10 Things You DIDN'T Know About The Pyramids Of Egypt
The Pyramids in Egypt are some of the most well-known and iconic structures on earth.
They've become a symbol of the ancient empire,
yet there are still so many things people either don’t know about them!
10. They had air conditioning
We know what you’re thinking, how on earth could ancient Egyptians, at a time when
there was no electricity at all, invent air conditioning? While they didn’t exactly have
anything like modern air conditioners that blow out cold air to cool the temperature,
they did know how to condition the air, especially within the pyramids. Using advanced
engineering methods, they managed to construct the Great Pyramid in a way where heat escapes
much faster while cold air gets trapped within it, making the temperature inside the Great Pyramid
a constant 68 degrees Fahrenheit, or 20 degrees celsius. This is in comparison to the hot Egyptian
desert where it could easily reach 100 or 110 degrees Fahrenheit on a summer day. Apparently,
the Egyptians were experts at regulating hot temperatures even in the ancient world!
9. There are a lot of restrictions when you visit them
The Pyramids of Giza are some of the oldest structures in the world.
They were built about 4500 years ago in 2500 BC, and to this day, we don’t
exactly know who built them or the exact date and circumstances around their construction. Still,
the Great Pyramids ended up mesmerizing the world both in the ancient world and the modern world.
This is why the pyramids are some of the most popular tourist attractions in the world,
and while this tourism brings vital revenue in order to conserve the pyramids, it also brought
about a lot of destruction. Back in the 80s and 90s, tourists could just go and climb the sides of
the tourists or take small pieces of the pyramids back home, but since then, there have been strict
restrictions added, with people not being allowed to do anything even may even slightly
harm the pyramids or they may risk being locked in an Egyptian jail for three years.
8. The size of the Pyramids
The size of the pyramids is truly something that’s difficult to comprehend, especially
in the modern world when we’re spoiled with skyscrapers and buildings like the Burj Khalifa.
However, the Great Pyramid is considered by some, in a way, to be the world’s first
skyscraper. The International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat describe a skyscraper
as being over 150 meters tall, while the Great Pyramid, at its peak, was just slightly below that
at 146 meters in height. However, since then, time has taken its course and the Great Pyramid’s
height has reduced by 8 meters to reach 138 meters. The Great Pyramid remained the tallest
building on earth for thousands of years, and it wasn’t only great in height, but also weight.
It was made up of over 2.3 million blocks of solid stone, each of which weighed around 2.5
tons apiece, giving the Great Pyramid a weight of around 5.75 million Tons.
7. There are underground tunnels below the pyramids
What’s underneath the pyramids is sometimes even more interesting than the pyramids themselves.
We already know of the various underground canals that connect the Nile river to the pyramids,
which is considered one of the earliest examples of irrigation in the world, one thing that fewer
people know of is the extensive network of tunnels connecting all the tunnels together.
There are multiple tunnels located directly below the pyramids and there are more expected
to be found. Excavation here is very dangerous as they don’t want to damage the pyramids itself,
so it might be a while until we actually get to explore these tunnels fully. Some of these
tunnels are a claustrophobic nightmare, with only enough space for a relatively thin person to crawl
through, and most of these tunnels are shut to the general public by the Egyptian government.
6. They did not ride camels
When European explorers were making excavations around the Great Pyramids,
one thing they were expecting to see were camels. At this point, Arabia and the rest
of the Middle East were already known for their camels, and Egypt itself was dominated by camels
as a mode of transport. But what they found out was that whether it was regular people or Royals,
there were no camels used in even the most royal place in all of Egypt, the great pyramids.
Instead, they all used donkeys to make end meets. It wasn’t until the Egyptian empire was long gone
when camels slowly started to gain popularity in the Middle East as a mode of transport,
and camels remain an integral part of all Middle Eastern cultures to this day.
5. They were unlike any other building ever built
It’s hard to overstate how significant the Giza Pyramid Complex was to the ancient world.
We’ve already mentioned that its height of 146 meters made it taller than any building ever
made for another 2000 years, but we still have no idea how the ancient Egyptians actually managed to
build such a massive building without the help of modern machinery or construction methods.
Not only do we not know how these structures were built, even later Egyptian rulers had no idea
how something of such magnificence was built. They, too, may have tried to build structures
that were far more grand and significant than the pyramids, but the truth is, none of them
knew how to go about such a thing. 4. They were incredibly precise
The reason for the pyramid’s construction is still an unanswered mystery,
however, we have found many coincidences that end up raising more questions than we already had.
The pyramids have their tips perfectly aligned with the Thuban star, which was the north star
of the time. The Thuban star wasn’t actually that bright, and many people are actually confused
as to how the Egyptians were not only able to spot the star, but actually construct multiple
megastructures that were perfectly aligned to it despite having weaker astrological knowledge.
There are also some people who credit the alignment to aliens, but that’s another story.
3. They used to look radically different
The Great Pyramid complex is instantly recognizable. It’s probably the first
thing you think of when you hear the word Egypt, or the first thing you think of when you hear of
an ancient civilization in general. However, the iconic pyramids didn’t always look like this.
As we’ve mentioned already, the Great Pyramid, as well as the surrounding pyramids,
all lost a few meters in height due to the wear and tear of time.
However, they also lost a lot more. The pyramids actually used to sparkle in ancient times as they
were all covered by a slab of limestone which would glisten as the sunlight hit the pyramids.
Unfortunately, all of the limestone slowly withered away, with the only exception being
the Pyramid of Khafre, where you can still see part of the limestone at the top of the pyramid.
2. They weren’t built by slaves
For some reason, perhaps due to Hollywood movies or just media and misconceptions about the
past in general, most people have this view of ancient Egypt as a completely top-down society,
with just a few royals presiding over a subjugated population.
However, that’s not true. Part of the reason why ancient Egypt was so successful was that
all segments of the society were prosperous, not just the royal segment. There were also no
slaves chained up to build the pyramids. The workers at the pyramids were hand-selected
from across the empire to be the best workers in the world, and they were paid handsomely,
lived in royal living quarters, and were even fed the equivalent to prime beef! In some ways, you
can say construction workers in ancient Egypt were treated better than construction workers are now!
1. The oldest one isn’t in Giza
You might think that the Great Pyramid of Giza, or at least one of the Great Pyramids,
would be the oldest pyramid in the world, right? Well, that’s actually not correct.
The Great Pyramid, as we’ve already mentioned, is thought to have been built in around 2500 BC,
about 4500 years ago. However, the oldest Pyramid that we know of in the entire world
is the Pyramid of Djoser, which was built in around 2700 BC or around 4700 years ago.
The Pyramid of Djoser is less than half the height of the Great Pyramid at around 62.5 meters.
It was built to house the mummy of the Egyptian King Djoser, who was from the Third Dynasty. This
is actually a step pyramid, which is slightly different from the pyramids we know of already.
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