Who and how actually built the pyramids
Pyramids are one of the most mysterious man-made objects on our planet. Who and for what purposes built the pyramids and whether there is a curse of the pharaohs, "Gazeta. Ru" was told by the candidate of historical sciences, researcher at the Center for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the International Association of Egyptologists Roman Orekhov.
Folk history supporters believe that the pyramids were not built by the Egyptians, but by more ancient civilizations or even extraterrestrial ones. How can you refute this myth?
- The historian works with historical documents, specific facts. There are sources that say that the Egyptians built pyramids, tell who priestly in the temples near the pyramids. The very life of the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom is concentrated around the pyramids. The Egyptians called the city near-pyramid. They definitely said that they live in the city at a certain pyramid.
For example, the famous Memphis is a city that arose on the site of the pyramidal settlement of King Pepi I. In the era of the New Kingdom, it became a major political, economic and military center.
However, in its name it still retained the name of the ancient pyramid - Mennefer.
Accordingly, all the officials who worked there bore titles that reflected their responsibilities in this pyramidal city. Therefore, we can confidently say that the pyramids were built by the Egyptians. The pyramids were an integral part of their living space, and sources confirm this. If extraterrestrial civilizations were engaged in construction, then we would read this in the sources.
Is the exact age of the pyramids known now?
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- Yes. If we know that this pyramid was built, for example, by Cheops, we know when he lived, this is the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. We also know that every pyramid has a pyramidal temple. The space of this temple contains a huge number of royal names, we know to whom this pyramid was dedicated. Based on this, we can build a chronological chain. Based on the starting date when a particular king ruled, we can, by summing up the terms of the reign of each king, approximately calculate the chronological scale.
The Egyptians did not have a single scale (as, for example, the ancient Jews): when the reign of a particular king ended, the chronology began anew.
The pyramids were built exclusively as tombs of the pharaohs, or did they have other purposes?
- First of all, the pyramid is a kind of symbol that concentrates around itself ideological, religious attitudes, it is a symbol of the presence of a deity in this world. In the cult of the pyramid, the king occupied one of the places. If you strictly follow the sources, then the pyramid was dedicated to the god Ra-Atum, the goddess Hathor, and the king occupied the third place in it. To understand what this pyramid symbolized, one must understand the relationship of these gods with each other. God Ra is the one who gave birth to this world, the sun god. Hathor is his wife. Their son is the king-Khor. And this king takes his rightful place in this system. He is also worshiped along with these gods.
That is, the last god handed over all divine power to Horus, and he handed over to his son - the king?
Quite right, but … The king is not just the son of Horus. Horus has its own pedigree, and all power from the gods passed from the first god Atum to Horus, and from Horus to the king. Therefore, in the royal title, the god Hor is the main and last. He is the owner of the power - "ka", transmitted from the first ancestor god. "Ka" is a kind of manna, the life force, thanks to which everything exists. This power is an essential attribute of power. The pyramid accumulates the power "ka".
It symbolizes the presence of not only the king, but also the first god in this world.
The ancestor god, worshiped in the pyramid, takes care of the king who died and at the same time is the patron saint of this pyramid. Therefore, the pyramid for the Egyptians is a sacred place.
But there is no unequivocal answer to the question of what a pyramid is in science?
- The Egyptians themselves did not answer this question for us. Only fragmentary information has survived, even more likely hints. For example, they said that the pyramid is the "house of God", that it is dedicated to the goddess Hathor. But the pyramid was also identified with the god of the dead Osiris, or with the "Eye of Horus." The pyramid was associated with the name of the king. All this information should be tried to systematize.
African reasoning is unusual. We are accustomed to the fact that each phenomenon has a single rational explanation: for example, for us the sky is the sky. The Egyptians have different associations. Either this was due to the fact that their language was poorly developed, or their thinking is simply different.
It turned out that the sky was both a woman and a cow and an ordinary tabletop at the same time!
This unusual thinking tried to describe the phenomenon, somehow approximate it, but did not contain a final answer to this question. Therefore, when we talk about a pyramid, it is difficult to understand what it is from an Egyptian point of view. It is clear that this is a kind of symbol of the connection between heaven and earth, between the king and the ancestor gods. But it's hard to answer unequivocally what it is.
And yet why exactly a pyramid? Why did the Egyptians want to build just such a geometric figure, and not a cube, for example?
- Initially, the pyramid was stepped: primitive mastabas were placed one on top of the other. It was built by the first architect of Tsar Djoser Imhotep. He simply made a smaller mastaba over each mastaba. The result is a stepped design. This design was present on early palettes in ceramics. What it is, we cannot say for sure. Usually such hieroglyphs were used to denote tombs or a pedestal of some god. There are a lot of points related to why the idea of creating the perfect design arose. Egyptians are Africans, their worldview differs from the European one. They deified the elemental forces that are responsible for procreation, vital forces. One of the variants of the pyramid is a kind of mother's womb, a goddess who shelters the king within herself. The womb contains the embryo of the future life, which will be reborn in heaven. There is also another option.
The pyramid is the first hill on which the first ancestor god arose.
Is there any system in how the pyramids are located relative to each other?
- There is a theory, proposed by the British engineer Robert Bauval, that the pyramids of Giza represent the "Orion belt" - three stars. Orion's Belt is a sacred constellation in many ancient cultures. In Egypt, Orion was identified with Osiris - the ruler of the underworld.
But we cannot prove the theory that the existing layout in Giza is connected with the cult of Osiris.
We do not find in any source that the "Orion belt" is associated with a complex of three pyramids. Two large pyramids depict a kind of sky horizon, but the third is knocked out.
Who was involved in the construction of the pyramids?
- In historiography, this question is debatable. In the 19th century, it was believed that the pyramids were built by slaves who were in Egypt, including the Jews who were captured by the pharaoh. In the 20th century, it was believed that a small part of society worked on the construction site - advanced workers and architects, of whom there were several tens of thousands. However, in fact, the entire population of the country worked on the pyramids. In fact, some part of society directly built the pyramid, but the other supplied the builders with everything they needed, prepared food for them, the other guarded them. Another part was involved in long expeditions for stone and metal. If all are summed up, then half of the country's population is indirectly involved in this process. The entire active working-age population actually worked on the pyramids. This was a large-scale example of the division of labor in the history of Egypt, when some built, others provided the construction with everything necessary, and others guided the whole process. Actually, this is how the Egyptian state arose.
There is an opinion that even an atomic bomb, similar to the one that was dropped on Hiroshima, could not have destroyed the Cheops pyramid. Could the pyramid really withstand such a blow?
- When the pyramid was built, it was strong enough, then over time it sagged due to its mass. They tried to destroy it in rather barbaric ways in the era of Arab rule, but the battering rams were clearly not intended for this purpose, and the pyramid resisted, although it lost its facing. Therefore, now we need to think about how to preserve this amazing historical monument.
Pyramids can collapse not from an atomic bomb, but from our inaction.
Can we say that the threat of destruction hangs over the pyramids?
- Limestone collapses. If the pyramids are not strengthened, they will collapse. The Cheops pyramid was partially reinforced with a polymer-containing composition, limestone does not absorb so much moisture and is resistant to air erosion. The Khafre pyramid looks worse and is partially crumbling.
And the last question: what can you say to everyone who believes in the curse of the pharaohs?
- The curse of the pharaohs exists in our head. If a person believes that it exists, then he will always subconsciously expect this curse. The first people who came across the unusual Egyptian world were amazed that it did not fit into their usual picture, they saw architecture that was different from the European one, unusual images of gods and kings. When a person descended into the dungeon of the tomb, there he was surrounded by the same incomprehensible and monstrous world of the dead. There are also an abundance of various spirits and demons that guard the peace of the deceased king. For some, this causes some kind of rejection effect, they begin to deny it. A mystically inclined person, on the contrary, believes that there is a world of special entities that can harm a living person.
Even serious scientists believed this.
Muhammad Zakariya Goneim, who opened the second Sakkar pyramid of King Sechemkhet, when he began work in the tomb, always said prayers with his workers for the repose of the soul of a particular pharaoh. He said that he believed that the spirit of the pharaoh dwells in this pyramid, because he and his team felt it. Therefore, everything depends on our consciousness and religious conviction.
Anastasia Kovaleva