Egyptian Pyramids Research Paper

Of all the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it is only the Great Pyramid of Giza that has survived the passing of time. Also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops, in the ancient world it was the oldest of all the seven wonders.

According to Egyptologists, it likely took up to two decades for the Great Pyramid to be completed. While its construction was concluded somewhere around 2560 BC, the pyramid stood as the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.

Without doubt, it’s the best-known relic of the world of the ancient Egyptians and the many striking facts of how it was built, its historical use, and what it holds have always made for intriguing stories to hear and learn from.

Estimates suggest

As tradition has it, the ancient Egyptians would cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into them. They would then soak the blocks in water, and as the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded. This caused the rock to crack. Once they were cut, the stones were carried by boats along the Nile, on their way to the construction site.

For the needs of the Great Pyramid, it is deemed that some 5.5 million tons of local limestone and as much as 8,000 tons of granite brought from Aswan would have been used. Added to this material was the 500,000 ton of mortar needed in the pyramid’s construction. What is perhaps even more impressive is that once it was completed, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white “casing stones.” These casing stones were intricately cut, beautifully polished blocks of white

In addition, plenty more casing stones were removed from the Great Pyramid by Muhammad Ali Pasha during the early 19th century and reused as material for his Alabaster Mosque, also in Cairo.

As Western explorers started arriving at the site of the Great Pyramid of Giza, their first reports tell of massive piles of rubble found at the base of the timeless edifice, leftovers of the perpetual collapse of the casing stones. These piles were thereafter cleared away as excavations on the site proceeded. Nevertheless, remnants of the limestone casings can still be found set around the base of the Great Pyramid and is enough to show the craftsmanship and precision that has repeatedly impressed across the ages.

The English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie would compare the precision of the casing stones to being “equal to opticians’ work of the present day, but on a scale of acres.” He further remarked that “to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the joints seems almost