Pyramid

Pyramid

Pyramids were the tombs of pharaohs, but no royal mummies have ever been found inside them - tomb robbers got there first. Pyramids were designed to serve as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. All Egyptian pyramids were built on the west bank of the Nile, which was the site of the setting sun, associated with the realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.

The tips of pyramids were originally covered in gold, similar to Egyptian obelisks. The Egyptian pyramid seems to have evolved from a much earlier sacred stone, the //Benben//. In recognition of this connection, the gilded cap-stone placed at the very top of each pyramid was known as a //benbenet//. According to some theories, the shape of the pyramid was inspired from the descending rays of the sun.

There are 138 pyramids that have been discovered in Egypt, made out of diorite, granite, mudbrick, sandstone, or fine limestone. The Step Pyramid of Saqqara is the oldest monumental building in the world, and the earliest surviving pyramid.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has been a popular tourist destination since antiquity, and was popularized in Hellenistic times when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Today it is the only one of those wonders still in existence. At 481 feet (146.6 meters) high, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, until the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889. (Due to erosion, the Great Pyramid is gradually being worn away - today it stands at the height of 455 feet [138.6 meters.])

The Great Pyramid, tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu, took 23 years to build and used 2.5 million blocks of stone, some weighing 200 tons apiece. The stones were cut using bronze or copper chisels and saws and wooden and stone mallets, and polished using grinders, sand, wire, and quartz, then floated down the Nile on enormous barques. Then the blocks were hauled to the building site using oxen pulling wooden sleds and manpower, helped along by water and oil poured on the ground in front of them, and wooden rollers. The exact method of construction used is unknown and the subject of much debate, but is now thought to involve use of an internal ramp and a pulley system, complete with a wooden trolly lubricated by grease, used as a freight elevator. The side of the pyramid facing outwards was trimmed when the stones were in place. At times metal clamps or sycamore dovetails were used. But generally the blocks were bonded together with mortar, which was mainly pure, crumbly lime, sometimes with sand or crushed bricks added.

The outer casting blocks of the Great Pyramid were cut so skillfully that in some places it is impossible to run a knife between then. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 2.28 inches (5.79 cm). The orientation of the Great Pyramid in relationship to true North is such as to cause it to be declared the "most accurately oriented edifice on earth."

Sir Flinders Petrie, the first archeologist to thoroughly investigate and measure the Great Pyramid, wrote that the mistakes in the lengths and angles of the pyramid could be "covered with one's thumb" and "neither needle nor hair" could be inserted into the joints. The margin of error of the Pyramid on a true plane is a mere 0.0004 per cent. In ancient Egypt, mathematics was considered to be sacred knowledge, and scribes and priests were trained in its use. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus contains formulas of the dimensions of pyramids, worked out by ancient scholars.

The idea that the Egyptians used slave labor is one of the most persistent myths of the construction process of the pyramids. Despite the popular movie scenes which show slaves toiling, suffering, and dying under the hot Egyptian sun, slavery was quite rare in Egypt and only became common late in Egyptian history during the Roman Era, under the influence of foreign emperors. Enforced conscription of slaves on a vast scale would have surely merited a prominent mention in the meticulous written records of the ancient Egyptians. Yet there are no references to slaves or slavery in texts until the Greco-Roman Period.

Even then, most slaves were prisoners of war or free-born Egyptians themselves, contracting themselves into slavery to work off a debt. The fact that Egyptians actually chose to enter voluntary slavery by executing a legal contract of self-sale suggests that the life of the Egyptian slave was not quite as harsh as we might imagine - serfdom is a more accurate picture.

Although Egypt is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, attempts to corroborate these accounts through the study of ancient Egyptian texts or archaeology have proved inconclusive and conversational. The events of the Old Testament do not mesh with the picture of Egypt built up through evacuation. There is no Egyptian reference to Moses, nor to Joseph; no text even contains a faint echo of the long captivity of the Hebrews or the Exodus.

No trace has been found in ancient Egyptian documents of the Hebrews as a special race. They would have been only one of many groups of Asiatics to have settled in Egypt, where they lived by working as masons, brickmakers, or livestock herders. The only record found in ancient Egyptian texts of anything resembling the Exodus of the Bible is a brief mention of a group of Asiatic immigrants being expelled from Egypt following an outbreak of leprosy, which they were suspected of being infected with.

Artwork from ancient Egypt shows a clear awareness of racial features and skin tone, but there is little evidence that darker skin was seen as a sign of inferiority - ancient Egypt does not seem to have discriminated against people based on their skin color. Egypt long recruited foreign mercenaries, which formed whole regiments and often supplied the pharaoh's household troops. Libyans, Greeks, Palestinians, Cretans, and Nubians, who had been recruited as policemen since Old Kingdom times, were all part of Egyptian armies. When they retired, mercenaries were often resettled by the State on Egyptian Crown land, and thus became a permanent part of the population. Some even rose to the rank of Pharaoh, such as the Nubian kings Thutmose III and Pepi II.

There were also numerous immigrants. Despite its low Niles and lean years, Egypt was the most reliable food-producing center of antiquity, and a famine refuge from the earliest times. From the 15th to the 12th centuries B.C.E., Egypt often harbored starving groups or issued them grain from her stores - Egypt was considered to be the "breadbasket" of the Roman world. There is a mid-15th century papyrus in Leningrad which mentions leaders from Megiddo, Taanach, Hazor, and Ashkelon appearing before the pharaoh to beg for supplies, just like Jacob's sons.

The Book of Gates credits Horus with creating all the races of mankind; the goddess Sekhmet "protected the Kas" of Nubians, Asians, and Libyans. Thoth was thought to be the inventor and protector of foreign languages and cultures. When the Assyrians triumphed in Palestine, there was the first of a series of Jewish migrations to Egypt, putting Exodus in reverse: the Egyptians seem to have received the Jews hospitably and regarded them as useful citizens. Some Jews became mercenary soldiers - there was a colony of them at Elephantine, another at Edfu. Some of their letters, written in Aramaic, survive. They show that the Jewish settlers remained in regular contact with the religious authorities in Jerusalem, but took on a local religious coloration also: "I bless you by Yahweh and by Khnum!"

Many archaeologists, including Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, and William G. Dever, regard the Exodus as a non-historical myth. The "Hebrew slave myth" was helped along by scholars such as Piazzi Smyth, who in 1864 declared that the perfect dimensions of the pyramids could only have been the work of the Israelites, under the divine command of God. Slave labor might pile up the pyramids but it cannot endow them with superlative artistry. The Great Pyramid was a triumph of the stonemason's art; it was also a miracle of labor-organization, and labor cannot be effectively organized over long periods if it is ill-treated.

Archaeologists now believe that the Pyramids of Giza were built by tens of thousands of skilled workers who lived in temporary villages near the pyramids and worked for a salary until the construction was completed, pointing to worker's cemeteries discovered in 1990 by archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner. The workers were paid from the Royal Treasury and supported by the State. Workmen with wives and children received higher payment, while single men were given less.

Remains of their meals have been found - thrice daily the workmen were fed on bread, beer, fish, salt, pork, leeks, onions, fowl, garlic, lentils, sesame oil, wine, and cattle under two years of age (prime beef, in other words.) Every month each worker received new clothes and sandals and a ration of grain that would feed as many as ten persons, which they could sell or send back to their families.

It is one of the ironies of history that we know more about the humble workmen who built the Pyramids and cut the Valley of the Kings than about the pharaohs for whom the tombs were made. These men lived together in dormitory-like barracks in their own small town, complete with bakeries and breweries, staffed with butchers and cooks. Teams of donkeys delivered fresh water daily. The workmen were given their own servants, or serfs. They carried water, washed clothes, cooked, gathered fuel, and acted as messengers for the workmen. The workman's village was also home to sheep, goats, swine, and cattle, as well as domestic dogs and cats.

The workers, all healthy young men, were conscripted from villages or farmlands by scribes sent out by the pharaoh, and worked for a fixed period of time, the usual being a single season. The workers were exempt from paying taxes for that year, and upon their death a tomb was provided for them, a luxury that usually only the wealthy could afford.

Contrary to popular belief, the workmen led pleasant lives as members of the social elite, exempt from producing their own food, clothes, and tools (expensive copper tools were handed out each morning by the State, and returned at the end of the day). The men worked for eight days, resting on the ninth and tenth days (the ancient Egyptian week was ten days long). Each day they worked two shifts, each of four hours, with a lunch break at noon. They also had official holidays and religious festivals off.

These workers had their own unions and even a form of "worker's comp" if they were injured. Workmen were not driven too hard - they were easily exempted from work because of an illness, such as eye disease, or an accident, such as the sting of a scorpion, or just because of weakness. Sick workers were attended to by a doctor who was attached to the necropolis workmen. Scribes recorded excuses for missed days: "nursing a family member, attending a funeral, attending wife in childbirth, getting drunk, attending to household repairs, quarreling with one's wife!" An inscription states, "His Majesty desires that no one should be compelled to the task, but that each would work to his own satisfaction." One of the maximums of Ptahhotep says: "Be merry all your life. Do no more than you are ordered to do, nor shorten the time according to leisure. It is hateful to the spirit to be robbed of the time for merriment."

These workers, who also dug canals and built temples and other monuments, were not slaves but peasant farmers hired during their "off-season," when their fields were flooded by the annual inundation of the Nile. Building the Pyramids and other monuments brought not only much-need income, but prestige and a special status. The "men of the tomb," by the very nature of their work, interacted with the greatest men in the kingdom. The //Tjaty// (vizier), responsible for the work on the tomb of the pharaoh, regularly spoke with them.

To be chosen as one of these workmen was very desirable, and competition was intense. Fathers sought to persuade scribes to appoint their sons to be chosen when they reached the right age, and tried flattery and bribery; presents (//baksheesh//), usually of wooden furniture, were given, and one father kept "a list of all the things which I gave to the Scribes of the Tombs to cause them to choose my son, they being my own and there being nobody's things among them."

Depending on their skill level, the men were divided into groups: //Mnyw// ("laborers"), //Iswt// ("carvers"), //Hrp// ("foremen"), //Imy-r// ("directors"), and //Rwdw-Shd// ("inspectors.") Graffiti indicates that at least some of these workers took pride in their work, calling their teams "Friends of Khufu," "Drunkards of Menkaure," and so on—names indicating allegiances to pharaohs. They could also strike if their wages were delayed - a major strike occurred during Year 13 of Ramses III (1158 B.C.E.) when grain and supplies were late.

All evidence indicates that labor in ancient Egypt was well-treated, and that if it was not it refused to work. It must also be remembered that these works were religious in inspiration and intention, and in Egypt it was a religious duty to treat labor well. Old Kingdom tomb inscriptions are often at pains to show that the labor used had been well rewarded. One boasts: "I made this tomb in return for the bread and beer I gave to all the manual workers who made it. I paid them well in linen and all the things they asked for and for which they returned thanks to the great god."

Another says: "They made this for bread, beer, ointment, linen, and qualities of barley and wheat." According to the Book of the Dead, the soul of the deceased had to be able to swear: "I have not compelled workmen to work harder than they are able."

In the New Kingdom, numerous pharaohs drew attention on their commemorative stela to the care they took of men who worked in their quarries, on their building projects, and on their stone and mineral expeditions. At the Gebel el-Ahmar quarry Ramses II set up a stela in which he described how he looked after the workmen, promising them that "each one of you will be paid monthly. I have filled the storehouse for you with everything - bread, meat, and cakes for your food, sandals and linen, and enough oil for you to anoint yourselves every ten days."

Sethos I visited the desert gold-mines himself, and reflected: "How weary is this waterless road! How can man walk when his throat is dry? Who will quench the traveler's thirst? The lowland is far away, the high desert is vast. The man that is thirsty on the hills laments. How can I order matters aright? I will find out the way to make them live and they will thank the gods in my name throughout the years to come. Future generations will glorify my Ka because my foresight makes me consider the needs of the traveler." Accordingly, Sethos I dug wells to below 200 feet in the desert: "In my reign the road that has been perilous since the beginning of time has been made kindly."

When a pyramid was finished, a small community of priests, workmen, and craftsmen remained behind to look after it for ever. The priests routinely prayed for and offered food to the pharaoh's Ka, and the craftsmen made any necessary repairs to the tomb. The remains of these settlements have been found, complete with farms and gardens. Paid for by royal endowments, these small communities were the prototypes of later Christian monasteries. The cults of the 4th Dynasty kings at Giza were still flourishing during the 18th Dynasty, well over 1,000 years later.

We must face the idea, difficult though it is for us to comprehend, that the gigantism of the pyramids was the product of religious fervor, rather than of royal egomania conscripting a servile multitude. The Egyptian nation did not regard these funeral works of their Horus-king as expressions of a private whim but as public works of compelling importance, which had a direct bearing on the future well-being of all. In this sense Egypt was a collectivist society of a very rigorous kind.

The pharaoh personified the collective. If he passed safely into eternity as a full-fledged god, then the immortal status of his entire people - serving him in the next world as they had served him in this - was also guaranteed. It was therefore vital to all that the funerary arrangements of their Horus should be on the most ambitious scale and satisfy any possible celestial requirements. Tombs of the pharaohs they may be, but we should also see the pyramids as collective cenotaphs of the people.

Originally the Great Pyramid of Giza was once covered with a casing of limestone as white as snow that formed a smooth outer surface, which was said to be blinding to the eye in the sunlight. The casings of the other two pyramids were of red and black granite. What is seen of the pyramids today is merely the underlying core structure. Massive earthquakes badly damaged the casing, and much of this stone was plundered by Muslims in order to build fortress and monuments such as the Mosque of Mohammad Ali in nearby Cairo. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures to this day.

Cumulatively, the worst damage by far of Egyptian temples and pyramids was inflicted by generation after generation of modern villagers, who stole millions of limestone blocks - painted reliefs and all - for burning in the limepits, and who consumed the ancient mud-brick palaces for agricultural fertilizer. This was also how enormous monuments like the Labyrinth of Ammenemes III, which astonished the ancients and was considered to be a rival to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, literally vanished from the face of the earth.


 * Modern Influence:**

The Great Pyramid of Giza is revered as a symbol of long-lasting durability and mystery, and is featured on the back of the American one dollar bill for this reason.

Arab folklore claims that the Giza Pyramid is haunted by a naked woman vampire.

Biblical folklore, in addition to claiming that the pyramids were built by Hebrew slaves, also records that the pyramids were used as the "granaries of Joseph." Of course, the pyramids are not hollow; they are nearly solid - each contains a pharaoh's tomb and cramped, narrow building shafts - a sacred tomb for a dead king, not a place to store grain.

Egyptian Symbols