Chapter 15 15

The Egyptian pyramids are the most emblematic wonders of the past.The gigantic monster in geometric shape has silently stood on the vast desert since ancient times, becoming the most typical representative of ancient miracles. It takes 20 minutes to drive from the modern Cairo Hotel to the world-famous Giza Pyramids.Thousands of tourists are amazed in front of it.The Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century BC once told his Greek compatriots that he believed that the first of the seven wonders of the world was the great pyramid. In order to see the majestic appearance of the pyramids, tourists come to Egypt in a steady stream.Anyone who sees the pyramids for the first time will feel that it is a well-deserved miracle.Although the surrounding environment is chaotic, with the interference of water vendors, local guides and camel drivers, they have not detracted from the majesty of the pyramid.During the day, the tall pyramids block the sun's rays, forming a huge shadow, just like the scene of sunset and dusk; at night, under the reflection of the moonlight, the pyramids become a bizarre phantom.

Although this huge pyramid was built 31 feet lower by its designers, it is still the tallest of the 80 pyramids in Egypt.Its top was 481.4 feet high from the rock base, but unfortunately the 12 stone steps at the top no longer exist.The two ends of the base of the pyramid reached a maximum of 756 feet and covered an area of ​​13.1 acres. Pharaoh Khufu began to rule in the fourth generation, which is called the "Old Kingdom" period in history.Khufu's father, named Sneferu, also built a pyramid called Midum 56 miles south of Cairo, which later collapsed.At Dache, 30 miles north of Midum, Pharaoh Sneferu built two other pyramids: the Pyramid of Bent and the northern "Pyramid of Stone".It was this pharaoh who inherited the tradition of building pyramids with Pharaoh Zose of the three dynasties.Pharaoh Zose built the "Step Pyramid" in Saqella, 20 miles south of Cairo. This pyramid is not far from Memphis, the capital of the "Kingdom of Zeus".

Pharaoh Zose's pyramid was completed in 2780 BC, and a century later, Pharaoh Khufu's pyramid was also started.After the pyramid was built, it became famous for its surface covered with smooth, shiny limestone blocks. Today, the largest pyramid is in dilapidated condition.In the Tula quarry near it, almost all the limestone blocks were taken by some later builders.It is said that most of these stones were used to build the walls or other buildings of the ancient city of Cairo in the 13th century. Most of the 2.3 million stone blocks on the Great Pyramid were mined from limestone quarries near Giza.Some of the finely chiseled stones were pulled from the quarries at Tula, a few miles away, on the east bank of the upper Nile.In addition, the Egyptians also used some granite, especially the inner chamber of the Shwedagon Pagoda is made of granite.The Egyptians valued granite because of its hardness and strength.But granite is difficult to mine and carve, and the nearest Astin granite quarry is 500 miles south, so granite is rarely used in the construction of pyramids.

Each stone on the Great Pyramid weighs an average of 2.5 tons, some even weigh 15 tons, and the smallest one is no less than 1.5 tons. Therefore, although the Great Pyramid has become a pile of ruins, it still looks huge. Most of the fantastic speculation about the Great Pyramid has to do with the details of its construction.Why did ancient people build pyramids like this?How was the pyramid built?What is the purpose of building the pyramids? ■Amazing Orientation At the end of 1880, William Flinders Petrie, the father of modern architecture, conducted a detailed inspection of the Great Pyramid. He pointed out that the most astonishing feature of the Great Pyramid lies in its orientation.Because each of its ridges is correctly facing east, west, north, south, and the error of each orientation is within 5 minutes (1 minute is one sixtieth of 1 degree).This error is only one-sixth the size of the full moon seen by the naked eye, which is a very precise observation technique.Although the orientation of the pyramids of King Khafre and King Menkola is also correctly facing east, west, north, south, but it is not as correct as the Great Pyramid.

This accuracy also reflects the superb observation technology of the Egyptians. It is even more amazing that the Egyptians can maintain such a high accuracy on such a magnificent monument as the Great Pyramid. Obviously, the Egyptians have important intentions . The accuracy of its level is also shocking.Because its error is only 1.5 inches (about 3.8 centimeters), even modern buildings are difficult to match. The most amazing thing about the building is probably the exquisite combination of stones on the outer wall!Because these stones are all like works of art, overlapping tightly, and the gaps are so small that you can't even put a human hair.

Furthermore, its mechanical structure is extremely ingenious.The Shwedagon Pagoda is not directly piled up with nearly 3 million stones into a four-chain shape. Because if the structure is so simple, then as long as a part of it collapses, it will all collapse because it is too bulky. What supports the Great Pyramid is the internal composition similar to tree rings.Just like the annual rings where the hard and soft layers interact, the interior of the Great Pyramid is also composed of a hard structure called a buttress and a stone filling layer that fills its gaps.There are buttresses on the innermost side to support the weight of the tower top, and upper buttresses are arranged at a certain interval on the outer side. The outer guard walls are slightly inclined inward, which is to hold down the rock filling and measure the force of falling outward.

The pyramids of King Khufu and the other two kings were covered with milky white limestone when they were built. Therefore, whenever the sun shines, they will shine brightly.However, due to a major earthquake in the 13th century, part of it collapsed, and this collapsed part was also used as a good building material.Therefore, what we see today are only some stiff and protruding staircase-like stones (the upper 1/4 of King Khafre's pyramid still has a part of it). Even though the stones on the outside of the Great Pyramid have completely collapsed, the Great Pyramid still stands because of the ingenious buttress construction.

■Compared with the magnificent appearance of the Great Pyramid, the empty sarcophagus of the "King's Chamber" has an unexpectedly simple internal structure—as will be described later, the secrets hidden in it are immeasurable—. The entrance of the Great Pyramid is at Shixiong on the 13th floor with a height of about 20 meters in the center of the north slope (this entrance is now blocked, visitors need to go down about 10 meters from here called "Yalu Mam The entrance and exit of Si's Tomb Pit". As soon as you enter the original entrance, there is a "descending corridor" (1.2 meters high and 1 meter wide) with an inclination of 208 degrees.After going down the ramp and walking about 30 meters, you will enter the rock plate.Going down about 80 meters, the passage is level, and a little further ahead is the "basement".Located 30 meters below the surface just below the top of the pyramid, is an empty room 3.5 meters high, 14 meters wide, and 8 meters deep.At the east end of the room there is another horizontal corridor leading to the south end, but it stops after about 14 meters.Since the "basement" was only built for one year and then stopped, we speculated that it might have been originally planned as a coffin chamber, but it was later abandoned for some reason.

Going back to about 30 meters away from the entrance of the "Descending Corridor", there is another "Ascending Promenade".Climb up the "ascending corridor" with an inclination of 26 degrees, and walk about 38 meters, and you will come across a place where two corridors intersect in a vertical pit.The corridor facing upward is the "Grand Corridor" leading to the "King's Tomb". Facing the center of the pyramid, the corridor extending horizontally is the corridor leading to the "King's Tomb". The "Descent Promenade" is connected.

Go to the horizontal corridor for about 35 meters, and you will arrive at the "Wang Ji Tomb". The "Wang Ji Tomb" is a room about 5 meters square, with a circular ceiling and a height of 6.15 meters at the highest point.The internal structure is fine limestone.On the south and north walls, there are air holes upward at 45 degrees, which seem to be air holes, but they are interrupted at 15 meters. This room is called the "Prince's Tomb" because of the shape of the ceiling, because so far there is no conclusive evidence that it once contained the coffin of the princess.

After returning to the branch point of the corridor, walk into the "Grand Promenade", where there is a magnificent passageway with a height of 8.5 meters. The "Great Promenade" is the largest promenade in the Great Pyramid, climbing southward at the same angle as the "Ascending Promenade".The smoothness of the limestone surface is extremely difficult for visitors to see, as its walls are now blackened by torch smoke. After climbing the "Grand Promenade" of about 47 meters, and then passing through the "lounge", you will arrive at the "King's Tomb". The depth of the "King's Tomb" is about 10 meters, and the height and width of the mouth are about 5 meters.Although it is called the "King's Tomb", it is just a room with an empty coffin on the west side, so those who enter here thinking that they will see a luxurious scene are disappointed in the end. In the ninth century, Hariyaru Mamun of Baghdad, who dug and robbed the Great Pyramid in order to plunder the king's burial objects, was also disappointed after seeing the appearance of the tomb. Let's take a look around the "King's Tomb".Five layers of granite were piled above the tomb, the overall height is 17 meters, there is space between each layer, and the topmost roof is mountain-shaped.This is the famous "gravity diffusion chamber" of the Great Pyramid.The reason why there is space between the layers is to prevent the tomb from being crushed by the millions of tons of boulders, and the amazing technology of the Great Pyramid also exists here. ■Mystery of the construction of the Great Pyramid In the fifth century BC, Herodotus, a Greek historian who visited the Giza Heights, recorded some of his impressions of the Great Pyramid. "Kingdom of Hutian followed the advice of the priests and caused the people to suffer. He forced all the people of Egypt to work for himself, and more often than not, 100,000 people were forced to work every three months. The construction is only a drag The stone road made the people's labor last for 10 years. It takes 20 years to build a pyramid." In addition, he also recorded the method of building the Great Pyramid. "The construction method is a ladder-style construction method. After the ladder is built, the remaining stones are lifted with a wooden crane. Maybe use the same number of cranes as the ladder, or maybe use only one crane that is easy to move, Move up one by one." The book "History" written by Herodotus is an extremely valuable record because it records many things about the construction of the pyramids by ancient people.But he was just a man who was born some 2,000 years after the construction of the pyramids.And because Herodotus was a Greek with a very prosperous culture, he may have aversion and prejudice against Egypt, so we cannot fully accept his description. According to the discoveries of many ancestors, today's scholars who specialize in pyramid research speculate that the construction method of the Great Pyramid is as follows: According to the papyrus records at that time, the prime minister Haimo directly commanded the construction of the Great Pyramid.He first selected the location, that is, he chose a highland with solid rocks not far from the west bank of the Nile.The ancient Egyptians believed that the west bank of the Nile, where the sun set, was the kingdom of the dead.In order to avoid being too close to the Nile River to be flooded, and to avoid the Nile River being too far away to be inconvenient to carry stones - so the Giza Highland, which fully meets this condition, was chosen as the site for the construction of the Great Pyramid. Once the site is decided, a mesh-shaped ditch will be dug on the highland rock plate, and water will flow into the ditch.Water marks were printed on the various ditches to determine the correct level of the Great Pyramid. Then match the four corners of the pyramid with the four directions of east, west, north, south.When doing this project, the constellation must be used to be accurate. I don't know how they measured it at that time. Most of the limestone used in the construction of the pyramids was quarried from the Tula quarry on the east bank of the Nile, while the granite used in the corridors and rooms was quarried from places such as Aswan on the upper reaches of the Nile. .When chiseling stones, first use a chisel to make a hole in the stone, then drive a wooden wedge into the hole, then put it in water to make it expand, and finally use the method of cutting the stone from the rock plate. The chiseled stones are first placed on a sled, then placed on side-by-side logs, and pulled to the river bank by ropes.At that time they did not know the use of wheels or horses. When loading items on the Nile River, most of them use rafts with animal skin floating bags, which can be raised with a push of a roller.Herodotus said that he used a crane, but the wooden unloaders used by Egyptian farmers since ancient times are extremely unlikely to lift an average of 2.5 tons of stone.Therefore, they first built the slope on the side of the pyramid, and then built the slope upward as the stone steps became higher.Also bury logs on the ramp to reduce prying resistance.When it is built to the top of the pyramid, the ramp is lowered and the first-class limestone is filled in for decoration. So, how much time and personnel will this big project take?According to Herodotus' record "100,000 people alternate every three months", then 400,000 people are needed in one year.However, according to the estimates of modern scholars, even if the number of stones in the Great Pyramid is 1 million, if 2 to 4 people are used in a year, it can be completed in about 10 years. ■ Graveyard, calendar or observatory? Since ancient times, there have been many questions about the Great Pyramid, among which the biggest question is "Is the Great Pyramid really the tomb of King Khufu?" The only basis for thinking that it is the tomb of King Khufu is Herodotus' account. It is only recorded in the sacred text of King Khufu in the "Gravity Diffusion Chamber". Many people who firmly believe that it is the cemetery of King Khufu think that "the tomb of the king is of course the coffin of King Khufu, and the remaining sarcophagus certainly belongs to him. As for the mummy and funerary objects, they were stolen long ago."In addition, although some people advocate the theory of King Khufu, they maintain that "King Khufu's coffin is not in the king's tomb, but elsewhere." Advocating this statement, the more representative figure is Herodotus.He said: "Dig the halfway up the hill where the pyramid stands, and you will find that the basement was also built. This is the tomb that the king built for himself, and the water of the Nile River was introduced through the ditch to make the tomb like an isolated island. outside intrusion". In addition, there is another saying that "the pyramid is not the tomb of the king, but was built for other purposes." This statement has been advocated by many people since the eighth century Arab historian Ba ​​Luji advocated the theory of flood refuge. Furthermore, there is another more classical theory, that is, about 300 years ago, the Great Pyramid Day Timepiece advocated by De Charlusse of France.He noticed that the sun's shadow on each slope of the Great Pyramid would change subtly with the seasons.After a year of observation, he finally found out that on the slope on the north side, there are seasons where shadows can be formed and seasons where shadows cannot be formed, and the boundaries are March 1 and October 14.And these 2 days coincided with the period of sowing various crops, so he announced that the Great Pyramid was used to inform the calendar of the day and time for farming. In addition to the above two, there is also the astronomical theory proposed by Mike Rokudon, which leads to another bolder hypothesis based on the internal structure of the Great Pyramid.According to him, the height of the former Great Pyramid was only one-third of the current height, and the upper ends of the large corridor and the descending corridor were exposed to the outside.The inclination of the Grand Corridor is in a straight line facing the direction of Alpha Star.And people observe these stars from the bottom of the corridor through the tunnel. Alpha Star was the Polaris at that time, and Sirius was an important planet for predicting whether the Nile River would flood, but when the earth rotated and the positions of the planets changed, the promenade lost its role as an observatory.Therefore, King Khufu ordered to change the plan and build his pyramid here instead.Because a star as bright as Tianruoxing should be seen very clearly even through a corridor-like tunnel. Many people support his statement, but a modern scholar who specializes in pyramids objected, "If you think that they only observe one star, then they build a 40-meter-high megalithic observatory. It's against the norm." ■Pyramid full of earth information Mathematics researchers in the 19th century also stated one after another that the Great Pyramid is a large building that condenses the knowledge of mathematics and geometry of the ancients, and the size of each part of the Great Pyramid also has great significance. For example: the area of ​​the slope of the Great Pyramid is almost the same as the area of ​​the square with the height as one side. Investigate the ratio between the height of the triangular faces of the Great Pyramid and the length around the base, and a value close to pi appears.That is, if you draw a circle with the height as the radius, its circumference is equal to the length of the four bases. Also, if the length of the slope (hypotenuse distance) of the Great Pyramid is divided by 1/2 of the base, the golden ratio of 1.618 will appear.Since ancient Greece, the golden section has been regarded as the most beautiful geometric ratio, and it is widely used in temples and sculptures.But it has been fully adopted in the Great Pyramid built more than 2000 years earlier than ancient Greece. Recently, it is also popular to compare the pyramids with various values ​​of the earth.For example: *The scale of the ancient Egyptians' pyramid leaves (1.001 inches) is equivalent to one-fifth of the diameter of the earth. *The distance between the sun and the earth is equal to 100 million times the height of the Great Pyramid. ＊The weight of the Great Pyramid is equivalent to one thousandth of the weight of the earth. ＊The specific gravity of the earth is equal to the specific gravity of the Great Pyramid. * The current height of the Great Pyramid is 1; 8.6 meters, which is roughly the same as the average altitude of the earth. The above are just a few examples, because the mysterious numbers of the Great Pyramid are not only there. Scholars who tried their best to find mathematical and geometric meanings in the Great Pyramid were called "idiots", but is the coincidence of these numbers really just a coincidence?Or, as they say, is the Great Pyramid the mathematical crystallization of the ancients? Perhaps, an accidental discovery in another continent can provide us with another possibility to solve the mystery of the construction of the Great Pyramid. This discovery is the emerald tablet. The Emerald Tablet is a mysterious tablet discovered in the tropical jungle of Mexico in 1925 by Dr. Moriah Deli, an American occultist. According to legend, the Emerald Tablet is a secret book written by Des, a monk from the continent of Atlantis that was submerged by sea water 5 years ago, and recorded the wisdom of Atlantis.After Atlantis was submerged by the sea, Des immigrated to ancient Egypt, built the Great Pyramid, and dominated Egypt from 5 BC to 36,000 BC. The contents of the secret book written in the ancient Atlantean language are extremely difficult to understand.However, it should be wrong to say that there are spiritual beings in the universe.The surface and content also imply that the human heart also has the ability to feel this spirituality. That is to say, although the emerald green tablet does not directly mention the Great Pyramid, Pang has given a hint to solve the mystery of the construction of the pyramid, but it seems that it will take a considerable amount of time before the mystery is completely solved.