Ancient Egypt Research Paper

Superior Essays
Ancient Egypt – A Civilization of Mysteries Egypt has been one of the most impenetrable, spectacular civilizations in human history. Egypt’s footprints are immense on later cultures such as Greek, and Roman. Undoubtedly, Egyptian concepts and perspectives is still impactful, and reflective in modern society, from art, architecture, mathematics, philosophy, and politics, to name a few. Ancient Egyptian civilization spanned for more than 3000 years, with several periods and transitions (Calvert). Pre-dynastic indicated the time period before unification under Pharaoh, whereas dynastic era began with the domination of a single ruler. Dynastic period composes of distinct, representative periods, including Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom …show more content…
The Great Pyramid has been the resting place of King Khufu since 2550 BC, approximately 4000 years ago. In fact, the Great Pyramid of Giza composed of 170,000 tons of limestone. Specifically, the rocks came from Tuna, a place located eight miles from Giza, whereas granite was excavated from 500 miles away (Zatat). Therefore, one of the most debatable mysteries among archeologists is how the ancient Egyptians transported these materials to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. A group of researchers working at the Giza pyramid complex have painstakingly decoded the oldest papyrus found in the world, which reveals that thousands of trained sailors navigated boats throughout canals along the River Nile to deliver limestone to the pyramid’s building site (Zatat). According to the papyri, one boat trip took four days (Jarus). The researchers estimated that 2.3 million blocks of stone were transported in twenty years (Zatat). In fact, archeologists effectively outlined the central canal basin, believing it was the primary route to border of Giza. Theoretically, Egyptian workers would have utilized large sledges to help push the vast stones overland. Physicists suggested that dampened water in front of the sledges could have been useful in reducing friction, therefore, only half of the labor force could sufficiently pull a sledge over wet sand, compared to dry sand condition (Jarus). These materials were …show more content…
All modern scholars, and scientists agree that the Great Pyramid was purely human monument, which indirectly refutes the popular myth of aliens being involved. Contemporary Egyptologists estimate that the creation of the Great Pyramid required roughly 10,000 workers throughout the course (“Who Built the Pyramids?”). Scholars have designed extensive experiments to replicate insightful operations of Egyptian workers. Experiments have demonstrated that only four to six people could be working on one block simultaneously (“Who Built the Pyramids?”). For instance, two men could concentrate on levering and cutting, once the pivots were in place, two or three more workers could pivot it around, whereas another person could put a hard cobble under it (“Who Built the Pyramids?”). Approximately, 1200 men worked in the quarry, 2000 men focuses on delivering the building blocks, and few more thousands of workers were responsible for cutting the granite, and setting the stones. Furthermore, excavations have studied a port at Giza, where supplies, food, and people immigrated to the pyramid sites. Archaeologists discovered that high officials, and troops could have stayed in spacious homes in a nearby town. Contrary to that, the ordinary workers had to sleep in insufficient

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Pyramids Dbq

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Did you know that the pyramids in Egypt took 10 - 20 years to build? The pyramids were made out of perfectly cut blocks of stone. The blocks were put into place by strong levees, ramps, and bridges. These amazing huge structures were built to honor Egyptian kings. There is one thing we do not know about the pyramids, who built these grand monumental structures for the pharaoh?…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Known as one of the seven wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid of Giza is a defining symbol of Egypt in a few different ways. It was built as a tomb for the Egyptian ruler at the time, pharaoh Khufu, meaning Cheops in greek. It has a unique background of how it was built, why it is one of the seven wonders of the world and why this Great Pyramid was built. One of Egypt’s greatest mysteries is how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. This astonishing pyramid took twenty years to build, while the delicate engineering has kept it intact, even today.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ancient Egypt DBQ

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ancient Egypt was one of the world’s most developed civilizations for almost 3,000 years. In fact, four of the world's most important ancient cultures are known as the river civilizations. They were called the river civilizations because of the powerful influence a large river system had on the lives of people. The river system the Egyptians had to live off of was called the Nile River. Vitally important to Ancient Egypt, the Nile River provided significant social, cultural, and economic development.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What could possibly have made 10,000’s of people work for over a decade to construct the great pyramid in an age when mammoths still walked the earth? Religious reasons where have been the primary motivator for the construction. Economic reasons unique to Egypt helped. Cultural forces helped shape it, and the construction itself shaped culture. Rocks where cut and hauled from hundreds of miles away to build the great pyramids.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ancient Egyptians built massive tombs for their pharaohs filling them with gold, food, furniture and anything that they believed he would need in his afterlife. The most famous pyramids are those of Giza, also known as the “Great Pyramid of Giza”. Also named after the pharaoh that it was built for, “Pyramid of Khufu”, is the oldest and only surviving seven wonders of the ancient world. At 455 feet tall and an estimated 6 million tons, makes it by far the largest pyramid in the world. The Great Pyramid of Giza took about 20 years to finish using blocks of stone that weighed 2.5 tons a…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Egyptian Damwork

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Pages

    One extremely important Egyptian achievement is building the ramp, which led to building the pyramids. This definitely impacted the lives of Egyptian workers, because as shown in the documentary, after discovering the bodies of workers, it was determined that many of them had broken backs, most likely from carrying heavy blocks of stones. The remains of the ramp were discovered near the pyramids, and it is predicted that after the workers completed their task of building the pyramids, they simply destroyed the ramps because they didn’t need them anymore. The creation of the ramp let the workers more easily transport the limestone as they worked in groups to carry 2.5 tons in 2.5 minutes! Obviously, those blocks weighed them down a lot, and building…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The pyramid was assembled with over two million bricks of stone with some stones such as the granite slabs in the King’s chamber weighing thousands of pounds. The positioning and preciseness of every stone is argued to be utterly impossible for the technology at the time. Many theories have been introduced on the specific meaning for the pyramid, but the conclusion many historians have…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All the Pyramids in Egypt, including the pyramids of Giza, are situated on the west banks of river Nile. This is because when the sun sets every evening over it, it symbolizes the realm of the dead. 4. The Pyramids of Giza were made from approximately over 2 million stone blocks that range from two to over fifty tons. It is estimated that over 100,000 people were involved in the construction of the pyramid all of which were not slaves but paid workers.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Egyptian Pyramids Build

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The day-to-day life of workers constructing the pyramids was a tiresome routine. On hot sands workers dragged the largest granite blocks on wooden sleds weighing as much as seventy tons to build the pyramids. Egypt formed a huge agricultural empire, though all the production was done by hand. Recent archaeological site of the graves of pyramid workers show that some of the workers were missing limbs or had damaged…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How To Build Pyramids

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    About Egypt is a country in Africa (the middle east). When you think of ancient Egypt, you may think of a desert with no water and many camels. But people don't realize the amazing facts and achievements the ancient Egyptian people made and what they did to survive. Egypt is one of the most elegant and beautiful countries that I know of. Can you imagine how difficult it was for…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though many people think ancient Egyptian culture doesn’t have an effect on today’s world, we still practice things that the Ancient Egyptians set rules and guidelines for which includes the impact todays religion, sports, and other cultural advancements. New discoveries every year, keep people interested in the culture. The dynastic period started with the reign of Egypt’s first king, Narmer, in approximately 3100 BCE, and ended with the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. They are famous for their iconic monuments such as the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx, the Abu Simbel, and other well-known monuments. The well-known writing system that they used (Egyptian Hieroglyphs) is still currently being translated hard to translate.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life In Ancient Egypt

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages

    (“Mysteries of Egypt”; n.d. www.historymuseum.ca) Despite the differences between the government and religious cultural history of Egypt, the two does have an impact on each other.” In fact, the Egyptian has played a major role in creating and maintaining a religiously intolerant environment in Egypt that is hostile to non-Muslims and any Muslims who deviate from government-endorsed religious norms and…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How could the average human salve know where to place the pyramids? Many say that they were under the control of an alien like god, and others say the were just influenced by the god, Jehovah. With that being said researchers have found Greek writing located in the midst of the pyramids, why would there be Greek writing in an Egyptian pyramids? That is one of the claims that prove the alien theory and it also leads us to believe that a Greek god influenced the building of the pyramids. Others bounce of that theory and say that Satan took over the god, Jehovah, and later influenced the art and design of the pyramids (10 bizarre facts about the pyramids).…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beginning with the structure of the pyramid, the creation of waterways allowed transport of sandstone to the pyramid from far away. With the creation of a natural stream to work this, the first time the humans who built the temple needed: was a quarry. Not to far down from the current position of the temple, a horseshoe shaped sandstone quarry stands as an artifact of a time long ago. The scientists who discovered this structure came to an agreed idea that humans had to either push the block through wet sand all the way back to the temple right, or get to use the nile as a resource (Narjas). This is also evidence that sandstone could be found in the water, leading to the idea that the Egyptians tried to use the water as a form of transport, but may have lost some of the sandstone blocks in the process.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ancient Egypt has contributed a variety of things ranging from, architecture, art deco, astronomy, astrology, and time to women’s liberation. Architecture is the most obvious one considering the pyramids and the fact that the complex design of the Kufu’s Pyramid is still undiscovered. Art deco in the twenties and thirties was modeled after the wooden furniture found in King Tut’s tomb. Egyptians’ focused on astronomy and astrogeology as one “science”. They found them to be correlated because their calendar lined up with celestial events and observations.…

    • 1356 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays