The Egyptian pyramids are the first wonder of the world. The first wonder of the world: the Egyptian pyramids The Egyptian pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world
One of the most ancient and, nevertheless, the brightest Wonders of the World are the Great Pyramids located in Giza (Egypt). The complex of Gisaean buildings is the greatest architectural monument ever created by man. In total, more than a hundred pyramidal structures were found on the territory of Egypt, but most of them did not stand the test of time.
Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramid of Cheops
The largest of the Giza complex, the Cheops pyramid is the largest building structure in the world. Its base is a square with a side of as much as 227.5 meters. It is assumed that the original height of the structure was 146 meters, but several of the upper stones were destroyed, and today the pyramid is 9 meters lower.
Engineering studies have shown that the largest architectural monument of Giza consists of 2.3 million stone blocks, each of which weighs at least 2.5 tons. The total volume of the building is 2.34 million cubic meters. The faces of the pyramid are deployed to the cardinal points, and the entrance inside is from the north.
A distinctive feature of the structure is that every single building block is so well fitted to each other that even now, after several thousand years, it is impossible to stick even the thinnest blade between them. In addition, the researchers found that the mortar, which held the structural elements together, is superior in strength to any modern material.
The purpose of the pyramids
There are no inscriptions, drawings and decorations in the pyramid of Cheops. 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. Long-term studies 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, let's leave historians and archaeologists questions about the origin and purpose of building such an amazing complex of buildings, the entrance to which is protected by the Great Sphinx - the largest monolithic sculpture on the planet. For us, the Pyramids of Giza, with which many legends are associated, remain one of the most striking and unusual examples of the height of engineering.
Pyramids of Egypt- the most famous buildings on Earth. And the most ancient, because they are already five thousand years old! It is probably impossible to find a person who has not heard of them. Unless somewhere in the jungles of Polynesia you can meet people so far cut off from civilization. However, very few can say anything about them.
These giant tombs of the fourth dynasty of the pharaohs stand on the outskirts of Cairo, as if specifically to make it convenient for tourists to take a taxi to them. But this, of course, is not the case. For five thousand years, the capital of Egypt moved from city to city many, many times, while the pyramids always remained in one place - in the lower reaches of the Nile, where roads leading to Asia and Europe intersect. So it would be more correct to say that the capital returned to them.
For a very, very long time, the Egyptian pyramids were the tallest structures on Earth. Only at the end of the nineteenth century, when the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris, did it overtake the pyramid of Cheops in height. And all the same, it remained a formal game of numbers - they are too dissimilar to each other.
And if you try to imagine the weight of the pyramid - and it weighs more than six million tons, then this is quite commensurate with the weight of all the buildings of Moscow within the Garden Ring. It turns out that a whole city is hidden in one pyramid.
But what is most striking is that all this is built by hand, without mechanisms. Only wooden wedges and sledgehammers helped people cut down huge blocks of limestone, and dragged them into place with papyrus ropes. The pyramid took twenty years to build, and every three months a hundred thousand workers came to the construction site. How many of them survived to the end of this period, history is silent. Most likely, there were not so many of them.
Why did people build such grandiose structures that required such great efforts and sacrifices? It is very difficult for a modern person to understand this, although this riddle is not so complicated.
In ancient times, kings were considered direct descendants of the gods, which means that their word was the law for everyone. Therefore, the ruler, as in a well-known fairy tale, could well order his subject: “Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.”
He had enough money, because both the conquered peoples and his own people paid tribute to him. Perhaps it would even be more correct to say that he had a lot of extra money, because he could no longer eat - drink the surplus, and the thought of distributing it to those in need simply did not occur to him. There were no such cases in history.
And in order to show everyone his greatness, the ruler ordered the architect: “Build something that has not been seen anywhere else in the world, so grandiose that the gods rejoice. And let this building reach the sky!” Such a task was difficult, but it did not seem impossible. Indeed, in ancient times, people were sure that the sky is solid and is not very high.
Moreover, the gods sit on it, like on a platform, and look at them from above, so if you get closer to them, they will definitely see and hear a person.
The great architect of the ancient world, Imhotep, was the one who could figure out how to fulfill such a task of the pharaoh. He proposed to build a multi-storey pyramid of stone, where each next floor would be smaller than the previous one.
Prior to that, stone was not used for construction in Egypt, houses were built from wood and reed, smeared with clay, and unbaked brick was used for palaces and tombs. And all the buildings had a rectangular shape, like a matchbox. Imhotep also suggested putting such "matchboxes" on top of each other, gradually reducing them to the top.
But here's what's interesting: this form was not at all unique to the ancient world. Around the same time, in the neighboring state - in Mesopotamia - they built huge ziggurats. This was the name of the multi-storey pyramids made of clay bricks, on top of which a temple was placed. Probably, they hoped that in this way God would better hear the requests addressed to him.
And it is even more remarkable that very similar stone pyramids with temples on top were built on the other side of the Earth, in America. And if Egypt and Mesopotamia can still argue about who first came up with the pyramid, then the Americans almost certainly came up with it themselves.
Well, in Egypt, where the living God ruled the people, there was no need to build a temple on top. The pyramids themselves with all their appearance inspired awe of the pharaoh, especially since in the time of Herodotus they were dazzling white and absolutely smooth.
Only much later, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, a strong earthquake occurred in those places, and the white lining crumbled. Ledges appeared on the walls of the pyramids, along which tourists quite successfully climb today, who do not at all have lofty feelings for the long-disappeared pharaohs.
Wonder of the World #5: Pyramids of Egypt
The pyramids of Egypt are the oldest of the wonders of the world, which, moreover, have survived to this day. Of course, one can argue for a long time who created these amazing stone mountains, which seem to stand forever: the desert will be replaced by a humid forest, the forest will be replaced by the desert again, and they will still remain towering above the ground, inspiring respect for their creators.
Now they are already talking about the hand of aliens, about the Atlanteans, who supposedly helped the ancient builders. Even the dates are not those that are accepted. But so far these are only hypotheses, and the official version remains the same.
It is believed that the Egyptian pharaoh Djoser (ruled around 2780-2760 BC) erected the first pyramid. There are legends that the main role in the creation of this huge structure (about 60 meters high) was played by the great figure of those times, Imhotep. (Didn't we see his free interpretation not so long ago in The Mummy?) From a later time, statuettes depicting this remarkable architect have been preserved. Apparently, Pharaoh Djoser himself was so pleased with the unprecedented tomb built by Imhotep that he allowed the name of the architect to be carved on the base of his statue - an honor completely unheard of in ancient Egypt. 
During excavations of the mortuary temple, located near the pyramid of Djoser, scientists found fragments of several statues of the pharaoh and among them a pedestal on which the name of Imhotep was written.
One of the first ancient scientists who reported on the pyramids was Herodotus. According to his stories, in order to drag boulders up, an inclined embankment was built. Subsequently, it was leveled. Along it, the builders, driven by the sticks of the overseers, pulled heavy stones on ropes, which were set in place with the help of a wooden lever. How many people died under the weight of a broken block of stone, how many were crippled when laying stones, how many died from overwork here, at the still unfinished walls of the pyramid! And this is for twenty long years. When the laying of the pyramid was completed, its steps were laid with facing blocks. They were brought from the quarries located in Upper Egypt, near Aswan. On the ledges of the pyramid, the facing blocks were lifted up and laid from top to bottom. Then they were polished. Under the rays of the southern sun, they shone with a dazzling brilliance against the cloudless Egyptian sky. Herodotus tells that the construction of the pyramid of Khufu lasted about twenty years. Every three months, workers changed, the number of which reached 100,000 people. Scourge of overseers, debilitating heat, inhuman labor did their job. After all, there were no machines for lifting two-ton limestone blocks. Everything was done only with the help of living human power. Even if we accept taking into account that Herodotus made a number of obvious exaggerations and inaccuracies, all the same, the figures he cited give an idea of the grandiose scope of work undertaken by Cheops to create a colossal tomb.In the same story, Herodotus mentions an inscription made on the pyramid, which indicated the amount, spent on onions, garlic and radishes for the workers was equal to 1600 talents. "If this is true," exclaims Herodotus, "then how much should be spent on iron tools for work, on food and clothing for workers?"
The pyramids are constantly explored and very often they find something interesting, which immediately gives rise to new myths and mysteries. Now the so-called mines in the Great Pyramid of Cheops are being intensively studied. Interesting hypotheses are put forward by scientists R. Buval and E. Gilbert in their best-selling book "Secrets of the Pyramids" ...
The Great Pyramids are the only one of the seven wonders of the world of antiquity that has survived to this day. Ancient Egypt - one of the earliest states in the world - arose in the valley of the longest river of our planet, the 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 changed 30 dynasties before it fell under the blows of the Persians.
Scientists divide the history of Ancient Egypt into the following eras: First (beginning 4 thousand BC) and Second (mid 4 thousand BC) predynastic periods; Early Kingdom (XXXII-XXIX centuries BC); Ancient Kingdom (XXIX-XXIII centuries BC); First transitional period (XXIII-XXI centuries BC); Middle Kingdom (XXI-XVIII centuries BC); Second transitional period (late 18th - mid-16th centuries BC); New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC); Third transitional period (XI-X centuries BC); Late kingdom (IX-VII centuries BC); the era of Persian domination (end of VI-IV centuries BC). And only a few centuries of the Old Kingdom fell on the era of the builders of the pyramids.
The high priest of the sacred city of Anna, 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 a rectangular stone structure above the ground. But Imhotep ordered five more of the same buildings to be erected over the mastaba, and received a step pyramid for his pharaoh Djoser. On these steps the pharaoh had to rise to the sky.
The pyramids of the pharaohs Cheops, Khafre and Mykerin located in Giza are called the Great Pyramids. They belong to the period of the IV dynasty. They were not stepped, but a smooth pyramidal shape, lined with white limestone and sparkling in the sun. The pyramid of Cheops is made up of 2 million 300 thousand stone blocks, precisely fitted to each other, without any binders. 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 with 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 found, where stones were delivered from afar.
And who built the pyramids? According to Herodotus, they were slaves. Moreover, their work was so exhausting that 100 thousand slaves were replaced there every three months. However, recent archaeological research refutes this statement: the remains of the builders' camp and their burial places have been found. These were, most likely, free people who performed labor duties and received payment for their work. The workers were divided into brigades, and there were even competitions between the brigades! However, it is hard to imagine that construction was abandoned during the flood of the Nile, when the suffering began - after all, most Egyptians were engaged in agriculture. Most likely, some specialists lived near the pyramids all the time. These people were taken care of and treated well. One builder had a craniotomy and another had his leg amputated, but after that he lived for many more years. After all, the construction of the pyramids was not an easy task and required great precision and knowledge.
The pyramids themselves, their device, are fraught with many mysteries. The remains of ditches were found near the pyramids. Probably, the ditches were filled with water, and the stone was cut off, focusing on its level, so that the platform became flat. Ditches were dug so that the building was located exactly on the cardinal points. The average deviation from the exact direction is only slightly more than 3°. The architects were guided by the stars, and they did this, probably with the help of reflections in the water. A thin rope was stretched over a ditch filled with water and moved until its reflection on the surface of the water coincided with the reflection of a star. Researcher Kate Spence thinks that these were the stars Mizar and Kochab in the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Perhaps the pyramids were a kind of observatory calendars, because the Egyptians determined the beginning of the Nile flood by the stars, or the stars simply had a sacred meaning - after all, the Egyptians believed that the pharaoh after death becomes a star in the northern sky. "Star" hypotheses haunt researchers. Robert Bauval, for example, believes that the system of corridors and chambers in the Great Pyramid corresponds to the pattern of the constellation Orion, and even the location of the pyramids in Giza also depicts this constellation. Whether this is a coincidence or not is unknown.
Interestingly, the length of the base of the pyramid of Cheops is 230 m, its height was originally 146.7 m. Half the perimeter of the base, divided by the height, will give a number of 3.137, close to the number π (3.1415). How did the Egyptians know the number pi? This question has led to numerous hypotheses, up to the existence of an unknown high civilization. In the XX 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, resembling 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°, on average at an angle of 51°45'. In the pyramid of Cheops, 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. Such a 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 such an inclination 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.
The story of the pyramids would be incomplete without the mention of 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 you think: what if the Sphinx is much older, because it rained heavily 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 was broken off. According to one version, this was done by a Sufi fanatic in 1378, when he saw that the peasants brought gifts to the sphinx in the hope of a good harvest. He became angry and struck the statue with a blow, for which he was torn to pieces by the crowd. This story confirms that 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.
You may be interested in:
Seven Wonders ancient world- famous list ancient monuments, compiled by ancient historians and travelers, including the "father of history" Herodotus.
The list was repeatedly edited, and its classical version was formed 2.2 thousand years ago thanks to the efforts of Philo of Byzantium. The list of "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" includes: the pyramid of Cheops, " hanging gardens» Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the mausoleum in Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the lighthouse on the island. Pharos in Alexandria.
Pyramid of Cheops, Egypt
Pyramid of Cheops, or Great Pyramid is the only one of the 7 wonders of the world that has survived to this day. The age of the building is 4500 years. 120 thousand Egyptians for 20 years in the sweat of their faces erected a grandiose pharaoh's tomb. The pyramid of Cheops is made up of 2.5 million blocks weighing 2.5 tons each. Without the use of cement and other fasteners, the blocks are so tightly fitted to each other that the gap between them does not exceed 0.5 mm.
Initially, the pyramid had a height of 147 meters, but even today, when its top is destroyed, and the most high point is located at around 138 meters, the tomb of Cheops still makes a majestic impression. For almost 4000 years, until the XIV century AD, the Pyramid of Cheops bore the title of the highest building in the world.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Asia
Around 600 BC on the territory of modern Iraq, ancient Babylon was noisy. The city reached its peak under King Nebuchadnezzar II, who entered into a military alliance with his main enemy - Assyria and intermarried with the Median king Cyaxares, marrying his daughter Amitis (Semiramide). For his wife, the king ordered to build the famous "hanging gardens". The gardens were located on a four-tiered platform, reminiscent of an ever-blooming green hill. The base of the terraces was built of stone blocks covered with a layer of reeds and filled with asphalt. Then there was a double layer of brick, even higher - lead plates to prevent seepage of irrigation water. A fertile layer of soil was laid on top of this structure, on which trees, palm trees, and flowers were grown. Magnificent gardens, raised to a great height, seemed like a real wonder of the world in sultry, dusty Babylonia.
Statue of Zeus, Olympia, Greece
In 435 BC. e. in Olympia - one of the sanctuaries of Ancient Greece - a majestic temple was built in honor of the ruler of the gods - Zeus. Inside the temple was placed a huge 20-meter statue of the Olympian god, seated on a throne. The sculpture was made of wood, on top of which ivory plates were glued, imitating the upper naked part of the body of Zeus. God's clothes and shoes are covered with gold. In his left hand, Zeus held a scepter with an eagle, and in his right hand, a statue of the goddess of victory.
Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, Turkey
The Temple of Artemis was built in 560 BC. King Croesus of Lydia in the city of Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor. The huge white marble temple was framed by 127 columns 18 meters high. Inside was a statue of Artemis, the goddess of fertility, made of gold and ivory. In 356 BC. one conceited inhabitant of Ephesus, Herostratus, set fire to the temple, thus deciding to become famous and perpetuate his name. The Sanctuary of Artemis was rebuilt, but in 263 it was destroyed and plundered by the Goths.
Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, Turkey
The ruler of Caria, Mausolus, was still alive in 353 BC. began the construction of his own tomb in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey). The grandiose burial structure 46 meters high, girded with 36 columns and crowned with a statue of a chariot, made such a strong impression on contemporaries that since then all monumental tombs have been called mausoleums after King Mausolus.
Colossus of Rhodes, Greece
A giant statue of the ancient Greek sun god Helios was installed at the entrance to the port of Rhodes in 292-280. BC e .. A slender youth-god, sculpted in full growth, held a torch in his hand. Ships sailed between the legs of the statue. For only 65 years, the Colossus of Rhodes stood in its place: in 222 BC. it was destroyed by an earthquake. Fragments of the sculpture were transported on 900 camels.
Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt
