The History of The Egyptian Pyramids
The beginning of civilization in Egypt
By Muhamed Amien Egyptian Tour Guide
The beginning of civilization in Egypt is signalized by a noteworthy event – the unification of the country into a single nation, whose boundaries ran from the sea in the north to the First Cataract of Aswan. We know very little about political organization before this consolidation. We assume that the small tribal units of the early predynastic gradually amalgamated and formed larger social and
political groupings.
The 3rd Dynasty marked the beginning of the Old Kingdom, of which two main features appear distinctively, in other words the Old Kingdom is famous for The Pyramid Age, starting from the Pyramids of 3rd Dynasty, then the Giza
groups, later lots of pyramids that were built in the 5th and 6th Dynasties at Saqqara and Abusir. They raised the idea of the centralization of the government.
Djoser: Horus name Netjerykhet.
He is the first king of the 3rd dynasty and whose importance as the founder of a new epoch is marked in the Turin Canon by the exceptional use of red ink.
King Djoser's outstanding achievement was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara overlooking the great city of Memphis. This is a massive structure rising in six unequal stages to a height of 204 feet]. The credit for this building is to the famous architect of Djoser, Imhotep, who later on was deified and identified with the Greek god Asklepios.
It is not without reason that Manetho ascribes to Imhotep the invention of building in stone, since Djoser's great funerary monument was in fact the first to be constructed wholly in that material. The royal tombs of the previous dynasties were mastabas of brick, with little use of granite and limestone. So king Djoser is famed for having invented stone-built architecture with the help of his architect Imhotep who was himself deified in the Late Period. So Imhotep became the object of a popular cult.
The Step Pyramid started originally as a mastaba, square and not oblong, but later obtained its present unique shape by successive changes of plan. Excavations in the underground galleries revealed a few walls lined with blue faience tiles to imitate matting, and elsewhere thousands of shaped vases and dishes of alabaster, schist and other fine stones. Some low reliefs depict the king in ceremonial poses, and their delicacy shows that the sculptors of the time had mastered this technique. The limestone statue of Djoser was also among the finds of the funerary complex. It is noteworthy that before the Step Pyramid, Djoser built for himself a mud-brick mastaba, it was erected at Beit-Khallaf (Qena). The dimensions of this mastaba were 95 m. in length x 50 m. in width x 10 m. in height).
Huni:
He was the last king in the dynasty, a fact confirmed by a literary text. This text is an instruction said to be for the teaching of Kagemni, a contemporary of King Teti. Kagemni was a vizier and was eventually buried near Teti's pyramid at Saqqara. He had become a legendary figure since the end of the Old Kingdom, and his career was thought to have begun in Sneferu's reign. The text concludes in this way: 'Then the Majesty of King Huni died, the Majesty of King Sneferu was raised up as the beneficent king in this whole land. Then, Kagemni was made mayor of the city and vizier'.
He ruled for 24 years. He was the first to build a true pyramid, that was the pyramid of Meidum, which was completed by his son-in-law Sneferu. This is probably why this pyramid of Meidum is sometimes ascribed to Sneferu.
King Huni had no son, only a daughter called Hetep-heres who married to one of the genius military leaders called Sneferu, who became the founder of the 4th Dynasty, later King Sneferu.
The Two Pyramids at Dahshur:
Sneferu had two pyramids at the site of Dahshur, 10 km. south of Saqqara. Sneferu first started to build his royal tomb near the capital. He attempted to build such a true complete pyramid, he wanted it to be greater than any other monument built both in its exterior design and in its interior corridors and galleries.
The Bent Pyramid was built on a square ground plan of 188 m. in each side. The pyramid had one entrance in the northern side, and another entrance in the western side, the function of which is not clear. The rising angle of the pyramid is 540, but this angle did not correspond to the square ground plan. If the pyramid was to be continued with this angle, then it would have collapsed, especially that they actually started to notice some cracks, and started to fill them with gypsum. Thus, at the average middle height of 48 m., the rising angle changed into 430 21" to save the pyramid. The total height became 101 m. This pyramid had 3 names; false, bent and the southern pyramid. Sneferu learned the weak points from this southern pyramid, while the work was still in progress, Sneferu started to build another pyramid, 2 km. to the north of it.
This northern pyramid was built on a ground plan of 220 m. in each side, with a rising angle of 430 40", nearly the same rising angle of the southern pyramid in its upper section. This northern pyramid only had one entrance that leads to 3 burial chambers. The total height of this pyramid is 99 m.
The Great Pyramid:
The great Pyramid is considered the first true pyramid to be built. The Great Pyramid was originally 147 m. in height built on 13 feddans. Nowadays its height is 136-7 m. this simply means that the pyramid lost 11 m., the stones of which were used in the construction of mosques and mausoleums in the Mediaeval Cairo. The pyramid is built on a square ground plan of 230 m. at each side. The number of stones used in building the pyramid is 2,300,000 blocks of stones. These varied between 1 ton at least, and 8 tons at most. The Great Pyramid has been calculated that if these blocks of stones were cut into small equal pieces, they could build a wall around France, 3 m. in height and 1 m. in thickness.
The time spent in building the pyramid is still under discussion. Our only source here is Herodotus who said what he heard from some Egyptian priests that the building of the lower parts and ascending ramps took 10 years, whereas the building of the pyramid itself took 20 years.
The number of labourers was 100,000 working for 3 months a year.However, historians are still doubting these facts, since Herodotus said them 2000 years after building the pyramid; he depended on priests who were repeating folk stories narrated by people; and some of these stories are difficult to be believed. On the other hand, architects are convinced that building the pyramid can not take less time anyway.
The number of labourers is probably right, either worked for continuous 20 years or for a separate season of the year that is the inundation season. The ancient Egyptian year consists of 3 seasons, summer Smw; inundation Axt; winter prt. Each season was of 4 months with a total number of 12 months. The month was of 30 days, the day is of 24 hours, whereas the week was of 10 days.
The number of labourers was 100,000 working for 3 months a year.However, historians are still doubting these facts, since Herodotus said them 2000 years after building the pyramid; he depended on priests who were repeating folk stories narrated by people; and some of these stories are difficult to be believed. On the other hand, architects are convinced that building the pyramid can not take less time anyway.
The number of labourers is probably right, either worked for continuous 20 years or for a separate season of the year that is the inundation season. The ancient Egyptian year consists of 3 seasons, summer Smw; inundation Axt; winter prt. Each season was of 4 months with a total number of 12 months. The month was of 30 days, the day is of 24 hours, whereas the week was of 10 days.
The Great Pyramid is surrounded by several huge, roughly boat-shaped pits, each of which was intended to contain a ceremonial wooden boat: two to the east of the main pyramid, one by the causeway, and two others among the subsidiary pyramids. The two pits to the south of the main pyramid, unlike the others, are not at all boat-shaped but simply rectangular. However, in 1954 two rectangular pits were discovered immediately to the south of the pyramid. When the easternmost of these was excavated by the Egyptian Kamal El-Mallakh, it turned out to contain one of Egypt’s most astonishingly preserved finds: 1,244 pieces of cedar wood making up a dismantled boat (43.3 meters in length). It took 14 years for an Egyptian conservator, Ahmed Yusuf, to complete the careful and extremely impressive restoration of this massive boat, which is currently displayed in its own museum directly beside the site of the discovery.
This article about the history of the Egyptian pyramids was written by the Egyptian tour guide Muhamed Amien, and I have the pleasure to receive any contacts from your side for any more information, you can contact me through my emails or phone and my WhatsApp
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