Sands of Time: The True History of Egypt's Pyramids

Feel the weight of history as we unlock the secrets of Egypt's eternal pyramids. Imagine standing in the shadow of these ancient wonders, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of modern Cairo, as we dissect the architectural genius that has allowed these stone sentinels to weather millennia. Discover the mysteries of the pyramids.  Our expedition into the past reveals the true artisans behind these monuments – the native Egyptian workers who transformed from farmers to builders with the Nile's seasonal rhythms. We lay to rest the Hollywood myths of slaves and whip-driven labor, giving credit to the ingenuity and dedication of these ancient laborers.

Journey with us to the sands of Saqqara as we pay homage to King Djoser's revolutionary tomb, the blueprint for future marvels, and then scale the heights of the Great Pyramid of Giza, a testament to Pharaoh Khufu's ambition. With a treasure trove of facts, we explore the deep spiritual significance of these grand tombs, designed as celestial stairways for the pharaohs' ascension to godhood. Peer into the elaborate preparations for the afterlife, the belief in the Ka spirit, and the reverence for the dead that fueled a culture's obsession with the monumental. This episode is not just a history lesson, it's a time capsule to an age where divinity was built in stone.

Next Sunday's Topic:  Angel Colors- The White Light Ray

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:33

Welcome. I'm glad you can be with me here today. The topic is the history of the pyramid and before I begin with that, hello to my listeners in Washington DC. You know, I grew up in the outskirts. I grew up in Frederick, maryland, which is even more of an outskirt of Washington DC than it was when I grew up there. But so many fond memories of the great museums in DC and I'm so glad to have you here with me. Let's jump into this topic, though.

Speaker 1: 2:03

There are pyramids around the world and some really interesting ones, and I will focus on them Today. I'm focusing on the pyramids in Egypt because that alone is enough information for an episode. So why were pyramids built like triangle? Well, the shape of a pyramid allows weight to be distributed evenly throughout the structures, so there's a very logical reason for that. Most of the weight in a pyramid is on the bottom, and that weight decreases the higher you go. So this allowed ancient civilizations to create these huge structures of stone that were very sturdy. The Egyptian pyramids may have been modeled after a sacred pointed stone called the Ben Ben, and the Ben Ben stone represented the rays of the sun, and ancient Egyptians believed that pharaohs who died reached heaven on sunbeams.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Who built these magnificent structures? Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor We've seen that in movies, a lot of old movies Skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural workers, just laborers who worked on the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the land nearby, so they couldn't do agricultural business. This gave them something to do sort of migrant workers. Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone, each one averaging about two and a half tons each. That's mind boggling. They had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Cthu Thu's great pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might have been closer to 200,000, which makes sense. You can do great things with great numbers of people.

Speaker 1: 4:18

What is the oldest pyramid? The oldest known pyramid in Egypt, and it's always known because we don't know everything yet Not everything's been discovered. It was built around 2630 BC at Sikara, and it is for the third dynasty's King Josar. Why did they build pyramids? So we know why they're shaped as a triangle. But why did they build them in the first place?

Speaker 1: 4:46

Egypt's pharaohs expected to become gods in the afterlife and to prepare for the next world. They erected temples to the gods and massive pyramid tombs for themselves, filled with all the things each ruler would need to guide and sustain himself in the next world. Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit, known as Ka, remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for him, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.

Speaker 1: 5:42

Let's talk about the Great Pyramids of Giza, because those really are the most famous. No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza. They are located on a plateau on the west bank of the Now River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. I remember the first time I have these thoughts in my head from old movies of the pyramids are out in the middle of nowhere and just sand dunes and camels around them. Then I see some pictures and movies for modern-day and it's like you can stand in modern-day Cairo and look at the pyramids they're just right there.

Speaker 1: 6:21

It was built for Pharaoh Khufu, the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years, relatively little is known of his reign except for the grand door of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramids base measures 755.75 feet, or 230 meters, and its original height was over 481 feet, or 147 meters, making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu's queen are queens Plural are lined up next to the great pyramid, and a tomb was found nearby containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, queen Hadafaris I'm sure I'm really wrecking that name, I'm so sorry. Like other pyramids, khufu's is surrounded by rows of mastabas where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife. I mentioned that earlier. The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu's son, pharaoh Kafra. The pyramid of Kafra is the second tallest pyramid at Giza and contains Pharaoh Kafra's tomb. A unique feature built inside Kafra's pyramid complex was the great Sphinx, and that's the you've seen it the guardian statue, carved in limestone with a head of a man, the body of a lion, and it was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring 240 feet long and 66 feet high In the 16th dynasty, which is 1500 BC. Just to put that into perspective, the great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself as the image of a local form of their god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu's son, mincora, and it is the shortest of the three pyramids you can see it off to the side of me here 215 feet, and it's a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the 5th and 6th dynasties.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Let's talk about the end of the pyramid era. Pyramids continue to be built throughout the 5th and 6th dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period. This occurred along with the decline in the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unus, pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king's reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid's interior, known as pyramid text. These are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

Speaker 1: 9:22

The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepys II, the second king of the 6th dynasty there's a lot of dynasties here who came to power as a young boy and ruled for 94 years. We're talking about back in 2278-2184 BC. 94 years is an incredible amount of time. In that era, by the time of his rule, old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials began to grow. So Pepys II's pyramid, built at Sakara and completed some 30 years into his reign, which much shorter it's 172 feet. It's shorter than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepe's death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed. An Egypt entered a turbulent phase that was known as the first intermediate period. Later, kings of the 12th dynasty would return to pyramid building during the so-called middle kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the great pyramids, like you see on the screen behind me.

Speaker 1: 10:38

So let's talk about the treasures that have been found in the pyramids. You've heard of King Tuntin common, known as King Tut for short gold sarcophagus and the splendid artifacts found in his tomb. But the most famous location for such famed, elaborate tombs is the Valley of the King, which lies on the Nile's west bank near Luxor. When you think of pyramids, it's likely that the Great Pyramid of Giza comes to mind. But the biggest mystery of the Great Pyramid of Giza is that basically nothing was found inside of it, and remember I said earlier that they were built as monuments to kings. It was their tombs, where all their body and their belongings would be, and there was basically nothing in this one, although most pyramids were built as tombs and a sarcophagus, which is a stone coffin, was found in one of the chambers of the pyramid, even the sarcophagus was empty. So they really don't know if there were tomb raiders or if something happened before he could be buried there. We just don't know.

Speaker 1: 11:44

So let's talk about the mysteries of the pyramids, because I think that they're fascinating and you might not know some of these. No matter how much we discover about the famed Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, there always seems to be an air of mystery surrounding these structures. Constructed roughly 4,500 years ago, these massive relics of the Old Kingdom era have survived seemingly everything. It is said that these stunning structures hold the secrets of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. While scientists have been able to discover much about the different rooms and chambers within these pyramids, there's still questions left unanswered, especially with a recent discovery of secret passageways I should say relatively recent and a mysterious void within the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So here are some interesting facts about these ancient and mysterious mysteries. Number one the sheer mass of the pyramids alone is staggering, remember I said the largest one stands at 481 feet high and is made up of 2.3 million stone blocks, huge stone blocks. To this day, scientists continue to speculate about the exact construction methods used by Egyptians to build these ancient architectural wonders. So far, the most agreed upon theory centers around hundreds of thousands of workers using wet sand as a lubricant to move the large stones as they mined from a nearby quarry. They moved them on sleds across the desert. Evidence also suggests that ramps may have been used to move those stones into place, though it's still not clear how such heavy pieces made it up to the highest sections, especially at such steep ankles.

Speaker 1: 13:40

So number two the Great Pyramid of Giza is the last standing wonderl of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Aren't we blessed? We have at least one left, but I would have been wonderful to see some of these others. So the original seven wonders of the ancient world were the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Haraconisus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. We can only imagine the rest of these. I mean, there's sketches and descriptions, but the size of them alone is just mind-boggling. Six of those ancient structures were destroyed, whether it was by natural causes like earthquakes or by human plundering, except for the Great Pyramid of Giza, and that structure has survived a lot of turmoil.

Speaker 1: 14:43

The Great Pyramid of Giza this is the third thing was the tallest man-made structure on Earth. For over 3,800 years it's a long time. From its time of construction until 1311, when the Lincoln Cathedral in England was completed, the Great Pyramid stood taller than any other man-made structure in the world. Today, the Berg Califa in Dubai is the world's tallest man-made structure, at a standset over 27 feet, 100 feet high, 2700 feet high. Let me get that clear.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Number four it's thought that as few as 20,000 or as many as 200,000 workers were involved in the construction of the pyramids. This assumption made by historians and scientists is based on two ideas, the first being that the ancient Greek historian, herodotus, claimed that construction took 20 years and 100,000 men, which is believable because these agricultural workers were likely only building when the Nile River flooded, left less work to be done in the fields, more hands ready for the pyramid. However, archaeologists later found evidence in the 20th century that as few as 20,000 workers could have been permanently, rather than seasonally, building the Great Pyramid. So we really don't know. I mean, we're talking so long ago, 4500 years ago not a lot to tell us. It's the best guess based on the evidence we have. It'll be interesting to see what evidence comes forward in the future. Number five in the 12th century, a Kurdish ruler attempted to destroy one of the pyramids, but only successfully damaged the smallest one, leaving a vertical gash on the North Face. This attempted destruction was unsuccessful as the task was simply too big, proving to be incredibly expensive and time consuming. Mencarra's pyramids suffered a deep gash but is otherwise intact to this day.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Number six the Orion Correlation Theory. This was introduced in 1983 by Robert Bovell. This theory makes the claim that the three great pyramids of Giza are positioned in alignment with the three main stars of the Orion's Belt constellation and that this orientation was intentional. While it seems possible, this theory has received a good amount of criticism and rebuttal. But again, it's a theory. I find all of it interesting and I do wonder myself about all these mysteries. I would love to be able to time travel back and be there at that time and know more about this.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Let's talk about these pyramids today. Tomb robbers and other vandals, both in ancient and modern times have removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt's pyramids, and they plundered their exteriors as well Stripped. They originally had smooth white limestone coverings and, as you can see, they're now. The jagged stones that were underneath the great pyramids no longer reached their original heights because of that limestone covering being stolen. For example, khufu's pyramid measures only 451 feet high. Now, however, millions of people continue to visit these pyramids every year, drawn by the towering grand door and the enduring allure of Egypt's rich and glorious past.

Speaker 1: 18:22

I hope you've enjoyed this. I appreciate the listeners who suggested this topic and I worked it into the schedule as quickly as I could. I'm always open to suggestions and I appreciate them. I want you to know you can go to my Patreon page, the Angel Room, and you do not have to pay to be a subscriber to watch the extension of this, which is a little a similar topic, but the topic is Wildest Conspiracy Theories about the Pyramids. So you can go to Patreon again and it's called the Angel Room and you can look for this. It'll be posted Sunday shortly after the podcast is posted there, so about 12, 10 mountain standard time. Please tune in next Sunday. The topic is Angel Colors the White Light Ray. I've been wanting to talk to you about this for quite a long time so I somehow kept forgetting about it, but my angels reminded me. Put that back on the schedule. So in the meantime, may your angels surround you. May your angels protect you every moment, every day of your life. I'll see you next week.