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Giza Pyramids Hold Pharaohs' Ancient Secrets
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Photograph by James Stanfield
By Brian Handwerk
The Giza Pyramids, built to endure an eternity, have done just that. The monumental
tombs are relics of Egypt's Old Kingdom era and were constructed some 4,500 years ago.
Egypt's pharaohs expected to
become gods in the afterlife. To
prepare for the next world they
erected temples to the gods and
massive pyramid tombs for
themselvesfilled with all the things
each ruler would need to guide and
sustain himself in the next world.
Pharaoh Khufu began the first Giza
pyramid project, circa 2550 B.C. His
Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza
and towers some 481 feet (147
meters) above the plateau. Its
estimated 2.3 million stone blocks
each weigh an average of 2.5 to 15 tons.
Khufu's son, Pharaoh Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza, circa 2520 B.C. His
necropolis also included the Sphinx, a mysterious limestone monument with the body of a
lion and a pharaoh's head. The Sphinx may stand sentinel for the pharaoh's entire tomb
complex.
The third of the Giza Pyramids is considerably smaller than the first two. Built by Pharaoh
Menkaure circa 2490 B.C., it featured a much more complex mortuary temple.
Each massive pyramid is but one part of a larger complex, including a palace, temples,
solar boat pits, and other features.
Building Boom
The ancient engineering feats at Giza were so impressive that even today scientists can't
be sure how the pyramids were built. Yet they have learned much about the people who
built them and the political power necessary to make it happen.
The builders were skilled, well-fed Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby temporary city.
Archaeological digs on the fascinating site have revealed a highly organized community,
rich with resources, that must have been backed by strong central authority.
It's likely that communities across Egypt contributed workers, as well as food and other
essentials, for what became in some ways a national project to display the wealth and
control of the ancient pharaohs.
Such revelations have led Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council ofAntiquities and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, to note that in one sense it
was the Pyramids that built Egyptrather than the other way around.
Preserving the Past
If the Pyramids helped to build ancient Egypt, they also preserved it. Giza allows us to
explore a long-vanished world.
"Many people think of the site as just a cemetery in the modern sense, but it's a lot more
than that," says Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Tufts University Egyptologist Peter Der
Manuelian. "In these decorated tombs you have wonderful scenes of every aspect of life in
ancient Egyptso it's not just about how Egyptians died but how they lived."
Tomb art includes depictions of ancient farmers working their fields and tending livestock,
fishin and fowlin , car entr , costumes, reli ious rituals, and burial ractices.
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Inscriptions and texts also allow research into Egyptian grammar and language. "Almost
any subject you want to study about Pharaonic civilization is available on the tomb walls at
Giza," Der Manuelian says.
To help make these precious resources accessible to all, Der Manuelian heads the Giza
Archives Project, an enormous collection of Giza photographs, plans, drawings,
manuscripts, object records, and expedition diaries that enables virtual visits to the
plateau.
Older records preserve paintings or inscriptions that have since faded away, capture
artifacts that have been lost or destroyed, and unlock tombs not accessible to the public.
Armed with the output of the longest-running excavations ever at Giza, the Harvard-
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Expedition (1902-47), Der Manuelian hopes to add
international content and grow the archive into the world's central online repository for
Giza-related material.
But he stresses that nothing could ever replicate, or replace, the experience of a personal
visit to Giza.
And people the world over seem to agree. Each year they flock to see the last wonder of
the ancient world and infuse the modern Egyptian economy with billions of dollars
continuing another ancient Giza tradition as one of the world's most popular tourist
destinations.
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Game: Tomb of the Unknown MummyKids, can you solve this ancient
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