Facts about great ancient pyramids

Most of the Egyptian Pyramids were built as tombs for the Pharaohs and their families.

Ancient Egyptian Pyramids are the most well known Pyramid structures.

Saqqara is a huge ancient burial ground built near the Egyptian city of Memphis.

There are over 130 Pyramids that have been discovered in Egypt.

The first ever Egyptian Pyramid is believed to be the Pyramid of Djoser, which was built at Saqqara around 2640 BC, over 4650 years ago

Though Egypt comes to most of our minds whenever we read Pyramid facts, there are actually many similar structures built all over the world.

In fact, the largest Pyramid in the world is actually in Mexico.

However, the reason most of us think of Egypt when it comes to Pyramid facts is because there are over 130 Pyramids there.

One of the oldest Pyramids in Egypt is believed to be more than 4,500 years old.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is recognized for having made out of 2,300,000 blocks of stone. Most of the stones weigh between 2 and 30 tons, and some weigh more than 50 tons.

Three Pyramids, those of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure are so perfectly aligned with the stars that they form the constellation of Orion’s belt.

Another mind blowing fact is the descending passage of the Great Pyramid points to the pole star known as Alpha Draconis.

Inside the Egyptian Pyramids, the temperature stays constant all the time and it is always around 20 degrees Celsius.

Though there is a strong belief that in Egyptian Pyramids, hieroglyphics exist, there are actually no hieroglyphics within the Great Pyramid.

Today, we see that the Pyramids are covered with sand. However, this wasn’t the scene in their original form. They were well polished with limestone in such a way, it could reflect the sun’s light like a mirror. This is why Egyptians called it as ‘Ikhet’ which means ‘Glorious Light’.

The Great Pyramid accurately faces to the true North of any structure on the planet.

Although it was made several centuries ago, it faces that direction with just 3/60th a degree of error. However, this could be due to the shifting of North Pole overtime.

The sides of the Great Pyramid are concave. This is the only Pyramid with this unique feature.

The granite coffer in the Great Pyramid is the “King’s Chamber”. It is actually considered too big to fit through the passages. So, it might have been put in place during the construction.

The Great Pyramid is estimated to weigh around 5,955,000 tons.

Of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Pyramid is the only one that is still standing.

It is believed that on average they would have taken over 200 years to build each Pyramid. Probably when one was under construction, the construction of another one would have begun.

Until the Eiffel Tower came into existence in 1889, the Great Pyramid was the tallest structure in the entire world despite being over 4500 years old!

Apart from Giza and Saqqara, other important Egyptian Pyramid sites include Dashur, Abusir, Meidum, Lisht, Abu Rawash and others.

Source: metroeasy.in

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