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Giza
Great Sphinx
Egypt
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There are
about forty significant pyramids in Egypt and many minor ones.
They are, as you know, tombs. But what you probably don't know is
that they were part of grand funeral complexes. Cities for the
dead that mirrored the cities of the living. Each might be 5 miles
long and one mile wide, contain many support  buildings,
subsidiary pyramids, temples, causeways, docks and funerary
temples. Imagine returning to Washington, DC, 5,000 years from
today. What would remain? The Washington Monument? The Lincoln
memorial? A few other monuments? But buildings, shopping malls,
bridges...they would just be small piles of brick and mortar
rubble. If you dug, you might find remnants of subways, sewer
systems, cable runs and basements, but little else...just like the
Pyramid complexes of Egypt today. |
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See any difference in the
Pyramids above? The farthest of the three is a
different shape. The sides slope up at one angle and suddenly
change to a flatter slope. It is the Rhomboidal Pyramid of Snefru
(about 4600 years old). It was under construction when the owner
died so they changed the construction scheme to finish it as quickly as
possible.
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| The only know image of Snefru (from the Cairo Museum). |
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Snefru, 4th
Dynasty, remembered as the humane and kind pharaoh, actually built both
large pyramids above. But why two? Was he the first case of
a split personality? |
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Hold your mouse over this picture to see the
genius of the man in the green jacket (Paul I).
You might have to wait a few seconds.
| The early
tombs (Mastabas or house of the dead prince) were part of the much
larger after life complex. The body was buried deep under the
mastaba, the square construction of mud bricks (later stones without
mortar) pictured to the right. This mastaba was part of the
funerary complex of Zoser. (Some mastabas are 7000 years
old.) |
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The below ground layout of the mastaba is shown to the left with the
actual steps leading down pictured below. |
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| No one knows why the
great architect and doctor Imhotep decided to stack six mastabas on top
of each other to form the first Step Pyramid of Zoser, but here you have
it. How old? 5000 years, plus or minus a few
centuries. |
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Carol at the
Zoser car park. The man behind her is stealing that car. |
| The
history of the Pyramids in one thousand year increments. |
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0001 BC, horses were
invented.
1001 AD,
pretty girls were invented.
2001
AD, cars and roads were invented, but girls were lost.
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