25 Amazing facts about Great Pyramid | Amazing Facts 4U
- Amazingly the Great Pyramid of Giza is the only remaining “seven wonders of the world”. Built-in 2600 B.C. it was built as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu.
- It is the most massive building ever erected in the world.
- it is estimated to have amazing 2,300,000 stone blocks that weigh from 2 to 30 tons each and there are some that weigh over 50 tons. How these blocks were transported and assembled into the pyramid is still a mystery. Modern technology cannot replicate it.
- The base of the pyramid covers 55,000 m2 (592,000 ft 2) with each side greater than 20,000 m2 (218,000 ft2) in area. The length of each side of the pyramid at the base is 755 feet (230.4 m). They rise to a height, originally, of 481 feet (147 m) but nowadays 451 feet (138 m).
- The amazing fact is that it was the oldest and tallest structure in the world for about 3, 800 years until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.
- The outer mantle was composed of 144,000 very highly polished amazing casing stones, all of which reflected light like a mirror and was flat to an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch, about 100 inches thick and weighing about 15 tons each.
- These outer “casing stones” protecting pyramids are missing today because about 600 years ago they were stolen by Arabs after a 13th-century earthquake loosened some of these casing stones. Arabs recognized a great quarry of pre-cut stones that could be used to finish off palaces and mosques.
- Amazingly, the outside surface stones are cut within 0.01 (1/100th) inch of perfectly straight and at nearly perfect right angles for all six sides. And they were placed together with an intentional gap between them of 0.02 inches (0.5 mm). Our current technology can’t place them with such precision.
- The gap of 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) was designed between stones to allow space for the mortar to seal it. The mortar used was of an unknown origin and can’t be reproduced. Amazingly it is stronger than the stone and still holding up today.
- There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid – King’s chamber, Queen’s chamber, and unfinished chamber. Of all the pyramids, only the Great Pyramid has “air shafts” rising from chambers.
- The grand gallery, the majestic passageway, leading to the King’s Chamber, is 153 feet long and 7 feet wide at the floor level, 3.5 feet wide at the top, and about 28 feet high. It continues upward at 26 degrees. It is most amazing and mind-boggling to imagine how these passages were cut in stones and put into place with such precision.
- Scientists estimate that between 20,000 and 30,000 workers spent 80 years building three pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. These were not slaves, but a mixture of local residents and itinerant craftsmen who provided specialized skills.
- The amazing fact is that if you disassembled the Great Pyramid of Cheops, you would get enough stones to encircle the earth with a brick wall twenty inches high.
- If the Great Pyramid were chopped into 12-inch cubes, there would be enough cubes to circle the moon almost three times.
- The Great Pyramid had a swivel door entrance at one time. Swivel doors were found in only two other pyramids: Khufu’s father and grandfather, Sneferu and Huni, respectively. When the pyramid was first broken into that swivel door, weighing some 20 tons, it was so well balanced that it could be opened by pushing out from the inside with only minimal force, but when closed, was so perfect a fit that it could scarcely be detected and there was not enough crack or crevice around the edges to gain a grasp from the outside.
- It is amazing that Egyptians had so much accurate knowledge about earth, sun & Geometry. If the height of the pyramid is taken as the radius of a circle, then the circumference of this circle is the same as the perimeter of the base. The value of pi was known which led to the angle of the pyramid being exactly 51 degrees, 51 minutes, and 14.3 seconds.
- If the circumference of the Pyramid is divided by twice its height, the result is 3.14159, which is the value of pi, incredibly accurate up to six digits.
- Amazingly the height of the pyramid is equal to the average height of land above sea level for the whole earth.
- The amazing fact is that the Great Pyramid is located at the center of the landmass of the earth. The east/west parallel that crosses the most land and the north/south meridian that crosses the most land intersect in two places on the earth, one in the ocean and the other at the Great Pyramid.
- The height of the pyramid (481 feet) is amazingly almost exactly one billionth of the distance from the earth to the sun.
- The interior temperature is constant and equals the average temperature of the earth, 20 Degrees Celsius (68 Degrees Fahrenheit).
- The Great Pyramid at Giza has vents pointing to the constellation of Orion so the mummy’s spirit could fly straight up to the gods.
- One amazing discovery in the Great Pyramid was a spectacular ancient cedar-wood boat, which was found sealed in a pit at the base of the Great Pyramid.
- A few years ago, the Japanese reportedly tried to duplicate the 4,600-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza at 1/4 scale, employing today’s technology and knowledge. They couldn’t do it.
- Amazingly Mexico, not Egypt, has the largest pyramid in the world in terms of volume. The Cholula Pyramid was built around the year A.D. 100. Though it is 40% the height of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, it covers an area of 39.5 acres. In contrast, the Great Pyramid covers 13 acres. The Mexican pyramid has a volume of 4,300,000 cubic yards, while the Great Pyramid has 3,360,000.
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