombs.
For the builders, it was important not only to build a pyramid (giving it the shape of a hill), but also to make it strong and protect it from water penetration. To do this, the stones were laid in a special way and fastened with mortar.
During the construction of the pyramids, wood was widely used - in the interior, for the manufacture of tools, they even imitated wooden buildings in stone. Builders were able to refuse to imitate wooden structures only when they reached a higher level of skill.
Pyramids were built of soft stone, and expensive hard stone was used for facing. They processed it mainly with stone (flint) tools, and they achieved extraordinary skill in this, because they had to process a huge amount of stone.
The stone mined on the opposite bank of the Nile was delivered on boats, and then rolled up with the help of stone rollers and balls. When lifting the stone, scaffolding and rocking chairs were used. To improve sliding, the blocks were lubricated with a solution.
When processing stone, the Egyptians also used copper tools, but copper was very expensive, so it was used in small quantities only when it was impossible to replace the tool with a stone one.
The construction of the pyramids was very laborious, so the number of workers reached one hundred thousand, both unskilled and high-class craftsmen.

Thus, in the course of working on the message, it turned out that people could build such grandiose structures with the help of rather primitive devices.

Literature

Kink H.A. How the Egyptian pyramids were built / Editor-in-chief Yu.Ya. Perepelkin. Ed. Stereotype. - M.: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2017.

Appendix

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Kink H.A. How the Egyptian pyramids were built / Editor-in-chief Yu.Ya. Perepelkin. Ed. Stereotype. - M.: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2017 - P.35
Kink H.A. How the Egyptian pyramids were built / Editor-in-chief Yu.Ya. Perepelkin. Ed. Stereotype. - M.: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2017 - P.49
Ibid., p. 58
Kink H.A. How the Egyptian pyramids were built / Editor-in-chief Yu.Ya. Perepelkin. Ed. Stereotype. - M.: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2017 - S. 72
Ibid., p.74
Ibid., p. 84
Kink H.A. How the Egyptian pyramids were built / Editor-in-chief Yu.Ya. Perepelkin. Ed. Stereotype. - M .: Book house "LIBROKOM", 2017 - S. 104
Ibid

There are less and less unsolved mysteries on our planet every year. The constant improvement of technology, the cooperation of scientists from various fields of science reveals to us the secrets and mysteries of history. But the secrets of the pyramids still defy understanding - all discoveries give scientists only tentative answers to many questions. Who built the Egyptian pyramids, what was the construction technology, whether there is a curse of the pharaohs - these and many other questions still remain without an exact answer.

Description of the Egyptian pyramids

Archaeologists talk about 118 pyramids in Egypt, partially or completely preserved to our time. Their age is from 4 to 10 thousand years. One of them - Cheops - is the only surviving "miracle" from the "Seven Wonders of the World". The complex called "The Great Pyramids of Giza", which includes and, was also considered as a participant in the New Seven Wonders of the World competition, but it was withdrawn from participation, since these majestic structures are actually the "wonder of the world" in the ancient list.

These pyramids have become the most visited sightseeing objects in Egypt. They are perfectly preserved, which cannot be said about many other structures - time did not spare them. Yes, and local residents contributed to the destruction of the majestic necropolises, removing the lining and breaking out stones from the walls to build their houses.

The Egyptian pyramids were built by pharaohs ruling from the 27th century BC. e. and later. They were intended for the repose of the rulers. The huge scale of the tombs (some up to almost 150 m high) should have testified to the greatness of the buried pharaohs, things that the ruler loved during his lifetime and which would be useful to him in the afterlife were also placed here.

For the construction, stone blocks of various sizes were used, which were hollowed out of the rocks, and later brick began to serve as the material for the walls. Stone blocks were turned and adjusted so that a knife blade could not slip between them. Blocks were stacked on top of each other with an offset of several centimeters, which formed a stepped surface of the structure. Almost all Egyptian pyramids have a square base, the sides of which are oriented strictly to the cardinal points.

Since the pyramids performed the same function, that is, they served as the burial place of the pharaohs, their structure and decoration are similar inside. The main component is the burial hall, where the ruler's sarcophagus was installed. The entrance was arranged not at ground level, but several meters higher, and was masked by facing slabs. Stairs and corridors led from the entrance to the inner hall, which sometimes narrowed so much that they could only be walked on squatting or crawling.

In most necropolises, burial chambers (chambers) are below ground level. Ventilation was carried out through narrow shaft-channels, which penetrated the walls. Rock paintings and ancient religious texts are found on the walls of many pyramids - in fact, scientists draw some of the information about the construction and owners of the burials from them.

The main mysteries of the pyramids

The list of unsolved mysteries begins with the shape of necropolises. Why was the shape of the pyramid chosen, which is translated from Greek as “polyhedron”? Why were the edges located clearly on the cardinal points? How did the huge stone blocks move from the place of development and how were they raised to a great height? Were the buildings erected by aliens or people who own a magic crystal?

Scientists even argue over the question of who built such tall monumental structures that stood for millennia. Some believe they were built by slaves who died in the hundreds of thousands building each. However, new discoveries of archaeologists and anthropologists convince us that the builders were free people who received good food and medical care. They made such conclusions based on the composition of the bones, the structure of the skeletons and the healed injuries of the buried builders.

All cases of death and death of people involved in the study of the Egyptian pyramids were attributed to mystical coincidences, which provoked rumors and talk about the curse of the pharaohs. There is no scientific evidence for this. Perhaps the rumors were spread to scare off thieves and marauders who want to find valuables and jewelry in the graves.

The mysterious interesting facts include the short time frame for the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. According to calculations, large necropolises with that level of technology should have been erected in at least a century. How, for example, was the pyramid of Cheops built in just 20 years?

Great Pyramids

This is the name of the burial complex near the city of Giza, consisting of three large pyramids, a huge statue of the Sphinx and small satellite pyramids, probably intended for the wives of the rulers.

The initial height of the pyramid of Cheops was 146 m, the length of the side was 230 m. It was built in 20 years in the 26th century BC. e. The largest of Egyptian landmarks has not one, but three funerary halls. One of them is below ground level, and two are above the base line. Intertwining corridors lead to the burial chambers. On them you can go to the chamber of the pharaoh (king), to the chamber of the queen and to the lower hall. The chamber of the pharaoh is a chamber made of pink granite, has dimensions of 10x5 m. A granite sarcophagus without a lid is installed in it. Not a single report of scientists contained information about the mummies found, so it is not known whether Cheops was buried here. By the way, the mummy of Cheops was not found in other tombs either.

It still remains a mystery whether the Cheops pyramid was used for its intended purpose, and if so, then apparently it was plundered by looters in the past centuries. The name of the ruler, by whose order and project this tomb was built, was learned from the drawings and hieroglyphs above the burial chamber. All other Egyptian pyramids, with the exception of Djoser, have a simpler engineering device.

Two other necropolises in Giza, built for the heirs of Cheops, are somewhat more modest in size:

Tourists travel to Giza from all over Egypt, because this city is actually a suburb of Cairo, and all transport interchanges lead to it. Travelers from Russia usually go to Giza as part of excursion groups from Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada. The trip is long, 6-8 hours one way, so the tour is usually designed for 2 days.

The great buildings are available for visiting only during working hours, usually until 17:00, in the month of Ramadan - until 15:00. It is not recommended to go inside for asthmatics, as well as people suffering from claustrophobia, nervous and cardiovascular diseases. Be sure to take drinking water and hats with you on the tour. The tour fee consists of several parts:

Entrance to the complex.
Entrance inside the pyramid of Cheops or Khafre.
Entrance to the Museum of the Solar boat, on which the body of the pharaoh was transported across the Nile.

Against the backdrop of the Egyptian pyramids, many people like to take photos while sitting on camels. You can bargain with camel owners.

Pyramid of Djoser

The first pyramid in the world is located in Saqqara, not far from Memphis, the former capital of ancient Egypt. Today, the pyramid of Djoser is not as attractive to tourists as the Cheops necropolis, but at one time it was the largest in the country and the most complex in terms of engineering.

The burial complex included chapels, courtyards, and storage facilities. The six-step pyramid itself does not have a square base, but a rectangular one, with sides of 125x110 m. The height of the structure itself is 60 m, inside it there are 12 burial chambers, where Djoser himself and members of his family were supposedly buried. The mummy of the pharaoh was not found during the excavations. The entire territory of the complex of 15 hectares was surrounded by a stone wall 10 m high. At present, part of the wall and other buildings have been restored, and the pyramid, whose age is approaching 4700 years, has been preserved quite well.

Lifting machine described by Herodotus (engraving of the 18th century)

The construction of the pyramids according to Herodotus.
18th century engraving

Usually all theories begin to consider the Great Pyramid of Cheops, believing that if the found method explains how this pyramid was created, then it will be possible to explain how all other pyramids in Egypt were created. However, there is no evidence that the same method was used by the Egyptians to build all the pyramids, of different sizes and in different historical eras. Also, interest in the construction of the pyramids is kindled by the numerous bans by the Egyptian government on visiting and studying many of the premises of these pyramids.

Lifting machines of Herodotus

Such assumptions allows them to make the following features of the pyramids:

The size and quality of processing and laying blocks of natural limestone or hard rocks (granite, basalt), weighing from several tons to several tens, less often hundreds of tons, from which some pyramids (Great Pyramids), their parts, as well as other buildings ( temple of Osirion at Obidos) or parts of them (some mastabas).

The presence on the blocks of pyramids, temples, parts of sarcophagi made of solid rocks, traces similar to traces of tools working on technologies similar to modern ones. With such a comparison, some traces testify to the parameters of instruments that are several times superior to modern ones. This is evidenced by some traces similar to saw cuts and traces of drilling.

High quality processing of gray granite on a large surface in the Aswan quarries, from where material was presumably extracted for the construction of the pyramids. Deep and narrow pits in the same quarries.

The presence of several technologies that differ sharply in terms of the level of processing of materials in the construction of buildings whose construction time refers to the same period of time (for example, the satellite pyramid of the pyramid of Cheops, built for the pharaoh's wife, is made of rough-cut stones of a much smaller size, compared with the pyramid of the pharaoh himself).

A combination of several construction technologies in one building, which differ sharply in terms of the level of material processing (many pyramids have a base of large blocks built without gaps and mortars and a superstructure of poorly processed, incomparably smaller blocks of limestone, clay bricks or sand).

Traces of water erosion on the body and head of the Great Sphinx, as well as on the walls of the trench surrounding it.

In the Cairo, British and Petrie Museums there are vessels dating from the era of Ancient Egypt made of calcite and other hard crystalline rocks with thin walls. The shape of some vessels has a pronounced axial longitudinal symmetry, without detecting significant errors in the cross-sectional circumferences. Some of these vessels, like jugs, have a large internal volume and a long, narrow neck, so that it is difficult to imagine how they were made, even with modern technology.

The similarity of technologies for the construction of megalithic structures in Egypt and other parts of the world (buildings in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia).

Presence of ancient pyramids in Mexico, Namibia and China.

Finds that are similar to the remains of megalithic structures in Nakhodka, Bulgaria, Yakutia and Japan.

Museum exhibits of unknown purpose, related to the era of Ancient Egypt (for example, until recently in the Cairo Museum there was an exhibit very similar to a ship propeller made of solid rock, its wall thickness is about three millimeters).

Legends about the construction of pyramids and other megalithic structures by civilizations of the so-called "Gods".

Ornaments and sculptures that resemble high-tech devices (circular saws, lasers, tanks, aircraft). Traditions of local peoples telling about the use of such devices.

High-precision astronomical knowledge (Mayan Calendar, Aztec Calendar), preserved in the culture of local peoples, which requires astronomical observations over a period of time exceeding the time of existence of local peoples. So are the legends of local peoples, telling that this knowledge was transferred to them by other civilizations.

Monolithic theory

There is also a theory that the blocks themselves that make up the pyramid were made using formwork. A rectangular formwork was installed on a pyramid, into which, subsequently, a mortar-like composition was poured. In the upper levels of the pyramid, the imprints of the mat (formwork material) are clearly visible on the outer stones. Modern research methods prove the artificial origin of stones. For the manufacture of concrete, components were used: activated ash, soda, crushed granite, silt from the Nile River. The ancient Egyptians used the method of formwork monolithic construction. Concreting took place within one grip, with compaction of the poured mixture. After the concrete had dried, upon reaching a strength of 3-4 MPa, the next layer was laid, which adjoined the underlying layer very tightly, so that now even the blade of a knife cannot be inserted into the seam. This technology did not require sawing machines, heavy stone lifting mechanisms, or modern cement production technologies. Devices were needed to constantly lift the concrete components in small portions in bags. Today, due to physical and chemical processes in concrete structures, after more than 4000 years from the construction of the pyramids, blocks reach the strength of granite (M250-300). But there are places where the work was done with marriage, and it is on them that erosion is clearly visible. The first scientist to put forward the concrete theory of the construction of the pyramids was Joseph Davidovits. In our country, the development of this theory is carried out by G.V. Nosovsky together with I. Davydenko. In addition to the technological problem of construction, there is also a qualitative side of construction. Today, the mathematical accuracy of the faces of the pyramids is admirable. Apparently, the priests possessed the most powerful mathematical apparatus, which they used in geodesy during the construction of these structures, and unfortunately, this knowledge did not reach us due to the closeness of the Egyptian priesthood.

Notes

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