GREAT PYRAMID

• The Great Pyramid was built for the Pharaoh Khufu (2589-2566BC - 4th Dynasty)
• Khufu was the son of Sneferu.
• The pyramid is situated at Giza, near Cairo.
• It is regarded as a 'true pyramid' with smooth sides, the steps having been covered with a limestone casing.
• It has an angle just short of 52 degrees.
• It is the most popular attraction in Egypt.
• It is built mostly of limestone.
• Its original height was 146.6m. Its present height is 138.75m.
• Its base is 230 metres square.
• Estimated volume = 2,521,000 cu m.
• The pyramid contains a staggering 2.3 million blocks of stone.
• Its estimated weight is 6.5 million tonnes.
• The average weight of each stone was 2.5 tonnes.
• But some weigh as much as 50 tonnes!
• The stones were pulled on wooden sledges.
• It's thought that over 4000 skilled stone masons worked on the pyramid.
• And possibly 100,000 farmers joined them during the inundation period. (Annual flooding) As reported by the Greek historian, Herodotus.
• However, the Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie thought a more realistic number would have been between five and six thousand. (Who knows?)
• The inundation period lasted for three months
• Living quarters and workshops had to be specially built for the men and women.
• The workers were paid with food and drink rations.
• Approximately 100,000 bundles of onions and 200,000 loaves of bread were supplied daily to feed the workers three times a day.
• The workers received one day off in ten.
• Finest limestone, brought from the quarries at Tura, was used for the outer casing that filled in the steps of the pyramid.
• This limestone was ferried across the Nile from the East Bank.
• The fine limestone was stolen from the pyramid and used to build parts of Cairo.
• The burial chamber and inner passages are made of granite.
• The burial chamber ceiling consists of nine slabs of granite with a combined weight of approximately 400 tonnes.
• This granite was shipped from quarries at Aswan, some 800 kilometers away. (500 miles)
• The pyramid took over 20 years to complete (As reported by Herodotus)
• Herodotus also tells us that prior to this, it took ten years to prepare the ground, waterways, underground chambers, ramps etc.
• The Great Pyramid is arguably the most accomplished engineering feat of the Ancient World.
• Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie conducted an extensive survey of the pyramid site in 1881
• The Greeks called Khufu; 'Cheops'
• The Great Pyramid is named, 'Khufu belongs to the Horizon'