The Pyramids of Giza

Among the main tourist sites there is only one considered to be the main and on top of the list, it is site of the pyramids and in particular the Pyramids of Giza. Here there are three main pyramids that were built in the time of the 4th dynasty circa 4650 BC.

The Pyramids of ancient Egypt were built as tombs for kings and queens. It was the exclusive privilege of a king or a queen to have a pyramid tomb. However, this tradition was applied in the time of the old and middle kingdoms in the ancient Egypt history. Today there are more than 93 pyramids in Egypt, the most famous ones are those of Giza.

The Great Pyramid
The great pyramid is by far the most famous pyramid in Egypt the highest and the most intact. It was considered as one of seven ancient wonders of the ancient world, today it is the only remaining one. For a period of 4300 years, the pyramid was also considered the highest building on earth and it took until the French built the Eiffel Tower in 1889to become the second.

This pyramid is built entirely of limestone and considered the an architectural masterpiece. It is built on square base that measures from one side to the other about 230 M ( 755 F ), and has a base was estimated to be around 13acres of land! Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and the angle at each corner is 52 Degrees.

The height of the pyramid was 146.5 M (488 F) and today it is only 137 M (455 F) high, the nine meters that were lost of the pyramid is due to the lose of the covering or casing stones which was made of fine quality of limestone and was later quarried away by the Ottoman Turks in the 15 century AD to build houses and mosques in Cairo.

The pyramid contains around 1,300,000 blocks of limestone, they range in weight of 2.5 tones as a minimum weight until they reach the maximum weight of 15tones. You will find that the entrance of the pyramid is located at the northern side, and actually you will find this feature in almost every pyramid in Egypt , most of the entrances are located in the northern side of the pyramids. At the northern side there 2 entrances. One was built originally at the time when the pyramids was built and it is 17 M (55F) above the ground level and the other one is a man forced entrance located below that one, it was opened in the 9th centaury Ad, by Khalif EL-MAMOUN, who sought the treasures that might be kept inside the pyramid. He sent workers to open up an entrance, the stone masons he sent cut the entrance mid way across the centre of the northern side, it goes for almost 35 M deep inside the pyramid and was roughly cut, but at the end it connects with the original inner corridors of the pyramid, nothing was found inside as it was plundered in antiquity.

Nowadays the visitors to the site use the MAMOUN' S entrance to get into the pyramids, as it is considered to be a shortcut. If you attempt to go inside the pyramid you will have to bend down all the way till you reach the burial chamber

From the main entrance of the pyramid there is a long narrow corridor with low roof that goes in descending corridor for more that 330 feet deep and takes you into a chamber located under the ground lever almost 24 M underground, it is an unfinished burial chamber. Today this part is inaccessible, as you are not allowed to go inside. Very little air inside!

Almost 20 M from that descending corridor there is another corridor connected to it, which takes you up into the core of the pyramid. This ascending corridor ends up at one the great parts of the great pyramid, the grand gallery. It is a large rectangular hall which is 49 m long and 15 m height, and at the bottom there is a long tunnel that takes you the second chamber , which was famously known as the queens chamber. It has nothing to do with a queen, and was given this name by the early Arabs who went inside the pyramids and named the chamber. It is believed that it served as a magazine or a store room inside the pyramid.

When you ascend the grand gallery you will find at its end, an entrance to the 3rd chamber, which was the real burial chamber of King Cheops. This is where you will find the stone coffin of the king, made out of one block of granite. This Chamber is really amazing , it is rectangular in form and has a flat roof, and built out of granite that was brought from the city of Aswan which is located 1000 KM away from the site of the pyramid. The roof only consists of 9 slabs of granite. Each one was estimated to be around 50 tons in weight.

Above that heavy flat roof of the burial chamber, the ancient Egyptians built 5 small relieving chambers so that the great pressure of the weight above the flat roof of the burial chamber wouldn't easily collapse. These 5 chambers are made of granite and almost 1 m above each other. The roof of the first four is flat and the 5th has a pointed roof to divide the great pressure of weight above the flat roof of the burial chamber. Both the northern and southern walls of the burial chamber have two small tunnels with rectangular entrances. They are so small but they go all the way through the northern and southern side of the pyramids and are believed to be star shafts that serve certain purpose in the ancient cult connecting the king with the stars.