Ancient kingdom of the pyramid. Building and managing the pyramid. The predecessors of the great pyramids

Ancient Egypt is known primarily for its stone giants - pyramids that served as the burial place for Egyptian kings and pharaohs. However, not all Egyptian rulers found rest inside the pyramids, and this is not the only mystery of the Egyptian pyramids. And although scientists have been studying the pyramids for more than a century, it was only recently that they managed to lift the veil of secrecy over how the Egyptians built them and why they refused to build them.

The ancient Egyptians began to build pyramids from time immemorial - even before the beginning of the era of the Old Kingdom, widely known for such buildings as the pyramid of Djoser, the Pink Pyramid, the pyramids at Giza and the pyramid of Medum. However, the older pyramids were dozens of times smaller; they were intended for the burial of not only Egyptian kings. It is possible that there were also mass graves in them. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the era of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptian kings prefer to be buried inside the pyramid.

To understand the engineering genius of the Egyptians, it is worth making a small lyrical digression.

In 2004, a group of scientists from Japan, which included mathematicians, physicists, and architects, decided to uncover the secret of the construction of the pyramids. It is worth recalling that the Egyptian pyramids were built with such precision that the angle between the laying of the cobblestones is exactly 90 ͦ, and the stones are perfectly aligned with each other. Simply put, a pyramid is just a perfect construction in terms of both mathematics and architecture. So, Japanese researchers, taking into account all modern technologies, failed to achieve the same accuracy in construction. On the basis of which the group of researchers made the only "correct" conclusion: if we cannot build with our technologies, the ancient Egyptians could not, which means there are no pyramids. However, as the adherents of ufology did not want, the aliens have nothing to do with it either, nothing to do with the hoaxes surrounding, for example. All of the above was given so that the reader could understand not only the scale of the pyramids, but also the amount of effort, resources and time that went into their construction.

The construction of the pyramid began immediately after a new king or pharaoh came to power, as it took decades. It is also worth noting that the pyramids were not built by slaves, as has long been believed. Recent research and excavations have shown that many ordinary Egyptians were involved in the construction, of whom the majority were at the construction site. In fact, almost all of Egypt was involved in the construction of the pyramid. Whole cities of workers have been found in the areas of the pyramids. According to historians, the construction of the pyramid for the inhabitants of Egypt was a kind of labor service, each had to work for several years on the construction of the tomb. The erection of a "resting place" for the king required many resources, in particular, large quantities of hard-to-get stone, limestone were needed. Thus, the protracted funeral of one person extremely burdened the economy of the state.

The construction of the pyramids also had serious social consequences. Although the Egyptians were forced to obey the will of the ruler, to put it mildly, they did not approve of the construction. And the point was not at all the compulsion to work, but the fact that men cut off from their household, often returning home, found a lost crop or a decaying trading store. At the same time, the pyramids were built by the Egyptian kings always and in spite of everything: be it illness, hunger or war in the country. Of course, sometimes the construction was "frozen", but this happened in exceptional cases.

More than once the construction of the pyramid brought Egypt to the brink of a "global economic crisis." So, already during the construction of the Djoser pyramid, which is considered the first pyramid of Ancient Egypt, indignation arose among the population of the country against the king's new addiction. The construction of the first pyramid was complicated by the fact that the country fatally lacked stone for its construction. Tsar Djoser spent enormous amounts of money on the purchase of basic material and even more hands on its extraction and transportation. So, in some ancient Egyptian records, an Egyptian anecdote of that time has been preserved that the king makes his daughter sleep with the princes of his neighbors, so that they supply more and more stone to the country. Apparently this joke of the ancient Egyptians reflected the entire deplorable economic situation.

The erection of the pyramids greatly "distracted" the kings and pharaohs from a number of important tasks, in particular, from the development of the state. Of course, one should not blame the pyramids for the fall of several Egyptian kingdoms, however, they did not add greatness to the country in the political arena. Except, perhaps, for the Greeks, who have always admired the architectural genius of their overseas neighbors. The pyramids were also built in the era of the Middle Kingdom and even at the beginning of the era of the New Kingdom. However, gradually in Ancient Egypt, the abandonment of such buildings began to occur. Historians believe that Ramses II became an innovator in the field of burials, who preferred to go to temple, foothill burials. The reason for this was not only the "high cost" of the pyramids, but also the plight of Egypt, at the beginning of the era of the New Kingdom, which at the time of Ramses had not yet been forgotten.

Although in the era of the New Kingdom the pyramids were almost forgotten, the Egyptians did not lose their craving for giant buildings. It was under Ramses II that the largest temple complexes were created, and sculpture began to actively develop. In addition to construction, Ramses pays much attention to the expansion of the state and its economic strengthening: he reforms the army, economy, foreign and domestic policy, leading the Ancient Egypt of the New Kingdom era to its highest point of development. However, this is completely different. The era of stone giants goes back with Ramses.

Chapter 8. How to build a pyramid

To begin the discussion of this issue, let's start with the fact that the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), one of the greatest architectural wonders of the world, consists of about 2.3 million stone blocks, each of which weighs an average of 2.5 tons, which is a total of 6 million tons of displaced stone. The pyramid platform was mathematically aligned within a few centimeters. The sides of the pyramid are oriented to the cardinal points (north, south, east and west) with an error of ten centimeters. This error was discovered only with the help of modern ultra-precise compasses. The Egyptians were able to achieve such accuracy ...

So how do you build a pyramid?

This question seems simple only at first glance. Therefore, the more we try to understand the construction methods, the more questions arise. Sometimes, even experts - those who explained five minutes ago that “there is no need to fence a garden out of the blue”, shyly fell silent and shrugged: “Science has not yet reached this point ...” Strange, isn't it? Science knows exactly how the pyramids are built, but how it can be repeated - science has not yet reached this point. However, a similar attempt has already been made today.

The American TV channel Nova suggested that Professor Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist from the University of Chicago, and a bricklayer Roger Hopkins, build a small pyramid on the Giza plateau without using modern technologies.

A team of volunteers was recruited, and to begin with, Lehner and Hopkins spent three weeks mining the stone blocks. The budget was limited, there was also a shortage of labor, and therefore they allowed themselves to use iron tools instead of the copper ones used by the Egyptians. After a while, the professor managed to build a pyramid, orienting it to the cardinal points with the help of the sun. On this, it seemed, it was possible to admit that the secret of the construction of the pyramids had been solved, and modern scientists were able to recreate such a structure using ancient methods.

But the devil is said to be in the details. First, the American pyramid was much smaller than even the companion pyramid. And only because of this, and even then with very great difficulty, it was possible to lay the last stone on its top. It is not clear what the professor would do with a higher pyramid height. He himself argued that it was only a matter of the number of people pulling by the ropes, but then for the construction of the Great Pyramid it would be necessary to involve almost the entire population of the then Egypt. And the rest would have to provide them with food and drink. It is clear that under such conditions the country's economy would hardly have been able to function. Moreover, according to scientists, the pyramids were built for more than one year.

The situation is approximately the same with the orientation of the pyramid to the cardinal points. What seems to be "seeds" to a modern professor, behind whose back there are thousands of years of development of science, could hardly be well known to representatives of a civilization that has just emerged from the primitive communal system (by historical, and not by temporal, standards, of course). Unfortunately, Professor Lehner did not explain how the ancient Egyptians managed to orient the pyramid to Sirius, and there are still many questions left without coverage.

But they, in fact, is the mystery! All this is more like not a scientific experiment, but the game of a child who built a car from bricks and began to claim that it is just like a real one. And if you had more time, this car made of cubes would still drive! However, we seem to want too much from television. He has completely different tasks - to entertain, and not to move science. It is strange that some people still perceive this TV show as a complex of scientific evidence ...

So, everything that we know about Ancient Egypt allows us so far only to state that the pyramids and the amazing skill of their builders arose literally out of nothing. Returning to the analogy with the car, let's say that it is the same as if, after a cart with a couple of bay horses, a Formula 1 car was immediately created. Wouldn't we believe in such a "leap of human thought"? So why do we believe in the creation of pyramids by civilization without any building experience?

However, not everyone believes, and these researchers were able to discover very interesting facts. It cannot be said, of course, that alternative versions of the construction of the pyramids are absolutely reliable, but, nevertheless, in order to refute them, they must first be studied. And besides, to admit that they are in many ways, even quite in many ways, logical ...

The ancient Egyptian city of Sais has been mentioned since 3000 BC. e., and even then it was not such a new settlement. Scientists are still at a loss to name the time of its foundation. In this city, in fact, there was nothing particularly remarkable, and only in the 7th century BC. NS. it briefly became the capital of the XXVI dynasty. But there was a certain pearl in this city that attracted curious people from all over the world of that time.

In one of the temples of Sais, hieroglyphs were carved on huge stone columns that told the story of a lost land. The priests, according to Plato, told: “Nine thousand years ago there was still an island lying in front of that strait, which in your language is called the Pillars of Hercules. This island was larger than Libya and Asia combined ... On this island, called Atlantis, a kingdom of amazing size and power arose, whose power extended to the entire island, to many other islands and to part of the mainland, and in addition to this on this side strait they captured Libya up to Egypt and Europe up to Tyrrenia. " Presumably, the capital of Tirrenia was located in the area of ​​the modern city of Grenoble (southeast of France).

That is, in terms of its size, Atlantis was close to today's Spain.

The most detailed description of Atlantis was left by Plato in two of his dialogues - Timaeus (briefly) and Critias (where the narration is more detailed). Our compatriot, poet and writer Valery Bryusov said: “If we assume that Plato's description is fiction, we will have to recognize that Plato is a superhuman genius who was able to predict the development of science for millennia ... Needless to say that with all our respect for the genius of the great Greek philosopher, such insight seems impossible to us, and we consider another explanation to be simpler and more plausible: Plato had materials at his disposal that came from ancient times. "

Plato's friend Critias in Timaeus recounts a story about the war of Athens with Atlantis, allegedly from the words of his grandfather Cretius the Elder, who, in turn, told him Solon's story, heard from the priests in Egypt. The general meaning of the story is as follows: once, 9 thousand years ago, Athens was the most glorious, powerful and virtuous state. Their main rival was the aforementioned Atlantis, and all its forces were thrown into the enslavement of Athens. The Athenians defended their freedom and managed to repel the invasion, crushed the Atlanteans and liberated the peoples they had enslaved. Soon a grandiose natural disaster followed, as a result of which the entire army of the Athenians died in one day, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.

The dialogue "Kritias", with the same participants, serves as a direct continuation of "Timaeus" and is entirely devoted to the story of Kritias about ancient Athens and Atlantis.

The center of Atlantis, according to legend, was a hill located 50 stadia (8-9 km) from the sea. To protect it, Poseidon surrounded it with two earth rings and three water rings, and the Atlanteans threw bridges over these rings and dug additional canals, so that ships could swim to the city itself or, more precisely, to the central island, which had 5 stades (a little less than a kilometer) in diameter. On the island there were temples lined with silver and gold and surrounded by golden statues, and a magnificent royal palace. There were also shipyards here. “The island on which the palace stood ... as well as earthen rings and a bridge with a width of plethra (30 m), the kings enclosed circular stone walls and placed towers and gates everywhere on the bridges near the passages to the sea. They mined stone of white, black and red color in the bowels of the middle island and in the bowels of the outer and inner earth rings, and in the quarries, where there were depressions on both sides, covered from above with the same stone, they arranged anchorage for ships. If some of their buildings they made simple, then in others they skillfully combined stones of different colors for fun, giving them a natural charm; they also lined the walls around the outer ring of earth in copper, applying molten metal, the wall of the inner rampart was covered with tin casting, and the wall of the acropolis itself - with orichalcum, emitting a fiery shine ”.

Bulls were sacrificed to Poseidon in his temple. The temple was surrounded by a sacred grove in which wild bulls freely grazed, and, according to established tradition, every five or six years the king and his relatives, appanage rulers, gathered here to renew their treaty with Poseidon.

First they had to catch the bull, iron weapons were forbidden, and they used wooden sticks and rope loops. Then the bull was led to a metal column that stood inside the temple and on which the most ancient legends and laws of the country were captured. The bull was then sacrificed, his blood flowed down the inscriptions, and the rulers swore that they would remain faithful to their law, and in order to seal their agreement, everyone drank from a cup in which this blood was mixed with wine. At the end of the ceremony, the rulers held a council and made decisions.

As long as the divine nature was preserved in the Atlanteans, they neglected wealth, putting virtue above it; but when the divine nature degenerated, mingling with the human, they were mired in luxury, greed and pride. Zeus, outraged by this, planned to destroy the Atlanteans and convened a council of the gods ...

The further is unknown to us. In any case, the text that has come down to us is cut off.

Other ancient authors also speak of Atlantis: Herodotus, Diodorus of Sicily and Pliny the Elder. In the 5th century A.D. NS. Neoplatonist Proclus told in his commentaries to Timaeus about Plato's follower Crantor, who about 260 BC. NS. specially visited Egypt in order to learn about Atlantis and allegedly saw columns with inscriptions telling the history of this mysterious country in the temple of the goddess Neith in Sais.

In addition, Proclus writes: “The fact that an island of this character and size once existed is evident from the stories of some writers who explored the vicinity of the Outer Sea. For, according to them, in that sea in their time there were seven islands dedicated to Persephone, and also three other islands of enormous size, one of which was dedicated to Pluto, the other to Amun, and then to Poseidon, the size of which was a thousand stades (180 km) ; and their inhabitants, - he adds, - have preserved the legends coming from their ancestors about the immeasurably larger island of Atlantis, which really existed there and which for many generations ruled over all the islands and in the same way was dedicated to Poseidon. Today Marcellus has described it in the Ethiopic. Marcellus is not mentioned in other sources, and, most likely, his Ethiopica is simply a novel.

Actually, there are three problems with this whole story. First, it was originally communicated by Plato, who has a lot of different philosophical myths in the Dialogues. Unlike Aristotle, and even more so historians, he never set himself the goal of communicating any real facts to the reader, he was only interested in ideas illustrated by philosophical allegories.

But if the story is still true, then the question arises: why was it not widely known in Ancient Egypt and, therefore, captured on other monuments? However, in fairness it is worth noting that most of the Egyptian monuments have been lost, and much of the knowledge was secret, and the priests hid them from the uninitiated.

On the other hand, it turns out that at the turn of the X-IX millennia BC. NS. there was a certain civilization that used metal tools, ships, knew the processing of stone and had an agricultural culture. But this is typical for the Bronze Age, which is counted from about the end of the 4th millennium BC. NS.

Finally, if a huge island was destroyed by the Atlantic Ocean in less than two days, a global catastrophe must have taken place. But there is no mention of her anywhere else ...

However, with the exception of metal dishes, there is nothing unusual in the level of civilization of the mysterious island. It was only a little later that a sophisticated trade culture existed in Chatal Huyuk in Anatolia. Stone city walls and towers were in Jericho, possibly as early as around 7000 BC. NS. And metal processing began, perhaps only two thousand years later.

So there is nothing particularly fantastical about the existence of such a culture around 9000 BC. NS. no. Many researchers believe that Atlantis, as described by Plato, was a civilization of the late Bronze Age.

Without going too deeply into the dates, let's try to find out if there were any, then disappeared, large centers of culture of the Bronze Age?

It turns out there were. And even two.

Interest in Atlantis suddenly revived in the early 90s of the last century. And, as in the days of Plato, the conversation began in Egypt. A number of respected Egyptologists - John Anthony West, Robert Bowal (Bauval), Adrian Gilbert (Gilbert), Graham Hancock and Colin Wilson - have acknowledged the existence of the disappeared island. The rebels against official science argued that Atlantis was the center of a gigantic maritime empire, where mysterious religious rites were performed and science advanced very far.

Like some researchers before them, they believed that the island was in Little Antarctica. At that time, Antarctica had a climate similar to today's Canada, and there were practically no glaciers. But when the position of the magnetic poles changed, the civilization of the Atlanteans was destroyed, and the traces of their culture were hidden under a layer of ice and snow. It happened about 16 millennia BC. NS.

During the later stages of the catastrophe, around the XIV millennium BC. e., the surviving Atlanteans settled around the world. One of the groups, which included high-ranking initiates who knew the secrets of technology, religion and science of the Atlanteans and called themselves "followers of Horus", settled in Egypt and created a cult center on the Giza plateau. The one with the Sphinx and the pyramids.

The followers of Horus, fearing new cataclysms, in order to preserve their teachings for all time, carried out a plan for long-term construction. They developed a method of transferring knowledge in the geometry of structures, which had to be so powerful as to survive any troubles that nature might bring, and if the initiates died, then later generations could, having deciphered the constants inherent in the geometry of these structures, perceive their knowledge.

The initiates erected the Sphinx and developed the basic plan for Giza. Then they either built the first structures on the plateau themselves, or passed on the project records to subsequent generations. Eight thousand years later, around 2500 BC. BC, in accordance with this ancient plan, the pyramids were built.

The secrets of the Atlanteans were kept by the followers of Horus, priests-astronomers, whose secret power was so great that even after 8 thousand years the pharaohs did not dare to disobey them and change the plan of the cult complex in Giza.

Hancock and Booval wrote: “We believe that the facts testify to the continuous transfer of the highest scientific and engineering knowledge throughout this vast period of time, and therefore to the continuous presence in Egypt, from the Paleolithic to the Dynastic period, of a group of highly developed and enlightened people ... they possessed knowledge of divine origin. "

New elements are still being discovered in the Giza complex. More recently, during excavation works to carry out sewage for the nearby outskirts of Cairo, the valley temple of Khufu was discovered. The version about the time of the origin of this complex, glorifying death, has long been strengthened, and the attribution of the Sphinx's age forced to doubt its reliability. If we assume that any part of this complex belongs to the Pre-Dynastic period, that is, it appeared before about 3100 BC. NS. the Egyptian monarchy was born - Egyptologists would have to admit the existence of some much more ancient, but technically advanced Egyptian culture!

Note, by the way, that the Sphinx, unlike the pyramids, was not built, but carved out of a whole sandstone rock. Most of the stone base on which the Sphinx is located, and possibly all of it, was covered in antiquity with facing stones. It was believed that the veneer was added to the rough-cut body of the Sphinx to give it its final shape. But in 1979-1980, during a thorough examination of the Sphinx, already familiar to us Mark Lehner wrote: “We have not noticed any working marks on the inner body (under the lining. - Auth.) - neither in the form of traces from tools, nor in the form of rough surfaces, which would have remained, apparently, as a result of a rough mining process. " In addition, he came to the conclusion that the strong erosion that is visible on the body of the Sphinx was already there at the time of its facing. Therefore, he attributed the cladding to 1500 BC. e., giving erosion to work for a thousand years.

In 1992, Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza complex, reported that analysis of the Sphinx's right hind leg proved that the earliest level of clutch around the body dates back to the Old Kingdom, that is, from 2700 to 2160 BC. NS. The pyramids were built in the middle of this period. That is, it turns out that deep erosion took only 340 years, and this is hardly possible.

In 1400 BC. NS. Pharaoh Thutmose IV ordered to remove all sand from the Sphinx, and in order to perpetuate this event, a stone with an inscription was placed between the paws of the Sphinx. It still exists, only most of the text has already been erased. The stone was discovered in 1818. Then it was decided that in the 13th line of this text, which was very poorly preserved, the name of Cheops was mentioned, based on this, the decoding of the inscription was made.

Today, a number of Egyptologists have doubts that the text was read correctly. Some believe that Cheops is mentioned there not as a builder, but as a person who only restored the Sphinx. These doubts appeared a little over a hundred years ago. In 1904, the director of the British Museum, Sir Wallis Budge, one of the main authorities in Egyptology, wrote that the Sphinx "existed in the time of (Cheops) ... and was very likely very ancient even in that early period." A year later, in 1905, the Chicago Egyptologist Professor J. Brestid noted that around the syllable taken as part of the name Cheops, there were no and there were no traces of a cartouche (an oblong frame), which was supposed to highlight the royal name. Without exception, all royal names in Dynastic Egypt were written in a cartouche. According to one version, this syllable without a cartouche does not mean at all an abbreviation of the name of the pharaoh, but just the word "ascends."

However, the supporters of traditional views did not want to give up (they did not give up to this day) and put forward counterarguments. The fact is that in the valley temple next to the Sphinx, statues of Khufu were discovered, and one of them depicted him precisely in the form of the Sphinx. It was also claimed that the face of the Sphinx is similar to that of Khufu on these statues. This, however, was a very weak argument. In the face of the Sphinx, even after prolonged erosion, negroid features are visible, which are not observed in Khufu. However, this dispute was quite easy to resolve. The forensic experts invited in 1992, using a computer to compare the face of the Sphinx with the signed statues of Khufu, concluded that they could not represent the same person.

Professor Selim Hassan, who spent many years excavating on the Giza plateau and is a recognized expert on the Sphinx, admits that, "according to the general opinion of the ancients, the Sphinx is older than the pyramids." And he points out that "with the exception of the damaged line on the granite stele of Thutmose IV, which proves nothing, there is not a single ancient inscription that would connect the Sphinx with Cheops."

The version of the much more ancient origin of the Sphinx is also proved by the nature of the traces of erosion. In 1978, John Anthony West noted that traces of erosion on the Sphinx run from top to bottom, indicating heavy rainfall rather than sandstorms. And since in Egypt there has not been such abundant rain since the end of the last ice age, that is, for 12 thousand years, the dating of the Sphinx suggests itself.

In 1991, a group of American specialists carried out a detailed study of the erosion of the Sphinx. The main expert on this team was Professor Robert Schoch of Boston University, a geologist specializing in the weathering of soft rocks.

Egyptologists believe that at the time of the start of work on the sand, only part of the rock protruded from which the Sphinx was cut, and its head was made first. Then, in the softer rock, a pit was cut, and then the rest of the sculpture was cut down. The Sphinx was subsequently repeatedly covered with sand, so that only its head remained on the surface, and then it was cleared again.

Schoch noted that although the Sphinx and the inner walls of its pit were cut from the same rock and at the same time, like several neighboring tombs, the level of erosion at the Sphinx and the tombs is quite different.

If on the Sphinx and in the excavation these traces are very deep and ancient, then the tombs are perfectly preserved. The erosion of the Sphinx, according to the professor, is “a classic textbook example of what happens to a limestone formation when it is exposed to rain for thousands of years ... It was clearly the rain that caused these erosion marks ... It exposed weak points in the rock and eroded them to these potholes - for me as a geologist, clear evidence that this erosion pattern was the result of rainfall. "

Schoch concludes: “Current data, taken as a whole, tell me as a geologist that the Great Sphinx of Giza is significantly older than its traditional date of about 2500 BC. NS. Moreover, my current calculations, based on the data at my fingertips, show that the origins of the giant sculpture can go back to at least 7000-5000 BC. e., and perhaps even to earlier times. "

Schoch presented his keynote speech at the 1992 San Diego Annual Meeting of the American Geological Society, and his findings were unopposed by geological professionals. But the Egyptologists were quite outraged by them. Schoch commented on this: “I am told over and over again that the people of Egypt ... did not have the technology or social organization necessary to cut the core of the Sphinx in Pre-Dynastic times ... As I understand it, this is not my problem as a geologist ... in in fact, it is the task of the Egyptologists ... to find out who whipped him. If my data contradict their theory of the development of civilization, then maybe it's time for them to re-evaluate this theory? "

Indeed, very little is known about the pre-dynastic period of Egypt. However, the fragmentary data that have come down to us are very interesting.

The largest center of Predynastic Egypt was located opposite Giza, on the other side of the Nile - in Maadi. Excavations here have revealed three characteristic features of the city: trade played a very large role here, many foreigners lived here, and this is the earliest place in Egypt where metal was processed. It is possible to draw conclusions about the social organization in Maadi: public storehouses of goods were found here. Also in the city, judging by several finds, there was already stone construction. So the inhabitants of Maadi could well have cut such a sculpture out of the rock. Official Egyptology denies this, referring to the fact that no remnants of the Maadi culture have been found in Giza. But this is not the case.

In 1907, four earthenware vessels were found at the foot of the Great Pyramid and attributed to the Fourth Dynasty. At that time, nothing was known about Maadi, it was discovered only in the 1930s. Archaeologist Wodil Mortensen, having studied the vessels in the 1980s, attributed them as belonging to the Maadi culture. Since whole pots were not thrown away, it is natural to assume that they were brought to Giza for some purpose, most likely for burial. It turns out that the inhabitants of Maadi used Giza for many hundreds of years before Khufu appeared there.

It has long been known that the walls of the pyramids are oriented strictly to the cardinal points, and with a very high accuracy - the deviation is less than 0.06 percent. This was achieved without using a compass - the ancient builders were guided only by the stars. And in the location of all the buildings of the Giza complex, you can also see the analogy of the map of the starry sky. But with very strange distortions.

The three pyramids have an entrance from the north side, and the tunnels and galleries inside them run to the south. But, however, in relation to each other, the pyramids are not located on the north-south parallel or, as one might assume by analogy, west-east, but make up a bizarre line with a turn, going from south to west. The central points of the first two pyramids are very accurately correlated with each other, but the third pyramid, the smallest, breaks the construction: it is shifted to the east.

Robert Boval, a seasoned civil engineer, tried to understand why the otherwise so precise Egyptians broke the harmony here. At first, he explored the plateau from an engineering point of view, but realized that the relief could not prevent the pyramids from being placed evenly. Then he decided to study the Pyramid Texts. They, as we remember, although they are in the tombs of the pharaohs at the end of the Fifth - the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty, but reflect, no doubt, very early realities.

From the texts Boval learned that, as it was believed, after death, the pharaoh goes to the stars and becomes the god Osiris. And the celestial form of Osiris was a constellation called Sahu, now known as Orion. In addition, Booval noticed that the so-called air mines leading from the tombs of the pharaoh and his wife in the Great Pyramid are associated with certain stars. The shaft of the tomb of the king corresponded to the lower star from Orion's belt.

After a short study, it turned out that, relative to the Milky Way, the stars in the Orion belt form a line running from south to west, identical to the line of the location of the three pyramids of Giza in relation to the Nile.

Then, after analyzing the location of the air mines, Booval determined that around 2450 BC. BC, when the Great Pyramid was approximately built, the southern shaft leading from the tomb of the king pointed to the lower star in the Orion belt, and the southern shaft of the tomb of the queen pointed to Sirius. Sirius was identified with Isis, and Orion was identified with Osiris. Osiris and Isis in Egyptian mythology were husband and wife who gave birth to a son - Horus, the first demigod king who ruled Egypt long before the time of the pharaohs. At the same time, the Sphinx directed its gaze to the point in the east, where the sun rises during the vernal equinox.

Further, as a result of astronomical calculations, Boval put forward an assumption about the date when, at the time of the vernal equinox, Sirius and Orion were in those places to which the mines are directed. It turned out that this could have been in 10,500 BC, that is, exactly at the time when, according to ancient Egyptian texts, Osiris gave Egypt a king ...

The conclusion is, of course, impressive. But this version also has many complaints, and it can hardly be called final.

The pyramids continue to keep their secrets. As another touch, or rather, in connection with another mystery, we can add that the English Stonehenge, a giant stone structure, with the dating of which there are also some problems, is oriented, like the pyramids, to Orion. How do you relate this to the pyramids?

The location of the pyramids of Giza also has such a peculiarity: these monumental structures are placed with amazing accuracy along the 30th parallel. What does this mean? But that's not all.

As early as the 10th century, the Arab historian Masudi argued that the Great Pyramid was not only a repository of the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians in astronomy, art and religion, but also contained "historical and prophetic predictions." In 1865, archaeologist Robert Menzies suggested that if we take as a basis the measure of length of the Egyptians - the royal cubit (52.07 cm) - and measure the length of the interior of the Khufu pyramid, then it is possible to chronologically determine the dates of the most important events of the past and future. How can we not recall the case with Napoleon?

Menzies was able to find the relationship between the internal dimensions of the pyramid with the beginning of wars, and later his followers were able to compare the figures laid down by the ancient Egyptians with the beginning of World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima and a number of similar significant events of the twentieth century. The next date suggested to us from Ancient Egypt is 2012. Only a few years remain until the mystery is solved ... But will the clue please us?

Land and people. Already 5000 years BC, the inhabitants of ancient Egypt were people quite civilized and skilled in the peaceful and martial arts. The narrow valley of the deep Nile was flanked by high cliffs, almost vertical in many places, which provided an abundance of excellent building stone, while they seemed to isolate the Egyptians and protect them from possible foreign aggression. In the Delta, however, the valley widened, there were no high cliffs, but there was a wide lowland through which there was access to the outside world.

The art history of Ancient Egypt can be divided into five periods as follows: http://inhouseonlinemarketing.com/mapca1

The great monuments of this period are almost exclusively funerary and include the oldest buildings, of which little is left to descendants. Although there was no pronounced architectural art, the grandiose size and majesty of the pyramids, the courage and skill shown during their construction, give them the right to be nominated in the first place in the history of art of this period. There were more than a hundred of them, scattered in six places, from Abu Roash in the north to Medum in the south, in various shapes and sizes. They are all royal tombs and belong to the first twelve dynasties. Each contained a burial room and at the same time each possessed a small chapel adjacent to the crypt, but this internal solution has not survived in almost all cases. Three Egyptian pyramids surpass all others in their stunning size. They are located in Giza and belong to the fourth dynasty. These Egyptian pyramids are known by the names of their creator-rulers. The oldest and greatest of them - the Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu ("Great Pyramid"); second - pyramid of Khafre or Khafre ; third - pyramid of Mikerin or Menkaure... Other pyramids are much smaller and stand at the feet of these giants.

Dimensions of the "Great Pyramid": 230 meters - length of the edge of the base; the height of the pyramid is 138 meters, the total weight is estimated at about 6.25 million tons. It was built of limestone on a carefully leveled stone plateau. Externally, it was trimmed, like the two neighboring pyramids, with polished stone trimming, which some suggest was quarried from groups of different colored granites, but those deposits of stone were completely depleted. The pyramid included three main chambers and an elaborate system of inclined passages. The sarcophagus was in the upper chamber, the overlying weight of which was reduced by open spaces and varieties of the elementary Λ-shaped arch. The other two pyramids of ancient Egypt differ from the Cheops pyramid in details and size, but not in construction technology. The pyramid of Khafre is 138 meters high with a 218-meter square at the base of the side. The Pyramid of Mikerin, which still retains the hue of pink granite, is only 66 meters high with a square side of 77 meters.

Among other pyramids, there is a significant variety in type and material. At Saqqara, a pyramid was built about a third of a meter high, consisting of six unequal steps, on a base with sides of 121 × 108 meters. It was once attributed to the first dynasty, although now it is more decisively attributed to the third. In Abu Sir and Medum, there are other pyramids with different steps. In Dashur, they have a broken slope, where the lower edge is steeper than the upper one. Some pyramids with unusually steep edges belong to the Ethiopian dynasties. Many pyramids were built of bricks.

Tombs

The Old Kingdom also left behind a large number of tombs known as mastabas. These are oblong rectangular structures made of stone or brick with slightly sloping sides and flat ceilings, resembling a truncated pyramid. They usually face east and are internally divided into several parts. There must have been a chamber or a chapel and a serdab. In the chamber, immediately behind the entrance, sacrifices to the Supreme God were located, scenes of festivities or worship were depicted on the walls. Serdabs, or secret inner chambers, of which there were several in each mastaba, contained statues of less important Gods. Finally, through a deep tunnel one could get into the mother's chamber, which contained the sarcophagus. Sarcophagi, both then and later ages, are prime examples of the younger architecture of Egypt. Many of them are paneled to imitate timber construction and are richly decorated with paints, symbols and link hieroglyphs.

Two other monuments of the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt also require attention: the Sphinx and the adjacent so-called "Temple of the Sphinx" in Giza. The first of these is a huge sculpture carved out of rock, representing a monster in the shape of a lion with the head of a man. This creature, partly buried in the sand, is 21 meters long and 20 meters high and is one of the most striking monuments of Egyptian art. Not far from it lie the ruins of a temple almost buried under the sand, which, as it was once assumed, was the temple of the Sphinx, but later it was proved that it is connected with the second pyramid.

http://myrealtorsanantonio.com/map354 The plan and exterior of this venerable building is shown in the images above. The hall had a roof with stone lintels supported by 16 monolithic supports. All of it was buried in a mass of rectangular stone masonry with an internal facing with alabaster, but it was completely devoid of both internally and externally decoration, there were not even cornices. With the exception of the meager remains of a few pyramid temples or chapels and the temple discovered at Medum, this is the only remnant of the temple architecture of that ancient era.

Pharaohs-builders of Ancient Egypt: Cheops
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From the third dynasty begins the era of the Old Kingdom (2755-2255) 6, which covers 500 years and is rightfully called the era of the great pyramids . The pyramids best characterize the main features of the life of Egyptian society at that time and, above all, the extent of the power of its rulers 7. The earliest monumental stone the building in the world is the six-step pyramid of the ruler Djoser (2737–2717), built in Saqqara, opposite Memphis. Its height is 60 m. The pyramid is made of small stone blocks. Under it is the chamber in which Djoser was buried in a special sarcophagus.

The pyramid is part of a complex that included memorial temples and was surrounded by a wall 1.5 km long and 11 m high. Nowhere in the world at that time was there such a complex stone structure. It was built by the architect Imhotep, who was later revered by the Egyptians as a god. Obviously, such a complex was prepared by a long tradition of building raw brick structures that have not survived.

Then the Great Pyramids were built on the Giza plateau (near present-day Cairo). The largest of them is the pyramid of the ruler Khufu (Cheops), who ruled in the XXVI century. Consists of 2.3 million large stone blocks (about 2 tons each). The height of the pyramid is 147 m, the side of the square base is 230 m. The pyramid was built about 20 years by several thousand professional builders. In addition to them, up to 100 thousand peasants were involved in stone-cutting and transport work during the flood of the Nile, when there was no work in the fields. eight

Nearby is the Khaf-Ra pyramid, which is 3 m lower. The path to the pyramid is guarded by the Sphinx - a lion with a human face (possibly Khaf-Ra himself). Its appearance, apparently, is due to the fact that the builders came across a rock that stood on the way from the river to the pyramid, and decided to use it, giving it such a shape. No one else has built such large pyramids. Menkau-Ra, the son of Khaf-Ra, built the third pyramid in Giza with a height of only 66 m. All three pyramids were faced from above with special slabs so that the tip of a knife could not be inserted between them.

The Great Pyramids demonstrate a high level of engineering and great economic potential of the state. They also show a high level of concentration of power in the hands of the pharaoh. It was for him that these grandiose structures were built, which kept the mummy - the imperishable body of the pharaoh.

Why did the Egyptians do this? This is not an easy question. It is known that the pyramids were built by free people. It was impossible to force free members of the community to do such titanic things by naked force. Recall that in Sumer, ziggurats were built from light raw bricks and built for god: at the top stood the temple of the patron god of the community.

When could the Egyptians agree to do this kind of work? Only when the role of the ruler for the community was equal or close in importance to the rabbit of the god. And this is exactly the situation in Egypt. The ruler already in the Old Kingdom was proclaimed a living god, and not a servant of a god. The reason for such an early and radical deification of the personality of the ruler must be sought, in our opinion, in those intercommunal wars, which during the period of the Early Kingdom were a constant phenomenon and were accompanied by great sacrifices. Only a very authoritative government could stop wars. The concept of the pharaoh-god gave the ruler the maximum possible authority and allowed him to play the role of the guardian of the country's unity and tranquility: a mere mortal could not encroach on the earth and the power of an earthly god. So it was possible to end the intercommunal wars.

The gods, as you know, are immortal, so the concept of the pharaoh-god had to find its material embodiment in some kind of eternal symbols. The first such symbol was the stone pyramid as the eternal home of the pharaoh. The structure of this geometric shape was very reliable and looked spectacular on the flat terrain characteristic of Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were not mistaken: the Khufu pyramid has survived to this day as the most ancient and majestic monument of the history of the Ancient World.

The second symbol of the immortal pharaoh-god was his mummy - an incorruptible body placed in a pyramid, the abode of his immortal soul. The idea of ​​the immortality of the pharaoh was natural for the Egyptians, who believed in the immortality of the soul of any person. The Egyptians believed that a powerful ruler would protect his country even after the transition to another world. Thus, the pyramid and the mummy were viewed by the Egyptians as important elements of public order and well-being 9.

The concept of the pharaoh-god made the pharaoh the indisputable and sole bearer of supreme power. He was the head of the legislative, executive, judicial and military branches of government, as well as the head of a religious cult, personifying a direct connection with the world of the gods. Pharaoh's power was limitless. Everything belonged to a living god, so he disposed of any of his subjects, any property. This power was reflected in the socio-economic structure of the Old Kingdom.

Social order... At the top of the public staircase was higher nobility, the core of which were the relatives of the pharaoh. Of these, governors in the provinces and other senior civil and military officials were appointed. This was followed by government officials of various levels who governed various spheres of public life, receiving small estates from the state or simply all the necessary products.

A special layer was made up priests who gradually increased their social status, acting as creators and custodians of knowledge. The priests were not a closed caste of worshipers. At the direction of the pharaoh, they performed many civil and military functions. Conversely, the pharaoh could appoint civil and military officials to priestly positions.

It should be emphasized that the pharaoh, officials and priests were literate people. In the conditions of complex irrigation agriculture and a large country, power relied not only on strength, but also on accumulated knowledge. And those who possessed knowledge strove to restrict access to them, because the monopoly on knowledge gave a monopoly on power.

Craftsmen in terms of their social status, they were at the level of lower officials, since they also possessed knowledge, skill and kept their professional secrets. As a rule, artisans were among the "royal people" and worked under the supervision of officials. At the very bottom of the social ladder of the free Egyptians were peasants - community members who paid taxes and performed duties in kind for the right to work on the land, which formally all belonged to the pharaoh-god. The so-called "tsar workers" were recruited from the children of the peasants, who served the tsarist, temple and noble households.

During the period of the Old Kingdom, a noticeable phenomenon was slavery, which was mostly patriarchal in nature.

Economy. The creation of the large pyramids was a consequence of the end of the era of intercommunal wars and the establishment of the full power of the pharaoh over the resources of the entire country. These resources were created both within the framework of family peasant farms that paid taxes to the state, and within the framework of large tsarist, noble and temple farms with a high degree of specialization and cooperation. On the walls of the tombs of nobles in various regions of the country, hundreds of drawings have been preserved that tell about how individual groups of workers performed certain operations and were provided with the products of labor of other groups. A carefully developed system of accounting for products produced also speaks of the high degree of specialization of the economy. It made sense only when it was necessary to further distribute these products. Probably, all large farms were part of a single economic system that provided national needs (irrigation work, the maintenance of the administrative apparatus, troops, the construction of pyramids and temples) and played the role of an insurance fund.

Peace and tranquility in the united country made Egypt of the era of the Old Kingdom the richest and most developed civilization in the world in the 3rd millennium BC.

Old Kingdom Art clearly reveals the two main functions of Egyptian art: to serve the exaltation of power and to ensure that the dead continue to live in another world. Many works of art placed in burial chambers were not intended to be seen by humans at all. They were created for eternity. With this approach, the artist did not strive for innovations, but for the embodiment of the canon as a particle of eternal order. Many art forms that were established during this period were reproduced unchanged in the following millennia.

Architecture. Great pyramids and tombs of nobles speak about the skill of architects. Little remains of the burial temples. It is known that they were decorated with stone columns with palm-shaped capitals. Nothing remained of the palaces and residential buildings as they were made of mud bricks.

Sculpture. Along with reliefs and small sculptures (figurines of animals and people), of which there were many already in the Early Kingdom, monumental sculpture developed in the Old Kingdom. In the memorial temples created at the pyramids, a stone statue of the deceased was erected, which was supposed to accurately convey his appearance so that the soul separated from the body could unmistakably find material refuge. By conveying portrait likeness, sculptors sought to refine their models. The bodies of the statues were made exaggeratedly powerful, the faces were given stateliness. So they solved two main tasks: to exalt the pharaoh-god and immortalize his name. While the monument stood, they remembered the name; as long as the name was remembered, the glory of Pharaoh continued, and he lived for centuries.

So, the sculptural canon was based on the desire to create eternal and great... Creating such an image, the master felt like a person who performed the most important public work, strengthening the stability of public order. As a rule, statues were placed against a wall or in a niche, which implied viewing from the front. Prevailing postures: standing - the figure is erect, the head is raised high, the left leg is extended forward, the arms are lowered and pressed to the body; sitting - hands are symmetrically placed on the knees, the torso is straightened, the gaze is directed into the distance.

The high level of monumental sculpture is demonstrated by the statues of the pharaohs Khaf-Ra and Menkau-Ra.

Sculptural portraits of dignitaries were less strict and solemn. For the entire sculpture, a direct positioning of the head, the transfer of the attributes of power or profession, a certain coloring (male bodies were brick-colored, female - yellow, hair - black) are mandatory. The eyes were often inlaid with bronze and rock crystal. A masterpiece of Old Egyptian sculpture is a double sculptural portrait of Tsarevich Ra-Hotep and his wife Nofret from the tomb in Medum (27th century, limestone, height 1.2 m). another world.

Painting the period of the Old Kingdom is represented by drawings that adorned the walls of burial buildings. They talked about the life of the deceased and were also called to ensure his afterlife. The artist painted everything necessary, and these drawings were considered the embodiment of real things.

Applied arts represented by ceramics made on a potter's wheel, various copper objects and jewelry made of gold, ivory and semi-precious stones. In applied art, plant and animal motifs were widely used. Ancient Egyptian craftsmen knew how to make faience, glaze and glass.

Religion. During the period of the Old Kingdom, national gods appear, who stand above the gods of individual Egyptian communities. The main god was Ra - the god of the daytime Sun. The pharaohs of the 4th dynasty - the builders of the Great Pyramids - considered themselves the sons of Ra and included his name in their title: Khaf-Ra, Menkau-Ra. The pharaohs of the 5th dynasty built a temple for him in the form of a four-sided obelisk. The appearance of the main common Egyptian gods did not lead to the disappearance of a huge number of local communal gods. They were often viewed as different incarnations of the common Egyptian gods.

The gods of Ancient Egypt had zoomorphic, anthropomorphic or mixed zooanthropomorphic forms. So, the goddess of love and fertility Hathor was depicted in the form of a cow or a woman with cow horns. The royal god Horus (Horus) was depicted in the form of a falcon or a man with a falcon's head. The god of the scribes and the moon Thoth - in the form of an ibis or a man with the head of an ibis.

The presence of zoomorphic gods gave rise to sacred animal cults. In the Old Kingdom, only specially selected animals were considered sacred. For example, a black bull with a round white spot on its forehead was considered a symbol of the god Apis, the hypostasis of Ptah, the main city god of Memphis, and was revered as a shrine. By the end of Egyptian civilization, all bulls, cats, crocodiles, and ibises were considered sacred. They were embalmed and buried in special places. The essence of the cult was traditional and consisted of making daily sacrifices to the gods, which were accompanied by rituals.

Mythology... During this period, doctrines were born that explained the world around them in mythological form. Thus, the priests of the city of Heliopolis, which became the second capital of Egypt after Memphis, created the concept of the creation of the world. According to this concept, first, the primordial god Atum arises from the primordial waters, which exudes Air and Moisture from himself, giving rise in turn to the Earth and Heaven. From this couple came the gods Set and Neftis, as well as Osiris and Isis, who gave birth to the son of Horus (Horus). Osiris after death became the god of the other world. God Horus became a ruler in this world, which made him a royal god. Pharaoh was viewed as the hypostasis of Horus. After death, the pharaoh turned into the hypostasis of Osiris. So that this concept does not contradict the supremacy of the god Ra, Atum and Ra were identified. It is important to emphasize that within the framework of this concept, as well as in Sumer, the eternal existence of nature in the form of primitive waters is recognized and there is no idea of ​​a creator god who creates nature. In fact, the world was created as a process of birth of some natural phenomena by others, although these natural phenomena were deified 10.

The Egyptians believed that there was an eternal, originally established order in the world, which was consolidated by the concept of "Maat" and personified in the image of the goddess Maat. The main task of the pharaoh-god was precisely to maintain this order and protect the world from disorder. This manifested the socio-political and ethical functions of religion, because in this way the correctness of the existing social system and the need for all Egyptians to follow the accepted order were substantiated, which was considered good, and its violation as evil. The priests explained their adherence to traditions and dislike of innovation by the desire to observe the order established by the gods.

Of all the gods, the common people revered Osiris and his sister-wife Isis the most. According to legend, Osiris taught people agriculture and became the ruler of Egypt, but his brother, the evil and envious god Seth, treacherously killed Osiris in order to seize the throne. At the same time, the body of Osiris was cut into small pieces and scattered throughout the country. Isis, the wife of Osiris, gathered all the pieces into a single whole (creating the first mummy) and magically conceived a son of Horus from her dead husband. When Horus grew up, he killed Seth and resurrected his father. Every year, the peasants associated the ceremony of sowing grain in the ground with the burial of Osiris, and the appearance of the harvest with his resurrection. Isis personified the feminine principle in the cult of fertility. So the cult of Osiris and Isis became the Egyptian version of the cult of a dying and resurrecting nature.

By the end of the Old Kingdom reached a high level writing... This is evidenced by the "Texts of the Pyramids" - wall inscriptions with prayers and incantations, made in the XXIV-XXV centuries. in the tombs of the pharaohs. Somewhat later, religious texts appeared on the sarcophagi of dignitaries (the so-called "sarcophagus texts"). They were called to help the dead on their journey to the realm of the dead.

The science. During the period of the Old Kingdom, advances were made in various fields of knowledge. Memphis astronomers created a solar calendar that consisted of 365 days. The builders had an extensive knowledge of geometry. Doctors became experienced surgeons, physiologists, and used antiseptics. Medical treatises, which appeared in the XXV century, were the first lengthy written texts in the world.

Old Kingdom Crisis... After five centuries of stability, the country entered a period of socio-political crises, the cause of which was the strengthening of the power of the regional rulers. Local rulers eventually became so strong that they began to feel burdened by dependence on the center. The change in the previous balance of power was reflected in an increase in the size of the burial complexes of regional rulers (nomarchs) and a decrease in the volume of the pyramids. The strengthening of the local nobility by the end of the 3rd millennium led to the disintegration of the Old Kingdom into a number of regions. The consequences of the collapse of the centralized state were dire. Intercommunal wars resumed, leading to the destruction of the single economy, the decline of the irrigation system, famine and uprisings of the population. The period of turmoil and decline lasted for almost 200 years. This or that restoration of state unity has become an urgent need.

There is evidence that the decline of the Old Kingdom was associated with a sharp climate change, which led to a terrible drought and long-term crop failures.

Ancient Kingdom - a period in the history of ancient Egypt covers a time span of several centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. (c. 2707-2150 BC). It is difficult to determine the exact time frame, but according to the descriptions of the ancient Greek historian Menephone, the existence of the Old Kingdom falls on the reign of the pharaohs from the III to VIII dynasty.

This period was important in the history of Ancient Egypt, it was at this time that the state became centralized, rallying the economic and political life of the country under a single control.

The Pharaoh is rightfully considered the founder of the Old Kingdom, who was able to finally strengthen the centralized power and protect the state from the raids of the Sinai nomads and Nubians. By building a six-step pyramid in the necropolis, Djoser initiated the so-called era of the pyramids. It was during this period that the construction of the pyramids in Giza took place.

The rapid development of metallurgy and the production of more advanced weapons allowed the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom to form a standing army and seize the copper mines in the Sinai Peninsula. By the end of the existence of the Old Kingdom, they began to actively resist the central government, forcing the pharaohs of the 5th and 6th dynasties to make significant concessions to them. These concessions later led to the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt.

During the heyday of the Old Kingdom, it included the lands of northern Nubia, and small territories on the shores of the Gulf of Suez.

The capital of the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom was the city of Memphis (Inbu-hej), until the beginning of the first transition period.