The Pyramids have captured the imagination of millions throughout history. They mark not just the zenith of Ancient Egypt but of the universal tendency for absolute power to project itself in grandiose architecture. At its most stark, they are figures of the unequivocal exercise of political and economic control. It’s a combination of the sinister and the dazzling that gives the pyramids its enduring fascination.
The occupant of the Great Pyramid, Khufu, was the second pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty (c. 2543–c. 2436 BCE) of Egypt after succeeding his father Snefru. His full name was Khnum-Khufwy, which means ‘[the god] Khnum protect me’. Although few written sources remain, it is known that Khufu was the son and successor of King Snefru and his queen Hetpherses and was probably married four times: to Merityetes, who was buried in one of the three small pyramids beside his own; to a second queen, whose name is unknown; to Henutsen, whose small pyramid is the third of the group; and to Nefert-kau, the eldest of Snefru’s daughters. Two of his sons, Redjedf and Khafre, succeeded him in turn.
His pyramid is largest of the three, the length of each side at the base averaging 755.75 feet (230 metres) and its original height being 481.4 feet (147 metres). Khufu’s pyramid is perhaps the most colossal single building ever erected on the planet. Its sides rise at an angle of 51°52′ and are accurately oriented to the four cardinal points of the compass. The Great Pyramid’s core is made of yellowish limestone blocks, the outer casing (now almost completely gone) and the inner passages are of finer light-coloured limestone, and the interior burial chamber is built of huge blocks of granite. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported, and assembled to create the 5.75-million-ton structure, which is a masterpiece of technical skill and engineering ability. The internal walls as well as those few outer-casing stones that still remain in place show finer joints than any other masonry constructed in Ancient Egypt.
The entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north side, about 59 feet (18 metres) above ground level. A sloping corridor descends from it through the pyramid’s interior masonry, penetrates the rocky soil on which the structure rests, and ends in an unfinished underground chamber. The descending corridor then branches to ascending passageway that leads to a room known as the Queen’s Chamber and to a great slanting gallery that is 151 feet (46 metres) long. At the upper end of this gallery, a long and narrow passage gives access to the burial room proper, usually termed the King’s Chamber. This room is entirely lined and roofed with granite. From the chamber, two narrow shafts run obliquely through the masonry to the exterior of the pyramid; their purpose is not known but theories have been put forward that they were designed for a religious purpose or were perhaps meant for ventilation. Above the King’s Chamber are five compartments separated by massive horizontal granite slabs; the likely purpose of these slabs was to shield the ceiling of the burial chamber by diverting the immense thrust exerted by the overlying masses of masonry. The access to the King’s chamber is sloping upwards, in contrary to the others, showing a possible power insecurity that he must be above others or that he wanted to get to the after life faster, which they believed to be in the skies, hence the Pyramids pointing upwards. However, the Pyramids at Giza have been plundered both internally and externally throughout history, especially during ancient and medieval times. Thus, the grave goods originally deposited in the burial chambers are missing, and the Pyramids no longer reach their original heights because they have been almost entirely stripped of their outer casings of smooth white limestone; the Great Pyramid, for example, is now only 451.4 feet (138 metres) high and the treasure inside is now lost. Constructed near each pyramid was a mortuary temple, which was linked via a sloping causeway to a valley temple on the edge of the Nile floodplain. Also nearby were subsidiary pyramids used for the burials of other members of the royal family.
Khufu had carefully chosen the Giza plateau for several reasons; being visible from Saqqara, yet virgin ground. The underlying geology – a strong seam of limestone called the Mokattam Formation, ideal for the weight of this great monuments. The local availability of resources was key and its access to the Nile allowing boats to connect it with the rest of the Kingdom of Egypt. What is most fascinating is the precision that the Pyramids align to the points of the compass indicate that a method of orientation involving the stars must have been used: solar methods are simply not accurate enough. In order to build such a monument the Egyptians split it into smaller, more manageable, units and the workforce into 200 hundred strong units , known today by the Greek term, phyle. Throughout the two decades it took to build, the construction was hot, unrelenting exhaustion and danger. The conditions must have been particularly unpleasant down in the main quarry, a few hundred yards south of the Pyramids itself. Choking clouds of limestone, the blinding glare of the quarry face, the constant din of chisels, swarms of flies and the stench of sweated labour: all cumulating into an unpleasant environment. To sustain such a workforce, each day, up to eleven cattle and thirty sheep and goats were slaughtered every day.
This raises the question, why build such a monument? The answer favoured by Egyptologists, cites the ideology of divine kingship: the notion that the monarch was the sole arbiter between the people and the gods, the defender of created order and the guarantor of Egypt’s continued stability and prosperity. Perhaps, a form of social security, providing employment for a large proportion of the population, especially during the months of little agricultural activity. Despite all this, Herodotus, a Greek historian in the 5th Century BC, writes that Khufu “brought the country into all sorts of misery. He closed all the temples, then, not content with excluding his subjects from the practice of their religion, compelled them without exception to labour as slaves for his own advantage.” Adding that “the Egyptians can hardly bring themselves to mention him, so great is their hatred.” Showing that it came at great cost to the Egyptian people with the end goal of only honouring one man, Khufu.
Khufu carefully chose who to appoint for the overseeing of the entire project. For most of the fourth Dynasty, the highest offices of state were reserved exclusively for the senior male members of the family, in hope of concentrating the power into the hands of a selective group. Therefore Khufu choose a trusted royal relative, Hemiunu who was probably the king’s nephew. Hemiunu dominated the king’s inner circle at this time holding a combination of courtly, religious and administrative offices ranging from Elder of the Palace to High Priest of Thoth (the god of writing and wisdom). The unusual title Director of Music of the South and the North may reflect one of Hemiunu’s private interests, but the offices which were the most key were the ones linked to the business of government: Overseer of Royal Scribes and Overseer of All Construction Projects of the King. Therefore, upon the commissioning of the Pyramids, Hemiunu was the obvious candidate meaning he was responsible for the entire operation of the Pyramids from the quarrying to the transportation, the workforce and the architects.
Despite all this turmoil and suffering, the image of these monuments was used by more recent dictators. Napoleon, during his invasion of Egypt in 1798 AD, made straight to the pyramid and camped his soldiers at the foot of the plateau, before rallying them with the words: “soldiers of France, forty centuries gaze down upon you”. Khufu’s pyramids was nothing less than a way of uniting heaven and earth for the everlasting wellbeing of the King and a symbol of the complete power given to the Pharoah.
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Wilkinson, T. (2013). The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khufu
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/giza-pyramids