Why are the pyramids a wonder of the world? Seven Wonders of the World: Pyramid of Cheops, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria. Amazing properties of pyramids
The only one of the “Seven Wonders of the World” that has survived to this day is Egyptian pyramids. Ancient Egyptian architecture, even today, amazes with the power of its enormous stone structures. Among the huge columns of ancient temples, rising to the sky and often standing like trees in a forest, you can get lost. At the entrance to these temples, like a formidable guard, stand huge statues of pharaohs and stone sphinxes. Sphinx - in Ancient Egypt - the embodiment of royal power, a statue depicting a fantastic creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human or sacred animal.
About 5 thousand years ago, the first small slave states appeared in the valley along the lower Nile. At the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. the rulers of one of them subjugated the entire country, creating a single kingdom with its center in the city of Memphis, located on the left bank of the Nile, south of where the city of Cairo is now located. Around 2800 BC e. Pharaoh Khufu became the ruler of this state. Subsequently, Greek historians changed his name to Cheops. This is what they call it in our time. Huge wealth and unlimited power were concentrated in the hands of the pharaohs.
Cheops' grandfather and father spent their wealth not only on court luxury and majestic tombs - pyramids, which were supposed to perpetuate the names of formidable rulers. Their slaves built dams, dug canals, and installed sluices to evenly distribute the waters of the Nile to irrigate the fields. Thanks to this, high harvests were harvested from the fields of Egypt, which brought more and more income to the pharaohs.
Cheops thought only about glorifying himself. The flattering and cunning priests told him: “Earthly life is short. The houses we live in are hotels. Man's true home is the tomb, the house of eternity, where he will dwell for millions of years. If you want to be immortal, take care of your tomb." And Cheops decided to reduce government spending as much as possible, and spend most of his income on creating a tomb that would be taller and more majestic than all the previous royal tombs.
There were not enough foreign slaves, and Egyptian farmers began to be involved in the work. Pharaoh ordered to choose the strongest and most resilient for the work. Each farmer had to work for a third of the year on the construction of the pyramid. To the capital Memphis, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century. BC e., up to 100 thousand people were rounded up. They were fed stale cakes, dried fish, garlic and radishes. Many died, but more and more were brought in to replace them...
The first ten years were spent on preparatory work. They laid out a convenient path to the construction site chosen on the western bank of the Nile (near the suburb modern city Cairo - Giza), dug underground hiding places and laid the foundation. And in quarries, about 600 miles east of the Nile, blocks of limestone were chopped off and transported to the west bank. After this, a giant stone pyramid was built for 20 years. Its construction was completed in the 31st year of the king's reign.
2 million 300 thousand stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were smoothly hewn with copper tools (there were no iron tools at that time) and tightly fitted to each other. The height of the pyramid was 280 cubits (about 147 m), i.e., approximately the height of a modern forty-story building. The base side of the pyramid reaches 230 meters. She takes more area than 9 football fields. The hewn slabs were laid with such perfection that even a needle could not be inserted into the seam between them. The entrance to the pyramid was on the north side. A narrow corridor led through a large gallery into the burial chamber (10x5x5 m), in which the royal coffin - sarcophagus - was installed. Unfortunately, it has not survived to this day, but it is believed that it was carved from stone. A side corridor led to the queen's crypt.
Cheops achieved his goal, although the working people grumbled and even the slave-owning nobility were dissatisfied with the excessive costs that were depleting the country.
After the death of the king, the faithful servants fulfilled everything that was prescribed by ancient customs. They opened the king's corpse, removed the brain and entrails, kept the body for 70 days in salt water, filled it with fragrant resin and wrapped the finished mummy in burial shrouds. The Egyptians believed that the resurrection of the dead was possible. They believed that the soul of the deceased, as long as his body was preserved, could return to it. At first, only the bodies of kings were turned into mummies, and later of all noble slave owners. Around the Pharaoh's pyramid were the tombs of nobles and officials. The owners of rich estates and luxurious houses wanted to be different from them even after death. ordinary people. The poor were simply wrapped in a mat and buried.
The sarcophagus with the king's mummy was placed on a huge sled, the oxen were harnessed and they were driven to the west, where, according to the teachings of the priests, there was an entrance to the afterlife. The mourners and mourners filled the air with wild cries. The priests slaughtered bulls and geese as sacrifices to the soul of the deceased. The royal mummy was placed inside the pyramid and the entrance to the tomb was walled up.
During one of the uprisings, the details of which are unknown to us, the mummy was thrown out of the crypt and disappeared without a trace.
There is no trace left of the ruler who built himself the greatest pyramid, which in ancient times was considered one of the “seven wonders of the world,” but the grandiose building, created by the Egyptian people with such difficulty and suffering, has stood for the fifth millennium and has changed little over time. Only the cracked outer cladding was broken off and stolen for new buildings, so that the pyramid dropped by 9 m.
In 1953, two Egyptian archaeologists dug out a cache at a depth of 17 m, covered with stone blocks, among the sands not far from the pyramid. Inside was a huge wooden boat of the pharaoh, 35 m long, with two rows of oars. Egyptian priests made this boat so that the royal deceased could sail in it after death along the heavenly waves to the distant kingdom of the dead.
The following year, another Egyptian archaeologist found in the sands new pyramid- Pharaoh Hesemkhet, who lived a hundred years before Cheops. The pyramid, fortunately, was untouched! Not a single robber penetrated it. In the inner chamber there was an alabaster coffin, very well preserved, but, to the scientist’s disappointment, it turned out to be empty. The ancient Egyptians had a custom of building false tombs (cenotaphs). It is believed that the empty coffin was a spare one, in case the soul of the deceased wanted to leave the permanent tomb and move to another.
The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. The priests inspired the people that even after death the pharaoh would remain the ruler and crowds of servants would work for him. Egyptian religion taught that the poor and slaves had no hope of a happy life even in the afterlife. Only pharaohs and nobles will be blissful after death as well as during life. In the afterlife, according to the Egyptians, there is the same inequality as on earth: some work, while others enjoy power and wealth.
One of the most ancient and yet striking Wonders of the World are the Great Pyramids located in Giza (Egypt). The complex of Gisean buildings represents the greatest architectural monument ever created by man. In total, more than a hundred pyramidal structures were found in Egypt, but most of them did not stand the test of time.
Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramid of Cheops
The largest of the Gisean complex, the Pyramid of Cheops is the largest building structure in the world. Its base is a square with a side of as much as 227.5 meters. The original height of the structure is believed to have been 146 meters, but several of the top stones were destroyed, and today the pyramid is 9 meters lower.
Engineering studies have shown that the largest Gisea architectural monument consists of 2.3 million stone blocks, each of which weighs at least 2.5 tons. The total volume of the structure is 2.34 million cubic meters. The edges of the pyramid are turned to the cardinal directions, with the entrance to the inside being from the north.
A distinctive feature of the structure is that every single building block fits together so well that even now, after several thousand years, it is impossible to insert even the thinnest blade between them. In addition, the researchers discovered that the mortar used to hold the structural elements together was stronger than any modern material.
Purpose of the pyramids
There are no inscriptions, drawings or decorations in the Cheops pyramid. Inside the building there are three chambers, in the center of one of which there is a granite sarcophagus. At first it was assumed that the structure was a tomb. Many years of research have either confirmed or refuted this assumption.
But neither the remains of the pharaoh, nor any utensils or things that, according to the tradition of that time, were buried with the deceased, were found. True, there is a high probability that the pyramid was simply plundered. However, some details in the hypothesis about the purpose of the structure do not agree with the version about the tomb.
However, we will leave to historians and archaeologists questions about the origin and purpose of the construction of such an amazing complex of buildings, the entrance to which is protected by the Great Sphinx - the largest monolithic sculpture on the planet. For you and me, the Pyramids of Giza, with which many legends are associated, remain one of the most striking and unusual examples of the heights of engineering.
But really, why are the Egyptian pyramids considered the first of the 7 wonders of the world? To begin with, it is important to clarify that the list of 7 wonders of the world does not include all pyramids, but only one, the most majestic Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). Researchers still cannot fully understand how in such ancient times people could build it. Even now there is an opinion that it was not built at all by human hands, but somehow incomprehensible external force. But since these are just guesses, there is no point in writing much about it.
Why is the Cheops pyramid called a miracle?
There is no exact definition here, but there are many facts that force us to agree that it is simply impossible not to call this structure a miracle.
- The first is the size of the pyramid. For more than three thousand years in a row, the structure was the tallest on Earth. The size of the base was originally 227.5, height - 146 meters. Over time, the structure collapsed slightly, as a result of which the pyramid is now 9 meters lower.
- The second is the materials that were used for construction. In total, the pyramid took 2.3 million stone blocks. The weight of one such block is no less than two and a half tons. In addition, it is important to pay attention to the density of the pyramid. The stones fit together so well that even the thinnest blade cannot fit between them.
- Third - appearance. Initially, the pyramid was covered with a facing material such as white limestone. During the day, when the sun illuminated the pyramid, it shone with a bright peach color, which made it look like a real miracle, “to which, it seemed, the Sun God Ra himself gave his rays.” Unfortunately, now it is no longer possible to see this beauty, since after the Arab attack on (1168), local residents used cladding to restore their houses.
“Herodotus called “the first wonder of the world”, they still excite our imagination, although it would seem that today it is difficult to surprise us even with the most modern achievements of science and technology. However, the pyramids have kept their secrets for more than one thousand years.
The first pyramid in Ancient Egypt was built around 2700 BC. e. It was built by order of the founder of the III dynasty of the rulers of Egypt, Pharaoh Djoser. Since then, many pyramids and other large stone structures have been built.
The most famous pyramids
Most of all, people's attention is attracted to the pyramids of two pharaohs of the IV dynasty - Cheops and his son Khafre. The Pyramid of Cheops has a square base of 232.4 x 232.4 meters and a height of 146.7 meters. The Pyramid of Khafre is, respectively, 215.3 x 215.3 meters and 143.7 meters. To this day they remain the largest structures ever created by man.
It is not surprising that during their almost 5000-year existence, many myths, legends and hypotheses have arisen related to their occurrence. The first information about the construction of these pyramids came to us from Herodotus.
In the 5th century BC. e. he visited Egypt, visited the pyramids, and described the technology of their construction from the words of Egyptian priests. He reported that the pyramids were built by 100,000 people over a period of 20 years. In 1883, the English Egyptologist Petrie confirmed with his calculations the veracity of Herodotus' information.
Astronomical mystery of the pyramids
And one more of the still inexplicable mysteries is the high knowledge of the Egyptians in the field of astronomy. The Cheops Pyramid, for example, points almost unmistakably to true north. As a result of precise measurements made in 1925, such a incredible fact: the error in the position of the pyramid is only 3 minutes 6 seconds.
For comparison: in 1577, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, through long and careful calculations, oriented the Oranienburg Observatory so that it looked north. In the end, he was still off by 18 minutes.
In addition, the error of the Egyptians is explained by a slight shift in the north itself over the past millennia. The desire for accuracy is a sign of a highly developed civilization. Similar amazing accuracy is everywhere, including in the dimensions of the base of the pyramids.
With an average side size of about 230 meters, the difference between the largest and smallest sides does not exceed 20 cm, that is, about 0.1%. In addition, the ancient builders erected the Cheops pyramid with almost ideal right angles. It is also amazing that it was not built on a flat area, but on a natural hill 9 meters high, which turned out to be in the very middle of the base of the pyramid.
British physicist K. Mendelson poses the question: how, without modern scientific instruments, could the ancient Egyptians determine the direction to the desired point in the air and build directly towards it? An error of even two degrees could ultimately lead to disastrous results. He proves that a central core could have been used in the first stage of construction. This way a marker from the top helped to line up the edges.
However, the mysteries of the external characteristics of the pyramids are still just flowers. What is also amazing is what happens inside. It is still not known exactly why inside the pyramid, oriented to the cardinal points, the effect of mummification of any organic matter appears. The bodies of small animals that died in the pyramid, even without embalming, are mummified and preserved for a very long time.
Amazing properties of pyramids
In addition, in the pyramid there are dull razor blades, placed while maintaining orientation to the cardinal points, in a short time sharpened. It is important to note that the effect of mummification is most strongly observed in the center of the pyramid, at approximately 1/3 of its height. The burials of the pharaohs were located at approximately this height.
There were also several rooms in which the pharaoh's mummy was located, various religious objects, sacred manuscripts, and very often there was a spare sarcophagus next to the sarcophagus with the pharaoh's mummy. In literature you can often find references to the “curse of the pharaoh.” A person who enters the Pharaoh's tomb is subject to the Pharaoh's curse and soon dies.
Most likely, before closing the tomb, the Egyptian priests left some substances that contained pathogenic lung bacteria. In the pyramid, under the influence of the mummification effect, they seemed to fall asleep, but did not die.
However, when a person entered the pyramid, most often for the purpose of robbery, he carried these bacteria outside, where they woke up and infected the robber with an incurable disease. It is noticed that most of the so-called “damned” died from diseases related to the respiratory system. True, this version has not yet been proven.
All these secrets associated with the first wonder of the world gave rise to mystical and fantastic hypotheses. So some researchers even question the human copyright of these colossal buildings. Last century, for example, London bookseller John Taylor argued that the level of mathematical, astronomical and technological knowledge in ancient Egypt was low.
Who helped the Egyptians build the pyramids?
Therefore, Taylor concluded, people could not build the pyramid themselves; “they had to be helped by God.” In our time, the author of the famous book “Remembrance of the Future,” Erich von Däniken, believed that the Cheops pyramid testifies to the existence of “unsolved technology” that was used by space aliens.
By the way, not so long ago similar hypotheses of S. Proskuryakov and V. Romanov were published in newspapers. And an article in one of the Moscow newspapers said: “As is known, during the first space launch of an American spacecraft towards Mars, cameras recorded traces of an ancient civilization on the surface of the planet.
Scientist Richard Hoagland, together with a group of young talented mathematicians and physicists working in the field of astrophysics, as well as Pentagon cartographers, came to an incredible conclusion: giant pyramids and images photographed on Mars human faces have the same origin as the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx."
In fact, theories of the alien origin of the Egyptian pyramids arise because it is difficult for us to come to terms with the idea that ancient engineers and builders were often superior to us in ingenuity and ingenuity.
Pyramids, like other megaliths (dolmens, cromlechs, etc.), are actually ancient defensive structures.
http://forum.ozersk.ru/topic/32337-raskritie-tain-drevnosti
06.09.15
Rinat
Everything that is written is good, but how and who can explain the origin of a perfectly flat surface on basalt or granite - one of the hardest types of stone? I’m not even talking about how blocks weighing 50 tons were lifted. And the cuts in these same blocks with a diameter of half a centimeter, provided that modern technology is capable of making the same cut, but with a diameter of three millimeters? These questions will answer themselves for you - the technology used for processing these land rocks was much higher than the technogenic level than ours, which confirms the origin of the cylindrical holes in fragments of one of the buildings, and this same fact contradicts the theory that the ancient Egyptians were able to build it all with their own hands. There is no doubt they did, but if you compare, it is clear that the latter did not have any technological progress at all, but are only a pitiful resemblance those giants about whom there are pros and cons. In addition to everything, an interesting thing can be said is that neither during the Greco-Roman events, nor in our time, not a single manuscript from the era of the reign of the pharaohs was found that would talk about construction these great pyramids. so someone flew in, created a wonder of the world and left without leaving even a little answer to today's questions.....
26.08.08
Novel
I personally assembled and tested a cardboard pyramid at home. All of the above is indeed true. It also revealed a weight loss effect. A person loses 10 kg per week in his sleep without doing anything. I tested it on myself, my wife and my neighbor. I lost weight from 75 kg to 60 and now I can’t gain weight no matter what I eat. My wife (without her knowledge) lost weight from 60 to 50 in a week and thought she was sick. Then I secretly placed a pyramid on my very well-fed neighbor; she weighed at least 100 by eye; she had been buying new things and altering old ones for a month. It probably weighs no more than 70. I'm afraid it will become a mummy. We need to secretly remove the pyramid. I don’t claim a patent, but it seems to me that women can be saved from the scam and “lose weight” for free, and the result is obvious (checked with scales), and not mythical. At the same time, eat what you want and live as you know. Please don’t consider me crazy, I’m ready to answer for all my words with action. Consider this excursion as a free and real way to lose weight. The main thing is to maintain dimensional accuracy when making pyramids.
18.06.05
, [email protected], Sonar
Everything is great. I learned a lot. Thank you, the material helped for the lesson and I myself am interested in Egypt as a whole and in parts.
03.05.05
, [email protected], Zhenya
The Great Pyramids are the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that has survived to this day. Ancient Egypt - one of the earliest states in the world - arose in the valley itself long river our planet Nile, around 3000 BC. e., when the legendary Pharaoh Mena united the country and became the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt. This state existed for more than two and a half thousand years, it was replaced by 30 dynasties before it fell under the attacks of the Persians.
History Ancient Egypt scientists divide into the following eras: First (beginning of 4 thousand BC) and Second (mid 4 thousand BC) predynastic periods; Early Kingdom (XXXII-XXIX centuries BC); Ancient Kingdom (XXIX-XXIII centuries BC); First transition period (XXIII-XXI centuries BC); Middle Kingdom (XXI-XVIII centuries BC); Second transition period (late 18th - mid 16th centuries BC); New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC); Third transition period (XI-X centuries BC); Late Kingdom (IX-VII centuries BC); era of Persian rule (late VI-IV centuries BC). And only a few centuries of the Old Kingdom fell on the era of the pyramid builders.
High Priest holy city Annu, which the Greeks called Heliopolis, the astronomer Imhotep connected the pyramids with the sky. Previously, kings were buried in mastabas, which consisted of an underground burial chamber and rectangular stone structure above the surface of the earth. But Imhotep ordered the construction of five more similar buildings above the mastaba, and received a step pyramid for his pharaoh Djoser. The pharaoh had to ascend to the sky along these steps.
The pyramids of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin located in Giza are called the Great Pyramids. They belong to the period of the IV dynasty. They were not stepped, but smooth pyramidal in shape, lined with white limestone and sparkled in the sun. The Cheops pyramid is made up of 2 million 300 thousand stone blocks, precisely fitted to each other, without any binding substances. The weight of each block is approximately from 2 to 14 tons. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian who visited Egypt two millennia after the construction of the Great Pyramids, wrote that the blocks were lifted using wooden levers from tier to tier along special ramps, and not far from the Cheops pyramid was found An ancient quarry and the remains of a ramp. The remains of a harbor were discovered, where stones were delivered from afar.
Who built the pyramids? According to Herodotus, these were slaves. Moreover, their work was so exhausting that 100 thousand slaves changed there every three months. However, recent archaeological studies refute this claim: the remains of a builders' camp and their burials were found. These were, most likely, free people who performed labor duties and received payment for their work. The workers were divided into teams, and there were even competitions between the teams! However, it is difficult to imagine that construction was abandoned during the Nile flood, when the suffering began - after all, most Egyptians were engaged in agriculture. Most likely, some specialists lived near the pyramids permanently. These people were taken care of and treated well. One construction worker had a craniotomy and another had his leg amputated, but lived for many years after that. After all, building pyramids was not an easy task and required great precision and knowledge.
The pyramids themselves and their structure are fraught with many mysteries. Remains of ditches were found near the pyramids. Probably, the ditches were filled with water and the stone was chipped, focusing on its level, so that the site became level. The ditches were dug so that the structure was located exactly along the cardinal points. The average deviation from the exact direction is only slightly greater than 3°. The architects navigated by the stars, and probably did this with the help of reflections in the water. A thin rope was pulled over a ditch filled with water and moved until its reflection on the surface of the water coincided with the reflection of the star. Researcher Kate Spence thinks these were the stars Mizar and Kohab in the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Perhaps the pyramids were a kind of observatory calendars, because the Egyptians used the stars to determine the beginning of the Nile flood, or the stars simply had a sacred meaning - after all, the Egyptians believed that after death a pharaoh becomes a star in the northern sky. “Star” hypotheses haunt researchers. Robert Bauvel, for example, believes that the system of corridors and cells in Great Pyramid corresponds to the drawing of the constellation Orion, and even the location of the pyramids at Giza also depicts this constellation. Whether this is a coincidence or not is unknown.
It is interesting that the length of the base of the Cheops pyramid is 230 m, its height was originally 146.7 m. Half the perimeter of the base, divided by the height, will give the number 3.137, close to the number π (3.1415). How did the Egyptians know the number pi? This question led to numerous hypotheses, including the existence of an unknown high civilization. In the 20th century discovered a new mystery of the pyramids when the structure of the DNA molecule was deciphered. It turned out that it is a double helix, reminiscent of a ladder of sugar (deoxyribose) and phosphoric acid. The “steps” of this ladder are nitrogenous bases. And they attach to the “sides” of DNA precisely at angles from 50° to 54°, with an average angle of 51°45′. In the Cheops pyramid the angle of inclination of the faces is 51°51′! Did the Egyptians really know the structure of DNA? The answer may be much simpler. This structure is the most durable and it was developed precisely in the process of evolution. The structure of the pyramids is just as strong. The ancient builders, from their own experience and thanks to the calculations available to them, came to the conclusion that it was precisely this tilt that would make the pyramids stable. And they were not mistaken - the ancient pyramids have survived to this day, leaving researchers with a wide field for work.
A story about the pyramids would be incomplete without mentioning the Sphinx. The word is Greek, but what the Egyptians called it is unknown. The Sphinx - a reclining lion with a human head - is the oldest monumental sculpture on earth. The face of the sphinx is believed to represent Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2575-2465 BC), whose pyramid is nearby. But the Sphinx has Negroid features, and other images of Khafre do not confirm this. The date of creation of this sculpture is also unknown. The traces of erosion found on it make us wonder: what if the Sphinx is much older, because heavy rains fell in Egypt 10 thousand years ago. True, erosion can also be explained by the usual destruction of the limestone from which the statue is made. Interestingly, the sphinx's nose is broken off. According to one version, this was done by a Sufi fanatic in 1378, when he saw that peasants were bringing gifts to the sphinx in the hope of a good harvest. He became angry and struck the statue, for which he was torn to pieces by the crowd. This story confirms that even in the era of Islam, the Egyptians continued to worship the ancient deity. Means, ancient civilization continued to live in the memory of the people, and not only in historical works.
