Ancient Egypt


There are days when the sand blows ceaselessly, blanketing the remains of a powerful dynasty that ruled Egypt 5,000 years ago. When the wind dies down and the sands are still, a long shadow casts a wedge of darkness across the Sahara, creeping ever longer as the North African sun sinks beyond the horizon. This is where our history of Egypt begins, in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza, where stone meets sky as a testament to one of the greatest civilizations on earth. Here, on the plateau of Giza, 2,300,000 blocks of stone, some weighing as much as 9 tons, were used to build an eternal tomb for a divine king.
   Five thousand years ago, the fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom was a highly advanced civilization where the kings, known as pharaohs, were believed to be gods. They lived amidst palaces and temples built to honor them and their deified ancestors. "Pharaoh" originally meant "great house," but later came to mean king. What we know of this early society changes and is re-interpreted year by year as new archaeological finds discovered beneath the desert sands revise our understanding of ancient Egypt. This project will show you science in action -- bringing you face to face with the evidence archaeologists use to understand the meaning of Giza's pyramids, and to the process of evaluating the finds they will uncover beneath the sands of the plateau.
   Before looking closely at pharaonic society and the beginning of the Pyramid Age, one first has to step into Egypt's landscape and take a look around. Ancient Egyptians called their land "Kemet," which meant "black," after the black fertile silt-layered soil that was left behind each year during the annual inundation, when the Nile flooded the fields. The most prevalent color of the desert, however, is a decidedly reddish-yellow ochre. The Egyptians called the desert "deshret," meaning "red," and this endless carpet of sand covers an estimated 95 % of Egypt, interrupted only by the narrow band of green carved by the waters of the Nile. Here, the extreme dry sands of the desert meet the fertile silt-laden soils along the Nile -- a river that provides a source of life for the entire nation and a good part of the African continent.
   Our history of Egypt begins around the year 3,000 BC with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into one united kingdom. Under this new ruling dynasty, the first King was Menes, and thirty dynasties would follow. It was at this time that hieroglyphic writing made its first appearance, in the tombs and treasures of the pharaohs. To seal the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menes founded the capital city of the kingdom at the place where the two met: at the apex of the Nile, where it fans out onto the fertile silt plain. The fortress city was named "White Walls" by Menes, but it is known today by its Greek name, Memphis. For much of the 3,000 years of ancient Egypt, it remained the capital seat of the pharaohs. Only 20 miles to the north of Memphis is the modern capitol, Cairo, still situated near the juncture of the Nile valley and the delta.
   How does the pyramid fit into early Egyptian life? Pyramids today stand as a reminder of the ancient Egyptian glorification of life after death, and in fact, the pyramids were built as monuments to house the tombs of the pharaohs. Death was seen as merely the beginning of a journey to the other world. In this society, each individual's eternal life was dependent on the continued existence of their king, a belief that made the pharaoh's tomb the concern of the entire kingdom.
   Pictures on the walls of tombs tell us about the lives of the Kings and their families. We know pyramids were built during a king's lifetime because hieroglyphs on tomb walls have been found depicting the names of the gangs who built the pyramids for their kings. Furniture and riches were buried with the king so he would have the familiar comforts of his lifetime buried near him. Attendants and wives who died after the king were also buried close to him. These graves of relatives and courtiers can be found on the outskirts of kings' tombs, lying beside the pyramids. Whole subdivisions of tombs of those in high positions in the court of a king can be found surrounding the pyramids of Giza. These are primarily mastabas, or covered rectangular tombs that consist of a deep burial shaft, made of mud brick and half-buried by the drifts of sand on the plateau.
   The first pyramid was the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, built for King Zoser in 2750 BC. This first application of large-scale technology, however, is often attributed to Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid. He was not a pharaoh, but was the Director of Works of Upper and Lower Egypt. The superstructure of the pyramid was made of small limestone blocks and desert clay. Inside, the burial chamber and storage spaces for Zoser's grave goods were carved out of the earth and rock beneath the structure. Imhotep's intent was to mimic the basic structure of King Zoser's palatial home in the burial chamber. The tomb, like those that followed, was meant to be a replica of the royal palace. In early tombs, the central area was always the burial place. The other surrounding rooms contained burial artifacts such as furniture and jewelry and other provisions owned by the king. False doors of heavy stone, inscribed with hieroglyphs, represented passageways between rooms. There were no real doors between the rooms, because it was believed the king would be able to move about his rooms, in the afterlife, without the help of structural passageways.
    It was only 150 years later, in the fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, that King Khufu commissioned the building of the largest pyramid of all, the Great Pyramid, which is the last remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is thought that in 816 AD Caliph al-Mamun first ordered workers to blast through the blocked stone entrance in order to explore within Khufu's pyramid. But looters, probably from dynastic Egyptian times, had already absconded with King Khufu's burial treasures and his body. This is true of all of the pyramids at Giza, so very little is known about Khufu or any of his successors who were buried at Giza. Archaeologists, nonetheless, continue to look for pieces of this puzzle to further our understanding of the Pyramid Age and the pharaohs that ruled Egypt.

Who Built The Pyramids?

The question of who built the pyramids, and how, has long been debated by Egyptologists and historians. Standing at the base of the pyramids at Giza it is hard to believe that any of these enormous monuments could have been built in one pharaoh's lifetime. Herodotus, the Greek historian who wrote in the 5th century B.C., 500 years before Christ, is the earliest known chronicler and historian of the Egyptian Pyramid Age. By his accounts, the labor force that built Khufu totaled more than 100,000 people. But Herodotus visited the pyramids 2,700 years after they were built and his impressive figure was an educated guess, based on hearsay. Modern Egyptologists believe the real number is closer to 20,000.
Mark Lehner (Archaeologist, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and Harvard Semitic Museum) and Zahi Hawass (Director General of Giza) have been trying to solve the puzzle of where the 20,000 - 30,000 laborers who built the pyramids lived. Once they find the workers' living area, they can learn more about the workforce, their daily lives, and perhaps where they came from. Mark has been excavating the bakeries that presumably fed this army of workers, and Zahi has been excavating the cemetery for this grand labor force. It is believed that Giza housed a skeleton crew of workers who labored on the pyramids year round. But during the late summer and early autumn months, during the annual flooding of the fields with water from the annual inundation of the Nile flooded the fields, a large labor force would appear at Giza to put in time on the pyramids. These farmers and local villagers gathered at Giza to work for their god kings, to build their monuments to the hereafter. This would ensure their own afterlife and would also benefit the future and prosperity of Egypt as a whole. They may well have been willing workers, a labor force working for ample rations, for the benefit of man, king, and country.

The Palace Hypothesis
    At Giza, evidence of the workforce that built the pyramids is slowly being uncovered in archaeological explorations. However, one piece of the fabric of ancient Egypt is still missing. There is no evidence of the structures, which must have housed the great kings of ancient Egypt. Giza itself is a necropolis, a large-scale cemetery for dead kings. But where did these kings, their attendants, and the laborers who built the pyramids live? In the following interview with archaeologist Mark Lehner, he lays out his palace hypothesis -- that somewhere not far from the pyramids there must be the remains of a grand residence for the pharaohs.

LEHNER: "All the older Egyptologists, the older generation who studied the evidence from the texts for pyramid towns, pretty much agree that there was a palace or a residence in each pyramid town. And these at Giza would be some of the earliest pyramid towns. A palace of the Old Kingdom pyramid age has never been found in Egypt. We do have palaces from the late middle kingdom, possibly, and certainly from the new kingdom.    
An Egyptologist named David O'Connor at the Institute of Fine Arts, did a particular study of the palaces of the new kingdom. And he said, they tend to be perpendicular outside the entrances of temples. So outside the great temple of Karnac, as you come out of the temple, to your right hand, and perpendicular to the temple axis would have been the palace, we know from text. This is called 'imi werat' in Egyptian, to the right front. And there are some examples of this. And we think that the palace was oriented north-south. And the temple of Karnac, for example, is oriented east-west. And we know from texts and representations that on great processions the king would come out of his palace, oriented north-south, out into the plaza. And from the temple would come the God, from his axis east-west, and King and God merged and crossed, and these were the axes of the world. And then they would march off to another temple for a great celebration. Well, like I say, a palace of the Old Kingdom has never been found. But if you look at the pyramid complexes as temples with their long causeways, and a valley temple and an upper temple, they're oriented east-west. And if you were coming down out of the Menkaure Pyramid complex at Giza, to the right front is our excavation site, and indeed right there is the gigantic Wall of the Crow, with its huge gateway. Now consider that in relation to the statement that I made that 'they don't have Wonder Bread factories in ancient Egypt.' Bread baking, brewing, weaving, woodworking, butchery, tend to be attached to large houses. To which large house would our bakery be attached, with its walls all running north-south and so rectilinear laid out, and all our seal impressions of Menkaure? So we indeed have begun to consider the possibility that we are at the back end of a palace. And that between us and the Wall of the Crow, to the north, about 160 to 200 meters may lie the remains of perhaps the Palace of Menkaure. In archaeology, as in all modern science these days, it's not like an exam in grad school. We don't get something right or wrong. We go out with a hypothesis. And maybe we're wrong, but maybe we're right. But it certainly organizes our strategy. So what we're going to be doing in the upcoming season is to try to get windows onto the overall layout of our bakery and pull back from this myopic focus, which is fascinating. But we need to pull back and just get the major outlines of the walls and try to see what kind of a structure we're dealing with, and indeed, whether we do have one of the missing palaces. So we need to get a broader view and see if, in fact, we are at the back end of one of the palaces, one of the missing palaces of the Giza Pyramid kings.”

King Khufu, who is also known by the greek name "Cheops," was the father of pyramid building at Giza. He ruled from 2589 - 2566 B.C. and was the son of King Sneferu and Queen Hetpeheres.

Dates Built: c. 2589-2566 B.C.

Total Blocks of Stone: over 2,300,000

Base: 13 square acres, 568,500 square feet, or 7 city blocks. The length of each side of the base was originally 754 feet (230 m), but is now 745 feet (227 m) due to the loss of the outer casing stones.

Total Weight: 6.5 million tons

Average Weight of Individual Blocks of Stone: 2.5 tons, the large blocks used for the ceiling of the King's Chamber weigh as much as 9 tons.

Height: Originally 481 feet (146.5 m) tall, but now only 449 feet (137 m).

Angle of Incline: 51 degrees 50' 35"

Construction Material: limestone, granite

WARNING upon entering Khufu: The 1908 edition of Baedeker's Egypt warns "Travelers who are in the slightest degree predisposed to apoplectic or fainting fits, and ladies travelling alone, should not attempt to penetrate into these stifling recesses.


Khafre’s Pyramid

Khafre, who was the son of Khufu, was also known as Rakhaef or Chephren. He ruled from 2520 - 2494 B.C. and is responsible for the second largest pyramid complex at Giza, which includes the Sphinx, a Mortuary Temple, and a Valley Temple. The most distinctive feature of Khafre's Pyramid is the topmost layer of smooth stones that are the only remaining casing stones on a Giza Pyramid.

Dates Built: c. 2558-2532 B.C.

Total Blocks of Stone:
Base: 704 feet (214.5 m) on each side covering a total area of 11 acres

Total Weight: undetermined

Average Weight of Individual Blocks of Stone: 2.5 tons, some of the outer casing blocks of stone weigh in at 7 tons

Height: Originally 471 feet (143.5 m) tall, now 446 feet (136 m) tall

Angle of Incline: 53 degrees 7' 48"

Construction Material: Limestone and red granite

Khafre may be best known for his statues, and most famous among them is, of course, the Sphinx. There are emplacements in his pyramid temples for 58 statues, including four colossal sphinxes, each more than 26 feet long, two flanking each door of his Valley Temple; two colossal statues, possibly of baboons, in tall niches inside the entrances of the Valley Temple; 23 life-size statues of the pharaoh in the Valley Temple (fragments of several have been found with his name inscribed on them); at least seven large statues of him in the inner chambers of his Mortuary Temple; 12 colossal Khafre statues around the courtyard of his Mortuary Temple; and ten more huge statues in the Sphinx Temple.
Menkaure’s Pyramid










Menkaure, also known as Mycerinus, ruled from 2490 - 2472 B.C.. He was king of the smallest of the three pyramids at Giza, and is believed to be Khufu's grandson.

Dates Built: undetermined

Total Blocks of Stone: unknown

Base: 344 feet (105 m) on each side

Total Weight: unknown

Average Weight of Individual Blocks of Stone: undetermined

Height: originally 215 feet (65.5 m), now 203 feet (62 m)

Angle of Incline: 51 degrees 20' 25"

Construction Material: Limestone and red granite, sarcophagus made of basalt.






New Kingdom
(c. 1550 – 1075 B.C.)

Colossus of Memnon
This truly colossal statue and its companion are all that remains of a huge mortuary temple built by the pharaoh Amenophis III (Amenhotep) in the 14th century B.C. The temple, which the pair of Colossi fronted, collapsed in an earthquake in the first century B.C., and later builders have long since appropriated its pieces, leaving nothing but an empty field. The quake caused cracks to develop in the Colossi, which ever after began "singing" when the sun rose. This led the Greeks to deem them the Oracle of Memnon (an Ethiopian king in Greek mythology), to which they and later the Romans made pilgrimages. When the Roman emperor Septimius Severus restored the statues in hopes of gaining favor with Memnon, they ceased speaking their oracles.










Karnak Temple

Great Court
During the New Kingdom, the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak was the most important place of worship in Egypt. (Amun-Re was King of the Gods and father to the pharaoh.) The entire temple complex covers an area of nearly 75 acres, and there are two other, smaller complexes within the Karnak precinct. The farther back one walks in the Temple of Amun-Re, the older the structures become, so this initial Great Court is one of the more recent constructions.

Temple of Ramses III
This nearly 200-foot-long temple features three bark chapels, a hypostyle hall of eight columns, a vestibule with four columns, and an open court (within which this view was taken). The court is surrounded by statues of Ramses III in his Jubilee vestments. (Jubilees were typically celebrated in the 30th year of a pharaoh's reign and every five years thereafter.)




Great Hypostyle Hall
 
The Great Hypostyle Hall is one of the most spectacular monuments of ancient Egypt. Possibly begun by Amenophis III, this veritable forest of soaring pillars was continued by Seti I and finished by Ramses II. Covering an area of 7,200 square yards, it is large enough to contain Notre Dame Cathedral.
 
The English writer Amelia Edwards, who traveled through Egypt in the 1870s, described Karnak as "a place ... of which no writing and no art can convey more than a dwarfed and pallid impression." We're the first to admit that the same is true of these 360° images; the only real way to gain a sense of the vastness of the Great Hypostyle Hall is to walk through it yourself. But until you can get there, we hope images like this will suffice.