Great Pyramids of Giza Facts and History

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Why did the Ancient Egyptians build the Pyramids?

One of the most popular theories is that, the Ancient Egyptians believed that if the body of the Pharaoh is mummified after his death, he could live forever. The pyramids were building like tombs and designed to protect the buried body of the Pharaoh and his belongings.

How pyramids can help us to understand Ancient Egyptians life?

Ancient Egyptians were buried with their belongings and the tomb walls were painted with scenes from the their personal life. We can learn about how the Egyptians lived by looking at the objects preserved in the pyramids. They are stored for Pharaoh afterlife. We can also learn many things about the Ancient Egyptians live from the hieroglyphs on the pyramids walls. By examining the artifacts in the pyramids and tombs, we are able to understand many things about the life in Ancient Egypt.

What is the name of the most famous pyramid?

The Great Pyramid is the largest and the most famous of all pyramids in Giza. It was built for 20 years for the Pharaoh Khuf. Today Khuf Pyramid is rising in sky with its over 140 meters high.

The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the River Nile spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world’s largest river deltas and it covers 230 km of Mediterranean coastline. Nile Delta is both very fertile agricultural region and densely populated area.

The shape resembles a lotus flower when seen from above, and during the fall, the river is red with lotus flowers. The Lower Nile (North) and the Upper Nile (South) have plants that grow in abundance in the areas. The Lower Nile plant is the Egyptian lotus, and the Upper Nile plant is the papyrus.

The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo and covers the last 160 kilometers of Nile’s 5600 kilometers course. In times of the pharaohs, this area was Lower Egypt. According to Pliny the Elder, upon reaching the delta the Nile split into seven branches. Nowadays, silting and changing relief has reduced the branches to only two.

The first interesting fact associated with the pyramids of Giza, is their unique position on the ground. All three pyramids are oriented almost exactly on the four cardinal directions. Deviation of the Great Pyramid from a North is 2’28 “, South – 1’58″, East – 5’30 “and West – 2’30″. Corners of the base are almost perfect right angles. The odds that have happened by chance is less absurd. On the other hand we know that Egyptians are not known then the compass. The question arises when and who built the pyramids, and for what purpose.

Another interesting fact in the position of the pyramids is that if we continue the diagonals of the base of the Great Pyramid, they just enclose the Nile delta, as illustrated by the satellite image above. Egyptians did not have methods with which to build the pyramid exactly this way.

Perhaps the most inexplicable “coincidence” of all was discovered by Charles Piazza Smyth (1819-1900) who was a respected scientist in Scotland, dealing with astronomy. In his book “Legacy of the Great Pyramid” (1877) published given below illustrations, explaining that the pyramid lies 31 degrees east and latitude 30 degrees north latitude. 31st meridian is the longest terrestrial meridian, and 30th parallel – the longest terrestrial latitude. They intersect in a single place and this place is near the Giza plateau. It follows that the pyramids lie exactly in the center of the entire land mass of the world and divide it into four equal parts! Maybe this is coincidence???

Video about Giza pyramids