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| The Great Pyramid |
Until the Eiffel Tower was completed
in Paris, France in 1889, the Great Pyramid was
the tallest structure made by human hands in the world; a record it held for
over 3,000 years and one unlikely to be broken. Other scholars have pointed to
the Lincoln Cathedral spire in England, built in 1300, as the
structure which finally surpassed the Great Pyramid in height
but, still, the Egyptian monument held the title for an
impressive span of time.
The pyramid rises to a height of 479
feet (146 meters) with a base of 754 feet (230 meters) and is comprised of over
two million blocks of stone. Some of these stones are of such immense size and
weight (such as the granite slabs in the King's Chamber) that the logistics of
raising and positioning them so precisely seems an impossibility by modern
standards.
The pyramid was first excavated using
modern techniques and scientific analysis in 1880 by Sir William Matthew
Flinders Petrie (l.1853-1942), the British archaeologist who set the
standard for archaeological operations in Egypt generally and at Giza
specifically
Although many theories persist as to
the purpose of the pyramid, the most widely accepted understanding is that it
was constructed as a tomb for the king. Exactly how it was built, however,
still puzzles people in the modern day. The theory of ramps running around the
outside of the structure to move the blocks into place is still debated by
historians. So-called "fringe" or "New Age" theories
abound, in an effort to explain the advanced technology required for the
structure, citing extra-terrestrials and their imagined frequent visits to
Egypt in antiquity.
These theories continue to be advanced
in spite of the increasing body of evidence substantiating that the pyramid was
built by the ancient Egyptians using technological means
which, most likely, were so common to them that they felt no need to record
them. Still, the intricacy of the interior passages, shafts, and chambers (The
King's Chamber, Queen's Chamber, and Grand Gallery) as well as the nearby Osiris Shaft,
coupled with the mystery of how the pyramid was built at all and its
orientation to cardinal points, encourages the persistence of these fringe
theories.
Another enduring theory regarding the
monument's construction is that it was built on the backs of slaves. Contrary
to the popular opinion that Egyptian monuments in general, and the Great
Pyramid in particular, were built using Hebrew slave labor, the pyramids of
Giza and all other temples and monuments in the country were constructed by
Egyptians who were hired for their skills and compensated for their efforts. No
evidence of any kind whatsoever - from any era of Egypt's history - supports
the narrative events described in the biblical Book of Exodus.
Worker's housing at Giza was discovered
and fully documented in 1979 by Egyptologists Lehner and Hawass but, even
before this evidence came to light, ancient Egyptian documentation
substantiated payment to Egyptian workers for state-sponsored monuments while
offering no evidence of forced labor by a slave population of any particular
ethnic group. Egyptians from all over the country worked on the monument, for a
variety of reasons, to build an eternal home for their king which would last
through eternity.
Pyramids & the Giza Plateau
Toward the end of the early dynastic period (c. 3150-c.2613 BCE), the vizier Imhotep ((c.
2667-2600 BCE) devised a means of creating an elaborate tomb, unlike any other,
for his king Djoser. Prior to Djoser's reign (c. 2670 BCE), tombs
were constructed of mud fashioned into modest mounds known as mastabas. Imhotep
conceived of a then-radical plan of not only building a mastaba out of stone
but of stacking these structures on top of one another in steps to create an
enormous, lasting, monument. His vision led to the creation of Djoser's Step
Pyramid at Saqqara, still standing in the present day, the oldest pyramid in
the world.
Still, the Step Pyramid was not a
"true pyramid" and, in the period of the Old Kingdom (c.
2613-2181 BCE) King Sneferu (r.c. 2613-2589 BCE) sought to improve on
Imhotep's plans and create an even more impressive monument. His first attempt,
the Collapsed Pyramid at Meidum, failed because he departed too widely from
Imhotep's design. Sneferu learned from his mistake, however, and went to work
on another - the Bent Pyramid - which also failed because of miscalculations in
the angle from base to summit. Undeterred, Sneferu took what he learned from
that experience and built the Red Pyramid, the first true pyramid constructed
in Egypt.
Building a pyramid required enormous
resources and the maintenance of a wide array of all kinds of skilled and
unskilled workers. The kings of the 4th Dynasty - often referred to as
"the pyramid builders" - were able to command these resources because
of the stability of the government and the wealth they acquired through trade.
A strong central government, and a surplus of wealth, were both vital to any
efforts at pyramid building, and these resources were passed from Sneferu, upon
his death, to his son Khufu.
Khufu seems to have set to work on
building his grand tomb shortly after coming to power. The rulers of the Old
Kingdom governed from the city of Memphis and the nearby
necropolis of Saqqara was already dominated by Djoser's pyramid complex while
other sites such as Dashur had been used by Sneferu. An older necropolis,
however, was also close by and this was Giza. Khufu's mother, Hetepheres I
(l.c. 2566 BCE), was buried there and there were no other great monuments to
compete for attention close by; so Khufu chose Giza as the site for his
pyramid.
Construction of the Pyramid
The first step in constructing a
pyramid, after deciding upon the best location, was organizing the crews and
allocating resources. This was the job of the second-most powerful man in
Egypt, the vizier. Khufu's vizier was Hemiunu, his nephew, credited with the
design and building of the Great Pyramid. Hemiunu's father, Nefermaat (Khufu's
brother) had been Sneferu's vizier in his pyramid-building projects and it is
probable he learned a great deal about construction from these experiences.
The vizier was the final architect of
any building project and had to delegate responsibility for materials,
transport, labor, payments, and any other aspect of the work. Written receipts,
letters, diary entries, and official reports to and from the palace all
make clear that a great building project was accomplished at Giza under Khufu's
reign but only some of these pieces of evidence suggest exactly how the pyramid
was created. The technological skill evident in the creation of the Great
Pyramid still mystifies scholars
It is precisely the skill and
technology required to "create the desired shape" which presents the
problem to anyone trying to understand how the Great Pyramid was built.
Modern-day theories continue to fall back on the concept of ramps which were
raised around the foundation of the pyramid and grew higher as the structure
grew taller. The ramp theory, still debated, maintains that, once the
foundation was firm, these ramps could have easily been raised around the
structure as it was built and provided the means for hauling and positioning
tons of stones in precise order.
Aside from the problems of a lack of wood in Egypt to make an abundance of such ramps, the angles workers would have had to move the stones up, and the impossibility of moving heavy stone bricks and granite slabs into position without a crane (which the Egyptians did not have), the most serious problem comes down to the total impracticability of the ramp theory.
A variation on the ramp theory was
proposed by the French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin who claims ramps were used
inside of the pyramid. Houdin believes that ramps may have been used externally
in the initial stages of construction but, as the pyramid grew taller, work was
done internally. The quarried stones were brought in through the entrance and
moved up the ramps to their position. This, Houdin claims, would account for
the shafts one finds inside the pyramid. This theory, however, does not account
for the weight of the stones or the number of workers on the ramp required to
move them up an angle inside the pyramid and into position.
The ramp theory in either of these
forms fails to explain how the pyramid was built while a much more satisfactory
possibility rests right below the monument: the high water table of the Giza
plateau. Engineer Robert Carson, in his work The Great Pyramid: The
Inside Story, suggests that the pyramid was built using water power. Carson
also suggests the use of ramps but in a much more cogent fashion: the interior
ramps were supplemented by hydraulic power from below and hoists from above.
Although the Egyptians had no knowledge
of a crane as one would understand that mechanism in the present day, they did
have the shaduf, a long pole with a bucket and rope at one end and
counterweight at the other, typically used for drawing water from a well.
Hydraulic power from below, coupled with hoists from above could have moved the
stones throughout the interior of the pyramid and this would also account for
the shafts and spaces one finds in the monument which other theories have
failed to fully account for.
It is abundantly clear that the water
table at Giza is still quite high in the present day and was higher in the
past. Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, writing on his excavation of the Osiris Shaft
near the Great Pyramid in 1999, notes how "the excavation proved to be
very challenging mainly due to the dangerous nature of the work caused by the
high water table" (381). In the same article, Hawass notes how, in 1945,
guides at Giza were regularly swimming in the waters of this underground shaft
and that "the rising water table in the shaft prevented scholars from
studying it further" (379).
Further, earlier attempts to excavate
the Osiris Shaft - by Selim Hassan in the 1930s - and observations (though no
excavation) of the shaft by Abdel Moneim Abu Bakr in the
1940s - also make note of this same high water table. Geological surveys have
determined that the Giza plateau and surrounding region were much more fertile
in the time of the Old Kingdom than it is today and that the water table would
have been higher.
Considering this, Carson's theory of
water power used in building the pyramid makes the most sense. Carson claims
the monument "could only be constructed by means of hydraulic power; that
a hydraulic transportation system was set up inside the Great Pyramid"
(5). Harnessing the power of the high water table, the ancient builders could
have constructed the pyramid much more reasonably than by some form of exterior
ramping system.
Once the interior was completed, the
whole of the pyramid was covered in white limestone which would have shone
brilliantly and been visible from every direction for miles around the site. As
impressive as the Great Pyramid is today, one must recognize that it is a
monument in ruin as the limestone long ago fell away and was utilized as a building material for the city of Cairo (just as the nearby city of ancient
Memphis was).
When it was completed, the Great
Pyramid must have appeared as the most striking creation the Egyptians had ever
seen. Even today, in its greatly weathered state, the Great Pyramid inspires
awe. The sheer size and scope of the project are literally amazing.
The workers who accomplished this were
skilled and unskilled laborers hired by the state for the project. These
workers either volunteered their efforts to pay off a debt, for community
service or were compensated for their time. Although slavery was an
institution practiced in ancient Egypt, no slaves, Hebrew or otherwise, were
used in creating the monument.
The yearly inundation of the Nile River
was essential for the livelihood of the Egyptians in that it deposited rich
soil from the riverbed all across the farmlands of the shore; it also, however,
made farming those lands an impossibility during the time of the flood. During
these periods, the government provided work for the farmers through labor on
their great monuments. These were the people who did the actual, physical, work
in moving the stones, raising the obelisks, building the temples, and creating the
pyramids which continue to fascinate and inspire people in the present day.
It is a disservice to their efforts and
their memory, not to mention the grand culture of the
Egyptians, to continue to insist that these structures were created by poorly
treated slaves who were forced into their condition because of ethnicity. The
biblical Book of Exodus is a cultural myth purposefully created to distinguish
one group of people living in the land of Canaan from others
and should not be regarded as history.
The Great Pyramid as Tomb
All of this effort went to creating a
grand tomb for the king who, as a mediator between the gods and the people, was
thought to be deserving of the finest of tombs. Theories regarding the original
purpose of the Great Pyramid range from the fanciful to the absurd, and may be
investigated elsewhere, but the culture which produced the monument would have
regarded it as a tomb, an eternal home for the king.
Tombs that have been excavated
throughout Egypt, from the most modest to the rich example of Tutankhamun's
- along with other physical evidence - make clear the ancient Egyptian belief
in a life after death and the concern for the soul's welfare in this new
world. Grave goods were always placed in the tomb of the
deceased as well as, in wealthier tombs, inscriptions, and paintings on the
walls (known as the Pyramid Texts, in some cases). The Great
Pyramid is simply the grandest form of one of these tombs.
Arguments against the Great Pyramid as
a tomb cite the fact that no mummies or grave goods have ever been found
inside. This argument willfully ignores the plentiful evidence of grave robbing
from ancient times to the present. Egyptologists from the 19th century onwards
have recognized that the Great Pyramid was looted in antiquity and, most
likely, during the time of the New Kingdom (c. 1570-1069 BCE)
when the Giza necropolis was replaced by the area now known as The Valley of
the Kings near Thebes.
This is not to suggest that Giza was
forgotten, there is ample evidence of New Kingdom pharaohs such as Ramesses the
Great (r. 1279-1213 BCE) taking great interest in the site. Rameses II had a
small temple built at Giza in front of the Sphinx as
a token of honor and it was Rameses II's fourth son, Khaemweset,
who devoted himself to preserving the site. Khaemweset never ruled Egypt but
was a crown prince whose efforts to restore the monuments of the past are well
documented. He is, in fact, considered the world's "first
Egyptologist" for his work in the restoration, preservation, and recording of
ancient monuments and especially for his work at Giza.
Further, work conducted on the Osiris
Shaft - and other areas around the site - have shown activity during the 26th
Dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1069-525 BCE) and
into the Late Period (c. 525-332 BCE). Giza was, therefore, an active site
throughout Egypt's history but was not always given the kind of attention it
received during the Old Kingdom.
Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BCE,
reported that the Great Pyramid had been looted and visitors to the site in
the modern-day enter through the so-called Robbers Tunnel created c. 820 by
Caliph al-Ma'mun seeking to recover whatever treasures the pyramid held inside.
Tomb robbers before and after the caliph had also visited the pyramid prior to
the excavations of the 19th century. Whatever treasures the pyramid may have
held in the time of Khufu could have been removed at any time from the Old
Kingdom onward.
The Giza Plateau
Following Khufu's death, his son Khafre
(r. 2558-2532 BCE) took the throne and began building his own pyramid next to
his father's. King Menkaure (r. 2532-2503 BCE) came after Khafre and
followed the same paradigm of building his eternal home in Giza. Khafre and
Menkaure added their own temple complexes and monuments, such as the Great Sphinx of Giza under Khafre's reign, but these were on a smaller scale
than that of Khufu's work.
It is no accident or mystery as to why
the Great Pyramid is the largest and the other two are progressively smaller:
as the period of the Old Kingdom continued, with the government's emphasis on
grand building projects, resources became more and more scarce. Menkaure's
successor, Shepseskaf (r. 2503-2498 BCE) had the resources to complete
Menkaure's pyramid complex but could afford no such luxury for himself; he was
buried in a modest mastaba tomb at Saqqara.
Still, Giza continued to be regarded as an
important site, and funds were allocated as long as they were available for its
upkeep. Giza was a thriving community for centuries with temples, shops, a
marketplace, housing, and a sturdy economy. Individuals in the
present day speculating on the lonely, deserted, mystical outpost of Giza
ignore the evidence of what the complex would have been like for most of
Egypt's long history.
The present-day understanding of the
plateau as some isolated outpost of monuments encourages theories that do not
align with how Giza actually was when those monuments were constructed.
Theories suggesting mysterious tunnels beneath the plateau have been debunked -
yet still persist - including speculations concerning the Osiris Shaft.
This complex of underground chambers
was most likely dug, as Hawass contends, in honor of the god Osiris
and may or may not have been where King Khufu was originally laid to rest.
Herodotus mentions the Osiris Shaft (though not by that name, which was only
given to it recently by Hawass) in writing of Khufu's burial chamber
which was said to be surrounded by water.
Excavations of the shaft and the
chambers have recovered artifacts dating from the Old Kingdom through the Third
Intermediate Period but no tunnels branching out beneath the plateau. Osiris,
as lord of the dead, would certainly have been honored at Giza, and underground
chambers recognizing him as ruler in the afterlife were not uncommon throughout
Egypt's history.
Although the Great Pyramid of Giza, and
the other smaller pyramids, temples, monuments, and tombs there, continued to
be respected throughout Egypt's history, the site fell into decline after
the Roman occupation and then annexation of the country in 30
BCE. The Romans concentrated their energies on the city of Alexandria and
the abundant crops the country offered, making Egypt Rome's
"bread basket", as the phrase goes.
The site was more or less neglected
until Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign of 1798-1801 during which he brought along
his team of scholars and scientists to document ancient Egyptian
culture and monuments. Napoleon's work in Egypt attracted others to
the country who then inspired still others to visit, make their own
observations, and conduct their own excavations.
Throughout the 19th century, ancient
Egypt became increasingly the object of interest for people around the world.
Professional and amateur archaeologists descended upon the country seeking to
exploit or explore the ancient culture for their own ends or in the interests
of science and knowledge. The Great Pyramid was first fully
excavated professionally by the British archaeologist Sir William Matthew
Flinders Petrie whose work on the monument lay the foundation for others
who followed up to the present day.
Flinders Petrie was obviously
interested in exploring every nuance of the Great Pyramid but not at the
expense of the monument itself. His excavations were performed with great care
in an effort to preserve the historical authenticity of the work he was
examining. Although this may seem a common sense approach in the modern day,
many European explorers before Flinders Petrie, archaeologists professional and
amateur, brushed aside any concerns of preservation in pursuing their goal of
unearthing ancient treasure troves and bringing antiquities back to their
patrons. Flinders Petrie established the protocol regarding ancient monuments in
Egypt which is still adhered to in the present day. His vision inspired those
who came after him and it is largely due to his efforts that people today can
still admire and appreciate the monument known as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
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