Great Pyramid of Khufu
By Spooky | December 21, 2007
The Great Pyramid (the Pyramid of Khufu) at Gizeh, Egypt, demonstrates some puzzling questions about its placement and alignment. The Pyramid lies in the centre of gravity of the continents. It also lies in the exact centre of all the land area of the world, dividing the earth’s land mass into approximately equal quarters.
Location
The Great Pyramid is situated on a unique point on the Earth. Its north-south axis is aligned along a meridian 31 degrees east of Greenwich. This meridian has the largest total landmass of any other meridian. Even more surprising is the east-west parallel (30 degrees north), which is also has the longest land parallel. Is this coincidence, or did the Egyptians possess a previously unheard of knowledge into the whole world?
Construction
The Great Pyramid is constructed using an estimated 2,300,000 blocks of limestone and granite, with the average block weighing 2.5 tons and none weighing less than 2 tons. The large blocks used in the ceiling of the King’s Chamber weigh in excess of 9 tonnes.
The Pyramid is built upon a giant platform over 54,000 square metres, that is constructed from limestone blocks, and in an official survey by the Egyptian Government, it was found that it was less than half an inch from being perfectly level. The sides are at almost perfect right angles and the difference in length between the longest (756.08 ft) and shortest edge (755.43 ft) is 7 inches. This represents an incredible degree of accuracy in the design and construction plans of the Pyramid, this level of accuracy only recently achievable in the modern world.
Methods
One of the largest mysteries surrounding the Pyramids is the method to their construction. Estimates vary on the size of the workforce required, somewhere between 30,000 and 300,000 and recent evidence has shown that the vast majority of workers were paid. This would indicate highly developed accounting system and hierarchical organization. Other sources show that the workforce was made of slave labour.
How did the Egyptians transport such large blocks of stone to the top of the Pyramid, or even on top of the previous block? Various strategies have been suggested, including a long strait ramp, progressively getting longer and narrower as height increased, or zig-zag ramps up one face of the pyramid, or ramps that wrap around the pyramid.
Also consider that summer temperatures in Egypt are 95-107F. How physiologically possible would it be to do this kind of hard manual labor for more than an hour in just a loin cloth under a boiling sun at that temperature? Could any pyramid work even be carried out after 11AM? Was the pyramid constructed at night?
A more recent, controversial theory is that the blocks were “cast” in-situe using limestone concrete. In this theory proposed by Joseph Davidovits, a materials scientist, soft limestone with a high kaolinite content was quarried in the wadi on the south of the Giza Plateau. The limestone was then dissolved in large, Nile-fed pools until it became watery slurry. Lime and natron was mixed in. The pools were then left to evaporate, leaving behind a moist, clay-like mixture. This wet “concrete” would be carried to the construction site where it would be packed into reusable wooden moulds and in a few days would undergo a chemical reaction similar to the ’setting’ of cement. Proof-of-concept tests using similar compounds were carried out at a geopolymer institute in northern France and it was found that a crew of ten, working with simple hand tools, could build a structure of fourteen, 1.3- to 4.5-ton blocks in a couple of days.
The Golden Ratio
A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the less. Euclid
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is approximately 1.6180.
Assuming that the height of the GP = 146.515m, and base = 230.363m, and using simple math we find that half of the base is 115.182m and the “slant height” is 186.369m
Dividing the “slant height” (186.369m) by “half base” (115.182m) gives = 1.6180, which is practically equal to the golden ration!
[world mysteries]
Concave Faces
One very unusual feature of the Great Pyramid is a concavity of the core that makes the monument an eight-sided figure, rather than four-sided like every other Egyptian pyramid. This new feature of the pyramid was not observed before 1940 as it can only be seen from the air and only under certain lighting conditions. The reason behind this concavity is unknown, as is its construction.
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Topics: Africa |
