The Great Pyramid Of Egypt

The Mystery Beyond The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza (called the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza  Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu(Cheops in Greek) over an approximately 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 metres (480.6 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the longest period of time ever held for such a record. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only pyramid in Egypt known to contain both ascending and descending passages. The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

History and Description

 

It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian  pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20 year period. Khufu's viser, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, 146.5 metres (480.6 ft) but with erosion and absence of its pyramidios, its present height is 138.8 metres (455.4 ft). Each base side was 440 royal cubits, 230.4 metres (755.9 ft) long. A royal cubit measures 0.524 metres.The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres.Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. Similarly, since it consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving an average of more than 12 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night. The first quasi-precision measurements of the pyramid were done by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetres wide (1/50th of an inch).It should be noted, however, that Dr. Petrie did admit his measurements were calculated, not actually viewed, due to the tons of debris making direct viewing of the pyramid base impossible. Direct viewing of the base did eventually occur, when Professor Borchardt of the German Institute of Egyptian Archeology had the pyramid base cleared, for the James Cole survey of 1925, "Determination of the Exact Size and Orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza, SURVEY of EGYPT Paper #39."

Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th century steriopticon card  photo

The pyramid remained the tallst man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, unsurpassed until the 160-metre-tall spire of Li\ncoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm.The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc) based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 sreconds of arc.The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petrie's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 cubits high by 440 cubits long at each of the four sides of its base. The ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the well-known approximation of π as 22/7). Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion. Verner wrote, "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it".Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh concluded: "but these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builder's design".Others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. The creation of the pyramid slope may instead be based on the run-length of the base side of a right triangle into a constant 1 RC (royal cubit) rise (the seqed).

Materials

The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks with most believed to have been transported from nearby quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing was quarried across the river. The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported from Aswan, more than 500 miles away. Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, causing the rock to crack. Once they were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid. It is estimated that 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite (imported from Aswan), and 500,000 tons of mortar were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.

Casing Stones

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white "casing stones" – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. These were carefully cut to what is approximately a face slope with a seked of 5½ palms to give the required dimensions. Visibly, all that remains is the underlying stepped core structure seen today. In AD 1300, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ around the base of the Great Pyramid, and display the same workmanship and precision as has been reported for centuries. Petrie also found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring 193 centimetres ± 25 centimetres. He suggested a redetermination of north was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the casing was built with a different orientation. Petrie related the precision of the casing stones as to being "equal to opticians' work of the present day, but on a scale of acres" and "to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the joints seems almost impossible"^. It has been suggested it was the mortar (Petrie's "cement") that made this seemingly impossible task possible, providing a level bed which enabled the masons to set the stones exactly.

Construction Theories

 

Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques.Many disagree on whether the blocks were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby worker's camps associated with construction at Giza suggest it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers. Verner posited that the labor was organized into a hierachy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.

One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1 to 1 scale. He writes that "such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other means."He also argues for a 14 year time span for its construction.

Interior          

The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is 17 metres (56 ft) vertically above ground level and 7.29 metres (23.9 ft) east of the center line of the pyramid. From this original entrance there is a Descending Passage .96 metres (3.1 ft) high and 1.04 metres (3.4 ft) wide which goes down at an angle of 26° 31'23" through the masonry of the pyramid and then into the bedrock beneath it. After 105.23 metres (345.2 ft) the passage becomes level and continues for an additional 8.84 metres (29.0 ft) to the lower Chamber, which appears not to have been finished. There is a continuation of the horizontal passage in the south wall of the lower chamber; there is also a pit dug in the floor of the chamber. Some Egyptologists suggest this Lower Chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but Pharaoh Khufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid.

At 28.2 metres (93 ft) from the entrance is a square hole in the roof of the Descending Passage. Originally concealed with a slab of stone, this is the beginning of the Ascending Passage. The Ascending Passage is 39.3 metres (129 ft) long, as wide and high as the Descending Passage and slopes up at almost precisely the same angle. The lower end of the Ascending Passage is closed by three huge blocks of granite, each about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long. At the start of the Grand Gallery on the right-hand side there is a hole cut in the wall (and now blocked by chicken wire). This is the start of a vertical shaft which follows an irregular path through the masonry of the pyramid to join the Descending Passage. Also at the start of the Grand Gallery there is a Horizontal Passage leading to the "Queen's Chamber". The passage is 1.1m (3'8") high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage is 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) high.

                      Entrance     

      Today tourists enter the Great Pyramid via the Robbers' Tunnel dug by workmen employed by Caliph al-Ma'mun around AD 820. The tunnel is cut straight through the masonry of the pyramid for approximately 27 metres (89 ft), then turns sharply left to encounter the blocking stones in the Ascending Passage. Unable to remove these stones, the workmen tunnelled up beside them through the softer limestone of the Pyramid until they reached the Ascending Passage. It is possible to enter the Descending Passage from this point, but access is usually forbidden.

                                              Pyramid                             Complex        

  The Great Pyramid is surrounded by a complex of several buildings including small pyramids. The Pyramid Temple, which stood on the east side of the pyramid and measured 52.2 metres (171 ft) north to south and 40 metres (130 ft) east to west, has almost entirely disappeared apart from the black basalt paving. There are only a few remnants of the causeway which linked the pyramid with the valley and the Valley Temple. The Valley Temple is buried beneath the village of Nazlet el-Samman; basalt paving and limestone walls have been found but the site has not been excavated. The basalt blocks show "clear evidence" of having been cut with some kind of saw with an estimated cutting blade 15 ft in length capable of cutting at a rate of 1 1/2 inches (40 mm) a minute.  John Romer suggests this "super saw" may have had copper teeth and weighed up to 300 lbs. He theorizes such a saw could have been attached to a wooden trestle and used in conjunction with possibly vegetable oil, cutting sand, or emery or pounded quartz to cut the blocks and would have required at least a dozen men to operate it. On the south side are the subsidiary pyramids, popularly known as Queens' Pyramids. Three remain standing to nearly full height but the fourth was so ruined that its existence was not suspected until the recent discovery of the first course of stones and the remains of the capstone. Hidden beneath the paving around the pyramid was the tomb of Queen Hetepheres, sister-wife of Sneferu and mother of Khufu. Discovered by accident by the Reisner expedition, the burial was intact, though the carefully sealed coffin proved to be empty.

                            Boats          

                                                                             

There are three boat-shaped pits around the pyramid, of a size and shape to have held complete boats, though so shallow that any superstructure, if there ever was one, must have been removed or disassembled. In May 1954, the Egyptian archaeologist Kamal el-Mallakh discovered a fourth pit, a long, narrow rectangle, still covered with slabs of stone weighing up to 15 tons. Inside were 1,224 pieces of wood, the longest 23 metres (75 ft) long, the shortest 10 centimetres (0.33 ft). These were entrusted to a native boat builder, Haj Ahmed Yusuf, who slowly and methodically worked out how the pieces fit together. The entire process, including conservation and straightening of the warped wood, took fourteen years. The result is a cedar-wood boat 43.6 metres (143 ft) long, its timbers held together by ropes, which is now currently housed in a special boat-shaped, air-conditioned museum beside the pyramid. During construction of this museum, which stands above the boat pit, a second sealed boat pit was discovered. It was deliberately left unopened in the hope that future excavation techniques will allow more information to be recovered.                                                                                      

                                                                         

               Looting    

                                         

Although succeeding pyramids were smaller, pyramid building continued until the end of the Middle Kingdom. However, as authors Briar and Hobbs claim, "all the pyramids were robbed" by the New Kingdom, when the construction of royal tombs in a desert valley, now known as the Valley of the Kings, began.Joyce Tyldesley states that the Great Pyramid itself "is known to have been opened and emptied by the Middle Kingdom", before the Arab caliph Abdullah al-Mamun entered the pyramid around AD 820. I. E. S. Edwards discusses Strabo's mention that the pyramid "a little way up one side has a stone that may be taken out, which being raised up there is a sloping passage to the foundations." Edwards suggested that the pyramid was entered by robbers after the end of the Old Kingdom and sealed and then reopened more than once until Strabo's door was added. He adds "If this highly speculative surmise be correct, it is also necessary to assume either that the existence of the door was forgotten or that the entrance was again blocked with facing stones" in order to explain why al-Ma'mun could not find the entrance. He also discusses a story told by Herodotus. Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century BC and recounts a story he was told about vaults under the pyramid built upon an island where lay the body of Cheops. Edwards notes that the pyramid had "almost certainly been opened and its contents plundered long before the time of Herodotus" and that it might have been closed again during the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt when other monuments were restored. He suggests that the story told to Herodotus could have been the result of almost two centuries of telling and retelling by Pyramid guides.

                                                                                          What The Bible Says        

                                       God signifies His Truth consistently in different media so even a fool should not err therein. He displayed It first in the stars, erected It as the Great Pyramid, then wrote It in paper and ink we call the Bible (Have Not I sent Thee?  The text is Jeremiah 32:20, "God has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and has made Himself a Name, as at this day". The Bible is the story of God changing His Form from the eternal Holy Spirit alone with His thoughts to the manifestation of those thoughts in the glorified flesh of His family. It is fitting that we see this represented in the Great Pyramid. Its missing capstone represents the rejected Christ and His rejected end-time Bride who will be under pre-eminence as He was, to manifest the Sons of God. Its open coffer signifies He is risen, and the various passageways and chambers explain the story able minds of mathematicians and intellectuals have sought for centuries to understand. Brother Branham said that if we follow Bible types we won't make a mistake as they all foreshadow the same story. God employs these symbols over and over again so that His people will recognize His Voice. When God revealed the Seven Seals to His Prophet, Brother Branham, He used the symbolism of the Pyramid and the Temple. Picturing the Temple in our minds we see the place of the Presence or Holy of Holies in the West. East of the vail in the Sanctuary stood the Altar of Incense, to the North was the Shewbread, and on the Southern side stood the seven Lamps of Fire representing seven portions of the Spirit that anointed the seven stars or Church Age Messengers to Illumine the Message of Life to the saints of their day. The people worshipped Eastward and beside the Sanctuary. Now Brother Branham's ministry was two-fold. His Message was first to restore the apostolic faith (Malachi 4:5-6), then to introduce the second Coming of the Fullness of the Word—Christ's 'parousia' (Acts 3:23; I Corinthians 13:19; Revelation 10:7). In the visions and dreams Brother Branham recounts in Messages like, "Sirs, is This the Time?" "The Seven Seals", "This Day This Scripture is Fulfilled", "What is the Attraction on the Mountain", and "And Knoweth It Not", we view the Southern side of the pyramid extending East and West with the capstone representing the Fullness of the Word, for the seven golden lampstands that represent the Church drawn out from all seven Church Ages sat on the southern side of the Holy Place. The seven heavenly anointings make up the fullness of the Spirit, and when the Messages of the seven stars or angel are aligned in a constellation they form a conjunction or pyramid of Light from three lamps East and three West of one central lamp on the seven-branched Golden Lampstand. In another vision, Brother Branham was interpreting writing worn over aeons into the rocky sides of a pyramid-shaped mountain by run-off. This represented the Six written Seals and Church Age saints whose lives epistles written by the washing of water by the Word, or faith (Ephesians 5:26). It showed him going Westward and opening the top of the pyramid mountain to reveal a white granite stone with no writing, emblematic of the Seven Thunders or unwritten Word of the Seventh Seal, which is the revelation of the previous Six written Seals God would declare through the mouth of His Prophet. He said, "I stood there a little bit till the Holy Spirit revealed it. I said, "The entire Bible, as much as has been revealed to men through justification, sanctification, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the baptism in Jesus' Name, and all these things has been revealed, but there is secrets that's hid inside, because the Bible's sealed with Seven Seals. I must go there to find it." The Great Pyramid was God's Absolute that would preserve a great wealth of knowledge for the generations born after the Flood. For instance, the constant pi, which more than a thousand years after the Flood the Egyptians did not know. It reveals the shape of the earth, its size and distance from the sun and that the Poles were flattened. None of the later pyramids reveal such perfection of mathematical and architectural skills as The Great Pyramid. I believe they had a more sophisticated understanding of atomic theory than we have today, and by changing polarity were able to levitate mass so as to eliminate friction so that men or animals could guide perfect masonry to the top of the structure via ramps. There one man might levitate and accurately position their immense mass and weight according to the plans. I once saw a film about Edward Leedskalnin, an immigrant American, who, unaided, built Coral Castle in Miami, Florida. He quarried, shaped and erected 1,100 tonnes of coral over 28 years. Of course at sunset the Great Pyramid does cast a shadow, but not on its own sides which are slightly convex. Each side represents a segment of the Northern Hemisphere, or a quadrant of 90 degrees. Its apex corresponds to the North Pole, and its perimeter to the equator in perfect scale. Only the pyramid can represent God manifested in the saints of all Ages, the New Jerusalem. No other architectural form has a "chief corner stone" which is reproduced by the building it completes as the Bride reproduces Christ. "All God was He poured into Christ, and all Christ was He poured into His Church" (John 17:20-23). Being five-sided, it has no place in the building but as the chief corner-stone or Capstone to whose angles the whole building is fitly joined together. The Great Pyramid has been called "the Bible in stone" because its passageways and chambers reveal geometrically, in line and symbol, the profound spiritual truths of the plan of redemption. Silent geometry reveals a remarkable witness. Brother Branham said, "The great pyramid, you who study that, points to the END TIME, the one that Enoch made. The zodiac, it started off with a virgin, the first coming of Christ. It's ending up with Leo the lion, the second Coming. It's at hand."  "God wrote in the pyramids. If you study them, watch the ancient histories and wars, how they were built before the antediluvian destruction" As the pyramid of Christ's Church will be completed and taken Home before the destruction. Mathematicians and scholars have measured the Pyramid to determine past wars and future events, seeing in the infallible mathematical and astrological measurements of the structure a chronography with the scale of an inch for a year. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" Or lengthen his years by gaining one cubit of time (Matthew 6:27). The Great Pyramid represents the Earth that now is. It is a perfect prophecy in stone so its Passageways are aligned with heavens which are now. But all who endeavor to unlock its mysteries by measurements based on Earth's present relationship with the heavens cannot hope to obtain correct answers as the pre-Flood year was one of only 360 days. 

                                                   My Insight

                                                The Excellence of God’s Power

            Revealed By His Creation

                            

        Known as the oldest of The Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World and The tallest Man-made Structure for over 3,800 years, The Great Pyramid of Egypt has been astonishing the people all over the world because of its magnificent structure. It proclaims the real beauty of God's creation. It was made by the knowledge and power of the Lord, and man is just the means of making it possible.

              As a matter of fact, the Egyptians did not used the Metric System in constructing The Great Pyramid because as of that time, the Egyptians haven't discovered the Metric System yet. So, what did they use? They used their initiatives and skills and finally came up into a brilliant idea of using body measurements.  They carried the stones that are used in construction without using any transportation device except their own force and capacity. And 20 years of labor, it was a relief and a great joy for the Egyptians when they finally beheld the result of their hard-work, the perfect structure of The Great Pyramid gleaming with intense beauty. Oh, what a wonderful creation!

             What's the purpose of making it by the way?

             The Great Pyramid is considered sacred for it serves as a tomb of  the dead Pharaoh's. In fact, as time goes by, it becomes larger and larger in the sense that for how many years, unnumbered Pharaoh's had been buried in there and the Egyptians have to extend the Pyramid to provide more place of burial for the next generations of Pharaohs.

             How amazing, right? Undoubtedly, I can say that the Egyptians are great engineers indeed. Imagine how they could construct The Great Pyramid with their own hands and without using the modern technology devices that the engineers of today are using. But, what amazes me the most is that i realized how magnanimous is the power of God.

              I'm certain that the Egyptians could never construct such a beautiful structure as  the Great Pyramid without the help of God. We should remember that we are created by God and everything we have comes from Him alone. The knowledge and skills that we posses is God's and we are just the ones to improve it and use it for His glory. Thus, we should not be boastful of our achievements as if we are excellent enough. Remember that we are nothing in this world without God. In every achievements we make, let us acknowledge God first of all and give the glory to him, not in ourselves.