We think of the pyramids of Egypt as marvels of ancient engineering, admiring their gigantic size, straight sides, and precise alignments. They’re over 4,000 years old, but built to last.
The thought of pyramids as an exercise in trial-and-error is disconcerting. So when we see the Bent Pyramid, which really is bent, erected around 2,600 B.C., we’ve got to wonder what happened.
Two theories: One, Pharaoh Snefru, for whom the pyramid was being built, was well on his way to dying, so the builders took a short-cut. Two, more than halfway into the project, somebody on the engineering staff said “Uh-oh, we’ve got problems!”
The bottom part of the pyramid rises at an angle of 54 degrees; the top part, at only 43 degrees. Why the difference?
Because they feared that if they kept building at that original steep angle, the whole shebang would collapse on their heads!
Which actually happened, not far away, at the Meidum Pyramid, which collapsed while it was being built.
We don’t know exactly what it cost to build a pyramid, but it must’ve been a pretty hefty chunk of the government’s budget.
The mishap of the Meidum Pyramid and the awkward course correction at the Bent Pyramid suggest that the Egyptians, rather than being instructed by high-tech Space Brothers, learnt the art of pyramid construction as they went along, with costly errors along the way.
The much later pyramids of Nubia (now Sudan) were smaller and noticeably steeper than the classical Egyptian pyramids of the Old Kingdom. We don’t know how closely the Nubians might have studied their predecessors, but their pyramids would surely have impressed the builders of the Bent Pyramid.
I can’t imagine the Great Pyramid of Khufu built at this steep angle and not falling down.
Neither could the Egyptians.
Interesting!
I find it interesting that so many pyramid structures are all over the earth. What is it about the pyramid that so many ancient civilizations were drawn to?
That’s a good question. Apparently this was one of the customs/beliefs which emanated from the plains of Shinar.
That sounds reasonable. I have lost interest years ago in Egyptology, but when I was young, I found it fascinating and read everything I could find on the subject.
The fact that their civilization was built along the never-changing Nile River may have given them a cultural consciousness that they had all the time in the world to make a stack of rocks 🙂
As long as the people pay taxes, the government will build things even if they have to do it over and over again and of dubious value. After all, it’s what the people want, right? Infrastructure – still waiting for the US to get this right. Maybe we should build pyramids instead…
I don’t want to see Joe Biden’s pyramid.
LOL!! I don’t want to see Joe Biden…
Can you imagine his face on the Sphinx?
LOL – no I absolutely can’t (and refuse to). Please, don’t give him any ideas. He might tell Bloomberg.
I’m surprised Bloomberg hasn’t already erected a colossus of himself.
LOL. He thinks he is one. And that might be true if we used another word.
Maybe in one of those pyramids is an empty coffin, for the Pharaoh for whom the pyramid was made lies at the bottom of the Red Sea…
They’re all empty, Joshua. They were robbed centuries ago.
Oh, I didn’t know that!
So far, only King Tut’s tomb escaped the ancient grave robbers.
I see! I wonder what the robbers did with the bodies. Who do you think was the Pharaoh in Exodus?
Most of the royal mummies were damaged, some of them totally destroyed, as the robbers tore away their jewels. Around 3,500 years ago the Egyptians moved a lot of those mummies into a kind of storage area in the Valley of the Kings. Here they were re-interred without treasure, so the thieves left them alone and many kings and queens were thus preserved, a few of them without any major damage. Many, but not all.
As for who was Pharaoh in Exodus–well, I have absolutely no idea.
How interesting! I’ve never heard of the Valley of the Kings before!
There are videos which purport to show coral formations which seem to be formed around chariot wheels on the bottom of the Red Sea.
Cool! I’ve watched a video about something like that a few years ago. More evidence that the Bible is true!