The Great Pyramid of Giza was built about 4500 years ago, and today, it stands as the oldest and only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World . This massive engineering feat was ordered by King Khufu , who was the 2nd Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt . It is situated on the Giza Plateau, in the outskirts of the city of Cairo, and it measures 481 feet high, with its slopes having an angle of 51 degrees.

The Great Pyramid was constructed with 2,300,000 stone blocks, and each block has an average weight of 2.5 tons. It had a 33-feet wide limestone pavement and a 26-feet high wall around its perimeter. There are 3 chambers in the pyramid, which are the King’s Chamber , the Queen’s Chamber , and a subterranean chamber. The entrance to the pyramid is located at the north face, and it has a passageway that runs down for 58.5 meters, leading to the subterranean chamber. A mysterious passage leads out of the chamber, into a dead end. The Queen’s Chamber is situated at the upper part of the pyramid. When the chamber was constructed, it was not accessible from other parts of the pyramid, and many people belief that Khufu’s spirit statue may be kept in the chamber. Along the descending passageway, there is a one meter-wide passage that leads to the Grand Gallery, which has a 26-feet high corbelled roof. The King’s Chamber is located at the end of the gallery, and it is where Khufu’s sarcophagus is kept.

According to archaeological evidence that was uncovered at the site of the Great Pyramid, the structure might have been protected by different groups of guardians over a period of thousands of years. Around 500 BC, the Greeks took a good deal of interest in the pyramid and its guardians. The famous Greek historian Herodotus provided some interesting information about the pyramid, and he was told by the guardians that Khufu was buried in it. Egypt’s political structure underwent much change during the 6th century, and the pyramid was no longer protected by guardians.

The history of the Great Pyramid was documented in 820 AD by Abdullah Al Mamoun, the Caliph of Baghdad. Mamoun and his men forced their ways into many of the unexplored passages and chambers, and when they left, the pyramid was open to the outside elements for the first time. Some years later, several earthquakes took place around the area, and they caused the pyramid to lose its casing. The casing stones were used to build certain structures in Cairo, including the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. In 1798, Napoleon ordered an extensive study of the pyramid, and his savants found that it was not really a tomb, but a structure of complex numerical implications. This notion was supported by engineer David Davidson in 1925, when he discovered that the architects of the pyramid had used calculations for the year as measurements for the perimeter of the base. Much more studies were conducted on the pyramid in the following years, and in 1993, a robot equipped with a video camera was sent to explore the Queen’s Chamber.

The construction of the Great Pyramid required great engineering ability. The cutting of the stone blocks and casing stones was done with amazing accuracy. According to Herodotus, 100,000 laborers were used to build the pyramid, and the project took 20 years to complete. Archaeological evidence reveals that the stones that were used to build the pyramid came from Tura and the quarries of Aswan, and they were cut with copper tools such as chisels, saws, and drills. Then, they were transported to the site by oxen and men, who were divided into groups like “Boat Gang”, “North Gang”, “Powerful Gang”, “Friends of Khufu”, and others. The names of these gangs were engraved on some of the stone blocks. The stones were raised onto the pyramid with the use of ramps as well as rollers, sledges, and levers.

• CrystalLinks.com : Detailed information about the Great Pyramid of Giza
• PBS.org : History of the Giza Pyramid
• World Mysteries : Construction of the Great Pyramid
• Mystical Blaze : The physical attributes and placement of the Great Pyramid
• Ancient Egypt Online : Complete information about ancient Egypt

Even today, the Great Pyramid of Giza is considered one of the greatest engineering feats of all time. It is one of the largest single buildings that were ever built. It had stood as the tallest building in the world until the beginning of the 19th century.

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