There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt, most of wich were built as tombs for the country's Pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. Built almost 5,000 years ago in what is now Cairo, the three-pyramid complex with the largest, Khufu, dominating the site is a testament to the ancient Egyptians' reverence for their Pharaohs and the intricacies of their belief in the afterlife.
The Great Pyramid is the most remarkable building in existence on the face of our planet today. It was built with such precision that our current technology cannot replicate it. Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques.
The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby workers' camps associated with construction at Giza suggest it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers. Verner posited that the labour was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.
This pyramid is so precisely constructed that until recently (with the advent of laser measuring equipment) scientists were not able to discover some of its subtle symmetries (not to mention duplicate them). Among other aspects, there are also very exact geometric relationships between all the structures in the pyramid complex at Giza.
The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence and was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889. More than 14 million sandstone blocks make up the pyramids which were originally covered in limestone. Funilly enough this limestone wasn't stolen but used by the native egyptians as building material.
Archaeologists are still discovering new tunnels and shafts built within the pyramids, and are still searching for clues on who built the great monuments, how and why, even today.
Photo source: wikipedia.org
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