Working+Draft

The hot sun beats down on the backs of hundreds of workers, as they push the limestone blocks into place, tramping up the mud ramp that circles the base of the pyramid. After the point stretches almost five hundred feet above the heads, more workers begin to decorate the sides with red and white limestone. The white walls shine in the sun, like a beacon to heaven. Months later, when the pharaoh dies, some of the same workers carry him in and block the passageway on the way out. The pyramid is his tomb, his chariot to the gods, the sloping walls reaching towards the heavens. These large stone monoliths, rise from the sands of the Egyptian deserts, symbolizing the power of the ancient pharaohs. The pyramids have long stood as a symbol of Egypt. Their limestone blocks, while crumbling on the outside, have remained standing for thousands of years. When they were first built, the pyramids represented the respect the people had for the pharaohs who had complete regency over them. The great stone monuments the pharaohs built for themselves cemented the people's view of the pharaohs as gods. Throughout the centuries, many people have theorized about why the pyramids were built. Perhaps aliens came down and told them the dimensions; the point reaching to the heavens could have been an observatory. Yet despite these theories and others that are even more far fetched, the pyramids are nothing more than tombs for the pharaohs. Egyptian pyramids were displays of power that represent both the absolute power of pharaohs as well as the unlimited might of mankind. The first pyramid appeared in the beginning of the Third Dynasty, built for King Djoser. Before this time pharaohs were buried in tombs called mastabas, large rectangles made of mud brick. This first step pyramid was built at Sakkara, and was the largest Egyptian structure at the time (McNeese 15). Over the next hundred years, the step pyramid developed into a sloping pyramid, the shape that people all around the world now recognize. During the rest of the Third Dynasty more step pyramids were built. As the Fourth Dynasty began, something bigger and better than the step pyramid had to be built. The pyramids built at Medum by Sneferu of the Fourth Dynasty were step pyramids with the steps filled in to create a slope. After this, the stones were cut to make a slope. The age of the pyramids came to a climax when the three pyramids were built at Giza for Khufu, Sneferu’s son, and his son and grandson. The Great Pyramid at Giza is by far the grandest and largest of all the pyramids built in Egypt. The tools used to build the pyramids were amazingly simple. With only stone and copper tools they were able to cut huge blocks of limestone and transport them down river to the building site of a pyramid. To level a site before building, they would cut it into connecting squares and fill them with water. The underground rooms were dug first and stones were cut for the inner rooms. Interior stones were laid first, roughly cut limestone called packing stones. The outer stones were more precisely shaped to slope and fit with the inner stones (McNeese). The precise measurements were made possible with only straight edges, set squares, and plumb lines (//Inventions and Inventors//). The limestone and granite blocks were cut with copper tools, carved away from quarries. The Ancient Egyptian workers made the largest monuments of the time with some of the simplest tools—they didn’t even use the wheel. Many people believe that the great pyramids were built by hordes of unwilling slaves, prisoners of war. However, many of the workers were farmers who needed work while the Nile River flooded its banks. At the end of this last century, small villages around the base of the pyramids of Giza were discovered, obviously home to Egyptians, not foreigners (Marston). The skilled workers who did much of the planning and measuring sometimes had small tombs of their own. Herodotus, the Greek historian, said that 400,000 men were needed to build the Great Pyramid. Recently, Professor Mark Lehner of the University of Chicago built his own smaller scale pyramid, and calculated that only ten thousand workers would actually have been needed to build the pyramid (McNeese 66). The power of thousands of workers coming together is indeed great. Of all the Wonders of the Ancient World, only the Pyramid at Giza has survived to this day. Although the white limestone decorative covering has deteriorated, the casing stones still exist, and the height has not decreased by much. In fact, the height of Khufu’s pyramid, 480 feet, is so high that it was not surpassed until the Eiffel Tower was built almost 4000 years later (Williams). That these workers were willing is significant. Their eagerness to work for their pharaohs helped create a unified Egyptian state. The pharaohs used the pyramids as a political tool. Isacc Asimov says, “The reverence for a divine family is not always an easy thing to replace, and the monarch of the new dynasty might feel it important to demonstrate to the people his own divinity by some startling display of power that outdid all that had gone before” (32). Perhaps the pharaoh Djoser felt he needed to prove himself to his subjects, and asked Imhotep, his chief engineer, to create something that would make him greater than anyone who came before him. Imhotep designed a larger, grander mastaba, made of stone instead of mud brick, for Djoser to support Djoser divine right to be king. If a pharaoh has something so grand built for him then he must be grand himself. Smaller tombs and pyramids surround the larger pyramid at many sites, just as the great king would have been surrounded by his queen and his servants in life. The pyramids were also an integral part of the religion of the time. The pharaohs believed, and wanted their subjects to believe, that they were gods on earth. Snefru, the father of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid at Giza, called himself the “Son of the Sun God” (Radwan). Like a pyramid “stable, grounded on earth, yet pointing heaven-ward,” the pharaohs were a link between heaven and earth (Pratt 14-15). The goal of the pharaoh, in death, was to ascend to heaven. If the pharaoh, the leader of the people, went to heaven, then his subjects left on earth would also be able to go to heaven when their time came. The sloping walls of the pyramid may have represented a stairway to heaven for the pharaoh or the rays of the sun, an important part of Egyptian religion. Unfortunately, the three pyramids built in Giza by Khufu and his descendents marked the end of the age of the pyramids. After the Fourth Dynasty, Egyptians raided the tombs of the dead pharaohs and stole anything of value, a symbolic representation of the end of influence of the pharaohs and a tightly connected Egyptian state (Radwan). Every civilization to come would have a similar fascination with the pyramids and a desire to know what was inside. The Great Pyramid at Giza holds the most entrancement and arcane theories. People have suggested everything from “visiting aliens through lost civilisations to divine fiat…to the cause of sensationalist, pseudohistorical bestsellerdom, usually relying on rhetorical mysticism and ‘geewhizzery’ rather than anything approaching evidence” (Williams). The “evidence” that such people use includes the measurements of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The more than 571, 000 sq. ft. base is only seven inches away from a square and the orientation is almost perfectly aligned along the poles (Klein 65). The proportion of the perimeter of the base to twice the height is very close to pi (Tompkins 70). The theorists suggest that only aliens could have given the Egyptians this ratio to build with. In the 19th century, Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Royal Astronomer for Scotland, thought that the dimensions of the Great Pyramid at Giza contained secrets of the universe. His claim was eventually proven false by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who later went on to scientifically study the pyramids (Williams). Erich von Daniken had a similar theory, published in his book //Chariots of the Gods//, that said aliens brought life to Earth and later came back to teach the humans advanced technology, of which he included the pyramids. His theory was later proved incorrect and based on “pseudoscience,” just as Piazzi Smyth was proven wrong. Egyptian pyramids were displays of power that represent both the absolute power of pharaohs as well as the unlimited might of mankind. Centuries of wear and tear have seen the deterioration of the pyramids. Although the pyramids as they are still look impressive because of their sheer size, they would have more impact with the outer colors. The builders put care and thought into decorating the pyramids. These huge stone structures were the tombs of their pharaohs, the men who led them in life and death, who were gods on earth. That people believe the pyramids hold secrets to life or are evidence of aliens coming to earth only shows that what the ancients did was a true feat of mankind. What could be more impressive than a tomb meant to send a king to the gods? If people today cannot believe that the Ancient Egyptians built this, it is because they have not tried to learn enough about the Egyptians. The Egyptians had three things: “First, the intensive and careful use of such simple instruments and devices as they had; second, unlimited manpower...and lastly, no need for haste” (De Camp 40). In this case the truth is stranger and more powerful than any fiction. From simple tools and blocks of stone the Ancient Egyptians created large stone monuments that inspired awe in the subjects of the Egyptian kingdom and awe in every kingdom and civilization that followed. Many people have looked at the pyramids and seen something impossible, improbable, and created crazy theories with little basis in fact. The truth is that humans will use technology to fit their needs; they are resourceful and intelligent. With only right angles and a ramp, even something as grand as a pyramid can be built. As the Arabs said about the Egyptian stone monuments: “Time mocks at all things but pyramids mock at time” (Klein 71).

// Works Cited //

Asimov, Isaac. //The Egyptians//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967. Print.

De Camp, L. Sprague. //Ancient Engineers//. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1960. Print.

//Inventions & Inventors: Buildings, Homes, and Structures//. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Educational, 2000. Print.

Marston, Elsa. "Puzzle of the Pyramids." //Ask//. Mar. 2006: 6. //eLibrary//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009. .

McNeese, Tim. //The Pyramids of Giza//. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc., 1997. Print.

Pratt, Paula Bryant. //Architecture//. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1995. Print.

Radwan, Amany and Marlowe, Lara. "The Secrets of Snefru." //Time//. 22 Jul. 1996 Web. 8 Oct. 2009. .

Tompkins, Peter. //Secrets of the Great Pyramid//. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971. Print.

Williams, Barry. "The Point of Pyramids." //Australasian Science//. May 2003: 46-48. //eLibrary//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009. .

Works Consulted

Asimov, Isaac. //The Egyptians//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967. Print.

De Camp, L. Sprague. //Ancient Engineers//. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1960. Print.

//Inventions & Inventors: Buildings, Homes, and Structures//. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Educational, 2000. Print.

Klein, H. Arthur and Mina C. Klein. //Great Structures of the World//. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1968. Print.

Marston, Elsa. "Puzzle of the Pyramids." //Ask//. Mar. 2006: 6. //eLibrary//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009. .

McNeese, Tim. //The Pyramids of Giza//. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc., 1997. Print.

Pratt, Paula Bryant. //Architecture//. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1995. Print.

Radwan, Amany and Marlowe, Lara. "The Secrets of Snefru." //Time//. 22 Jul. 1996 Web. 8 Oct. 2009. .

Tompkins, Peter. //Secrets of the Great Pyramid//. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1971. Print.

Williams, Barry. "The Point of Pyramids." //Australasian Science//. May 2003: 46-48. //eLibrary//. Web. 9 Oct. 2009. .