The Great Pyramid of Giza

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The Great Pyramid of Giza is also recognized as the Pyramid of Khufu, Khufu's Pyramid and Pyramid of Cheops. It is the most significant and earliest structure in the world. This pyramid is the oldest of the three pyramids standing on the Giza Necropolis. It is also the largest of them all (Larry, 2000). This great pyramid is located on the northern edge of the Giza Plateau, which is 25 km outskirts, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It is the only remaining standing monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Crystalink, 2011). It is said that the pyramid was built as the tomb for the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian King Khufu (known in Greek as Cheops).

The pyramid is believed to have been built for over 20 years by a workforce of 100,000 oppressed Egyptian slaves (Cleveleys, 2011) and was completed at around 2560 BC. It took 10 more years to build a stone walkway that linked it to a temple that was in a valley below it (Krystek, 2010). The pyramid stood as the tallest structure ever built in the world by man for over 3,800 years until the 19th century, and is now approximately 4,500 years old.

Originally the pyramid’s height was 146.6 meters (480.97 feet), but because of erosion, its height is now 138.8 meters (455 feet). This is equal to a building consisting of 48 stories. The pyramid has 203 steps or courses up until its summit (gizapyramid.com, 2011). Its base covers an area of 13 acres (568,500 square feet). It was built using over 2,500,000 limestone blocks each weighing between 2 and 70 tons. The blocks of stones were moved using immense machinery. Its volume is approximately 2,500,000 cubic meters (90,000,000 cubic feet) and its total mass is approximately 5.9 million tons. Based on this information it shows that in order to ...

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...g’s chamber.

All things considered the Egyptians might have had a much larger understanding of geometry than previously thought. The Great Pyramid’s dimensions may be a sign of a very sophisticated measure of comprehension in its designer.

Works Cited

Krystek L. The Museum of UnNatural Mystery (2010). Retrieved on February 18, 2011 http://www.unmuseum.org/kpyramid.htm

Larry O. Catchpenny Mysteries (2000). Retrieved on February 18, 2011

http://www.worldmysteries.com/mpl_2.html

Crystalink. Great Pyramid of Khufu. Retrieved on February 19, 2011 http://www.crystalinks.com/greatpyramid.html

Cleveleys. The Seven Wonders of the World. Retrieved on February 19, 2011 http://www.cleveleys.co.uk/wonders/greatpyramid.html

Sacredsites. The Great Pyramid of Giza. (2010)Retrieved on February 20, 2011 http://sacredsites.com/africa/egypt/the_great_pyramid_of_giza.html

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