Ancient Egypt and The Pyramids at Giza

I wrote this some years back, I thought I'd share my love for the pyramids.

Two Great Forces - The Nile River and the Surrounding Desert shaped one of the world's most enduring civilizations. Each year the river over-flowed its banks and deposited a fresh layer of rich earth across its flood-plain, inspiring Egyptians to call this region, Kemit - The Black Land. This predictable cycle of renewal nourished farmer's fields, filled the royal granaries and supported the theocracy headed by a divinely connected King, or Pharaoh. Whose basic concepts held steady for more than three millennia. Khufu, who built the great pyramid was the son of the First King of the Old Kingdom, in 4th Dynasty (2950 - 2575bc) named, Snefru.

As kings strengthened their control and organized the administration of their territory which stretched south to Nubia. The increasingly channeled the country's resources into the preparation of their tombs. Early architects worked in mud-bricks but in the 3rd Dynasty they began to engineer ever-larger pyramids, in stone. Only royals were buried in these tombs inside pyramids. But wealthy noblemen constructed their own elaborate tombs. They inscribed the walls with hieroglyphics that depicted the bounty they hoped the afterlife would hold. Grave goods included papyrus writing material and items made from gold and lapis-lazuli.

Much of the building took place during the month when the Nile flooded the cultivated fields and the King could put the idled farmers to work on construction crews. For King Khufu's great Pyramid at Giza plateau workers prepared and set in place some 2.3 million stone blocks weighing 2 and a half tons each. Khufu's authority was absolute, but by the 6th Dynasty regional administrators had begun to usurp royal authority. Eventually sever kings competed for control and Egypt endured a time of internal conflict, poverty and famine; the first intermediate period.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu was 481 feet high and was the tallest monument in the world until the 19th Century. There are three pyramids in line, facing West, the left most is of Menkaure (grand-son of the grand-son of Khufu), the middle pyramid is of, Khafre (grand-son of Khufu) and the right most is the Great Pyramid, built by, Khufu.

Giza is the name of the plateau where the great pyramid is situated, it was made some 4,500 years from now. There are two main chambers in the Pyramid of Khufu. Namely, the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber. Some 25,000 workers worked for years to make the 481 feet high monument. Some of the mysteries about the great pyramid is, that how did they managed to take those 2.5 ton heavy stone blocks up at the height of 481 feet? Or how did they squared the circle (golden ratio, math). Well maybe that’s why they called him, The Pharaoh.