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The pyramids of Cheops   
      

  The largest pyramid ever built in Egypt was known as the horizon of Cheops this buildings astonishing in the precision of its execution rightly heads the list of the seven wonders of the ancient world it is 760 ft 230.38 m square and the sides diverge from the average length only by  a maximum 4 1\4 in 11 cm at the top of the structure the divergence is a mere 3\4 in 2.1 cm.

The pyramid of Cheops originally rose to a height of 479 ft 146.6 m , but the top and pyramidion capping it are now missing entailing a loss in height of some 32 ft 10 m.

Apart from some small remnants, the facing blocks of white time stone from the quarries of Tura on the eastern bank of the main part of the masonry the builders of the local numulithic limestone, each weighing 2.5 tones, rising above one another in 210 courses.

The northern entrance now used is a tomb robbers passageway from the caliphate period, situated slightly below the original point of access. After about 1241\2 ft 38 m, a narrow corridor leads into the great gallery, from which a horizontal passage branches off into a burial chamber from the first phase of building.

At the far end of the great gallery a short passage then leads to the final burial chamber, where the empty sarcophagus of the ruler still stands. Unlike the pyramid, the cult buildings on the eastern side are poorly preserved. Little remains of the mortuary temple except the black basalt paving of the courtyard.

Three smaller pyramids for the queens rise directly beside the main pyramid. Huge boat pits were dug on both sides of the mortuary temple and at the start of the causeway now destroyed to the valley temple.

Two more pits on the southern side of the pyramid still contained the dismantled mortuary boats of Cheops, one of which has been reassembled and is exhibited  where it was found, in a special museum building over the old boat pit.                                            
 
    The great gallery   
  Leading diagonally upward, this monumental gallery is 154 ft 47 m long, and as a narrowing corbel vault the last room ever built in this style in seven courses, roofed at the top with horizontally laid stone slabs.

The enormous dimension of the hall are explained by the fact that the stone blocks some 25 of them required to close the lower part of the corridor after small lateral niches on the walls mark the places which supported massive wooden beams to positions these blocks and prevent them from slipping prematurely out of place

 
 
    The portcullis system in the pyramid of Cheops  
  a short passageway only 4 ft 1.10 m high begins at the end of the great gallery, and leads into a long chamber containing three granite slabs poised to drop and seal off access.

The burial chamber lies beyond them. Since the building of the bent pyramid of Snefru, a device consisting of three stone slabs placed one after another had been part of the design; the idea was to block the corridor to the burial chamber and protect the dead ruler’s resting place.

 However, even this obstacle could not ultimately foil tomb robbers: they either went around the stone slabs or chiseled a way through them.

 
  The burial chamber
  The burial chamber in the pyramid of Cheops, measuring 33 * 17 ft 10.50 * 5.20 m is a good 138 ft 42 m above ground level, and was built entirely of red granite.

 The nine mighty monolithic slabs of the ceiling alone have a span of 17 1\2 ft 5.5 m , and each weighs between 30 and 40 tones 7 ft;2.30 m long , which once contained other interior coffins and the mummy, stands not quite centrally in the room.

 It must have been brought in during the buildings work, since it would not have fitted along any of the corridors. The two narrow shafts leading out of the north and south walls were not to provide ventilation, but had a symbolic function: they were to ensure that the pharaoh’s transfigured spirit could rise to the stars.

 Five weight-relieving chambers still accessible) with a gabled (saddle) roof over them were built above the burial chamber; modern calculation have shown that this was a rather excessive measure to relieve the huge weight of the stone.

 Quarry inscriptions bearing the name of Cheops have been found on the blocks of masonry in the weight-relieving chambers, and prove for certain that he was the king for whom the pyramid was intended.

 
    The western cemetery at Giza  
  The layout of the pyramid complex as a whole reflected the social hierarchy of the country, which was expected to be maintained as before in the next world.

 In line with the divine position of the kings the pyramids as royal tombs, tower above all other buildings.
The queen’s pyramids are considerably more modest in size.

Court officials had themselves buried in their mastaba tombs around the pyramids of Cheops.

At the time of Cheops and Chephren, burial in the various sections of the cemetery followed a clearly organized plan. The eastern area, near the pyramid of Cheops was reserved for members of the royal family, while the courtiers were assigned to the western cemetery.

 However, the grid – like pattern of the tombs was to a great extent impaired by annexes and additional structures built on to them in the late old Kingdom period.

The super structure of a large mastaba consisted of limestone blocks with faced, slightly sloping outer sides.

A cult chapel with an offerings dish lay in front of its eastern side; the shafts to the underground burial chamber led down from the main superstructure.

 It was in the core area of the western cemetery that Hermann Junker carried out most of his excavations; he was extremely successful there between 1912 and 1929, working on behalf of both the academy of Sciences and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

 
The Pyramid of Cheops

The largest pyramid ever built in Egypt was known as the horizon of Cheops. This is building, astonishing in the precision of its execution

The Pyramid of Chephren

king Chephren had his pyramid built in Giza at a diagonal angle to the building erected by Cheops.

The Pyramid of Mycerinus

The modest height of the pyramid of Mycerinus, which formerly reached 216 ft (66 m), may have been a country...
 
The Great Sphinx

The figure of the great Sphinx was worked from a rocky out crop. The colossal sculpture (240 x 65 ft; 73.5 x 20 m)
 
The Solar Barque of Cheops

In 1954, yet another sensational find was in the necropolis area of Giza, already far from lacking in major discoveries. While work was in progress directly in front of the south side of the pyramid of Cheops.
 
Egyptian Museum

The first Egyptian Museum of Pharaonic antiquities was established in 1863 by the famous French archeologist, Auguste Mariette. Afterwards, because of the many Pharaonic treasurers discovered in Egypt .
 
Memphis

The present situation of the ancient capital of Egypt could hardly be put more cogently, for very little of the former glory of the metropolis remains. A few colossal royal statues, the great alabaster sphinx.

Saqqara

Beside the cemetery area of the western Thebes, Saqqara is the most extensive mortuary town in Egypt, and it is known to have been used from the early Dynastic period (First / Second Dynasties)

The Pyramid Complex of Djoser

The great burial district of King Djoser forms the lonely peak in the development of the royal burial sites of the early 3rd millennium B.C. which combine elements of the upper Egypt and lower Egyptian traditions.
 
Dahshur

Only a few miles south of Saqqara stretches the important and extensive pyramid field of Dahshur (opened to the public 1996). Immediately on the edge of the fertile land lie the brick buildings of tree rules of the Twelfth Dynasty.
 
The Coptic Museum

The  Coptic museum, founded in 1908 by Marcus Simaika Pasha, contains the largest collection of Coptic monuments in the world.

The el-Moallaqa Church

The church of the Virgin Mary was constructed above the two 59-ft (18-m) towers of the southern gateway of the fortress of Babylon

Jewish Monuments

The Moses Ben Maimon synagogue is an important historical and religious monument in Egypt, and its restoration will return a piece of Jewish heritage to Egypt.
 
Al-Azhar Mosque

No other mosque in Cairo surpasses Al-Azhar , "The Flowering," in tradition and importance. Soon after its foundation in 970 A.D. it became the site of university studies, which continued there to the present.
 
Ibn Tulun Mosque

Cairo owns one of its oldest and most beautiful mosques to Ahmed Ibn Tulun, founder of the short lived Tulunid dynasty.
 
Mosque of Sultan Hasan

The mosque built below the citadel by Sultan Hasan 91347-1361) is among the outstanding achievements of Islamic architecture.
 
Muhammad Ali Mosque ( The Citadel of Cairo)

The citadel of Cairo was built under Ayyubid dynasty between 1176 and 1207, and later extended to Mamluk and Ottoman pashas, Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad (1294 - 1340) had a mosque as well as his principal palace built there.

Bab el-Futuh

In the lat 11th century Vizier Badr Al Jamali had a massive fortress laid out around the residence of Cairo

Mosque of Qait Bey

This complex is among the finest buildings in Cairo, It consists of a portal area with well, a minaret.
 
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Cairo Map

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