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Pyramid of Giza

Giza Pyramid is included as part of Memphis and its Necropolis—the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, located in the center of the floodplain on the western side of the Nile, Egypt, were a UNESCO World Heritage Site from 1979 onwards.

Facts about the great Pyramid of Giza

The Pyramids of Giza, also known as Gizeh, are three 4th-dynasty (c. 2575–c. 2465 BCE) Pyramids located in Al-Jizah (Giza) in northern Egypt on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River. They were formerly considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Giza Pyramids, Aqqarah, Dahshur, Abu Ruwaysh, and Abu Sir are among the ancient remnants of Memphis. The names of the rulers for whom the pyramids were built—Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure—are reflected in their names. The group’s oldest and northernmost pyramid was erected for Khufu, the fourth dynasty’s second monarch.

The Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid is the biggest of the three pyramids. At the base, each side measures 755.75 feet (230 metres), while the original height was 481.4 feet (147 metres). The middle pyramid was constructed for Khafre, the fourth of the 4th dynasty’s eight monarchs.

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The building was originally 471 feet (143 metres) high and measured 707.75 feet (216 metres) on each side. Menkaure was the southernmost and last pyramid to be erected. The fourth dynasty’s sixth monarch; each side measures 356.5 feet (109 metres). The final height of the building was 218 feet (66 metres). In the ancient and mediaeval ages, all three pyramids were robbed, both inside and outside.

As a result, the grave items that were initially put in the burial chambers have disappeared. The pyramids have also lost virtually all of their polished white limestone exterior casings, causing them to fall short of their former heights. For example, the Great Pyramid is currently just 451.4 feet (138 metres) tall.

Only the uppermost piece of Khafre’s maintains the outside limestone casing. A funerary temple was built beside each pyramid. A sloping causeway connected it to a valley temple on the border of the Nile floodplain. Other members of the royal family were also buried nearby in secondary pyramids.

Khufu’s pyramid is the largest single structure ever constructed on earth. Its sides rise at a 51°52′ angle and are perfectly aligned with the compass’s four cardinal points. Yellowish limestone stones make up the Great Pyramid’s core.

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Facts about the great Pyramid of Giza built

The interior channels and the exterior casing, which is now nearly totally gone, are made of finer light-colored limestone. The inside burial chamber is made out of massive granite stones. To build the 5.75-million-ton building, 2.3 million stone blocks were cut, transported, and assembled.

This is a work of technical brilliance and engineering prowess. The internal walls, as well as the few outer-casing stones that have survived. It has finer joints than any other piece of ancient Egyptian stonework.

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The Great Pyramid’s entrance is located on the north side, about 59 feet (18 metres) above ground level. A sloping tunnel descends from it into the internal masonry of the pyramid. It enters the stony soil beneath the building and emerges in an incomplete underground room.

A rising tunnel exits off the descending corridor, leading to the Queen’s Chamber and a large slanting gallery that is 151 feet (46 metres) long. A long and narrow hallway leads to the burial room proper, commonly known as the King’s Chamber, at the gallery’s top end.

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This chamber has granite walls and a granite roof. Two small shafts extend obliquely through the stonework from the chamber to the pyramid’s exterior. It’s unclear if they were built for religious reasons or to provide ventilation.

Five sections are divided by large horizontal granite slabs above the King’s Chamber. These slabs were most likely used to protect the burial chamber’s ceiling. It was to deflect the enormous force generated by the masonry masses above.

The topic of how the pyramids were constructed has yet to be satisfactorily answered. The most likely explanation is that the Egyptians built a sloping, surrounding levee of brick, dirt, and sand. It was this that grew in height and length as the pyramid grew taller; stone blocks were dragged up the ramp using sledges, rollers, and levers.

The Great Pyramid took 20 years to build and required the labour of 100,000 men, according to Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian. Given the notion that these guys were agricultural labourers, this figure is plausible.

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They focused solely or mostly on the pyramids, as there was little labour to be done in the fields. Particularly when the Nile River was flooded. By the late twentieth century, archaeologists had discovered evidence suggesting the site had been populated on a permanent rather than seasonal basis.

It was claimed that 20,000 employees, along with support personnel such as bakers, medics, priests, and others, would have been sufficient for the job.

The Great Sphinx is located to the south of the Great Pyramid, near Khafre’s valley temple. The Sphinx, carved out of limestone, has the face of a man but the body of a reclining lion. The Sphinx is 240 feet (73 metres) in length and 66 feet (20 metres) in height.

At the top end of Khufu’s causeway, a pit grave holding the transferred burial equipment of Khufu’s mother, Queen Hetepheres, was discovered in 1925. The queen’s empty sarcophagus was discovered at the bottom of a deep stone-filled hole.

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It was surrounded by furniture and jewellery, demonstrating the 4th-dynasty craftsmen’s excellent artistic aptitude and technical precision. Extensive fields of flat-topped burial buildings known as mastabas surround the three pyramids.

It was laid out on a grid. The mastabas were used for the burial of the monarchs’ family and officials. Numerous mastabas from the 5th and 6th dynasties (c. 2465–c. 2150 BCE) have been discovered around and among the older buildings, in addition to the main mastabas of the 4th dynasty.

Excavations near the pyramids in the late 1980s and 1990s discovered bakeries, storage facilities, workshops, and modest graves of labourers and craftsmen, as well as bakeries, storage rooms, and workshops.

The workshop sections appear to date from the late 4th dynasty, based on mud sealings. Simple mud-brick domes and grandiose stone structures are among the burials. Some of the structures had statuettes, and hieroglyphic inscriptions on tomb walls occasionally identified the deceased.

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The pyramids, nonetheless, have stood the test of time. Despite the fact that their external limestone layers have long since been stripped or turned to dust, the pyramids still stand. The current Egyptian skylines have around 80 specks. They remain as time cases propelled forward by once-inconceivable human progress.

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