Myths of Giza Pyramid

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MYTHS OF GIZA PYRAMID

World Cultures I

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The pyramids of Egypt are fascinating and well-constructed beyond their times. Many myths are told about the pyramid of Giza and the construction and purpose of this great engineered structure. Sneferu was the pharaoh that started the construction on pyramids, but was not successful. Sneferu’s son Khufu, was the one that successfully constructed the Giza pyramid after the two fail attempts from his father. Khufu followed the blueprints that his father designed and built the pyramid just as his father wanted.

 In the Giza pyramids, which was successful, he included an aboveground burial chambers, a mortuary temple, and a causeway leading down to a valley temple. The Giza pyramids were erected on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River in northern Egypt and were connected, by covered causeways, to mortuary temples in the valley below the plateau. These pyramids were linked to the Nile River by a canal. In ancient times they were included among the Seven Wonders of the World.

Many myths are circulated about how the workers built the Giza pyramid that stands as tall as a fifty story skyscraper. Historians have debated the question of who built the pyramids, which they have never found a definite answer. According to the earliest known historian of the Egyptian Pyramid Age, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th cent. BC), the Great Pyramid took twenty years to construct and demanded the labor of 100,000 men. However, it is hard to believe that any of these enormous monuments could have been built in one pharaoh’s lifetime.

Archaeologist are still trying to solve the mystery of the workers that constructed the pyramids. It is hard to think that 100,000 workers built these elaborate pyramids without any modern technology such as a pulley to lift the stones along the sides of the pyramids. The workers living areas were discovered which unlocked great amounts of discoveries for archaeologists. They learned about the daily lives of the workers and their tools that were used for construction Six hundred skeletons of Egyptians which were some that emergency medical treatment for injuries while working on the pyramids. There is also evidence that these workers worked all year around, see that, according to their beliefs, they were assured a certain placed in the afterlife.

It is believed that the workers carried blocks with oxen and groups of men. The tools that the workers used were very advanced for their times. One tool that was used was the wheel which was not invented till centuries later. In the Egyptians times, there were only two alloys that were known which was gold and copper. Since gold was too soft they used copper tools, such as a saw, chisel, and drill to break and trim stones. When the workers were preparing the site of the pyramid they did not have dozers like we have today, so how did they level the site. They used water to level the site because they believed that water finds its own level. The workers would run a channel around the hill filled with water, and they dug many more channels back and forth and then filling them with rocks and sand. Another question is how the workers raised the side of the structure, they did not have cranes like we do in today’s world. Historians believe that the most plausible answer is that the Egyptians., who lack tackle and pulleys for lifting, employed a sloping embankment of brick, earth, and sand, which was increased in height and in length as the pyramid rose and up which the stone blocks were hauled by means of sledges, rollers, and levers.