Pyramids are huge buildings with four sloping triangle-shaped sides. Most of the pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom. The largest is called the Great Pyramid, built by Khufu, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty. The Great Pyramid was built in the ancient city of Giza.
Pyramids:Significance
Building pyramids was dangerous work. Each year, men lost their lives by being crushed by falling blocks, but the workers believed in the importance of their work. For them, building a pyramid was an act of faith. It was a way of ensuring the Pharaoh's afterlife.
One of the importance of the Pyramids was to solve a social political problem: when the Egyptians built the pyramids, Egypt was rich, The Pharaoh used to rule till he died, The Nile used to flood for three months a year, The Egyptians who were mostly farmer were not working as the land was covered by water, The Egyptians needed an aim, and a target, to gather them , The idea of building a tomb for the Pharaoh who was considered god, and landmark him was a great idea, and very important for the Egyptians who built it ,to achieve the blessing of their god that time, The Egyptians used to work together, and the Pharaoh used to give each labor bread and beer,, (beer is Egyptian invention),, That achieved the following:
One of the importance of the Pyramids was to solve a social political problem: when the Egyptians built the pyramids, Egypt was rich, The Pharaoh used to rule till he died, The Nile used to flood for three months a year, The Egyptians who were mostly farmer were not working as the land was covered by water, The Egyptians needed an aim, and a target, to gather them , The idea of building a tomb for the Pharaoh who was considered god, and landmark him was a great idea, and very important for the Egyptians who built it ,to achieve the blessing of their god that time, The Egyptians used to work together, and the Pharaoh used to give each labor bread and beer,, (beer is Egyptian invention),, That achieved the following:
- Solving unemployment problem, with a reward and means for surviving to the non-working forces
- The Egyptians had an aim, gathered around it, and felt blessed by their god then
- The hard work did not let the Egyptians think of rebelling the Pharaoh (they were busy doing something hard wasting their energy)
Pyramids: How They Are Built
Building the pyramids required a great deal of organization. The Great Pyramid is made up of more than 2 million stones, the average weight of each stone is about 5,000 pounds. Each stone had to be hauled up the side of the pyramid and put in its proper place. A pyramid can take more than 20 years to build. The project began with the selection of a site on the west bank of the Nile, even though the west was thought to be the land of the dead. Once the site was chosen, workers cleared the ground. Engineers set the pyramid square so that it would be facing the main points of a compass. Workers than cut the building blocks. Stone for the inside if the pyramid came from nearby quarries but fine stone for the outside came from further away. Some stone came all the way from Nubia. It had to be loaded onto barges and carried to the building site either along the Nile or along canals near the Nile.
To get the blocks of stone into place, workers used sleds, wooden rollers, and levers. They dragged and pushed the huge blocks up ramps of packed rubble to the level they were working on.
To get the blocks of stone into place, workers used sleds, wooden rollers, and levers. They dragged and pushed the huge blocks up ramps of packed rubble to the level they were working on.