Pyramids

Egyptian pyramids are amongst the oldest stone buildings in the world. They were built nearly five thousand years ago. These ancient tombs are also among the world's largest structures. The biggest is taller than a 40-story building and covers the area occupied by Lincoln's Inn (about 13 acres; 5.3 hectares). Men built these huge structures without the help of equipment such as cranes and bulldozers. The ancient Egyptians used tools of copper, a softer metal than steel. Wooden wedges to help prise the stone from the quarry face and levers to help put the stones in place were also used in building the pyramids. Building a pyramid was dirty, difficult and dangerous work. It required meticulous planning and organization.

Two varieties of stone were used, limestone and granite. The limestone which made up the bulk of the pyramid was quarried locally. The granite had to be brought from the quarries at Aswan to where the pyramid was being built. They were transported on the Nile River in massive reed boats. The average weight of one of the pyramid's stone block is two and half tons. Some of the Aswan blocks, however, weighed up to 70 tons. To complete the Great Pyramid at Giza, one stone block was quarried, shaped and placed in position every two minutes for 20 years. It was this dangerous, hard and monotonous work that was done by slaves. This was an era of slave labour and none were more expert in directing their slaves than the ancient Egyptians. The slaves were naked too low in status to be given clothes.

In the minds of the Ancient Egyptians the pyramid form served a very serious purpose. Ancient Egyptians had a strong belief in life after death. The pharaohs wanted their bodies to last forever, so they had pyramids built to protect their bodies after death. Each pyramid housed a pharaoh's preserved body. It also held the goods he would need in his next life to continue living as he had when he was alive. Granite doors, false passages and fake burial chambers were built in an attempt to confuse and stop robbers from robbing the pyramids. In spite of these precautions, all pyramids were robbed of their treasures by around 1000 B.C.

Building plans showing how the pyramid was built have never been found, experts use present knowledge about construction to make some intelligent guesses. The Ancient Egyptians were an ingenious people. You cannot help to be impressed by the fearlessness the ancient builders exhibited in taking on such a colossal project.

The limestone blocks were cut out in the quarries close the pyramid site. Most of these blocks were roughly cut to size. Only where precision was needed were they dressed and trimmed by skilled masons to exacting standards. Once the limestone blocks quarried they were hauled on sledges along a causeway by gangs of slaves. Water was poured around the sledges to help them slide.

A spiralling ramp of mud, brick and rubble was used to haul the blocks to the level where building was going on. Once at the working level the blocks were man-handled off the sledges into position by levers and brute force by further gangs of slaves called setters. Once relieved of their load the hauliers would then make their weary way back down the ramp to start the whole process again.

A canal connected the pyramid site with the Nile. Here granite brought down from Aswan and fine limestone from Tura was unloaded. These were special stones that involved a lot of preparation in their quarrying, dressing and transportation.

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The Calip Al Mamoun of Baghdad, around 820 A.D., hired an army of workers to dig through the stones of the pyramid to enter it.

British Colonel Howard Vyse reopened Mamoun's forced entryway in 1837.

British archaeologist and explorer, Sir Flinders Petrie believed that someone had entered the Great Pyramid before Al Mamoun;

"When, then, was the Pyramid first violated? Probably by the same hands that so ruthlessly destroyed the statues and temples of Khafra, and the Pyramids of Abu Roash, Abusir, and Sakkara. That is to say, probably during the civil wars of the seventh to the tenth dynasties."

Some researchers today believe that it was first entered shortly after its completion by those who had knowledge of the entryways.

It took 20,000 to 30,00 people to build the great pyramid.
The ancient Greek scholar Herodotus who lived around 450BC when the Great Pyramid was already 2000 years old, was told that it took 100,000 slaves twenty years to build.

Most modern historians accept the twenty years but believe it was more like 20,000 or 30,000 . It is thought there were about 5,000 skilled workers and administrators. The rest were labourers whether they were slaves or not is for you to decide. Let me know what you think.
80000
Like everything regarding the pyramids there is much debate and disagreement. However Egyptologists accept that the great pyramid was built by many tens of thousands of workers.

According to National Geographic it took an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 workers to build the Pyramids at Giza over a period of 80 years. A one time historians thought that slaves built the pyramids. It is now accepted that slaves were not used rather peasant farmers who were normally unemployed during the inundation of the river Nile.

there was a massive amount fo object in Tutankhamun's antechamber. some of the objects include:

• animal shaped couches.
• clothing.
• alabaster vases.
• perfumes.
• trumpets.
• a Crook. (which is a symbol of a pharaohs power)
• gold jewellery.
• makeup.

And heaps more, unfortunately when Carter opened the tomb and entered the Antechamber the entire place was in disarray and there was a hole in the wall which had to be re-sealed, suggesting that robbers had entered, which means that we will never really be able to tell all of what was in there when Tutankhamun was buried.

Hope i helped :)

Cleopatra was the last Pharoah and she committed suicide in the first half of the first century BC. Even before she died Egypt had become a colony of the Roman Republic.

In fact even Cleopatra and a few Pharoahs before her weren't Egyptian but Macedonian since they were descended from Ptolemy, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, who had conquered Egypt in the 4th century BC.

The current Egyptian head of state is President Hosni Mubarak.
The last pharaoh in Egypt is the famous Cleopatra the VII, she was the lover of Julius Caeser, and Marc Anthony, she had no surviving heirs, as they were all killed by Augustus/Octavian, Julius' nephew. She committed suicide after learning that Octavian had planned on imprisoning her. She was born in 69 BCE, in Alexandria Egypt, an reigned from 51 BCE to August 12th 30 BCE. Hope this helps:)