Egypt; A Land of Many Wonders
Anthony Garone
From the gentle wandering of the blue Nile, to the ancient stones that ignite our imagination, Egypt is indeed a land of many wonders. It fills us with awe, inspiration, and silent reverence for its ancient monuments.
The information on this page is the result of many years of research. I am currently pursuing a degree in Anthropology to fulfill my passion for ancient cultures. Since I was a young boy, I have been fascinated with ancient peoples - they enthrall us with their incredible monuments, wonderful culture and fascinating history. But more than that, the voice of the ancients calls to our own existence, and reminds us of how precious we are in the vast distances of the endless cosmos.
A Great History
The history of Egypt is broken out into three basic "kingdoms", and eight periods. Most of the Pyramid building is believed to have occurred in the Old Kingdom times in less than one hundred years.
Pre-dynastic Period - 7000 BC - 3100 BC
Archaic Period - 3100 BC - 2700 BC
Old Kingdom - 2600 BC - 2200 BC
First Intermediate Period - 2200 BC - 2040 BC
Middle Kingdom - 2040 BC - 1640 BC
Second Intermediate Period - 1640 BC - 1550 BC
New Kingdom - 1550 BC - 1070 BC
Third Intermediate Period - 1070 BC - 712 BC
Late Period - 712 BC - 332 BC
Ptolemaic (Greek) Period - 332 BC - 30 BC
Roman Period - 30 BC - 395 AD
The Egyptian creation story and the gods
The Egyptian story of creation will also help familiarize you with the major gods of their pantheon. The Egyptian pantheon is complex and extensive varying from city to city, with each city having their own representative god at times. Here is a brief summary:
In the beginning, there was the ocean. Then Ra, the sun, emerged from a primordial mound that emerged from the surface of the water. Ra brought forth four children, the gods Shu and Geb and the goddesses Tefnut (pronounced "tefnoot") and Nut (pronounced "noot").
Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere. They stood on Geb, who became the earth, and raised up Nut, who became the sky. Ra however, remained the head of the pantheon. Geb and Nut later had two sons, Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. It is these four gods who are the focal point of this story.
Osiris succeeded Ra as king of the earth, helped by Isis, his sister/wife. Set, however, was jealous of his brother and created a beautiful coffin that would only fit the body of Osiris. Enticing Osiris to "try it out", Set sealed the coffin with Osiris still inside, and sunk it into the Nile, drowning him.
The coffin drifted down the Nile and eventually became entangled in the roots of an great tree. Isis searched throughout Egypt for the body of Osiris, and when she found his coffin she embalmed her husband's body with the help of the god Anubis and resurrected him.
Seth found out and cut Osiris into many pieces and scattered his remains throughout Egypt. Isis somehow managed to gather the pieces of her husband Osiris, and after reassembling them, managed to impregnate herself with a phallus "carved out of wood" (a crucial missing piece of Osiris).
Isis became pregnant with Horus, and hid him in the desert from Set. Set eventually found out and transformed himself into a scorpion, stinging the infant Horus, but Isis went to Thoth (the god of knowledge and wisdom), who healed the child. Eventually, Horus fought his uncle Seth in a fierce battle "in the skies" above Egypt, and lost an eye - but Seth lost his testicles and the right to rule lower Egypt was given to Horus. This story sound familiar? The "Lion King" anyone? Okay, okay - so no one lost their eyes or testicles - but the story is strikingly similar!
This Egyptian pantheon varied from city to city and era to era, and depending on the needs of the people, the high priests modified not only the roles of the gods, but combined them and mixed and matched the names. Not surprisingly, it is a very complicated pantheon.
The photo above is a stone relief of the falcon headed god Horus, son of Isis and Osiris.
This relief, shows the goddess Maat kneeling with her wings extended in a pose of protection of paying homage. Maat was the goddess of truth and justice who personified cosmic order and harmony as established by the creator god at the beginning of time. Her symbol was an ostrich feather. The seated image of Maat was held in pharaoh's hand like a doll and was presented as an offering to the gods. This meant that the king was the representative of divine order since Maat was seen as legitimizing their authority to govern and to uphold the laws of the universe which she embodies. Judges were regarded as priests of Maat. In the hall of judgment at the weighing of the heart, the heart of the deceased was placed on the scales of justice, balanced against the feather of Maat, symbol of justice. The other seated deity is Hathor .
The Pharaohs
Life in Egypt centered around Pharaoh. The people of Egypt worshipped Pharaoh as god, and he was the living likeness of Horus, heir to the throne of Osiris. When he died, he returned to the celestial heavens to join Osiris as a star in the heavenly duat. The Egyptians noticed that the stars concentrated around the north star (currently Polaris) stayed fixed in their relation to the other stars in the heavens. They referred to theses stars as the "Imperishables", the Egyptians believed that here is where Pharaoh went to rest.
Here are some excerpts from the Pyramid texts, which were found inscribed on the wall of the pyramid of Pepi I at Saqqara:
"The king is a star"...Pyramid texts 1583
"Lo the king arises as this star which is on the underside of the sky"...Pyramid texts 347
This implies that at his physical death, Pharaoh undergoes a transformation. His "Ka" or spirit, ascends to the heavens to become a star. Recent research (although highly speculative but interesting) suggests that it is in the constellation of Orion (which represents Osiris) that Pharaohs KA resides after death.
The constellation of Orion, visible in the winter skies.
Ramses, Tothmoses, Seti, Tutankhamun, Khufu, Khafra, are some of the names that come to mind when one thinks of the Pharaohs who ruled Egypt. We are to believe that they were fierce warriors, mighty hunters and virile lovers - Ramses is said to have produced an offspring of one hundred children - Khafra's image adorns the Sphinx - Seti killed one hundred lions in one day. These conquests were perpetuated by wall reliefs and sculpture; how much of this is truth is questionable to some extent.
Yet one of the most fascinating was the Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep/Amenophis IV, Dynasty 18). Akhenaten ruled during the "New Kingdom" era, circa 1550 BC. What makes this Pharaoh so intriguing was his apparent break with long held Egyptian tradition.
One of the more ground breaking undertakings Akhenaten attempted was doing away with traditional polytheism in favor of monotheism - more specifically - the worship of one god, the Aten (sun disk). Although the concept of the Aten did not originate with Akhenaten (it was part of a solar cult from the ancient city of Heliopolis) Monotheism was not a comfortable concept to the polytheistic society of Egypt. Scholars suggest that this may have been a political move against the growing might of the Amun-Re priesthood, which by the 18th dynasty had become all powerful, threatening pharaohs ultimate power.
Egypt was a culture thousands of years old with traditions and beliefs that stretched back generations. The cult of the god Amun-Re was extremely popular, as the god was credited with the prosperous 18th dynasty, and its incredible expansion north and south. Nevertheless, Pharaoh Akhenaten symbolically did away with this pantheon and Amun-Re with the sweep of his hand.
This was not a popular move and no one really knows if the public truly embraced worship of the Aten and the elimination of Amun-Re. In the homes of common Egyptians in Akhenaten’s city of Akhetaten (the horizon of Aten), archaeologists have found statues of Amun-Re, Hathor and Horus alluding to the inability of the people of Egypt to suddenly forget about their beloved pantheon.
Akhenaten became known as the heretic king, went so far as to move the center of worship from Thebes to Amarna. This was a less popular move, because there was a social order to Egyptian society that included priests, scribes and servants that were basically "out of a job" with this new religion and the relocation of its center of worship. It is believed that this angered the scribes and priests of Amun-Re - and some time after Akhenaten's death much of his city of Akhetaton (in Amarna) was abandoned and then torn down and unfortunately, very little remains today.
In addition to these radical changes, the artwork Akhenaten chose to display his physique was bizzarre. The wall reliefs, statues and paintings traditionally portrayed Pharaoh in top physical form hunting lions and smiting his enemies - yet Akhenaten chose to show himself as gentle and slightly corpulent, playing with his children and seated with his queen Nefertiti as his equal. In some statues he is depicted having no genitalia at all.
This new image displayed Akhenaten as morosely out of proportion prompting Egyptologists to suggest that Akhenaten fell victim to Froehlich's Syndrome. One of the symptoms of this disease is impotence, and it is believed that Akhenaten fathered six children with Nefertiti, eliminating this hypothesis. It was then suggested (and still argued by Egyptologists) that Akhenaten was afflicted with Marfan's Syndrome; a disease causing elongation of the fingers, toes and neck in addition to bodily fat distribution similar to that of a female.
It is also likely Akhenaten was influential in changing the artistic portrayal of Pharaoh, reflecting hybrid man/woman images based on the belief that the creator god was both male and female. Whatever the reason Akhenaten was truly unique in his appearance and his philosophy.
A bust of Akhenaten
A bust of Nefertiti, one of Akhenaten's wives
Tutankhamun - the boy wonder
There is speculation over the parentage of Tutankhamun. Was he the son of Amenhotep III or Tuthmosis IV (Akhenaten)? Either way you may not recognize his original name. It was Tutankhaten. This young Pharaoh eventually changed his name to Tutankhamun after Akhenaten's death, and in a very popular move, reverted to the original Egyptian pantheon. So now you see where Akhenaten fits in. Pretty cool eh?
And so Osiris, Horus and Isis were once again worshipped in the temples and households of Egypt.
The Pyramids
There are many Pyramids in Egypt (close to 90), however the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafra and the smaller Pyramid of Mynkhara are located in Cairo on the Giza plateau. We believe that these structures were built as tombs for the Pharaohs based on the progression from older mastabas (Egyptian word describing a low flat tomb and meaning "bench"), pyramids at Sakkara, Meidum and later structures which include the Pyramid Texts.
Early prototypes if you will, were mastabas stacked one on top of another representing a stairway to heaven, so to speak.
Specifications
For the sake of brevity, we will focus on the specifications of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. This pyramid is the largest of the the group, although Khafre's pyramid seems taller because it stands on higher ground. It is four hundred and fifty feet tall (about the height of a forty story building) and covers an area equivalent to thirteen football fields. Incredibly the pyramid is less the three-quarters of an inch from being completely level .
The Great Pyramid was constructed during the 4th dynasty in the reign of Pharaoh Khufu circa 2,500 BC (almost 4,000 years ago!) in the era known as the "Old Kingdom" (see above chart for clarification). This colossus is composed primarily of limestone blocks with the inner chambers consisting of polished red granite. The individual stones average two tons bringing the weight of the Great Pyramid to 6.18 million tons!.
Originally, this pyramid was covered by an outer polished limestone casing with joints so precise that one could scarcely see the mortar between the stones. The slope of this pyramid is 52 degrees, and anyone who has scaled the pyramid will tell you what a harrowing experience it is due to its sharp incline.
Some time around 800 AD there was an earthquake in Cairo, which dislodged the outer casing stones. The volume of casing stones was such that they were used to build mosques in the city of Cairo. So what remains as the exterior to the great pyramid is in actuality the inner layer of the pyramid. A few casing stones remain at the bottom of the monument, and it is because of these stones Egyptologists were able to determine the original slope. The top or "capstone" of the pyramid is "missing". We're talking about a good thirty feet or so and legend has it that it was solid gold or gold plated (although there is little to no evidence to support this).
Chambers and Passageways
There are two main "chambers" within the bowels of the Great Pyramid. The Queen's chamber is given this nomenclature because of it's pitched ceiling (Egyptian queens were buried in tombs of this design). The "King's chamber" is given its name because of its level ceiling. The graphic below is an over simplified version of the interior of the Great Pyramid:
As you can see from this diagram, there are quite a few passageways and chambers throughout the pyramid. All passages do not permit a human being to stand (with the exception of the Grand Gallery - more on that later), and are quite long. To navigate this monument, one must traverse these passages either by crawling or bending at the waist and knees. Originally, the ascending passage, which is accessed via the ceiling of the descending passage, was blocked by three granite plugs in succession weighing several tons each.
The first "modern day" explorer of the Great Pyramid, Caliph Al Mamun (circa 813 AD), tunneled around these granite plugs to reach the other side of the ascending passage. He found the passages and chambers so filled with bat dung - and bats with six foot wing spans - as to prevent passage in some cases until burning sulphur to clear them.
To enter the Great Pyramid, one must first crawl down the descending passage. It is 345 feet long, 3 feet 5 inches wide and 3 feet 11.5 inches high. However, one not need go the entire length of the passage, because about halfway down is an overhead entrance to the ascending passage, which leads to the upper chambers of the pyramid.
The ascending passage (shown below), leads up to the Grand Gallery, Queen's chamber and King's chamber. It is 120 feet long, 3.5 feet high and 3.5 feet wide. Certainly, one would find it difficult at best to maneuver a stone sarcophagus weighing several tons through this cramped passageway. We can only assume that the sarcophagus was installed during construction of the King's Chamber.
Among the many remarkable features of this monument is a chamber known as the "Grand Gallery". Its height of 28 feet is dizzying due to its unique "corbelled roof". As you can see from the photograph below, the walls close in as you approach the ceiling of this gallery. To the right and left of the railing, you can just about see slotted holes in the stone. Their purpose remains a mystery. The Grand Gallery is 157 feet long, with a 26 degree slope. The hand rails you see in this photograph were added recently, to prevent visitors from slipping.
At last we arrive at the King's chamber, but first a little more information for you to digest...
It is postulated that the method employed in construction of the great pyramid was thousands of slaves hauling limestone blocks (weighing several tons each) up tremendous ramps to be put into place with great precision which in itself is a remarkable accomplishment. Recent evidence and scholarship suggests that it was not slaves who built the pyramids, but Egyptian farmers and laborers during the seasonal flooding of the Nile river.
Egyptologists have determined that the pyramids were the final resting place of Pharaoh, where his mummy would be surrounded by its possessions, and his journey to join Osiris in the afterlife would commence.
The King's Chamber houses a granite sarcophagus (carved from a single block of stone - an engineering marvel in itself!) but unlike many Egyptian tombs, the walls of the King's chamber are devoid of paintings and reliefs of the afterlife. Many people feel this is an indication that someone else had built the pyramids. However the practice of adorning the walls of the interior of the pyramid began with the 5th Dynasty pyramid of King Unas nearly 200 years after construction of the Great Pyramid. These were known as the Pyramid Texts, and consisted of spells and prayers to guide Pharaoh through the afterlife.
Air shafts for a dead king?
Rising at various angles from the King's chamber are two shafts on the north and south side. They tunnel through the masonry of the pyramid all the way to the outside. The dimension of these shafts are eight inches by eight inches. The purpose of these shafts inside the Great Pyramid is somewhat of a mystery. There are many theories (of course), some say that they point to various stars at a specific era in history, others say they are a passageway for the soul or "KA" of the dead king - but no one really knows for sure.
There are shafts on the east and west sides of the "Queen's" chamber as well, and back in the 1990s they were explored using a small robot. A brilliant German engineer named Rudolph Gantenbrink came up with the idea because unlike the shafts in the "Kings" chamber, these shafts go to a certain distance and then make radical 45 degree turns seemingly to nowhere - that is until Gantenbrink's robot named "Upuaut 2" took its journey.
Here is a frontal view of Upuaut (an Egyptian concept meaning "opening of the ways"), with its camera in the center and lights to navigate the dark passageways. Note the "traction carriages" at the top and bottom of Upuaut. This allows the robot to "grip" the upper and lower walls of the passageways. There is a cable at the back of the robot that permitted Gantenbrink to view what was ahead of Upuaut 2 as it slowly made its way up these mysterious "air shafts" in the "Queen's" chamber. This is what it looked like to little Upuaut 2:
Gantenbrink had made several prototypes of the robot, and several experimental attempts but finally he was ready to send Upuaut 2 into the tiny air shafts of the Queen's chamber. After many failed attempts and problems (that you can read about at his incredible site www.cheops.org ), Upuaut made its way up the shaft, and at 150 feet, it encounters this:
Those two objects you see hanging from the "stone portcullis" are believed to be copper "handles". So at approximately 150 feet deep inside the bowels of the Great Pyramid, inside an 8 inch by 8 inch shaft - where no human can possibly "fit" - Gantenbrink's incredible robot finds a portcullis. This is similar to the three granite plugs blocking the ascending passage. Unfortunately for Gantenbrink, his research was halted by the Egyptian authorities because of political reasons.
So we may never know what lies behind this "door". Gantenbrink had even offered to mount a fiber optic camera on Upuaut 2 and train Egyptian technicians to control the robot, but he was declined. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see a tiny "space" in the lower right corner of the portcullis or possibly some kind of "door" - just enough space to slide a fiber optic camera in to see what's behind this "door" - where's Monty Hall when we need him?
Addendum: Another Robot
In a recent televised special, Zahi Hawass, the director of Antiquities of the Giza Plateau sent another robot into the southern "air shaft" of the Queen's Chamber (the same passage Gantenbrink's robot had traversed). This time the robot came prepared with a drill and a fiber optic camera:
After drilling the hole into the portcullis/door in the shaft, this is what the camera displayed:
Now this was seen as a "disappointment" for most viewers because they were hoping for a chamber filled with precious antiquities. However provided further proof that the ancient Egyptians did indeed build this incredible monument.
The crude chisel marks you see carved into this blocking stone are a common occurrence all over the Giza plateau. They are chisel marks made by very crude copper tools. For me this was an eye-opener - if the pyramids were constructed by a "higher civilization" with incredible technology, why would they use crude chisels and implements to construct this monument?
With further study it is evident that there was a logical progression of construction methods used on older pyramids (the "bent" pyramid of Meidum etc.).
Case in point, the step pyramid of King Djoser, comprised of mastabas stacked one on top of the other using mud brick for construction. This and several pyramids in succession were designed by the brilliant Imhotep.
The pyramid at Meidum displays the first known attempt at the construction of a "true" pyramid. Before this pyramid was built, preceding pyramids were "step" pyramids like King Djoser (shown above)
It is believed that midway through construction of the "bent" pyramid of Dashur, the slope needed to be changed due to failure of structural integrity.
In conclusion...
The pyramids stand as marvels of ancient engineering from a culture that did not possess the wheel or crane. Yet they stand before us begging an answer. How did the Egyptians build the Great Pyramid?
No one knows for sure - and there are many theories as to how they were built and what their purpose might be beyond traditional explanations. We do know that the Egyptians built them due to the construction of earlier pyramids that were developmental and their symbolic representation of the suns rays.
The most promising theory at this time is a spiraling ramp constructed surrounding the pyramid as it was built.
Some people believe these monuments were the product of a long lost civilization and admittedly I myself used to subscribe to this theory - but after doing careful research I have determined that this is speculation based on fanciful and creative thinking. However, that does not make these myriad theories any less interesting and in some ways, inspiring. What is truly inspiring is the amazing people of Egypt and the incredible legacy they have left us.