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142-719: The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid . It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu , who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom . Built c.  2600 BC , over a period of about 26 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , and the only wonder that has remained largely intact. It is the most famous monument of the Giza pyramid complex , which

284-517: A seked of ⁠5 + 1 / 2 ⁠ palms (a slope of 51°50'40"). The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks, weighing 6 million tonnes in total. The majority of the stones are not uniform in size or shape, and are only roughly dressed. The outside layers were bound together by mortar . Primarily local limestone from the Giza Plateau was used for its construction. Other blocks were imported by boat on

426-496: A "true" smooth-sided pyramid from the outset; the earlier pyramid at Meidum had smooth sides in its finished state, but it was conceived and built as a step pyramid, before having its steps filled in and concealed beneath a smooth outer casing of dressed stone. As a true smooth-sided structure, the Bent Pyramid was only a partial success—albeit a unique, visually imposing one; it is also the only major Egyptian pyramid to retain

568-675: A Kushite ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, built his pyramid at Nuri. It was the largest in the area (North Sudan). The following table lays out the chronology of the construction of most of the major pyramids mentioned here. Each pyramid is identified through the pharaoh who ordered it built, his approximate reign, and its location. Would have been 91.65 meters (301 feet) or 175 Egyptian Royal cubits . Originally: 143.5 m (471 ft) or 274 Egyptian Royal cubits 47.6 m (156 ft; 91 Egyptian Royal cubits ) 30 meters (99 feet) 50 meters (164 feet) Constructing

710-503: A distance. Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the formal name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur was The Southern Shining Pyramid , and that of Senusret II at El Lahun was Senusret Shines . While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion

852-406: A downward sloping corridor, followed by a 'corridor-chamber' with three granite portcullises that guarded the entrance into the horizontal passage. The horizontal passage ends at the antechamber of the substructure and is guarded by a fourth granite portcullis. The antechamber connects to two further rooms, a room with three recesses for holding statues – called the serdab – to the east, and

994-507: A major crossroads made it an easy source of stone. Quarrying, which began in Roman times, has left little apart from about fifteen courses of stone superimposed upon the natural hillock that formed part of the pyramid's core. A small adjacent satellite pyramid is in a better state of preservation. The Giza Plateau is the location of the Pyramid of Khufu (also known as the "Great Pyramid" and

1136-722: A means to magically launch the deceased pharaoh's soul directly into the abode of the gods. All Egyptian pyramids were built on the west bank of the Nile, which, as the site of the setting sun , was associated with the realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology . In 1842, Karl Richard Lepsius produced the first modern list of pyramids—now known as the Lepsius list of pyramids —in which he counted 67. A great many more have since been discovered. At least 118 Egyptian pyramids have been identified. The location of Pyramid 29 which Lepsius called

1278-412: A misinterpretation of the pyramids as "Joseph's granary" began to gain in popularity. The first textual evidence of this connection is found in the travel narratives of the female Christian pilgrim Egeria , who records that on her visit between 381 and 384 AD, "in the twelve-mile stretch between Memphis and Babylonia [= Old Cairo] are many pyramids, which Joseph made in order to store corn." Ten years later

1420-532: A mixture of comprehensible descriptions, personal descriptions, erroneous reports, and fantastical legends; as a result, many of the speculative errors and confusions about the monument can be traced back to Herodotus and his work. Herodotus writes that the Great Pyramid was built by Khufu (Hellenized as Cheops) who, he erroneously relays, ruled after the Ramesside Period (the 19th dynasty and

1562-566: A pyramid in Egyptian is myr , written with the symbol 𓉴 ( O24 in the Gardner Sign List). Myr is preceded by three other signs used as phonetics. The meaning of myr is unclear, as it only self-references the built object itself. By comparison, some similar architectural terms become compound words, such as the word for 'temple' ( per-ka ) becoming a compound of the words for 'house' and 'soul'. By graphical analysis, myr uses

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1704-495: A significant proportion of its original smooth outer limestone casing intact. As such it serves as the best contemporary example of how the ancient Egyptians intended their pyramids to look. Several kilometres to the north of the Bent Pyramid is the last—and most successful—of the three pyramids constructed during the reign of Sneferu; the Red Pyramid is the world's first successfully completed smooth-sided pyramid. The structure

1846-587: A sow eating her offspring so also is the King as the dawn sun. Utterance 217 describes the King in stellar form as being "swallowed up" at dawn with the other stars. The Cannibal Hymn represents a discrete episode (Utterances 273–274) in the anthology of ritual texts that make up the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom period. Appearing first in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty ,

1988-403: A step pyramid some 70 m (230 ft) high and then later transformed into a "true" pyramid by having its steps filled in with loose masonry. Major pyramids located here include the Pyramid of Djoser —generally identified as the world's oldest substantial monumental structure to be built of dressed stone—the Pyramid of Userkaf , the Pyramid of Teti and the Pyramid of Merikare , dating to

2130-482: Is also the best-preserved, Neferirkare Kakai and Sahure . The site is also home to the incomplete Pyramid of Neferefre . Most of the major pyramids at Abusir were built using similar construction techniques, comprising a rubble core surrounded by steps of mudbricks with a limestone outer casing. The largest of these Fifth Dynasty pyramids, the Pyramid of Neferirkare Kakai, is believed to have been built originally as

2272-651: Is also the third-largest pyramid in Egypt, after the pyramids of Khufu and Khafra at Giza. Also at Dahshur is one of two pyramids built by Amenemhat III , known as the Black Pyramid , as well as a number of small, mostly ruined subsidiary pyramids. Located to the south of Dahshur, several mudbrick pyramids were built in this area in the late Middle Kingdom , perhaps for Amenemhat IV and Sobekneferu . Two major pyramids are known to have been built at Lisht: those of Amenemhat I and his son, Senusret I . The latter

2414-600: Is considered to be the standard version of the texts. Samuel A. B. Mercer published a translation into English of Sethe's work in 1952. British Egyptologist Raymond O. Faulkner presented the texts in English in 1969 in The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts . Between 1926 and 1932, Gustave Jéquier conducted the first systematic investigations of Pepi II and his wives' pyramids – Neith , Iput II , and Wedjebetni . Jéquier also conducted

2556-604: Is likely to have exceeded 40 m (130 ft). There are a total of fourteen pyramids at this site, which served as the main royal necropolis during the Fifth Dynasty . The quality of construction of the Abusir pyramids is inferior to those of the Fourth Dynasty—perhaps signaling a decrease in royal power or a less vibrant economy. They are smaller than their predecessors and are built of low-quality local limestone. The three major pyramids are those of Niuserre , which

2698-492: Is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site " Memphis and its Necropolis ". It is situated at the northeastern end of the line of the three main pyramids at Giza . Initially standing at 146.6 metres (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to

2840-473: Is surrounded by the ruins of ten smaller subsidiary pyramids. One of these subsidiary pyramids is known to be that of Amenemhat's cousin, Khaba II. The site which is in the vicinity of the oasis of the Faiyum , midway between Dahshur and Meidum, and about 100 kilometres south of Cairo, is believed to be in the vicinity of the ancient city of Itjtawy (the precise location of which remains unknown), which served as

2982-444: Is that they were designed as a type of "resurrection machine." The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the narrow shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as

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3124-597: Is the location for two unfinished Old Kingdom pyramids. The northern structure's owner is believed to be pharaoh Nebka , while the southern structure, known as the Layer Pyramid , may be attributable to the Third Dynasty pharaoh Khaba , a close successor of Sekhemkhet . If this attribution is correct, Khaba's short reign could explain the seemingly unfinished state of this step pyramid. Today it stands around 17 m (56 ft) high; had it been completed, it

3266-472: Is the southernmost royal-tomb pyramid structure in Egypt. Its builders reduced the amount of work necessary to construct it by using as its foundation and core a 12-meter-high natural limestone hill. Piye , the king of Kush who became the first ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty , built a pyramid at El-Kurru. He was the first Egyptian pharaoh to be buried in a pyramid in centuries. Taharqa ,

3408-399: Is thought to be mainly responsible for the 100–300 year offset, since the age of the organic material was determined, not when it was last used. A reanalysis of the data gave a completion date for the pyramid between 2620 and 2484 BC, based on the younger samples. In 1872 Waynman Dixon opened the lower pair of "Air-Shafts", previously closed at both ends, by chiseling holes into the walls of

3550-468: The 20th dynasty ). Khufu was a tyrannical king, Herodotus claims, which may explain the Greek's view that such buildings can only come about through cruel exploitation of the people. Herodotus states that gangs of 100,000 labourers worked on the building in three-month shifts, taking 20 years to build. In the first ten years a wide causeway was erected, which, according to Herodotus, was almost as impressive as

3692-534: The Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (786–833) is said to have tunnelled into the side of the structure and discovered the ascending passage and its connecting chambers. Around this time a Coptic legend gained popularity that claimed the antediluvian king Surid Ibn Salhouk had built the Great Pyramid. One legend in particular relates how, three hundred years prior to the Great Flood, Surid had a terrifying dream of

3834-500: The Buried Pyramid . Archaeologists believe that had this pyramid been completed, it would have been larger than Djoser's. South of the main pyramid field at Saqqara is a second collection of later, smaller pyramids, including those of Pepi I , Djedkare Isesi , Merenre , Pepi II and Ibi . Most of these are in a poor state of preservation. The Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Shepseskaf either did not share an interest in or have

3976-498: The Diary of Merer was found at Wadi al-Jarf . It documents the transportation of white limestone blocks from Tura to the Great Pyramid, which is mentioned by its original name Akhet Khufu (with a pyramid determinative ) dozens of times. It details that the stones were accepted at She Akhet-Khufu ("the pool of the pyramid Horizon of Khufu") and Ro-She Khufu ("the entrance to the pool of Khufu"), which were under supervision of Ankhhaf ,

4118-537: The East Field south of the causeway, and the West Field , including the wives, children and grandchildren of Khufu, Hemiunu , Ankhaf and (the funerary cache of) Hetepheres I , mother of Khufu. As Hassan puts it: "From the early dynastic times, it was always the custom for the relatives, friends and courtiers to be buried in the vicinity of the king they had served during life. This was quite in accordance with

4260-528: The First Dynasty : Mastaba 3808, which has been attributed to the reign of Pharaoh Anedjib , with inscriptions, and other archaeological remains of the period, suggesting there may have been others. The otherwise earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser built c.  2630–2610  BCE during the Third Dynasty . This pyramid and its surrounding complex are generally considered to be

4402-513: The First Intermediate Period of Egypt . Also at Saqqara is the Pyramid of Unas , which retains a pyramid causeway that is one of the best-preserved in Egypt. Together with the pyramid of Userkaf, this pyramid was the subject of one of the earliest known restoration attempts, conducted by Khaemweset , a son of Ramesses II . Saqqara is also the location of the incomplete step pyramid of Djoser's successor Sekhemkhet , known as

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4544-541: The Kher-Heb (the chief lector priest), along with assistants, opening the eyes and mouth of the dead while reciting prayers and spells. Mourners were encouraged to cry out as special instruments were used to cut holes in the mouth. After the ceremony was complete, it was believed that the dead could eat, speak, breathe, and see in the afterlife. The Egyptian pyramids are made up of various corridors, tunnels, and rooms, each of which have differing significance and use during

4686-501: The Kingdom of Kush , now located in the modern country of Sudan . Of those located in modern Egypt, most were built as tombs for the country's pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara , northwest of Memphis , although at least one step-pyramid-like structure has been found at Saqqara, dating to

4828-477: The Nile : white limestone from Tura for the casing, and blocks of granite from Aswan , weighing up to 80 tonnes, for the "King's Chamber" structure. There are three known chambers inside of the Great Pyramid. The lowest was cut into the bedrock , upon which the pyramid was built, but remained unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber, which contain a granite sarcophagus, are above ground, within

4970-565: The Tohfat Alalbab, retells the story of al-Ma'mun's entry but with the additional discovery of "an image of a man in green stone", which when opened revealed a body dressed in jewel-encrusted gold armour. Al-Kaisi claims to have seen the case from which the body was taken, and asserts that it was located at the king's palace in Cairo. He also writes that he entered into the pyramid and discovered many preserved bodies. Another attempt to enter

5112-497: The "Headless Pyramid", was lost for a second time when the structure was buried by desert sands after Lepsius's survey. It was found again only during an archaeological dig conducted in 2008. Many pyramids are in a poor state of preservation or buried by desert sands. If visible at all, they may appear as little more than mounds of rubble. As a consequence, archaeologists are continuing to identify and study previously unknown pyramid structures. The most recent pyramid to be discovered

5254-530: The "Pyramid of Cheops"), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren), the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinus), along with a number of smaller satellite edifices known as "Queen's pyramids", and the Great Sphinx of Giza . Of the three, only Khafre's pyramid retains part of its original polished limestone casing, near its apex. This pyramid appears larger than the adjacent Khufu pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location, and

5396-594: The "granaries of Joseph" ( horrea Ioseph ). This reference from Julius is important, as it indicates that the identification was starting to spread out from pilgrim's travelogues. In 530 AD, Stephanos of Byzantium added more to this idea when he wrote in his Ethnica that the word "pyramid" was connected to the Greek word πυρός ( pyros ), meaning wheat. In the seventh century AD, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Egypt , ending several centuries of Romano-Byzantine rule. A few centuries later, in 832 AD,

5538-514: The 4th Dynasty, Shepseskaf , did not build a pyramid and beginning in the 5th Dynasty ; for various reasons, the massive scale and precision of construction decreased significantly leaving these later pyramids smaller, less well-built, and often hastily constructed. By the end of the 6th Dynasty , pyramid building had largely ended and it was not until the Middle Kingdom that large pyramids were built again, though instead of stone, mudbrick

5680-527: The 4th. However, after phonetic changes in the Egyptian language and consequently the Greek translation, "Cheops" had transformed into "Souphis" (and similar versions). Greaves , in 1646, reported the great difficulty of ascertaining a date for the pyramid's construction based on the lacking and conflicting historic sources. Because of the differences in spelling, he did not recognize Khufu on Manetho's king list (as transcribed by Africanus and Eusebius ), hence he relied on Herodotus' incorrect account. Summating

5822-460: The Arab bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim relates a fantastical tale in his al-Fihrist about a man who journeyed into the main chamber of a pyramid, which Bayard Dodge argues is the Great Pyramid. According to Ibn al-Nadim, the person in question saw a statue of a man holding a tablet and a woman holding a mirror. Supposedly, between the statues was a "stone vessel [with] a gold cover". Inside the vessel

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5964-557: The Cannibal Hymn preserves an early royal butchery ritual in which the deceased king – assisted by the god Shezmu – slaughters, cooks and eats the gods as sacrificial bulls, thereby incorporating in himself their divine powers in order that he might negotiate his passage into the Afterlife and guarantee his transformation as a celestial divinity ruling in the heavens. The style and format of the Cannibal Hymn are characteristic of

6106-488: The Egyptian idea of the Hereafter." The cemeteries were actively expanded until the 6th dynasty and used less frequently afterwards. The earliest pharaonic name of seal impressions is that of Khufu, the latest of Pepi II . Worker graffiti were written on some of the stones of the tombs as well; for instance, "Mddw" ( Horus name of Khufu) on the mastaba of Chufunacht, probably a grandson of Khufu. Some inscriptions in

6248-530: The Great Pyramid had been attributed to Khufu based on the words of authors of classical antiquity , first and foremost Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus . During the Middle Ages other people were credited with the construction of the pyramid as well, for example Joseph from the Book of Genesis , Nimrod , or the legendary king Saurid ibn Salhouk . In 1837 four additional relieving chambers were found above

6390-478: The Great Pyramid in his Al-Khitat . In addition to reasserting that Al-Ma'mun breached the structure in 820 AD, Al-Maqrizi's work also discusses the sarcophagus in the coffin chambers, explicitly noting that the pyramid was a grave. By the Late Middle Ages , the Great Pyramid had gained a reputation as a haunted structure. Others feared entering because it was home to animals like bats. A hillock forms

6532-415: The King's Chamber after tunnelling to them. The chambers, previously inaccessible, were covered in hieroglyphs of red paint. The workers who were building the pyramid had marked the blocks with the names of their gangs, which included the pharaoh's name (e.g.: "The gang, The white crown of Khnum-Khufu is powerful"). The names of Khufu were spelled out on the walls over a dozen times. Another of these graffiti

6674-763: The New Kingdom (1550 BCE – 1070 BCE), Pyramid Texts were found on tombs of officials. French archaeologist and Egyptologist Gaston Maspero , director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo , arrived in Egypt in 1880. He chose a site in South Saqqara, a hill that had been mapped by the Prussian Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius in 1842, for his first archaeological dig. There, Maspero found

6816-487: The Nile. Herodotus later states that at the Pyramid of Khafre (beside the Great Pyramid) the Nile flows through a built passage to an island in which Khufu is buried. Hawass interprets this to be a reference to the " Osiris Shaft ", which is located at the causeway of Khafre, south of the Great Pyramid. Herodotus described an inscription on the outside of the pyramid, which, according to his translators, indicated

6958-505: The Old Kingdom only kings and queens could have a pyramid tomb. Architectural layout and funeral equipment were also sanctioned, and were, like access to material and workers, at the discretion of the king. The Great Pyramid's internal chambers lack inscriptions and decorations, the norm for Egyptian tombs of the fourth to late fifth dynasty, apart from work-gang graffiti that include Khufu's names. Constructed around 2600 BC, it predates

7100-413: The Old Kingdom. It had a core built six steps high from roughly dressed limestone , encased in a layer of carefully cut fine white limestone. It had a base length of 57.75 m (189 ft) with an incline of 56° which gave the pyramid a height of 43 m (141 ft). The substructure was accessed through an entrance in the pavement of a chapel on the north face of the pyramid. The entry led into

7242-453: The Old, Middle , and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. During the Old Kingdom (2686 BCE – 2181 BCE), Pyramid Texts could be found in the pyramids of kings as well as three queens, named Wedjebten , Neith , and Iput . During the Middle Kingdom (2055 BCE – 1650 BCE), Pyramid Texts were not written in the pyramids of the pharaohs, but the traditions of the pyramid spells continued to be practiced. In

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7384-731: The Pharaoh himself. Kurt Sethe's first edition of the pyramid texts contained 714 distinct spells. Later additional spells were discovered, for a total of 759. No single edition includes all recorded spells. The following example of a spell comes from the pyramid of Unas. It was to be recited in the South Side Burial Chamber and Passage, and it was the Invocation to New Life. Utterance 213: Ho, Unis ! You have not gone away dead: you have gone away alive. Sit on Osiris 's chair, with your baton in your arm, and govern

7526-458: The Pyramid Texts were primarily concerned with enabling the transformation of the deceased into an akh (where those judged worthy could mix with the gods). The spells of the Pyramid Texts are divided into two broad categories: Sacerdotal texts and Personal texts. The sacerdotal texts are ritual in nature, and were conducted by the lector priest addressing the deceased in the second person. They consist of offering spells, short spells recited in

7668-444: The Pyramid Texts. Unas' sarcophagus was left without inscription. The king's royal titulary did not appear on the walls surrounding it, as it does in later pyramids. The west gable of the burial chamber is inscribed with protective spells; in later pyramids the gable was used for texts commending the king to Nut , and, from Pepi I onwards, also for Sakhu, or 'glorifications', for the transformation into an Akh. The other walls of

7810-574: The Queen's Chamber. One of the objects found within was a cedar plank, which came into possession of James Grant, a friend of Dixon. After inheritance it was donated to the Museum of Aberdeen in 1946; however, it had broken into pieces and was filed incorrectly. Lost in the vast museum collection, it was only rediscovered in 2020, when it was radiocarbon dated to 3341–3094 BC. Being over 500 years older than Khufu's chronological age, Abeer Eladany suggests that

7952-715: The Saharan region of Niger . Fekri Hassan (2002) indicates that the megalithic monuments in the Saharan region of Niger and the Eastern Sahara may have served as antecedents for the mastabas and pyramids of ancient Egypt . During Predynastic Egypt , tumuli were present at various locations (e.g., Naqada , Helwan ). From the time of the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150–2686 BCE), Egyptians with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas . At Saqqara, Mastaba 3808, dating from

8094-434: The amount of radishes, garlic and onions that the workers would have eaten while working on the pyramid. This could be a note of restoration work that Khaemweset , son of Rameses II , had carried out. Apparently, Herodotus' companions and interpreters could not read the hieroglyphs or deliberately gave him false information. Between 60 and 56 BC, the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus visited Egypt and later dedicated

8236-636: The base on which the pyramid stands. It was cut back into steps and only a strip around the perimeter was leveled, which has been measured to be horizontal and flat to within 21 millimetres (0.8 in). The bedrock reaches a height of almost 6 metres (20 ft) above the pyramid base at the location of the Grotto. Egyptian pyramid The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt . Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids . Approximately 80 pyramids were built within

8378-456: The being of every god, Who eats their entrails When they come, their bodies full of magic From the Isle of Flame... But as the same spell also declares: May I be with you, you gods; May you be with me, you gods. May I live with you, you gods; May you live with me, you gods. I love you, you gods; May you love me, you gods. The Cannibal Hymn later reappeared in

8520-477: The boat pits. As the successor and eldest son he would have presumably been responsible for the burial of Khufu. The second boat pit was examined in 1987; excavation work started in 2010. Graffiti on the stones included 4 instances of the name "Khufu", 11 instances of "Djedefre", a year (in reign, season, month and day), measurements of the stone, various signs and marks, and a reference line used in construction, all done in red or black ink. During excavations in 2013

8662-516: The burial and ritual processes. Texts were written and recited by priests in a very particular order, often starting in the Valley Temple and finishing in the Coffin or Pyramid Room. The variety of offerings and rituals were also most likely recited in a particular order. The Valley Temple often contained an offering shrine, where rituals would be recited. Pyramid texts were found not only in

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8804-568: The burial chamber are primarily dedicated to ritual texts. The north wall, along with the northern part of the east wall and passage, is dedicated to the Offering Ritual. Spatial considerations required that part of the ritual be inscribed on other walls, and likely explains the omission of the Insignia Ritual altogether from the pyramid. The Offering Ritual, from the 'initial libation' to the 'dedication of offerings', occupies

8946-461: The burial chamber with the ruler's sarcophagus to the west. The roofs of both the antechamber and burial chamber were gabled . With the exception of the walls immediately surrounding the sarcophagus, which were lined with alabaster and painted to resemble reed mats with a wood-frame enclosure, the remaining walls of the antechamber, burial chamber, and a section of the horizontal passage were covered with vertical columns of hieroglyphs that make up

9088-491: The capacity to undertake pyramid construction like his predecessors. His tomb, which is also sited at south Saqqara, was instead built as an unusually large mastaba and offering temple complex. It is commonly known as the Mastabat al-Fir’aun . A previously unknown pyramid was discovered in north Saqqara in late 2008. Believed to be the tomb of Teti's mother, it currently stands approximately 5 m (16 ft) high, although

9230-503: The capital of Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty . The pyramid at Meidum is one of three constructed during the reign of Sneferu , and is believed by some to have been started by that pharaoh's father and predecessor, Huni . However, that attribution is uncertain, as no record of Huni's name has been found at the site. It was constructed as a step pyramid and then later converted into the first "true" smooth-sided pyramid, when

9372-578: The chapels of the mastabas (like the pyramid, their burial chambers were usually bare of inscriptions) mention Khufu or his pyramid. For instance, an inscription of Mersyankh III states that "Her mother [is the] daughter of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Khufu." Most often these references are part of a title, for example, Snnw-ka, "Chief of the Settlement and Overseer of the Pyramid City of Akhet-Khufu" or Nykahap, "priest of Khufu who presides over

9514-423: The cladding of the pyramid was still in excellent condition at the time, whereas the uppermost part of the pyramid was formed by a platform 6  cubits (3.1 m; 10.3 ft) high. About the construction of the pyramid he notes that it was built with the help of ramps since no lifting tools had yet been invented. Nothing was left of the ramps, as they were removed after the pyramids were completed. He estimated

9656-421: The construction of the pyramids themselves. It measured nearly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long and 20 yards (18.3 m) wide, and elevated to a height of 16 yards (14.6 m), consisting of stone polished and carved with figures. Underground chambers were made on the hill where the pyramids stand. These were intended to be burial places for Khufu himself and were supplied with water by a channel brought in from

9798-447: The current 138.5 metres (454.4 ft); what is seen today is the underlying core structure. The base was measured to be about 230.3 metres (755.6 ft) square, giving a volume of roughly 2.6 million cubic metres (92 million cubic feet), which includes an internal hillock. The dimensions of the pyramid were 280 royal cubits (146.7 m; 481.4 ft) high, a base length of 440 cubits (230.6 m; 756.4 ft), with

9940-534: The custom of inscribing pyramids with text by over 200 years. The pyramid complex of Khufu included two temples that were lavishly decorated and inscribed. The pyramid temple was dedicated to the Sed festival , celebrating Khufu's 30th jubilee. Surviving scenes portray Khufu, officials, priests and other characters performing rituals. The valley temple remains largely unexcavated, but blocks reused by Amenemhat I depict, for instance, nautical scenes and personifications of

10082-523: The duration of lines of succession, Greaves concluded 1266 BC to be the beginning of Khufu's reign. Two centuries later, some of the gaps and uncertainties in Manetho's chronology had been cleared by discoveries such as the King Lists of Turin , Abydos , and Karnak . The names of Khufu found within the Great Pyramid's relieving chambers in 1837 helped to make clear that Cheops and Souphis are one and

10224-425: The dynastic Egyptians themselves, contemporaneously or in numerous later dynastic writings about the character, did not credit him with either designing Djoser's pyramid or the invention of stone architecture. The Pyramid of Djoser was first built as a square mastaba-like structure, which as a rule were known to otherwise be rectangular, and was expanded several times by way of a series of accretion layers, to produce

10366-411: The estates of Khufu (e.g. the estate "Khufu is beautiful"). The mortuary cult of Khufu which operated in these temples for hundreds of years indicates that Khufu was successfully interred in the Great Pyramid. That the funeral was carried out by Khufu's son and successor Djedefre is evidenced by the presence of his cartouches on the blocks that sealed the boat pits next to the pyramid. The Great Pyramid

10508-433: The excavations of Qakare Ibi 's pyramid. He later published the complete corpus of texts found in these five pyramids. Since 1958, expeditions under the directions of Jean-Philippe Lauer , Jean Sainte-Fare Garnot , and Jean Leclant have undertaken a major restoration project of the pyramids belonging to Teti, Pepi I, and Merenre I, as well as the pyramid of Unas. By 1999, the pyramid of Pepi had been opened to

10650-411: The first book of his Bibliotheca historica to the land, its history, and its monuments, including the Great Pyramid. Diodorus's work was inspired by historians of the past, but he also distanced himself from Herodotus, who Diodorus claims tells marvellous tales and myths. Diodorus presumably drew his knowledge from the lost work of Hecataeus of Abdera , and like Herodotus, he also places the builder of

10792-404: The gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply. It was common for the pyramid texts to be written in the first person, but not uncommon for texts to be later changed to the third person. Often this depended on who was reciting the texts and who they were recited for. Many of the texts include accomplishments of the pharaoh as well as the things they did for the Egyptian people during

10934-414: The gods. Examples of these rituals are the opening of the mouth ceremony , offering rituals, and insignia ritual. Both monetary and prayer-based offerings were made in the pyramids and were written in the pyramid texts in hopes of getting the pharaoh to a desirable afterlife. Rituals such as the opening of the mouth and eye ceremony were very important for the Pharaoh in the afterlife. This ceremony involved

11076-490: The half brother and vizier of Khufu, and the owner of the largest mastaba of the Giza East Field . The Great Pyramid has been determined to be about 4,600 years old by two principal approaches: indirectly, through its attribution to Khufu and his chronological age, based on archaeological and textual evidence; and directly, via radiocarbon dating of organic material found in the pyramid and included in its mortar. In

11218-622: The horses in Memphis, when he was still young, and stopped at the Sanctuary of Hor-em-akhet (the Sphinx). He spent a time there in going round it, looking at the beauty of the Sanctuary of Khufu and Khafra the revered." In 1954 two boat pits, one containing the Khufu ship , were discovered buried at the south foot of the pyramid. The cartouche of Djedefre was found on many of the blocks that covered

11360-463: The kings in a few additional ways. Like those of the kings, the use of both the first and third person is present in these pyramid texts. Neith's name is used throughout the texts to make them more personal. Many of the pronouns used throughout her pyramid texts are male, indicative of the parallels between the texts of the kings and queens, but a few female pronouns can be found. The texts also contain spells and utterances that are meant to be read by both

11502-480: The latter part of the 1st Dynasty, was discovered to contain a large, independently built step-pyramid-like structure enclosed within the outer palace facade mastaba. Archaeological remains and inscriptions suggest there may have been other similar structures dating to this period. The first historically documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed by Egyptologists to the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser . Although Egyptologists often credit his vizier Imhotep as its architect,

11644-551: The layout and structure of those that belonged to these queens were much simpler. But the layout of the texts corresponded to similar walls and locations as those of the kings. For example, the Resurrection Ritual is found on the east end of the south wall. Due to the fact that the pyramid of Neith did not contain an antechamber, many of the spells normally written there were also written on the south wall. The texts of Queen Neith were similar and different from those of

11786-416: The level of the river is too low for canals to bring water up to the pyramid. Pliny also recounts how "in the interior of the largest Pyramid there is a well, eighty-six cubits [45.1 m; 147.8 ft] deep, which communicates with the river, it is thought". He also describes a method discovered by Thales of Miletus for ascertaining the pyramid's height by measuring its shadow. During late antiquity ,

11928-546: The lines of succession known from ancient king lists and other texts. The reign lengths from Khufu to known points in the earlier past are summated, bolstered with genealogical data, astronomical observations, and other sources. As such, the historical chronology of Egypt is primarily a political chronology, thus independent from other types of archaeological evidence like stratigraphies , material culture, or radiocarbon dating. The majority of recent chronological estimates date Khufu and his pyramid between 2700 and 2500 BC. Mortar

12070-424: The living; with your water lily scepter in your arm, and govern those of the inaccessible places. Your lower arms are of Atum , your upper arms of Atum, your belly of Atum, your back of Atum, your rear of Atum, your legs of Atum, your face of Anubis . Horus 's mounds shall serve you; Seth 's mounds shall serve you. The various pyramid texts often contained writings of rituals and offerings to

12212-578: The lower courses and outer casing of the pyramid gave way. Amenemhat III was the last powerful ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty, and the pyramid he built at Hawara, near the Faiyum, is believed to post-date the so-called " Black Pyramid " built by the same ruler at Dahshur. It is the Hawara pyramid that is believed to have been Amenemhet's final resting place. The Pyramid of Senusret II at El Lahun

12354-422: The middle of the third millennium BC. The newly developed radiocarbon dating method confirmed that the historic chronology was approximately correct. It is still not a perfectly accurate method due to larger margins of error, calibration uncertainties and the problem of inbuilt age (time between growth and final usage) in plant material, including wood. Astronomical alignments have also been suggested to coincide with

12496-402: The mostly ruined Pyramid of Djedefre , son and successor of Khufu . Originally it was thought that this pyramid had never been completed, but the current archaeological consensus is that not only was it completed, but that it was originally about the same size as the Pyramid of Menkaure , which would have placed it among the half-dozen or so largest pyramids in Egypt. Its location adjacent to

12638-483: The mummy of a man in the sarcophagus of the burial chamber. This time, he visited Mariette personally, who again rejected the findings, saying on his deathbed that "[i]n thirty years of Egyptian excavations I have never seen a pyramid whose underground rooms had hieroglyphs written on their walls." Throughout 1881, Maspero continued to direct investigations of other sites in Saqqara, and more texts were found in each of

12780-427: The names of those who erected such stupendous memorials of their vanity". In pondering how the stones could be transported to such a vast height he gives two explanations: That either vast mounds of nitre and salt were heaped up against the pyramid, which were then melted away with water redirected from the river. Or, that "bridges" were constructed, their bricks afterwards distributed for erecting houses, arguing that

12922-512: The north wall; it is arrayed into three horizontal registers. The set up and layout of the Unas pyramid were replicated and expanded on for future pyramids. The causeway ran 750 meters long and is still in good condition, unlike many causeways found in similar ancient Egyptian pyramids. In the pyramid of Unas, the ritual texts could be found in the underlying supporting structure. The antechamber and corridor contained texts and spells personalized to

13064-441: The number of workers necessary to erect the Great Pyramid at 360,000 and the construction time at 20 years. Similar to Herodotus, Diodorus also claims that the side of the pyramid is inscribed with writing that "[set] forth [the price of] vegetables and purgatives for the workmen there were paid out over sixteen hundred talents." The Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian Strabo visited Egypt around 25 BC, shortly after Egypt

13206-430: The oldest, and are the most difficult to interpret. These utterances were meant to be chanted by those who were reciting them. They contained many verbs such as "fly" and "leap", depicting the actions taken by the pharaohs to get to the afterlife. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders and, most importantly, flying. The spells could also be used to call

13348-406: The oral-recitational poetry of pharaonic Egypt, marked by allusive metaphor and the exploitation of wordplay and homophony in its verbal recreation of a butchery ritual. Apart from the burial of Unas , only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn. A god who lives on his fathers, who feeds on his mothers... Unas is the bull of heaven Who rages in his heart, Who lives on

13490-448: The original height was closer to 14 m (46 ft). This area is arguably the most important pyramid field in Egypt outside Giza and Saqqara, although until 1996 the site was inaccessible due to its location within a military base and was relatively unknown outside archaeological circles. The southern Pyramid of Sneferu , commonly known as the Bent Pyramid , is believed to be the first Egyptian pyramid intended by its builders to be

13632-613: The other pyramids at Giza, al-Baghdadi also writes that the structures were surely tombs, although he thought the Great Pyramid was used for the burial of Agathodaimon or Hermes . Al-Baghdadi ponders whether the pyramid pre-dated the Great Flood as described in Genesis , and even briefly entertained the idea that it was a pre-Adamic construction. A few centuries later, the Islamic historian Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) compiled lore about

13774-400: The past the Great Pyramid was dated by its attribution to Khufu alone, putting the construction of the Great Pyramid within his reign, hence dating the pyramid was a matter of dating Khufu and the 4th dynasty. The relative sequence and synchronicity of events is the focal point of this method. Absolute calendar dates are derived from an interlocked network of evidence, the backbone of which are

13916-450: The period between 300 BCE and 300 CE), experienced a full-blown pyramid-building revival , which saw about 180 Egyptian-inspired indigenous royal pyramid-tombs constructed in the vicinity of the kingdom's capital cities. Al-Aziz Uthman (1171–1198), the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after only damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because

14058-401: The pharaoh to reach the heavens, one of which is by climbing a ladder. In utterance 304 the king says: Hail, daughter of Anubis , above the hatches of heaven, Comrade of Thoth , above the ladder's rails, Open Unas 's path, let Unas pass! Another way is by ferry. If the boatman refuses to take him, the king has other plans: If you fail to ferry Unas, He will leap and sit on

14200-631: The presentation of an offering, and recitations which are predominantly instructional. These texts appear in the Offering and Insignia Rituals, the Resurrection Ritual, and in the four pyramids containing the Morning Ritual. The writing in these texts (Dramatic Texts) suggests the formulation of these texts may have occurred around the time of the Second and Third dynasties. The remaining texts are personal, and are broadly concerned with guiding

14342-518: The public. Debris was cleared away from the pyramid, while research continued under the direction of Audran Labrousse  [ fr ] . The corpus of pyramid texts in Pepi ;I's pyramid were published in 2001. In 2010, more such texts were discovered in Behenu 's tomb. To date, Pyramid Texts have been discovered in the pyramids of these pharaohs and queens: The spells, or utterances, of

14484-487: The pyramid Akhet-Khufu". Several tomb owners have a king's name as part of their own name (e.g. Chufudjedef, Chufuseneb, Merichufu). The earliest pharaoh alluded to in that manner at Giza is Snefru (Khufu's father). In 1936 Hassan uncovered a stela of Amenhotep II near the Great Sphinx of Giza , which implies the two larger pyramids were still attributed to Khufu and Khafre in the New Kingdom . It reads: "He yoked

14626-485: The pyramid and one near the Nile); tombs for the immediate family and court of Khufu, including three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives; an even smaller "satellite pyramid"; and five buried solar barques . The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, and still contains his granite sarcophagus. It had, like other tombs of Egyptian elites, four main purposes: Make your grave well furnished and prepare thy place in

14768-499: The pyramid could be entered at this time. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder , writing in the first century AD, argued that the Great Pyramid had been raised, either "to prevent the lower classes from remaining unoccupied", or as a measure to prevent the pharaoh's riches from falling into the hands of his rivals or successors. Pliny does not speculate as to the pharaoh in question, explicitly noting that "accident [has] consigned to oblivion

14910-406: The pyramid in search of treasure is recorded during the vizierate of al-Afdal Shahanshah (1094–1121), but it was abandoned after a member of the party was lost in the passages. The Arab polymath Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1163–1231) studied the pyramid with great care, and in his Account of Egypt , he praises them as works of engineering genius. In addition to measuring the structure, alongside

15052-417: The pyramid structure. Hemiunu , Khufu's vizier , is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. Many varying scientific and alternative hypotheses attempt to explain the exact construction techniques , but, as is the case for other such structures, there is no definite consensus. The funerary complex around the pyramid consisted of two mortuary temples connected by a causeway (one close to

15194-402: The pyramid, "Chemmis", after Ramses III. According to his report, neither Chemmis ( Khufu ) nor Cephren ( Khafre ) were buried in their pyramids, but rather in secret places, for fear that the people ostensibly forced to build the structures would seek out the bodies for revenge. With this assertion, Diodorus strengthened the connection between pyramid building and slavery. According to Diodorus,

15336-450: The pyramid. In the second book of his work The Histories , he discusses the history of Egypt and the Great Pyramid. This report was created more than 2000 years after the structure was built, meaning that Herodotus obtained his knowledge mainly from a variety of indirect sources, including officials and priests of low rank, local Egyptians, Greek immigrants, and Herodotus's own interpreters. Accordingly, his explanations present themselves as

15478-473: The pyramids involved moving huge quantities of stone. While most blocks came from nearby quarries, special stones were transported on great barges from distant locations, for instance white limestone from Tura and granite from Aswan . In 2013, papyri, named Diary of Merer , were discovered at an ancient Egyptian harbor at the Red Sea coast. They are logbooks written over 4,500 years ago by an official with

15620-695: The pyramids of Unas , Teti , and Pepi II . Maspero began publishing his findings in the Recueil des Travaux from 1882 and continued to be involved until 1886 in the excavations of the pyramid in which the texts had been found. Maspero published the first corpora of the text in 1894 in French under the title Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah . Translations were made by German Egyptologist Kurt Heinrich Sethe to German in 1908–1910 in Die altägyptischen Pyramidentexte . The concordance that Sethe published

15762-466: The ruins of a large structure, which he concluded must be the pyramid of Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty . During the excavations he was able to gain access to the subterranean rooms, and discovered that the walls of the structure were covered in hieroglyphic text. Maspero contacted the 'director of the excavations' in Egypt, Auguste Mariette , to inform him of the discovery. Mariette concluded that

15904-529: The same sign, O24, as benben . The benben is the mound of existence that arose out of the abyss, known as nun in the Egyptian creation myth. The relationship between myr and benben is further linked by the capstone architectural element of pyramids and obelisks, which was named benbenet , the feminine form of benben . Preceded by assumed earlier sites in the Eastern Sahara , tumuli with megalithic monuments developed as early as 4700 BCE in

16046-419: The same. Thus the Great Pyramid was recognized to have been built in the 4th dynasty. The dating among Egyptologists still varied by multiple centuries (around 4000–2000 BC), depending on methodology, preconceived religious notions (such as the biblical deluge ) and which source they thought was more credible. Estimates significantly narrowed in the 20th century, most being within 250 years of each other, around

16188-584: The spirit herself as well as others addressing her. After death, the king must first rise from his tomb. Utterance 373 describes: Oho! Oho! Rise up, O Teti ! Take your head, collect your bones, Gather your limbs, shake the earth from your flesh! Take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not, Stand at the gates that bar the common people! The gatekeeper comes out to you, he grasps your hand, Takes you into heaven, to your father Geb . He rejoices at your coming, gives you his hands, Kisses you, caresses you, Sets you before

16330-480: The spirit out of the tomb, and into new life. They consist of provisioning, transition, and apotropaic – or protective – texts. The provisioning texts deal with the deceased taking command of his own food-supply, and demanding nourishment from the gods. One example of these texts is the king's response in Unas' pyramid. The transition texts – otherwise known as the Sakhu or Glorifications – are predominantly about

16472-419: The spirits, the imperishable stars... The hidden ones worship you, The great ones surround you, The watchers wait on you, Barley is threshed for you, Emmer is reaped for you, Your monthly feasts are made with it, Your half-month feasts are made with it, As ordered done for you by Geb, your father, Rise up, O Teti, you shall not die! The texts then describe several ways for

16614-506: The steeper angle of inclination of its construction—it is, in fact, smaller in both height and volume. The Giza pyramid complex has been a popular tourist destination since antiquity and was popularized in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Today it is the only one of those wonders still in existence. This site, halfway between Giza and Abusir ,

16756-431: The stepped pyramid structure we see today. Egyptologists believe this design served as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. Though other pyramids were attempted in the 3rd Dynasty after Djoser, it was the 4th Dynasty , transitioning from the step pyramid to true pyramid shape, which gave rise to the great pyramids of Meidum , Dahshur , and Giza. The last pharaoh of

16898-428: The steps were filled in and an outer casing added. The pyramid suffered several catastrophic collapses in ancient and medieval times. Medieval Arab writers described it as having seven steps, although today only the three uppermost of these remain, giving the structure its odd, tower-like appearance. The hill on which the pyramid is situated is not a natural landscape feature, it is the small mountain of debris created when

17040-589: The stones close to the construction site, as indicated by the numerous finds of cutting tools. The finished blocks were placed on the pre-prepared foundations. The foundations were levelled using a rough square level, water trenches and experienced surveyors. Pyramid Texts Unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead , the Pyramid Texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated. The use and occurrence of Pyramid Texts changed between

17182-446: The structure must be a mastaba , as no writing had previously been discovered in a pyramid. Maspero continued his excavations at a second structure, around one kilometre (0.62 mi) south-west of the first, in search of more evidence. This second structure was determined to be the pyramid of Merenre I , Pepi I 's successor. In it, Maspero discovered the same hieroglyphic text on the walls he had found in Pepi I's pyramid, and

17324-401: The structure's inner chambers. Al-zaman also contains a report of al-Ma'mun's entering the pyramid and discovering a vessel containing a thousand coins, which just happened to cover the cost of opening the pyramid. (Some speculate that this story is true, but that the coins were planted by Al-Ma'mun to appease his workers, who were likely frustrated that they had found no treasure.) In 987 AD,

17466-457: The task proved too large. 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 pyramid is also thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun, and most pyramids were faced with polished, highly reflective white limestone, in order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from

17608-476: The texts in the Old Kingdom. Copies of all but a single spell, PT 200, inscribed in the pyramid appeared throughout the Middle Kingdom and later, including a near-complete replica of the texts inscribed in the tomb of the 12th-Dynasty High Priest Senwosretankh at El-Lisht . Unas' pyramid , situated between the pyramids of Djoser and Sekhemkhet in North Saqqara, was the smallest of those built in

17750-412: The time of construction. Egyptian chronology continues to be refined and data from multiple disciplines have started to be factored in, such as luminescence dating, radiocarbon dating, and dendrochronology. For instance, Ramsey et al. included over 200 radiocarbon samples in their model. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus , writing in the 5th century BC, is one of the first major authors to mention

17892-490: The time of their rule. These texts were used to both guide the pharaohs to the afterlife, but also to inform and assure the living that the soul made it to its final destination. The texts first appeared in the pyramid of the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, that belonging to Unas . A total of 283 spells appear on the subterranean walls of Unas' pyramid. These spells are the smallest and best-preserved corpus of

18034-617: The title inspector , who documented the transport of white limestone from the Tura quarries, along the Nile River, to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu. It is possible that quarried blocks were then transported to the construction site by wooden sleds, with sand in front of the sled wetted to reduce friction . Droplets of water created bridges between the grains of sand, helping them stick together. Workers cut

18176-409: The tombs of kings, but those of queens as well. Queen Neith, who was the wife of Pepi II, is one of three queens of the 6th dynasty whose tomb contains pyramid texts. The pyramids of the other two queens (both also thought to be wives of Pepi II), Iput II and Wedjebetni, also contained tombs inscribed with texts. Those of Neith have been kept in much better condition. Compared to the tombs of the kings,

18318-480: The transformation of the deceased into an Akh, and their ascent, mirroring the motion of the gods, into the sky. These texts form the largest part of the corpus, and are dominated by the youngest texts composed in the Fifth and possibly Sixth dynasties. Apotropaic texts consist of short protective spells for warding off threats to the body and tomb. Due to the archaic style of writing, these texts are considered to be

18460-469: The usage is confirmed in the anonymous travelogue of seven monks who set out from Jerusalem to visit the famous ascetics in Egypt, wherein they report that they "saw Joseph's granaries, where he stored grain in biblical times". This late 4th-century usage is further confirmed in the geographical treatise Cosmographia , written by Julius Honorius around 376 AD, which explains that the Pyramids were called

18602-417: The west. Look, death counts little for us. Look, life is valued highly by us. The house of the dead (the tomb) is for life. In ancient Egypt, high social status was considered absolutely positive, and the monumental social inequalities were symbolized by gigantic pyramids versus smaller mastabas . The sizes of tombs were regulated officially, with their allowed dimensions written down in royal decrees . In

18744-515: The wing of Thoth, Then he will ferry Unas to that side! Utterances 273 and 274 are sometimes known as the "Cannibal Hymn", because it seems to be describing the king hunting and eating parts of the gods: however, as Renouf pointed out when it was first published: As has been observed, the spell is echoing how the Goddess Nut (as the Sky) causing the stars to disappear at dawn is likened to

18886-479: The wood originated from the centre of a long-lived tree or had been recycled for many years prior to being deposited in the pyramid. Circa 450 BC Herodotus attributed the Great Pyramid to Cheops (Hellenization of Khufu), yet erroneously placed his reign following the Ramesside period . Manetho , around 200 years later, composed an extensive list of Egyptian kings, which he divided into dynasties, assigning Khufu to

19028-433: The world's end, and so he ordered the construction of the pyramids so that they might house all the knowledge of Egypt and survive into the present. The most notable account of this legend was given by al-Masudi (896–956) in his Akbar al-zaman , alongside imaginative tales about the pyramid, such as the story of a man who fell three hours down the pyramid's well and the tale of an expedition that discovered bizarre finds in

19170-447: The world's oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry . The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza , on the outskirts of Cairo . Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built. The Pyramid of Khufu is the largest Egyptian pyramid and the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence, despite being the oldest by about 2,000 years. The name for

19312-400: Was "something like pitch ", and when the explorer reached into the vessel "a gold receptacle happened to be inside". The receptacle, when taken from the vessel, was filled with "fresh blood", which quickly dried up. Ibn al-Nadim's work also claims that the bodies of a man and woman were discovered inside the pyramid in the "best possible state of preservation". The author al-Kaisi, in his work

19454-464: Was annexed by the Romans . In his work Geographica , he argues that the pyramids were the burial place of kings, but he does not mention which king was buried in the structure. Strabo also mentions: "At a moderate height in one of the sides is a stone, which may be taken out; when that is removed, there is an oblique passage to the tomb." This statement has generated much speculation, as it suggests that

19596-413: Was found by Goyon on an exterior block of the 4th layer of the pyramid. The inscriptions are comparable to those found at other sites of Khufu, such as the alabaster quarry at Hatnub or the harbour at Wadi al-Jarf , and are present in pyramids of other pharaohs as well. Throughout the 20th century the cemeteries next to the pyramid were excavated. Family members and high officials of Khufu were buried in

19738-411: Was likely looted as early as the First Intermediate Period and may have been reused afterwards. Arab accounts tell stories of mummies and treasures being found inside the pyramid. For instance, Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442) reports the discovery of three shrouded bodies, a sarcophagus filled with gold, and a corpse in golden armour with a sword of inestimable value and a ruby as large as an egg. Historically

19880-427: Was that of Neith, a wife of Teti . All of Egypt's pyramids, except the small Third Dynasty pyramid at Zawyet el-Maiyitin , are sited on the west bank of the Nile , and most are grouped together in a number of pyramid fields. The most important of these are listed geographically, from north to south, below. Abu Rawash is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid (other than the ruins of Lepsius pyramid number one),

20022-441: Was the main construction material. Long after the end of Egypt's own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan , after much of Egypt came under the rule of the Kingdom of Kush , which was then based at Napata . Napatan rule, known as the 25th Dynasty , lasted from 750 BCE to 664 BCE. The Meroitic period of Kushite history, when the kingdom was centered on Meroë , (approximately in

20164-438: Was used generously in the Great Pyramid's construction. In the mixing process ashes from fires were added to the mortar, organic material that could be extracted and radiocarbon dated . A total of 46 samples of the mortar were taken in 1984 and 1995, making sure they were clearly inherent to the original structure and could not have been incorporated at a later date. The results were calibrated to 2871–2604 BC. The old wood problem

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