Chapter 32 Chapter 34

Have you ever wanted to climb a pyramid at night?In fear of arrest, in a state of nervous tension? I can tell you that if you are climbing the Great Pyramid, it is as difficult as climbing the sky.Although about 31 feet of the top is gone, the Great Pyramid still rises from the ground to a height of 450 feet and is made up of 203 sections of stone, each averaging about two and a quarter feet high. And when I started to climb, I found that the average number of pyramids did not tell me the whole picture of the pyramid.The boulders were of varying heights, ranging from as low as my knees to as high as my chest, making it almost impossible for me to climb.Between each section of stones, there is a very narrow horizontal space for walking, only the width of one foot; in addition to the seemingly solid huge stones, it was discovered that they were quite broken after starting to climb , may fall apart at any time, making climbing more difficult and dangerous.

After climbing about 30 steps, Sansha and I gradually realized how difficult our situation was: sore muscles, stiffness between the knees and fingers, and bruises—however, we only climbed 1/7 of the pyramid, and there are still There are nearly 200 steps waiting for us.Another thing that disturbed us was that when climbing a height, the eyes couldn't help but look down, and they couldn't help noticing the steep slope under their feet.I followed the rugged rocks in the southwest corner down, and felt dizzy for a moment, as if I might be like Jack and Jill who went out to fetch water in a fairy tale, just fell down, and my body hit several layers After the boulder, the head hit the ground first, and then the body was smashed to pieces.

Ali took a short break, but before we had a chance to catch his breath, he gestured eagerly for us to pick up our feet and climb up.Following the indicator at the southwest corner of the tower again, Ali headed upwards and quickly disappeared into the night sky. The shadow of uneasiness continued to expand in my heart, and Sansa and I could only follow closely behind. geometry puzzle The stones of the 35th step are larger than those below (except the cornerstone), and each weighs at least 10 to 15 tons, making it very difficult to climb.This runs counter to our common sense and logic.Logically speaking, since the stones are carried up from below, the higher the place, the smaller and lighter the stones used should be.From steps 1 to 18, the height of the blocks does taper from an average of 55.5 inches at the bottom to a little over 23 inches at the 17th step.But the height of the stones of the 19th step rises steeply to 36 inches, not only changing in height, but also increasing in length and width.The weight of these stones is only 2 to 6 tons in the 1st to 18th steps, but it increases to 10 to 15 tons when transported above the 19th step, which obviously becomes very cumbersome and difficult to handle.However, by unknown method, the stones were cut out of the hard limestone and transported to a height of 100 feet above the ground, where they were placed exactly where they were intended.

To accomplish such a arduous task, the masons of the pyramid must not only have the will of steel, the skill of a goat, and the tenacity of a lion, but also the self-confidence of a chimney builder who specializes in climbing.The icy morning wind whistled past my ears, threatening to take me into the air to fly with them.In this trembling place, on the one hand, it is necessary to maintain the balance of the body, and on the other hand, one stone after another, which is at least twice the weight of a modern private car, has to be lifted up from below, transported to the correct place, and aligned to the position. The minds of these masons don't know what to think.

How long did it take for the pyramid to be built?How many people were involved in the construction work?The general consensus of Egyptologists is that it took a total of 20 years and 100,000 people participated in the construction.However, they also agreed that the so-called construction was not carried out from the beginning to the end of the year, but only during three months of the year, when the Nile was flooded and farming was not possible. As I climbed up, I thought about the meaning of this statement.What builders need to imagine is not only how to move thousands of huge boulders weighing more than 15 tons, but also how to move these stones with an average of 2.5 tons to the construction site for a long time.According to reliable estimates, the pyramids were built from the accumulation of 2.3 million stone blocks.Assuming that workers work 10 hours a day throughout the year, they need to place 31 stones per hour (or move 1 stone every 2 minutes) to complete the pyramid project within 20 years.And if the project is only carried out during the slack season, then the speed of the workers must be accelerated to move 4 stones per minute, or 240 stones per hour, in order to keep up.

This calculation is undoubtedly a nightmare for site managers.How well coordinated, for example, had to be between the quarry and the pyramid's masons to get such a large block of stone to the site with such astonishing speed.Also, if a 2.5-ton stone falls from the 175th step, the result will be disastrous. No matter from the physical or management point of view, the construction of the pyramid is very difficult work.In addition, the pyramid itself is a challenge to geometry in its construction.The apex of the pyramid must be above the center of the four corners of the base, as long as there is a slight deviation in the inclination angles of the four sides, it will constitute a huge error at the apex.Therefore, during the construction process, from the ground to hundreds of feet in the air, each extremely heavy stone must be placed in an absolutely precise position.

The theory of the slope How did the Egyptians do such a precise and difficult job? Egyptologists have put forward more than 30 theories, trying to solve the mystery of the construction of the pyramids. Most of them believe that some kind of inclined road must have been laid on the construction site before the construction of the pyramids.Professor I.E.S. Edwards, former director of the Ancient Egypt Research Office of the British Museum, said bluntly: "The ancient Egyptians had only one way to lift very heavy things, and that was to lift them from flat ground. Or want a starting point for lifting weights, build a ramp out of dirt and bricks."

John Bains, professor of ancient Egyptology at the University of Oxford, agrees with Edwards, and further deduces: "After the pyramid is built higher and higher, the slope must gradually expand regardless of its length or width, so as to maintain a certain slope (approx. 1:10), otherwise it will collapse. At that time, the builders must have built several slopes from several different angles." However, laying a road with a slope of 1:10 to the apex of the Great Pyramid would require at least 4,800 feet of road length and three times as many bricks and dirt as the Great Pyramid itself. (The volume of the slope is 8 million cubic meters, while the volume of the pyramid cone is only 2.6 million cubic meters①.) If the slope is higher than 1:10, the road surface will be too steep to carry heavy loads uphill, but if the slope is low At 1:10, the ratio of the amount of building materials used to build the ramp to the pyramid would be even more absurd.

Moreover, a 1-mile-long slope from the ground to a height of 480 feet is simply impossible to build casually with bricks and mud, as ancient Egyptologists such as Edwards suggest.On the contrary, modern architects and builders have confirmed that ramps must be constructed of stronger and nobler materials than limestone, etc., or they will surely collapse. The slope theory is obviously not valid. (There is another question: Where did the 8 million cubic meters of limestone used to build the slope go after the pyramid was built?) Later, some scholars put forward the theory of the spiral slope, arguing that people at that time were on the four sides of the pyramid. , made of mud bricks with a spiral slope attached to the pyramid.The spiral slope requires less material, but it cannot extend to the top of the pyramid.Moreover, the more the spiral slope reaches the top, the faster the angle of rotation will be, so that when the masons carry such a large volume of stones uphill, they will encounter narrower and narrower conditions until it is difficult to turn around at last.

However, this is not the most unreasonable thing about the spiral ramp.Its most difficult place to justify itself is: because the spiral road must be added on the pyramid, the builder cannot check the precision and accuracy of the pyramid building itself.However, the builder of the pyramid must always check the accuracy of the construction, so that the apex of the tower is located equidistant from the corners of the four bases, all angles and corners are exactly the same, and the stones of each layer are placed in the pre-designed position. In order to form this symmetrical building with correct orientation and almost perfect shape.

For ancient architects, building such a precise pyramid seems to be just showing some small tricks in mathematics. For example, in Chapter 23 of this book, we mentioned that the ratio between the height of pi and the length of the base circumference The corresponding relationship between ②.In addition, although the pyramid is not built at 30 degrees north latitude, it is also very close to 29 degrees, 58 minutes and 51 seconds.Regarding this point, a Scottish astronomer once stated that plus 30 degrees does not exist, so the position of the pyramid is not the result of error: Assuming that the original designer wanted to see the pole of space from the bottom of the Great Pyramid with the naked eye instead of the mind's eye, and after taking into account the twists and turns of light in the atmosphere, the location of the Great Pyramid must be at 29 degrees 58 minutes 22 seconds, not the 30-degree position. The gap between 58 minutes and 22 seconds and the actual position of 58 minutes and 51 seconds is less than half of one minute. Such a high precision once again shows how superb the ancient Egyptians were in general surveying and geographical surveying. . In awe, we continued to climb up and passed the 44th and 45th floors of boulders. When we first stepped on the 46th floor, we only heard a burst of Arabic cursing from the square below.Looking down, I saw a small man in a long-sleeved baggy Arab suit with a turban on his head, taking his shotgun off his shoulder and aiming at us whether it was within range or not. Through time and space Needless to say, this person was the guard of the west face of the pyramid, that is, the guard of the fourth base.He didn't get extra bribes like the guards on the other three sides of the east, south, and north, so he came here to ask for money. It can be seen from Ali's sweaty expression that we are in an extremely unfavorable situation.The guard told us to go down immediately, he wanted to arrest us. "However, I think if we paid him a little extra, we could have avoided arrest," Ali said. "Give him 100 Egyptian pounds," I roared. "Too much," Ali said. "It's going to piss off a few other guys. I told him 50 pounds." After the two sides exchanged Arabic for a while, after a few minutes, Ali seemed to be about to reach an agreement with the guard, let us go back to the southwest base of the pyramid at about 4:40, but at this time there was another flute, first south, then east The two guards from the north and the north also appeared one after another, joining the camp of the west guards. I almost thought that Ali was about to announce the failure of the negotiation, but he suddenly sighed in relief and said with a smile: "He said that when we get back to the ground, we can pay him another 50 pounds. We can continue to climb, but if the boss If they show up, they won't be able to save us." For the next 10 minutes, we struggled upward in silence, climbing to the 100th floor in one breath, halfway to the pyramid, which is 250 feet above the ground.Looking southwest over my shoulder, I saw a scene full of power and beauty that I had never seen in my life.A crescent moon emerges from the low and fast-moving clouds in the southeast, and the ghostly light approaches the north and east sides of the second pyramid.It is said that this pyramid was built by Pharaoh Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty. Khafre).The Second Pyramid, which is only a few feet shorter than the Great Pyramid and has a base 48 feet narrower, emits a very unnatural blue light in the moonlight, as if the light source came from the inside of the tower.And in the shadow a little behind the second pyramid, the smallest third pyramid can be seen.This small pyramid, said to have been built by King Mencala, has a base measuring 356 feet on each side and a height of 215 feet. For a moment, I felt as if I was soaring into the black sky, standing on the bow of a huge skyship, and then the other two pyramids were like two ships, lined up in a row, forming a battle formation, and following my big ship. If so, where should the pyramid of our team go?Are these astonishing giant buildings really just the product of Pharaoh's exaggerated delusions, as Egyptology scholars believe?Or are they designed by some mysterious force to reach some purpose that we don't know yet, across eternity of time and space? From this height, although the southern sky was partly shaded by the pyramid of King Khafre, the whole of the west was under the sky, and I could see the outline of the arc from the top of the North Pole to the arch of the earth.Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor can be seen on the right-hand side, while at low altitude about 10 degrees north from due west, Regulus in the constellation Leo can be seen sinking below the horizon. under the stars in egypt When we reached the 150th floor, Ali suddenly gestured for us to lower our heads.A police car was heading west from the northwest corner of the Great Pyramid, its blue lights flickering slowly.We hide in the shadow of the pyramid and wait for the car to pass completely.After that, encouraged by a new sense of urgency, we quickened our pace and climbed up, imagining that we could see the top of the tower shrouded in mist before the night light when we looked up. For about five minutes, we climbed up without stopping.Looking up, the top of the pyramid is still as far away as before, just like the legendary top of Wells, out of reach.Sweating and panting, we continued to climb.Just when we were about to be overwhelmed by the feeling of disappointment pouring out of our hearts, it suddenly became clear that the top of the pyramid appeared in front of our eyes.The sky is full of stars, 450 feet above the ground, and what surrounds us is the most special and beautiful scene in the world.The cityscape of Cairo is irregularly displayed in the Nile Valley in the north and west. The tall buildings and the roofs of traditional small bungalows are separated by narrow and dark streets. The minaret of the mosque is scattered among the tall and short houses.The entire country of Cairo is covered in the light film of the city, so people living in the city cannot enjoy the night view of the beautiful starry sky.On the contrary, looking down at Cairo from the top of the pyramid, it is as if you have come to a fairy tale world exuding green, red, blue, and yellow light, which is crystal clear and beautiful. I feel so privileged to see this electronic mirage atop one of the mysteries of the ancient world, a pyramid. It's like riding Aladdin's magic carpet over Cairo. In fact, the 203rd floor of the pyramid cannot be compared with the magic carpet at all.It is at the top of the tower, only 30 feet wide in total (compared with 755 feet on one side of the base, which is very narrow), and is composed of hundreds of large limestone blocks as high as waist and weighing up to 5 tons. The surface is not completely flat and some stones are missing or broken.Remnants of higher stones are evident on the southern corner.In the very center of the platform, a wooden scaffolding was erected with logs, and a thick wooden rod about 31 feet rose from the middle to show the original height of the pyramid - 481.3949 feet.The limestone beneath the shelf is covered with graffiti painted by tourists over the centuries. It took us about half an hour to climb the pyramid. When we reached the top, it was already 5 o'clock in the morning, the time for Muslims to pray for morning.Almost exactly at five o'clock, the balconies of 1,001 minarets throughout Cairo sounded simultaneously, urging believers to pray to reaffirm the greatness and mercy of Allah.In the southwest behind me, the top 22 floors of the Pyramid of King Khafre, like the tip of an iceberg floating in the ocean, sinks and floats in the sea of ​​moonlight. Knowing that I couldn't stay in this dizzying place for too long, I simply sat down and looked up at the sky.The star Xuanyuan has sunk behind the endless desert in the west, and the constellation Leo will soon fall below the horizon.The constellations of Virgo and Libra have also come to the lower part of the sky.Looking to the north, the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are slowly following their eternal orbital movement at the top of the celestial sphere⑤. I lie down, use my hands as a pillow, and look up at the sky.There is a life force coming from the smooth and hard stones under my body, I can feel it, it is the infinite vitality coming from the huge pyramid. giant's mission The pyramid has a base area of ​​13.1 acres and a total weight of 6 million tons, which is heavier than all the buildings in the urban area of ​​London combined.As mentioned earlier, the pyramid is composed of about 2.3 million limestone and granite blocks.According to speculation, in the past, the four sides of the pyramid, in addition to the stone itself, were also covered with a layer of polished cladding stone ⑥, which protected it like a reflecting mirror.Since the surface area of ​​the pyramid is 22 acres wide, it is estimated that 115,000 cladding stones, each weighing 10 tons, were laid. After the great earthquake in 1301 AD, most of the stones were unloaded to build the post-disaster Cairo.As far as I know, there are only a few stone flakes on the base of the tower, which allowed the 19th century archaeologist WMFlinders Petrie to do some careful investigation.Petrie was amazed to find that the stone was glued together precisely to within 1 percent of an inch.The connection between the two stones is so tight that even the thinnest small blade cannot be inserted. "Just putting these stones where they should be is a huge project," Petrie wrote, "and gluing the joints with such precision is almost impossible; as a unit to manufacture the most precise optical instruments on a large scale." There are too many "almost impossible" in the Great Pyramid, and it is by no means limited to the cladding stone.The orientation of the tower facing due east, due west, due south, and due north is also "almost impossible". In addition, the positive 90-degree angle of the building, the almost perfect symmetrical shape of the four sides, and the millions of boulders Technology and site management for lifting to heights... No matter where they came from, the architects, engineers, and masons who successfully built this amazing pyramid from the flat ground were Francis Champollion, known as the "father of modern ancient Egyptology". (Jean-Francois Cham pollion) once said: "Their ideas are as superior as a 100-foot giant." Champollion was sure at the time that people who studied ancient Egypt after him must ignore one point: the people who built the pyramids In terms of intelligence, at least it belongs to the giant type.He also said: Compared with the ancient Egyptians, "our Europe is like a small country". note ①How the Pyramids Were Built by Hodges and Keeber, p. 123. Peter Hodges & Julian Keaber, How the Pyramids were Built, Element Books, Shaftsbury, 1989, p.123. ② "Egyptian Pyramids" Chapter 23, page 219; "Map of Ancient Egypt" page 139. ③ "Egyptian Pyramids", p. 215. ④Gustave Flaubert wrote in "Letters from Egypt": "What is annoying is that the top of the pyramid is full of the names of idiots and fools, and there is even a Paris carpet dealer's name." name, address." ⑤ "How the Pyramids Are Built", pp. 4-5. ⑤ "The Secret of the Great Pyramid", pages 232 and 244.