Pyramid of Khéops

The large pyramid of Khéops is a Monument built by the Egyptian of antiquity, forming a square Pyramide of 137m height. Tomb of the Pharaon Khéops, it was built there is more than 4500 years, under, in the center of vast a complex funerary being located at Gizeh in Egypt.

It is only seven wonders of the world of the Antiquité to have survived until our days. During millenia, it was the human construction of all the records, highest, bulkiest and most massive. True symbol of a whole country, it has been for more than 4500 years the monument more scanned and more studied in the world. The tomb, true masterpiece of the Egyptian Ancient Empire, represents the concentration and the result of all the architectural techniques developped at the point since the creation of the stone architecture by Imhotep for the pyramid of its sovereign Djéser. However, the many architectonic characteristics and the exploits reached make of it a pyramid with share which does not cease maintaining imagination the men.

The role of the pyramid within the funerary complex

The pyramid of Khéops belongs to a complex broader, made up:

of a funerary Temple in two parts, low called “a temple of the valley” and a high part located near the pyramid, these two parts being connected by a roadway being used as gallery of communication;
of a unit made up of the pyramid of Khéops, of three pyramids of queens, of a satellite pyramid, girds of a wall, connected to the gallery of communication via the high part of the temple;
of multiples Mastaba S gathered in three cemeteries or towns of mastaba located at the East behind the pyramids of the queens, at the south of the large pyramid and the occident of the pyramid of the king, in the desert.

Structure of the pyramid

The pyramid of Khéops profited, for its erection, of the developments and the technical innovations of the pyramids of his/her father Snéfrou with Dahchour. It outside does not seem to have undergone any change of plans. This point is on the other hand prone to discussions with regard to the interior of the monument. Two schools clash; there are the partisans of a single project and the partisans of three successive projects. It seems that the architect was the vizier Hémiounou.

The pyramid of Khéops in some key figures:

Base of the pyramid southern : 230,454 m; north: 230,253 m; west: 230,357 m; is: 230,394 m;
initial Height 146,58 m, today 137 m;
Perimeter 922 m;
Surface 53.056 m ²;
Volume 2.592.341 m ³;
Mass 5.000.000 T, is overhung by a system of discharge with monolithic vaults and lintels. Its function is to protect the corridor going down from the mass located at the top. However dimensions of this vault seem disproportionate when one considers the relatively weak loads in this place. Did it have a function plus symbolic system?

This entry would have been closed by means of a mobile stone what would confirm the indications of the ancient author Strabon. This type of closure was already known with Dahchour.

One reaches today the infrastructures by the opening which carried out the caliph Al-Mamoun in 820. The smooth coating of the pyramid was still in place at that time and masked the ancient closure. It was dug a few meters under the true entry and leads to the ascending corridor, just behind the blocks stoppers ( 3 ).

The plan of the large pyramid of Khéops is composed of three principal levels.

The descending shaft and the underground room

The corridor going down, tilted from 26°26' 46" and 105 meters length.

Some sights of the underground room in 1910 . This corridor consists of stones placed in horizontal beds on several meters. It is prolonged then with a masonry coursed until its end. Three blocks belts are placed at regular intervals whose their destination was most probably to accommodate harrows of closing. However, this option had to be rejected during construction, the architect having chosen the installation of three blocks stoppers of granite ( 3 ), blocks remaining always today in bottom of the ascending corridor.

The junction ( 6 ) with the characteristic to offer an access to each level of the pyramid: first of all with the descending shaft, by a bowel connecting the bottom of the large gallery ( 8 ) to the cave ( 5 ) and dug with very masonry by the manufacturers, then with the room of the queen ( 7 ), by a horizontal corridor, and finally with the room of the king ( 10 ), by borrowing the large gallery.

A bowel, connecting the bottom of the descending shaft on the level of the natural rock to a place called the “cave” ( 5 ), was dug by the manufacturers. It allowed the evacuation of the remains produced by work in the underground room. This well was made inoperative as of the installation of first sat stones but given in function and accessible since the junction ( 6 ) when construction was almost finished.

The driving corridor with the room of the queen ( 7 ) is installed in a masonry of beautiful stones limestones. Characteristics are reproduced on its walls such as false joints and abnormally cross joints. There were many attempts at investigation (drillings, microgravimetric measurements) in order to detect secret corridors but those were without success.

One reaches the room of the queen ( 7 ) (who, in fact, does not belong to the queen but was thus named by the Arab explorers). This square basic room, placed in the East-West axis of the pyramid, has a cover arched with stones laid out out of rafters. A niche, protected by a vault in Corbelling, was arranged in the wall is room. An opening in this niche raises many debates today. The Egyptologist Gilles Dormion noticed that this sap proves to be a built bowel of five meters (thus envisaged by the manufacturers) prolonged by a sap of robber of ten meters. The function of this niche is always unknown.

As the room of the king this part was provided with two conduits known as of " ventilation" arranged in its walls north and south. They were masked by slabs which were discovered at the 19th century during thorough explorations of the monument. These conduits were the subject of several exploration campaigns whose first in 1993 was baptized the Projet Oupouaout.

. It is surmounted by a splendid vault in Encorbellement on four faces (technique inherited the red Pyramide and the Pyramide rhomboïdale with Dahchour) protecting it from the loads. A walk at the end higher of this gallery gives on an anteroom ( 9 ) driving than the room of the king ( 10 ). This anteroom comprised a system of closing with harrows blocking the passage but now disappeared.

The room of the king is a splendid granite work of 10,47 meters out of 5,23 meters (either twenty bent out of ten bent) and of a 5,84 meters height. The room is surmounted by an imposing cover of blocks of granite distributed on five levels.

. The four faces measure at their base: 230,454 m in the south, 230,253 m in north, 230,357 m in the west and 230,394 m in the east. The error obtained for a perfect square is of only twenty cm (only 4,4 cm according to Mark Lehner). The pyramid is directed according to the four cardinal points with an average error of 3 ' 6. The average error on the right angles of the base is also of 3 ' 6. The base of the pyramid was levelled with an error of a few centimetres.

The base

August 1st

The coating

The facing, originally composed of fine limestone stones of Tourah, has almost disappeared complement. There does not remain about it any more that a few blocks on the level of the base. In connection with masonry, Petrie note that: Several measurements were made thickness of the joints between the stones of facing. The average thickness for those of the North-East east of 0,002 inches and thus the average error compared to the straight line and with the perfect square are only of 0,01 inch for a length of 75 inches on the height of the face. Although the stones had been brought to 1/50e inch one of the other, in other words with the contact, the average opening of the joint was only of 1/100e pouce.

Bases

See also: Measurement of the rows of sat pyramid of Khéops

It is easier to describe the external aspect of the pyramid than the solid mass interns whose design is not certain. The bowel, connecting the large gallery to the descending shaft, enables us all the same to foresee the masonry of the solid mass of the pyramid which is limited to a rubble of coarsely squared blocks of limestone. The stones of the large pyramid have dimensions varying according to the height to which they are. It would seem obvious to note that the more one approaches the top of the pyramid and the more the height of bases decreases. However, this rule is not applicable here. Bases decrease height up to a certain level with the top of the ground then, from this one increase in the face until decreasing further and so on. There exist thus 18 groups of a variable number of bases. The Egyptologist Georges Goyon explains this characteristic by the source and the nature of materials employed, a limestone quarry whose basement is composed of Strate S variable thicknesses. The pyramid today made up of 201 sat an average height of 0,69 meter, the last having disappeared and the top being reduced to a platform few hundred square meters.

The pyramidion

There remains no trace of the Pyramidion which crowned formerly on the top of the large pyramid. The pyramidion which is currently exposed close to the south-eastern corner is not other than that of small the satellite pyramid. This one is out of limestone and anépigraphe, following the example pyramidion of the red Pyramide built by the father of Khéops, Snéfrou. No index however makes it possible to indicate any similarity with the disappeared pyramidion.

The phenomenon of Apothem

This phenomenon, present at other pyramids, is very visible here. The faces have a light digging in the center, quite visible when the sun is vis-a-vis the pyramid). He was often called upon erosion or a damage of with the fall of the stones of facing. It is also possible that the method of construction is the origin. Indeed, Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi noted that with the Pyramide of Mykérinos, this concavity disappeared on the level from the facing from granite. I.E.S. Edwards allots this characteristic to the fact that the stony beds are slightly poured towards the center of each base, from where the depression. At present, no satisfactory explanation makes it possible to explain this architectural characteristic already noticed at the 18th century.

Mathematical and astronomical considerations

When the geometry of the large pyramid is studied, it is delicate to make the distinction between the intentions of the manufacturers and the properties which rise from the proportions of the building. One often mentions the Golden section and the number pi registered in the proportions of the pyramid: the Egyptians indeed chose a slope, for the faces, of 14/11 (the height of 280 being bent and bases it bent 2×220, the slope is equal to 280/220 = 14/11). This value was for the first time applied to the Pyramide of Meïdoum but does not constitute a rule in the manufacturers of the Ancient Empire since certain pyramids have a slope of 6/5 (red Pyramide), 4/3 (Pyramide of Khephren) or 7/5 (Pyramide rhomboïdale).

Concerning the golden section, the proportion of 14/11 involves an apothem ratio/kneesock equal to $\ frac {\ sqrt {14^2+11^2}} {11} \ simeq 1,61859$ , near to $\ varphi = \ frac {1 + \ sqrt {5}} {2} \ simeq 1,61803$ .

the value of the number $\ pi \ simeq 3,14159$ would be given by the report/ratio (half-perimeter of the base) /hautor. One obtains the approximate value thus $\ frac {14} = \ frac {22} {7} \ simeq 3,14285 \ simeq \ pi$ . The corridors of ventilation southern part would have pointed; for one, the star Sirius, and for the other, the star Alnitak. However, here still and as for the majority of the Pyramids of Egypt, the access passages had slopes simple and easy to implement. They were tilted of an angle ranging between 26° and 26°30' is a slope of 1/2.

A geometrical property however seems to be wanted by the architect of the large pyramid. The ventilation shafts of the room of the queen would reach both the same level of the pyramid. This fact is checked with the conduits of the room of the king.

The supposed model

Undergrounds are compared to an outline (on reduced scale) of the descending shaft and ascending corridor of the large pyramid. They are with the north-eastern angle of the large pyramid. Although they are accompanied by no superstructure, the Egyptologist Mark Lehner sees an unfinished burial there. In spite of the similarities of plan between the pyramid and this structure, the debate is still not distinct.

Construction of the pyramid of Khéops

The construction of the “large pyramid” began towards -2650 () and would have lasted approximately a score of years according to the ancient historian Manéthon (what seems plausible for the modern Egyptologist S).

Theories pseudo-scientists on the destination of the pyramid

The disproportion and the precision obtained with the large pyramid of Khéops seem, for certain authors, incompatible with knowledge and the rudimentary means of the people which set it up. Several theses pseudo-scientists transfer the day, being inspired only very seldom archaeological data, to explain the destination of this monument. There be holding them of the biblical thesis aiming at showing that the large pyramid was set up by elected people of god, and holding them of a higher civilization of origin telamon, even Extra-terrestre.

The exploration of the pyramid of Antiquity at the 19th century

The first historians and travellers to report us their explorations are Greek and Latin authors: Hérodote, Diodore of Sicily, Strabon, Pline Old the. Their descriptions are centered on the historical and legendary aspect which surrounds the monument that on the structure even of the building. Hérodote, the first traveller whose writings reached us, made state of ideographic inscriptions on the faces of the pyramid, retailer what it had cost out of horseradish, onions and garlic for the workmen. While the historian of the 10th century, Maçoudi, tells: One practiced for him the breach which is still open today, one employed for that fire, the vinegar, the levers… The thickness of the wall from approximately twenty was bent; having arrived at the end of this wall, they found at the bottom of the hole a green basin filled with monnayé gold; it was there thousand dinars each dinar weighing one ounce… This basin was, says one, of emerald ^;.

With the the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Rebirth, the pyramids are comparable with the attics of Joseph, and rare are the explorers to give a somewhat faithful description of the places. It is necessary to await the middle of the 17th century and the work Pyramidographia of John Greaves to finally discover a detailed plan of the internal fittings of the large pyramid. The blocked descending shaft with semi-course by a remains cluster, the room of the encumbered queen of rubble, the large gallery and the room of the king are distinguished. In 1754, the work of the Rollin historian published by English Knapton is illustrated of a sight of the large gallery.

It is between the years 1798 and 1801 that the scientific expedition ordered by Vivant Denon during the Campagne of Egypt will be able to establish the first rigorously archaeological observations of the large pyramid. In addition to splendid boards representing the site of Gizeh, monumental the Description of Egypt, published on the order of the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte delivers to us the first realistic sights of the interior of the large pyramid, as well as plans of a very high degree of accuracy. The publication of description will cause a true passion. The travellers and explorers will follow one another during the 19th century. The engineers Howard Vyse and John Shae Perring will excavate, dig and leave many traces of their passages in the majority of the pyramids memphites and more particularly in the large one. Their results provide today still invaluable information for which wants to study the large pyramid.

Starting from this date, the large pyramid will be studied and measured in its least details by very many scientists, specialized or not in this discipline. Two works then are widely diffused: very discussed Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid , of the Scottish astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth and The pyramids and temples off Gizeh , of Kneaded.

Tourism related to the pyramid of Khéops

High tourist place, the pyramids are threatened by the rapid urbanization of the plate of Gizeh. Of this fact a new policy of protection of the plate is under development, with in particular the construction of a fence on all its circumference thus delimiting the archaeological zone protected and installation from two distinct entries. The access of the tourists not-Egyptians will be done by the north of the site, precisely near the pyramid of Khéops.

Appendices

The pyramid of Khéops and fiction

; Cartoon

Edgar P. Jacobs, the Mystery of the large pyramid (1954-1955), volumes 4 and 5 of the series Blake and Mortimer
Lucien De Gieter, the talisman of the large pyramid , volume 21 of the adventures of Papyrus

; Cinema

Earth of the Pharaons of Howard Hawks, 1954

Complex funerary of Khéops (to which this pyramid belongs);
Pyramids of Egypt;
Theories on the method of construction of the Egyptian pyramids.

External bonds

teaching File on the pyramid of Khéops
a visit in photographs of the large pyramid on www.guardians.net
Giza Files Project
a virtual visit (simulation 3D) of the large pyramid
a virtual visit of the horizontal corridor, room of the queen and the room of the king (simulation 3D) of the large pyramid
the report/ratio of Georges Goyon on the rows of sat pyramid

Bibliographical sources

Richard William Howard Vyse, Operations carried one At the pyramids off Gizeh , 1840-1842
William Matthew Flinders Kneaded, The pyramids and temples off Gizeh , 1883
Peter Temkins, Secret off the great pyramid , 1971
Vito Maragioglio and Celestial Rinaldi, Architettura delle Piramidi Menfite , 1963-1977
Georges Goyon, the secrecy of the builders of the large pyramids, Khéops , 1977
Georges Goyon, BIFAO 78, rows of sat large pyramid , 1978
Jacques Vandier, Manual of Egyptian archeology , Flight,
Andre Pochan, the enigma of the large pyramid , 1982
Jean-Philippe Lauer, the mystery of the pyramids , 1988
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, pyramids of Egypt , 1992
Gilles Dormion, the pyramid of Chéops: structure of the funerary apartments , 1996
Mark Lehner, The supplements pyramids , 1997
S. Aufrère, J. - Cl. Golvin, restored Egypt , t.3, 1997
Jean Kérisel, '' “Genius and disproportion of a Pharaon: Khéops” '', Stock, Paris (1996 and 2001)
Gilles Dormion, the room of Chéops , 2004
Zahi Hawass, Treasures of the pyramids

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