00:00Consider the Great Pyramids, one of the original seven wonders of the world and the only one
00:06that still exists today.
00:08Did you know that the Pyramids of Giza weren't the only pyramids out there?
00:12And they weren't even the first ones.
00:14First, there were the Pretty Good Pyramids, but they didn't catch on.
00:18Nah, I made that up.
00:21Back to the story.
00:22In ancient Egypt, it was believed that kings were chosen by gods to serve on Earth as their
00:27mediators.
00:29In the afterlife, they were expected to become gods themselves.
00:33The pyramid complex was built to make sure that the king had everything they might need
00:38in the afterlife.
00:39The complex included the pyramid, a palace, and temples.
00:43The tomb in the pyramid, where the king was buried, was filled with many things they might
00:48need, like furniture, food, and gold vessels.
00:52Actually, the first pyramid had been built 80 years before the first pyramid of Giza
00:57appeared.
00:59After all, there were around 100 of them.
01:01Some weren't finished, though, since the construction took a while, and not every pharaoh
01:06lived long enough to see the end of the construction.
01:09And now let's talk about the construction itself.
01:12The biggest of the Pyramids of Giza is as tall as a 40-story building.
01:17So how on Earth did they manage to build a structure that massive 5,000 years ago, long
01:23before machines and other equipment appeared?
01:26Well, let's figure it out.
01:29So Pharaoh Khufu ascended the throne around 2575 BCE, and his architects started the construction
01:36of the oldest and biggest of the Pyramids of Giza.
01:40He figured that over 2 million limestone blocks had to be used to build the pyramid, each
01:45weighing around 2.5 tons, around the weight of a rhino.
01:49The architect wanted to finish the construction in 20 years.
01:53To make it possible, a stone had to be carried and pushed into place every 4 minutes, 24
01:59hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, except leap year.
02:05So obviously, a lot of workers were needed to make it happen.
02:08Many believe that it was enslaved people who worked at the pyramid's construction site.
02:13But that's not true.
02:15Workers came from all over Egypt to contribute to the project.
02:19All in all, around 25,000 of them.
02:22The Egyptians were doing all kinds of work, starting with manual labor and crafting tools,
02:27to administrative work.
02:29They all worked around 10 hours a day.
02:31They were housed and well-fed, and they were overall living a more comfortable life than
02:36an average Egyptian could afford at that time.
02:39Supposedly, the builders lived in a nearby temporary city and were a highly organized
02:44community with a strong leader.
02:47The pyramids seemed to be designed to align with the points on a compass, and their sides
02:52symbolized the rays of the sun.
02:55But back at that time, there were no compasses.
02:58Ancient Egyptians figured out the directions themselves and with amazing precision.
03:04To align the pyramids, they used two constellations.
03:07The construction site was arranged on the west bank of the Nile River.
03:11This also had a symbolic meaning.
03:14Just like the sun sets in the west, life sets in the west as well.
03:19The second pyramid of Giza was for Khufu's son, Pharaoh Khafre.
03:23It's a bit smaller, but this one has the famous noseless statue of the Sphinx.
03:29Of course, originally, it had a nose.
03:31I would tell you what happened to it, but it's still a mystery, and no one knows for
03:36sure.
03:39Sphinxes have the body of a lion and the head of a human.
03:42They were considered guardians of important areas.
03:45This famous Sphinx, also pronounced Sphinx, has the head of Pharaoh Khafre and is guarding
03:51his pyramid, facing the sunrise.
03:53The Sphinx is one of the biggest and oldest statues in the world.
03:57Originally, it not only had a nose, but was also painted.
04:02Scientists have discovered traces of the red color of its face.
04:05So most likely, the Sphinx was painted red.
04:08There are also remains of yellow and blue color on its body.
04:11The statue definitely wasn't boring.
04:14Till around 1800, the Sphinx was buried up to its shoulders until an adventurer with
04:19a team of 160 men dug it out.
04:24But let's get back to the construction.
04:26The workers, of course, needed stone blocks.
04:29There were two main places where people could get these stones.
04:32One source was close to the construction site.
04:35But that fossil-lined yellow stone was only suitable for the pyramid's interior.
04:40The limestone blocks for the exterior were hauled from 8 miles away on 30-foot-long
04:46sleds.
04:47Apparently, it wasn't too hard to pull them.
04:49The sand mixed with the right amount of water was pretty slick, and 10 people could move
04:54a sled even with a rock weighing so much.
04:58Surprisingly, cutting off a block of limestone wasn't the biggest problem, when in the
05:03ground it was soft and could be split relatively easy.
05:07After getting exposed to the air, limestone hardens, so the most difficult part was to
05:13shape the blocks.
05:15That step was crucial because the smallest inaccuracies could lead to the whole pyramid
05:20collapsing.
05:21So, okay, those limestones were mined, carried on a sled, shaped, and then what?
05:27How could they be put into place?
05:29Well, this is still a mystery.
05:32Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a ramp system that dates back around the
05:36time the pyramids were being built.
05:38So historians have come to the consensus that, most likely, the Egyptians designed a unique
05:44ramp system to move and pull huge stone blocks.
05:48The most common opinion is that there were several ramps around the pyramid.
05:52There probably was a central ramp with two staircases on each side of it built over the
05:57pyramid stones.
05:59The ramp was growing as the pyramid was getting higher.
06:02People might've been walking up the stairs, pulling up stones on wooden sleds.
06:07But this is just one of the options.
06:09Other experts say that the ramps were around the pyramid.
06:13And some say that the ramps were inside the pyramid.
06:16Maybe we will never know for sure, and it'll forever remain a mystery.
06:21The exterior limestone of the pyramid was polished with sand and stone until it gleamed.
06:27On top, there was a gold and silver capstone, which glimmered over Egypt like a second sun.
06:33So that's how it was 5,000 years ago.
06:37Now about the interior.
06:39Surprisingly, there's not much inside the pyramid.
06:42Most of it is just solid stone with very little open space.
06:47But let's take a quick look inside.
06:49From the entrance, there are two stairways, one going down and the other going up.
06:54They take us to the chambers.
06:56There are three of them inside.
06:58Now why is that?
07:00Apparently, throughout the whole construction, a burial chamber had to be prepared at all
07:05times, just in case a pharaoh kicked the bucket before the construction ended.
07:10So separate chambers were built one after another as the construction progressed.
07:16The last of them was the main one.
07:18It's called the King's Chamber.
07:19It's the one where Khufu was resting.
07:22It's the biggest room at the very heart of the pyramid, and there's a big passageway
07:26leading to it.
07:27It was likely used as a kind of elevator to move granite up to build the interior.
07:33Granite was also used to make five stories of support beams to ensure that the pyramid
07:38didn't collapse.
07:40And we can see that it worked since it's been standing for centuries.
07:43Unfortunately, none of these chambers have hieroglyphs on the walls.
07:47If you want to see the writings, you should go to the decorated tombs near the pyramids.
07:52Those pieces of art are depictions of ancient Egypt's culture and daily life.
07:57The texts allow researchers to study their language and grammar.
08:01The treasures that once were in the pyramids have been taken by people.
08:06There were also many secret tunnels and passages inside the pyramids, but even today, no one
08:12knows the whole plan of the interior.
08:16Scientists have been sending little robots with cameras inside for many years, but there's
08:21still a lot we don't know about the pyramids.
08:23Now they're trying to use an X-ray to scan the pyramids from the outside, without going
08:28inside.
08:29So yeah, ancient Egyptians did create a mystery no one has been able to crack for 5,000 years
08:36already.
08:37That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:44and share it with your friends!
08:46Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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