Khufu pyramid
Ancient Name: The horizon of Khufu
Original height : 148.31 M .
Current height : 137.75 M
Length of side : 232.96 M
Angle : 51
Burial Chambers: 3
Who was he ?
1- The name of Cheops, the second king of the 4th dynasty is the derived Greek form of the ancient Egyptian Khufu meaning he [ The God Khnoum ] protect me .
2- We know very little of this pharaoh.
He is The Son of Sneferu.
He reigned for about 23 years.
What’s this pyramid?
It is the largest and most perfect pyramid in Egypt and considered to be one of the 7 wonders of the world.
it was built by king Cheops under the supervision of Heminu the overseer of all the kings work .
King Cheops was son of king Snefru .
His mother queen was Hetp- Hers .
And his wife queen was Merrytites , he reigned for about 23 years .
It is said that the pyramid was 20 years in the making and the work continuous with groups of hundreds of men at time working for 3 months a year and 2,300,000 blocks of stone were used for building this pyramid.
He weight of each of these stones various between 2 and half tons to 15 tons .
The pyramid was built of localstoone and cased with Tura limestone .
According to Herodtus , the outer faces of the pyramid were covered by Hieroglyphic texts fortunately , the outer casing has now almost is appeared except for a few blocks of this casing still remaing in their original places at the base of the northern side .
In the middle king Dom , the blocks of the outer casing were used for building houses , bridges , walls and other building .
The kings of the 26th dynasty showed great respect to the pyramid and its complex .
Its temples were provided with priests in order to resume the religious service for the king.
In the Roman period , the pyramid was open to visitors .
the pyramid was built on an almost square plan , it is now 137 m high but was originally 140 m high .
Each side once measured 230 m but due to the loss of casing blocks , they are now only 227 m
The angles of the sides were 51
The enterance of the pyramid is situate in the northern side at the height of 16.5 m above the ground which Is now located .
Another enterance was cut below the original enterance in the 9th century A.D known as El- Maamum hole
There are 3 chambers within the pyramid two inside the built section and underlying the structure.
These are thought to make changes in the plan of the whole building .
The tombs around the great pyramid
1- The first pyramid or the Northern pyramid probably belonged to the principal wife of king Cheops and his sister Merritt .
2- This pyramid should have built 20 m to the east of its present location but it was moved to the west because of its interference of the tomb of queen Hetep-Heres , this limestone pyramid is 45 m square .
At present it is about 6 m high and has an angle of 51 its enterance is cut in the middle .
On the south side of this pyramid, there is a boat-pits which was converted into store-rooms .
On the eastern side of this pyramid are remains of a Mortuary chapel .
2- The Middle pyramid has no name
Though the queen’s titles were found in the mortuary chapel
She was probably the mother of king JedefRa the 3th king of the 4th dynasty , who was buried at Abu Rawash .
It is built of local stone , it is measures 45 m square , at present it is about 9 m high .
To the east side of this pyramid are the remains of a small funerary chapel in which can be see the remains of a false door .
There is also a boat pit south of this pyramid , it was excavated in 1952 , and now fill with rubble and sand .
3- The third pyramid or the south pyramid was the burial place of queen Henutsen , she was the half sister of king Cheops, his secondary wife and the mother of the prince khufu she may also have been the mother of king Khafre .
1- A polish scholar has advanced the fascinating theory that these three pyramids were models erected by the architects during the course of the work on the principal monument.
We know for a fact that its plan underwent major changes and modifications during construction. And it’s of course, possible that once the great pyramid was completed .
These 3 models were in fact used as tombs for the 3 queens .
The pyramid and Creation legend
1- The word for pyramid in ancient Egyptian is Mer .
2- our word pyramid comes from the Greek pyramids “ wheaten cake “.
3- The Egyptian had a conical bread loaf called Ben.ben which also the word for the capstone of pyramid or the tip of an obelisk Ben ben.
4- It is true that the pyramids are pharaonic tombs , but the tomb of a pharaonic of ancient Egypt was for more than just the grave of a king .
5- one of the hallmarks of the Egyptian state from its very beginning in the first dynasty was the tradition centred on the king as an in carnation of the God Horus , whose totem was the falcon in his world of the ancient Egyptian.
6- The falcon Soared above all the other living creatures when an in carnation of Horus died , the god passed to the next reigning king .
7- physically , entombed within the pyramid, the dead king became identified with Osiris the divine father of Horus.
8- The pyramid complex was a temple complex of the Horus- Osiris, divinity emerged with the sun god in the central icon of the pyramid.
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