1, history
The Egyptian pyramids were built before 2600 BC, with more than 70 pyramids, most of which are located in the desert of Giza Plateau in the southwest of Cairo. They are recognized as one of the "ancient eight wonders of the world" in the world. Among them, the largest and most famous are the three generations of pyramids-pyramid of khufu, Havla Pyramid and Menkoala Pyramid. Among them, pyramid of khufu is the most important, equivalent to a 40-story skyscraper. It is said that one hundred thousand people worked under the scorching sun and the whip of the supervisor, and it took ten years to build stone tunnels and catacombs, and it took another twenty years to build the tower. The whole project lasted for more than thirty years. It is generally believed that the pyramids are the tombs of pharaohs (kings) in ancient Egypt.
Most research data show that there are seventy pyramids in Egypt. In 1842, Karl Richard Lepsius made a list of Egyptian pyramids. At that time, he counted 67 pyramids, but in his later archaeological career, he identified and discovered more pyramids. Many inaccurate counts are related to many poorly preserved remains of small golden pagodas and gravels. It is often difficult to confirm whether the tombs are pyramid-shaped structures, but they do exist and have been studied and identified by archaeologists. Most of them will classify and group these difficult-to-confirm relics, and the most important observation range is from north to south.
65438+On February 26th, 2007, the head of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities announced that Egypt would pass laws applicable to all parts of the world, requiring those who copied Egyptian monuments such as the pyramids or the Sphinx to pay copyright fees as maintenance fees for thousands of Egyptian pharaoh monuments, but artists from all countries are not prohibited from copying pharaoh monuments and Egyptian monuments in various periods to gain benefits through painting or other means, as long as these works are not 100%.
The pyramids are the tombs of slavery kings in ancient Egypt, and these rulers called them "pharaohs" in history. Ancient Egyptians' devout belief in God made them form a deep-rooted "concept of the afterlife" very early. They even think that "life is only a short stay, and after death it is a permanent enjoyment". Therefore, the Egyptians regarded the underworld as a continuation of earthly life. Influenced by this concept of the afterlife, the ancient Egyptians made sincere and confident preparations for their own death when they were alive. Every rich Egyptian should be busy preparing his grave and decorating it with various objects in order to gain eternal life after death. As far as Pharaoh or aristocrat is concerned, he will spend several years, even decades, building a mausoleum, and will also order craftsmen to use mural paintings and wooden models of the mausoleum to describe the activities he will continue to engage in after his death, such as sailing, hunting, feasting and so on, as well as the work that servants should do, so that he can live as comfortable as before. The ancient Egyptians called it "Mastaba". Later, a clever young man named Imhotep invented a new building method when designing a mausoleum for the Egyptian Pharaoh Zuosai.
Finally, a six-level trapezoidal pyramid is built-this is the prototype of the pyramid we see. It looks like the Chinese character "Jin", so we call it "Pyramid". The tower mausoleum designed by Imhotep is the first stone mausoleum in Egyptian history.
After King Zuo Sai, the Egyptian Pharaoh followed his example and built a mausoleum for himself before he died. Since then, ancient Egypt has set off a wind to build pyramids. Because the pyramids originated in the ancient kingdom period, and the largest pyramids were built in this period. The ancient Egyptians produced a king who wanted to be a god after his death. "A ladder to heaven was built for him (Pharaoh) so that he could ascend to heaven from there." The pyramid is such a ladder. At the same time, the pyramid form also expresses the worship of the sun god, because the symbol of the ancient Egyptian sun god "La" is the light of the sun. It's like picking your eyes. Later, the worship of the obelisk by ancient Egyptians also had such significance, because the obelisk also represented the light of the sun.
The largest of all the pyramids in ancient Egypt is the pyramid of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Khufu. The original height of the Great Pyramid was 146.59 meters. After thousands of years of wind and rain, the top has been eroded by nearly 10 meter. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world until it was built in Paris in 1889. The pyramid of Khufu is not only amazing in scale, but also famous for its superb architectural skills. There is no cement or other adhesive between the stones of the tower, but one stone is stacked on another. Every stone has been ground down for thousands of years. Even so, it is difficult for people to insert a sharp blade into the gap between stones, so it can last for thousands of years without falling down. This is a miracle in the history of architecture. In addition, on the north side of the Great Pyramid, there is a triangular entrance composed of four huge stones, and the height from the ground is 13 meters. This triangle is cleverly used, because if a quadrilateral is used instead of a triangle, then the huge pressure of the pyramid with a height of 100 meters will collapse the entrance. With the triangle, the great pressure is evenly dispersed. It is really remarkable to have such an understanding and application of mechanical principles more than 4,000 years ago and to have such a structure.
Shortly after Khufu's death, another pyramid was built not far from his Great Pyramid. This is the pyramid of Khufu's son, Ha Raf. It is 3 meters lower than pyramid of khufu, but it seems to be higher than pyramid of khufu because of its higher terrain. Near the tower, there is a big statue carved with khalaf's head and the lion's body, the so-called Sphinx. Except the lion is made of stone, the whole Sphinx is chiseled on a huge natural rock. It has a history of more than 4500 years.
Why did you carve it into a lion's body? In ancient Egyptian mythology, the lion was the guardian of various mysterious places and the gateway to the underground world. Because Pharaoh will become a sun god after his death, he built such a sphinx to guard the portal for Pharaoh.
After the fourth dynasty, although other pharaohs built many pyramids, their scale and quality could not be compared with the above pyramids. After the Sixth Dynasty, with the division of the ancient kingdom and the decline of Pharaoh's power, the resistance of the Egyptian people and the robbery of some people, Pharaoh's "mummies" were often dragged out of the pyramids, so Egyptian pharaohs stopped building pyramids and dug secret graves on the mountains.
2. Buildings
Among the numerous pyramids, the three pyramids in Giza are the most famous in the world, and the three most magnificent and complete ones are King Khufu, King Kabra and King Menkaure.
3. The mystery of architecture
The method of building the pyramids is not recorded. Later generations have several conjectures. One is to use a huge lever, one end of which is tied with a rope, and the other end is hoisted by manpower, and then the stones are gradually piled up. Another speculation is that a slope is built with a mound, stones are pulled up with wooden rollers, and the mound spirals around the pyramid. Some people think that the second method of clearing hills is a big problem, so it is speculated that hills should be used first, and then levers should be used. The other is made by aliens.
According to modern standards, the technology used in pyramid architecture may not be brilliant, but their management and organization ability give us a silent proof. For example, the Great Pyramid of Khufu covers an area of 13 acre and consists of 2.3 million stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons. It is estimated that this building will take one hundred thousand people twenty years.
However, there is another saying. In 2006, Barr Som, a professor of materials engineering at Dreiser University in Philadelphia, speculated that "when the ancient Egyptians built the upper pyramid, they poured concrete into the mold at the height, instead of dragging the boulder to the height." (The full text was published in February 2006 in the Journal of American Ceramic Association. ) Of course, this statement has also been questioned by many people, among them, they questioned whether Balzo's sample is the modern cement used to repair the pyramids. On March 3rd, 2007, jean pierre Hu Dan, a French architect, put forward the idea of "covering from the inside to the outside", thinking that an outer slope should be built on the outer wall of the Great Pyramid, and then an inner spiral tunnel should be built.