FREE ESSAY ON THE GREAT PYRAMID

THE GREAT PYRAMID

The Great Pyramid
The great pyramid was built during the reign of Khufu, 2nd king 
of the fourth dynasty (2,720-2,560 BC). It stands on the Giza 
plateau nearby Cairo and is the biggest pyramid in the world. It 
measures 230 m (756 ft) on each side of its base and originally 
measured 147 m (482 ft) high. Beginning in the 10th century AD 
the entire Giza complex served as a source of building materials 
for the construction of Cairo; as a result, all three pyramids 
were stripped of their original smooth outer facing of limestone. 
The core masonry consists of large blocks of local limestone 
taken from the nearby quarries and built around and over a rocky 
knoll. The size of the knoll cannot be determined, since it is 
completely covered by the pyramid. The entrance to the pyramid is 
in the center of the northern face. It is located in the 
thirteenth course of masonry from the base. This entrance has a 
pointed roof formed of massive slabs of local limestone and opens 
into a long steeply descending passage. From there a 36 meters 
long ascending passage leads to a 35 meters long horizontal 
passage that leads to the so called 'Queen's chamber'. This 
chamber measures 5.2 by 5.7 meters and the maximum height of its 
pointed roof is about 15 meters. The north and south walls each 
have a small hole a few centimeters square about 1 meter from the 
floor. These lead into narrow channels that originally opened on 
the exterior of the pyramid. At the juncture of the ascending 
and horizontal passage is an opening of a shaft which descends to 
a depth of 60 meters. It opens into the lower part of the 
descending passage, close to the unfinished, underground chamber, 
and is believed to have been an escape shaft for the workmen who 
filed the ascending passage with huge stones after the king's 
funeral. 
From the horizontal passage the Grand Gallery, which leads to 
the king's chamber, starts. It is 47 meters long and 8.5 meters 
high, and has a corbelled roof. In the center of the floor is a 
sunken ramp about 60 centimeters deep. The Grand Gallery ends in 
a horizontal granite passage which serves as an antechamber. It 
measures 8.4 meters long and 3.1 meters high, and has slots for 
three portcullises. Beyond the antechamber is the so-called 
'King's Chamber' which is lined, roofed and paved with red 
granite. It measures 5.2 by 10.8 meters and is 5.8 meters high. 
Its flat roof is formed of nine monolithic slabs of granite. The 
northern and southern walls each have an 'air channel', one of 
which is open to the outside. The Pyramid can be seen to have 
about two hundred level courses of squared stones. The layers 
all have a different thickness ranging between approximately 50 
and 145 centimeters. The average block size is about 1 cubic 
meter. 
On the Khufu pyramid, all the casing elements were removed in 
the 14th century. The few casing stones which do remain in the 
Great Pyramid all lie in the 1.5 meter thick bottom course and 
cannot be representative of the stones which would have been used 
in the higher parts of the construction. The only examples of 
face work such as this which remain are those on the pyramids at 
Meidum, Dashur andGiza.