The pyramid necropolis of Cheops
pyramid necropolis of Cheops was built on the north-east of the Giza plateau. Cheops chose a naturally high plateau so that his future pyramid would be widely visible.
Cheops decided to call his necropolis Achet-Cheops which means “horizon of Cheops”. The pyramid necropolis of Cheops is the first true pyramid in Egypt, and also the largest of all the pyramids that were built.
It has a base of approximately 230 x 230 meters, was originally 146.59 meters high and contains approximately 2.3 million stones, each with an average weight of 2500 kilograms. Now the pyramid is only 138.75 meters high.
This brings the volume to approximately 2.6 million m³. There has been a lot of stone theft over the centuries, and in many houses in Giza near the pyramid you will find many blocks from the pyramid. The construction of the pyramid took about 20 years.
The interior of the pyramid consists of local limestone and above it a layer of polished Tura limestone was placed, making the pyramid appear to shine in the sunlight.
The Tura limestone is deep underground and instead of an open mine, the miners made tunnels deep underground to cut out the large stones, leaving limestone in the shape of columns to support the caves.
These quarries are located between present-day Cairo and Helwan. The papyri found in 2013 give us great insight into what was happening during the construction of the Great Pyramid. And especially the government of King Cheops. They are the oldest yet found written in early hieratic and hieroglyphic papyrus.
For a long time the Al-Gebelein papyrus was the oldest written at the end of the 4th dynasty and then comes the Abusir papyrus which dates from the end of the 5th dynasty. The papyri of Cheops were found in the Wadi-Al-Jarf near Zafarana about 120 km south of Suez,
at the entrance of 2 caves. Ropes and remains of ships were also found with the papyri. The port of Wadi-Al-Jarf is one of the oldest ports in the world.
Two more harbors have been found with the same structure as Wadi-al-Jarf, but they date from the Middle Kingdom. One is located north of Zafarana near Suez and the other south near Safaga, the Wadi Gawasis.
Thanks to the discovery of the papyri, we have obtained a lot of new information from the time of King Cheops. We now know for sure that the reign of King Cheops lasted 26 years.
There are also many details on the papyrus about delivering and ordering goods, food and paying salaries to the port’s workers. We also see that many of the goods were delivered from the Nile Delta. And that the food came from different provinces of the country. All this was written down in the form of registers.
What had arrived was entered in black and what was still on order in red. Two papyruses of 1.5 and 2 meters long were also found among the papyrus. These are a kind of diaries of the middle class Civil Servant More.
He was in charge of about 40 men of workers and sailors who removed the large blocks of limestone from the
Tura quarry on the east side of the Nile, via the Nile and a special dug canal to the under construction
had to bring the pyramid, this took 2 to 3 days. He describes in the papyri the daily life of the workers.
The blocks were brought to the pyramid under construction via the Nile and a specially dug canal system, which took 4 days.
The papyri of Cheops also mentioned a central and lodging center by name.
The Roshe-Cheops. Everything was supervised from here and the orders came from.
It also states that the supervision of this office rested with Prince Ankh-Haef,
a younger half brother of King Cheops and also the Vizier of Lower Egypt.
He had probably also taken over the work of Prince Hemiunu, a cousin of the two brothers who was the Great architect of the Pyramid of King Cheops.
But unfortunately he died before the pyramid was finished. The papyrus also gives us quite detailed insight into the officials who were in charge of the construction work during the building of the pyramid. And the strict regime that applied during the reign of King Cheops.
The pyramid necropolis of Cheops is the only one of the seven classical wonders of the world that has been preserved to this day.
The original Egyptian name was “Horizon of Cheops”. This name may refer to the role the pyramid played in a mystery in which stars played a leading role.
pyramid was said to be the instrument through which the soul of the dead king could ascend to heaven to go “to the sun god Re”.
The top of the pyramid was covered by a capstone, the so-called Benben stone, which may have been made of gold.
The Greeks called the stone the pyramidion.
The pyramid is said to have been intended as a tomb and represented the hill on which the sun god Re had stood when he created the other gods and goddesses.
D Pyramid is also built precisely in such a way that its four sides are positioned exactly towards the four cardinal points: north, east, south and west.
It is not known exactly how this was done. There was no North Star at that time to indicate north.
According to research, the Egyptians used the position of the sun at different times of the year to determine the positions of the cardinal points.
The Great Pyramid was probably about 20 years in the making.
It is believed that it was not slaves who worked on it, but paid workers.
However, the way it was built is still a big mystery.
Most scholars think the stones were brought up on a mound of mud and sand. This mound must have been many times larger than the pyramid itself.
The original entrance to the pyramid is on the north side.
This entrance was open in ancient times, but was hidden again due to earthquakes.
In the 10th century, an Arab treasure hunter created a new entrance in the north side, providing access to the internal structure.
From the entrance, a descending corridor of about 1 square meter extends into the rock below the pyramid.
The corridor ends in an unfinished underground room.
The descending corridor connects to an upward corridor that ultimately leads to the burial chambers.
This corridor is also very small and was originally closed off from the descending corridor by granite plugs.
The ascending corridor ends in the large gallery, an impressive construction in the center of the pyramid.
At the intersection of the ascending corridor and the entrance to the large gallery there is a corridor straight ahead,
which opens into the so-called queen’s chamber.
Upwards one arrives again at a double low passage between which, in the past, probably
there was a trap door to close off the king’s burial chamber.
Finally, one enters the burial chamber, which is made of pink granite and is the only thing in it
the room stands is the pink granite sarcophagus of the king.
An interesting detail in both rooms is the presence of shafts
These are not air shafts, because they do not reach the surface or into the rooms, in the north and south walls.
