Engineering the Pyramids of Giza

Engineering the Pyramids of Giza — page 3 — FUNERALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT The ancient Egyptians believed that death was not an end to life It was a journey to eternal life To prepare for a safe journey a person had to honor the gods who ruled over Earth When the person died loved ones buried the body with tools food and drink The person WHY PYRAMIDS In ancient Egypt a mound of earth was a symbol of new life The people lived along the Nile River Every year the river rose and flooded the land nearby When the water dropped again it left behind rich soil Plants grew there starting on the highest mounds of earth A pyramid stood for a mound of earth It was a symbol of new life after a time of waiting needed these items to journey through the world of the dead and reach eternal life in paradise Ordinary people were buried in the ground with some everyday objects and food Important people were buried in tombs The more important The pyramids incredible scale continues to impress visitors today more than 4,500 years after their construction 6

Engineering the Pyramids of Giza — page 4

Engineering the Pyramids of Giza — page 5 — people were the more elaborate their burials were For example elite Egyptians were sometimes mummified or preserved Their tombs contained many supplies And the tombs themselves were often large and fancy BIG FANCY TOMBS The biggest fanciest tombs are the pyramids Some of Egypt’s pharaohs or kings had pyramids built for themselves When Khufu’s son Khafre became king he ordered his own pyramid built Thousands of workers were needed to carry out this order Khafre’s pyramid rose slowly from the desert It stands just southwest of Khufu’s pyramid Khufu’s pyramid took about 20 years to build Khafre’s took about that long too When Khafre died his son Menkaure became pharaoh He too had a pyramid built nearby The pyramids are massive Khufu’s the largest is 481 feet 147 m tall The pyramids are made of stone blocks weighing an average of 2 5 tons 2 3 metric tons each And the ancient Egyptians had 8

Engineering the Pyramids of Giza — page 6 — Egyptian mummies are on display at museums around the world including this one in Cairo Egypt only simple building tools They made their own axes chisels and hammers from copper wood and stone They didn’t have pulleys or cranes Those had not been invented yet 9

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