Saturday, June 18, 2005
Endless sand dunes over the land of eygpt,
with the white sands flowing endlessly...
The country i wish to visit most would be Eygpt, with the Great Pyramids of Giza, and the fancinating history and stories of Rameses and the different Pharoah's reign.
The monument was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he dies. The tradition of pyramid building started in Ancient Egypt as a sophistication of the idea of a mastaba or "platform" covering the royal tomb. Later, several stacked mastabas were used. Early pyramids, such as the Step Pyramid of King Zoser at Saqqara by the famous Egyptian architect, Imhotep, illustrate this connection.The great pyramid is believed to have been built over a 20 year period. The site was first prepared, and blocks of stone were transported and placed. An outer casing (which disappeared over the years) was then used to smooth the surface. Although it is not known how the blocks were put in place, several theories have been proposed. One theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded. This ramp, coated with mud and water, eased the displacement of the blocks which were pushed (or pulled) into place. A second theory suggests that the blocks were placed using long levers with a short angled foot.
When it was built, the Great pyramid was 145.75 m (481 ft) high. Over the years, it lost 10 m (30 ft) off its top. It ranked as the tallest structure on Earth for more than 43 centuries, only to be surpassed in height in the nineteenth century AD. It was covered with a casing of stones to smooth its surface (some of the casing can still be seen near the top of Khefre's pyramid). The sloping angle of its sides is 51 degrees and 51 minutes. Each side is carefully oriented with one of the cardinal points of the compass, that is, north, south, east, and west. The horizontal cross section of the pyramid is square at any level, with each side measuring 229 m (751 ft) in length. The maximum error between side lengths is astonishingly less than 0.1%. I believe this is a very astonishing feat, being able to build such huge architectures without the help of modern technology, it is almost unbelievable that homo sapians were able to build such things, like the Great Wall, The Stonehedge and other ancient buldings.
References: http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/pyramid.html
*[[ And they lived happily ever after... ]]* ;
+ 11:09 PM `
