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KF5JRV > TODAY 12.01.19 14:37l 62 Lines 3124 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 29166_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 12
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190112/1228Z 29166@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.17
On this day, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the
Great Pyramids in Egypt overcomes years of frustration when it abandons
modern construction techniques in favor of the method employed by the
ancient Egyptians.
Located at Giza outside Cairo, some of the oldest manmade structures on
earth were showing severe signs of decay by the early 1980s. Successful
repair work began on the 4,600-year-old Sphinx in 1981, but restoration
of the pyramids proved destructive when water in modern cement caused
adjacent limestone stones to split. On January 12, 1984, restorers
stopped using mortar and adopted the system of interlocking blocks
practiced by the original pyramid builders. From thereon, the project
proceeded smoothly.
The ancient Egyptians built nearly 100 pyramids over a millennium to
serve as burial chambers for their royalty. They believed that the
pyramids eased the monarchs’ passage into the afterlife, and the sites
served as centers of religious activity. During the Old Kingdom, a
period of Egyptian history that lasted from the late 26th century B.C.
to the mid-22nd century B.C., the Egyptians built their largest and most
ambitious pyramids.
The three enormous pyramids situated at Giza outside of Cairo were built
by King Khufu, his son, and his grandson in the Fourth Dynasty. The
largest, known as the Great Pyramid, was built by Khufu and is the only
one of the “Seven Wonders of the Worldö from antiquity that still
survives. The Great Pyramid was built of approximately 2.3 million
blocks of stone and stood nearly 50 stories high upon completion. Its
base forms a nearly perfect and level square, with sides aligned to the
four cardinal points of the compass.
The Great Pyramid is composed primarily of yellowish limestone blocks
and was originally covered in an outer casing of smooth light-colored
limestone. This finer limestone eroded and was carried away in later
centuries, but the material can still be found in the inner passages.
The interior burial chamber was built of huge blocks of granite. It is
believed that construction of the pyramid took 20 years and involved
over 20,000 workers, bakers, carpenters, and water carriers. The exact
method in which this architectural masterpiece was built is not
definitively known, but the leading theory is that the Egyptians
employed an encircling embankment of sand, brick, and earth that was
increased in height as the pyramid rose.
In addition to Khufu’s mummy, interior rooms of the pyramid held objects
for the deceased to use in the afterlife. Many of these items were
valuable, and tomb robbers had long ago robbed the pyramids of their
treasures before modern archeologists began studying the structures in
the 17th century.
King Khafre, the grandson of Khufu, built the Great Sphinx, which was
carved from a single block of limestone left over in a quarry used to
build the pyramids. The Sphinx has the body of a recumbent lion and a
human face meant to represent Khafre. There are no known inner chambers
in the structure.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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