The Egyptian Pyramids

The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt.

There are 138 pyramids

The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created.

The shape of a pyramids is thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun,

Egyptian pyramids were originally built to serve as tombs for kings and queens. After a ruler died, his or her body was carefully treated and wrapped to preserve it as a mummy. According to ancient Egyptian belief, the pyramid, where the mummy was placed, provided a place for the king to pass into the afterlife.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is condsidered to be the oldest and largest of thethree pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence.

THE GREAT PYRAMID

When the Great Pyramid of Egypt was built it was 146 meters tall.

The pyramid was once covered with limestone that was polished and believed to be left white.

The Great Pyramid is made up of approximately two million blocks of limestone and slopes upward 51 .

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid.

The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only pyramid in Egypt known to contain both ascending and descending passages.

The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks.

The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported from Aswan, more than 500 miles away.

Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used. Modern Egyptologists accept that it was built by many tens of thousands of skilled workers.. Excavated skeletons show that they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh's supervisors.

Facts

The pyramid was used to indicate solstices and equinoxes. The Great Pyramid is located at the center of the land mass of the earth. The east/west parallel that crosses the most land and the north/south meridian that crosses the most land intersect in two places on the earth, one in the ocean and the other at the Great

Pyramid.