The great Pyramids of Giza are the last standing wonder of the ancient world. They were built with stone knifes and watery sand for glue. They are towering structures built for one purpose and one purpose only: to hold a body. They were amazing!
Why go to so much trouble to bury a single body? Because the Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They thought it was more important than the living life because back than you didn’t live very long, and in the afterlife you live forever. So it was considered more important to have a good tomb than a good house.
I was extremely hot during the ride in the van until we parked next to the Great Pyramid. We were immediately cooled by its shadow. It was made of mammoth tan blocks of stone. We walked up to it and started climbing. There were little stairs every now and then for the less able tourists but I preferred to go in full rock climbing mode. We took a ton of pictures and went to the second pyramid.
This one had barely any tourists but there was a small opening with a man. We gave him our tickets and descended into the pyramid. We all crouched and slowly walked down a ramp. The ceiling was three feet tall and the walls were three feet wide. It smelled horrible and I had to breathe through my scarf. We later learned that it was the smell of dead bacteria, and when they first opened the tomb a lot of people got sick. It seemed to descend forever, but we finally made it to a small boring room (the storage room for all the kings’ possessions, and everything he thought he would need in the afterlife). It sort of looked like an empty prison cell. Then we went through a little hall and made it to a bigger, less boring room (the burial chamber) with interesting marks on the walls. The ceiling was shaped like a mini pyramid with grooves marking the blocks.
Other cool facts about the pyramid:
- The pyramids were built in 2600 BC. That makes them over 4,600 years old!
- The Great Pyramid was 146.5 meters tall. That is almost 500 feet high.
- There are 2 million blocks per pyramid. The biggest blocks can weigh from 25-80 tons.
- It took 20 years to build the Great Pyramid: 12 blocks were placed each hour, 24 hours per day, by more than 100,000 slaves who worked for 20 years without stopping.
As I said before, the pyramids were built to hold the body and possessions for the pharaohs of early Egypt. But several centuries later the capital moved south and people started burying the pharos in the Valley of the Kings which is really close to Luxor. They chose that spot because the valley’s peak forms a natural pyramid. And also because they were worried about grave robbers and the valley is a great hiding spot.
It amazes me that people thought so much about and worked so hard on a structure that they never even got to live in. If I ever worked that hard on something I know that I would want maximum use!
The great Pyramids of Giza are the last standing wonder of the ancient world. They were built with stone knifes and watery sand for glue. They are towering structures built for one purpose and one purpose only: to hold a body. They were amazing!
Why go to so much trouble to bury a single body? Because the Egyptians believed in the afterlife. They thought it was more important than the living life because back than you didn’t live very long, and in the afterlife you live forever. So it was considered more important to have a good tomb than a good house.
I was extremely hot during the ride in the van until we parked next to the Great Pyramid. We were immediately cooled by its shadow. It was made of mammoth tan blocks of stone. We walked up to it and started climbing. There were little stairs every now and then for the less able tourists but I preferred to go in full rock climbing mode. We took a ton of pictures and went to the second pyramid.
This one had barely any tourists but there was a small opening with a man. We gave him our tickets and descended into the pyramid. We all crouched and slowly walked down a ramp. The ceiling was three feet tall and the walls were three feet wide. It smelled horrible and I had to breathe through my scarf. We later learned that it was the smell of dead bacteria, and when they first opened the tomb a lot of people got sick. It seemed to descend forever, but we finally made it to a small boring room (the storage room for all the kings’ possessions, and everything he thought he would need in the afterlife). It sort of looked like an empty prison cell. Then we went through a little hall and made it to a bigger, less boring room (the burial chamber) with interesting marks on the walls. The ceiling was shaped like a mini pyramid with grooves marking the blocks.
Other cool facts about the pyramid:
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