The Pryamids Essay Research Paper The Great — страница 4

is Devine . Due to the fact that Menkaure s pyramid is considerably smaller, standing approximately 218 ft high, and there were some differences in his funerary temple leads many people to believe that he put more emphasis on the people rather than on his afterlife. The best-known statue to be found at his pyramid is that of Menkaure, his wife, and Hathor (the goddess of love). His pyramid complex is somewhat similar to that of his predecessors, in that it contained his pyramid, three smaller pyramids for his queens, a funerary temple at the base of the eastern side of the pyramid, and a causeway that led to his valley temple. Menkaure s son completed the pyramid after Menkaure s death. How were the Pyramids built? It has been long debated about how the pyramids of Old Kingdom

Egypt were built. To this day there are only some good theories but no definite answers. Some of the best-known theories revolve around hard labor and excellent craftsmanship. More debated theories are that the pyramids were built by extra-terrestrials, giants, and maybe even God. However the theory that makes the most sense is on the production of special cement produced by Alchemy. The most widely accepted theory to date is that about 100,000 people working hard at cutting and carving blocks using unsophisticated tools built the pyramids. It is still debated about whether these people were hired workers or Jewish slaves. They quarried the blocks (mostly limestone) and carved them to size. The fine white limestone came from quarries close by while the granite may have come from

quarries as far away as 600 miles. In some of these sites there are clear marks left in the rock. They then hauled these blocks using large wooden sleighs over lubricated wooden tracks. They then managed to hoist the blocks into place using ramps. The first theory was that one long straight ramp was used to move blocks into place, however it has become more logical and widely accepted that a spiral ramp must have been used. A spiral ramp would not be as steep and would be easier to move the stones into place. In other words, hard work, brilliant engineering and highly skilled craftsman are how the pyramids were created. Other theories, as mentioned above, are that a more advanced civilization, likely extra-terrestrial, came to produce the pyramids as some sort of puzzle for human

civilization to figure out. This is believed due to the amazing resemblance and position of the three pyramids to that of the three Orion stars in the Orion solar system. There is also evidence of pyramids on Mars from pictures that were taken of Mars surface. Another theory is that God created the Great Pyramid because it was built to near perfection and was positioned in the center of earth s land mass. This is also highly believed because of the close proximity to the birthplace of Jesus. The theory that is most realistic, however not as widely acknowledged is that the pyramids were built by a method of cement making called alchemy. This is an ancient form of chemistry that the Egyptians could have known and was somehow lost over the years. This theory is based on the

production of man-made (synthetic) stones. All materials needed for the production of synthetic stones was readily available in abundance: mud from the Nile, natron salt from the deserts and salt lakes, and lime from simple hearths (Davidovits 69). It makes more sense that the pyramids were built this way since one of the bricks may weigh up to 500 tons and a lot of the bricks in the pyramid are believed to have been imported from long distances makes the alchemy method a more practical one. One of the characteristics of geopolymeric concrete is that there is no appreciable shrinkage, and blocks do not fuse when cast directly against each other. Although it would have been impossible to achieve the close fit (as close as 0.002 inch) of the 115,000 casing stones originally on the

Great Pyramid with primitive tools, such joints are easily achieved when casting geopolymeric concrete (p. 75). This theory also reduces the number of people required to build the pyramids from approximately 100,000 for the original theory to about 1400 for the alchemy theory (p.80 and a table on p. 81). These numbers tend to be a lot more realistic given the time in which they had created them (about 20 years). Aside from evidence from the chemical analysis of pyramid stone, Geologists find that the most compelling evidence for the cast in place pyramid stones to be gross features such as the chunks of stone incorporated into the pyramid blocks, the wavy lift lines (which is not a natural occurring thing), the density differences between the pyramid and quarry stone, and the