“Kingdoms are built on knowledge and wealth; no kingdom was built on ignorance and poverty”. The famous saying of the renowned Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawki best describes why the Ancient Egyptian civilization flourished and lasted for so long.
In fact, just a few hundred years after the unification under King Narmer in 3000 BC, Egypt had attained a very high level of knowledge in many areas of science and art. Look at the statue of Chephren in the Egyptian museum and you’ll notice the degree of sophistication, whether in the sculpting skills using black diorite, or in the proportions or the details of its anatomy.
Or look at the statuettes of Mycerinus and you will see the perfection of proportions and settings between him and the surrounding deities. But above all and what is more miraculous is the construction of the Great Pyramid by Cheops, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one that still exists.
Each side of this pyramid is 231m long and its height is 144m. From each corner to the top measures 185m.It took about 2.3 million blocks to build, with each of the blocks weighing around 2.5 tons, so the whole pyramid weighs 6 million tons.
The pyramid contains three main chambers: the King’s Chamber, the Queen’s Chamber and the Underground Chamber. The King’s and Queen chambers are connected to the main entrance by the ascending passage while The Underground Chamber is connected to the main entrance by a descending passage. The base of the pyramid is a perfect square and the pyramidal shape is perfect too. Another amazing thing is that the alignment of the descending passage does not deviate by more than quarter of an inch over a length of 350 feet.
In terms of astronomy, the pyramid is aligned with great precision to the four cardinal points. Also, the descending passage was aligned with the polar star (at the time it was built).
It is difficult to erect high-rise buildings even today, without making a thorough study of the soil mechanics. So imagine what it must have been like for a pyramid weighing 6 million tons! In any case, how could builders have raised a block of stone weighing 2.5 tons to a height of 150m without using the cranes that we have today? And how about raising a block of granite weighing an incredible 80 tons like that in the ceiling of the King’s Chamber?
The builders must have known all about the laws of buoyancy in order to bring an 80 ton block of granite all the way from Aswan to Giza by ship. Their management skill must also have been excellent, as it must have taken 20,000 workers 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. I think you agree with me that the knowledge possessed by the Ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago was truly awe-inspiring.
