I Can’t Sleep - The Great Pyramid of Giza | Gentle Bedtime Reading

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

Drift off with calm bedtime reading about the Great Pyramid of Giza to ease insomnia and restless nights. This soothing episode explores the history and mystery of Egypt’s most famous pyramid, the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. Benjamin’s gentle cadence guides you through its construction, purpose, and enduring legacy. With no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling—you’ll find stress easing, your thoughts slowing, and sleep arriving naturally. Press play, imagine the sands of Egypt beneath the stars, and let your mind drift into rest. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Great Pyramid of Giza, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Great Pyramid of Giza. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles to pour you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Great Pyramid of Giza, also known as the Pyramid of Kufu, or the Pyramid of Chops, is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Pyramid complex, bordering present-day El Giza, Egypt.

It is the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only one to remain largely intact. Based on a mark in an interior chamber, naming the work gang and a reference to the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Kufu, some Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was thus built as a tomb over a 10 to 20 year period, concluding around 2,560 BC. initially at 146.5 meters, a great pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years, until Lincoln Cathedral was finished in 1311 AD. Originally, the pyramid was covered by limestone casing stones

that formed a smooth outer surface. What is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramids' construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a query and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished.

The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The main part of the Giza Complex is a set of buildings that included two more, mortuary temples in honor of Kufu, one close to the pyramid, and one near the Nile. Three smaller pyramids for Kufu's wives, an even smaller satellite pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastabar tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. Egyptologists believe the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Kufu, often Hellenized as Kiyops, and was constructed over a 20-year period. Kufu's vizier Himyunu, also called Himunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid.

It is thought that at construction the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian royal cubits tall, but with erosion and absence of its pyramid, its present height is 138.8 meters. Each base side was 440 cubits, 230.4 meters long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 minutes. million tons. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters. Based on these estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tons of stone every day. Additionally, since its consistence of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving an average of more than 12,

of the blocks into place each hour, day, and night. The first precision measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologists Sir Flinders Pitri in 1880 to 1882, and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Giza. Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the northeastern casing stones, the main opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimeters wide.

The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, unsurpassed until the 160-meter-tile-tile spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed, circa 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four-year-old. The four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimeters in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within plus or minus 15 millimeters. The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points within four minutes of arc, based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc.

The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petri's survey, the completed design dimensions as suggested by Petri's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 Egyptian royal cubits high by 440 cubits long at each of the four sides of its base. the ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760 to 280 Egyptian royal cubits equates to 2 pi to an accuracy of better than 0.05% corresponding to the well-known approximation of pi as 22 over 7. Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion. Werner wrote,

We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of pie, and practice they used it. Petrie concluded, But these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builder's design. Others have argued that the ancient Egyptians had no concept of pie and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. They believe that the observed pyramid slope may be based on a simple,

seeked slope choice alone, with no regard to the overall size and proportions of the finished building. In 2013, rolls of papyrus called the Diary of Mirror were discovered written by some of those who believed limestone and other construction materials from Torah to Giza. The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, which most believed to have been transported from nearby quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing was queried across the river. The largest granite stones in the pyramid found in the king's chamber weigh 25 to 80 tons and were transported from Oswan, more than 800 kilometers away. Ancient Egyptians cut stone into rough blocks by hammering into natural stone faces, grooves for wooden wedges,

then soaking these with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, breaking off workable chunks. Once they were cut, they carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid. It is estimated that 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite imported from Oswan, and 500,000 tons of mortar were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid. At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white casing stones, slant-faced but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. These were carefully cut to what is approximately a face slope

with a seat of 512 palms to give the required dimensions. Visibly, all that remains is the underlying stepped core structure seen today. In AD 1303, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which in 1356 were carted away by Bari Sultan An Nasir Nasir Adin al-Hassan to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. Many more casing stones were removed from, the Great Pyramids by Muhammad Ali Pasha in the early 19th century to build the upper portion of his Alabaster Mosque in Cairo, not far from Giza. These limestone casings can still be seen

as parts of these structures. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently clear cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ around the base of the Great Pyramid and display the same workmanship and precision that has been reported for centuries. Petri also found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring 193 centimeters plus or minus 25.

centimeters. He suggested a redetermination of North was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the casein was built was a different orientation. Petri related the precision of the casein stones as to being equal to opticians, work of the present day, but on a scale of acres, and to place such stones in exact contact, would be careful work. But to do so with cement in the joints seems almost impossible. It has been suggested it was the mortar,

petri's cement, that made this seemingly impossible task possible, providing a level bed, which enabled the masons to set the stones exactly. Many alternative, often contradictory theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques. Many disagree on whether the blocks were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labor was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby workers' camps associated with the construction at Giza, suggest that it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers.

Werner posited that the labor was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five Zah or file of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers. One mystery of the pyramids constructed, is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a one-to-one scale.

He writes that such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other means. He also argues for a 14-year-old. year time span for its construction. A modern construction management study, in association with Mark Lerner and other Egyptologists, estimated that the total project required an average workforce of about 14,500 people, and a peak workforce of roughly 40,000. Without the use of pulleys, wheels, or iron tools, they used critical path analysis methods,

which suggested that the Great Pyramid was completed from start to finish in approximately 10 years. The original entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north, 17 meters vertically above ground level, and 7.29 meters east of the center line of the pyramid. From this original entrance, there is a descending passage, 0.96 meters high, and 1.04 meters wide, which goes down at an angle of 26 degrees, 31 feet 23 inches, through the masonry of the pyramid, and then into the bedrock beneath it.

After 105.23 meters, the passage becomes level and continues for an additional 8.84 meters to the lower chamber, which appears to not have been finished. There is a continuation of the horizontal passage in the south wall, of the lower chamber. There is also a pit dug in the floor of the chamber. Some Egyptologists suggest that this lower chamber was intended to be the original barrier chamber. Some Egyptologists suggest that this lower chamber was intended to be the original burial chamber, but Faro Kufu later changed his mind and wanted it to be higher up in the pyramid. 28.2 meters from the entrance is a square hole in the roof of the descending passage. Originally concealed the slab of stone, this is the beginning of the ascending passage. The ascending passage is 39.3 meters long, as wide and high as the descending passage,

and slopes up at almost precisely the same angle to reach the grand calorie. The lower end of the ascending passage is closed by three huge blocks of granite, each about 1.5 meters long. One must use the robber's tunnel to access the ascending passage. At the start of the Grand Gallery on the right-hand side, there is a hole cut in the wall. This is the start of a vertical shaft which follows an irregular path through the masonry of the pyramid, to join the descending passage. Also at the start of the Grand Gallery, there is the horizontal passage leading to the Queen's Chamber.

The passage is 1.1 meters high for most of its length, but near the chamber there is a step in the floor, after which the passage is 1.73 meters high. The Queen's Chamber is exactly halfway between the north and south faces of the pyramid. and measures 5.75 meters north to south, 5.23 meters east to west, and has a pointed roof with an apex 6.23 meters above the floor. At the eastern end of the chamber, there is a niche 4.67 meters high. The original depth of the niche was 1.04 meters, but has since been deepened by treasure hunters. In the north and south walls of the Queen's Chamber, there are shafts, which, unlike those in the King's Chamber, that immediately slope upwards, are horizontal for around two meters before sloping upwards.

The horizontal distance was cut in 1872 by a British engineer, Wayneman Dixon, who believed a shaft similar to those in the King's Chamber must also exist. He was proved right, but because the chamber shafts are not connected to the outer faces of the pyramid or the queen's chamber, the purpose is unknown. At the end of one of his shafts, Dixon discovered a ball of black, diorite, type of rock, and a bronze implement of unknown purpose. Both objects are currently in the British Museum. The shafts in the Queen's Chamber were explored in 1993 by the German engineer Rudolf Gatnbrink, using a crawler robot he designed. Upewot, too. After a climb of 65 meters, he discovered that one of the shafts was blocked by limestone doors,

with two eroded copper handles. Some years later, the National Geographic Society created a similar robot, which in September 2002 drove a small hole in the southern door, only to find another door behind it. The northern passage, which was difficult to navigate because of twists and turns, was also found to be blocked by a door. Research continued in 2011 was the Jaddy project. Realizing the problem was that the National Geographic Society's camera

was only able to see straight ahead of it. They instead used a fiber. optic micro snake camera that could see around corners. With this, they were able to penetrate the first door of the southern shaft through the hole drilled in 2002 and view all the sides of the small chamber behind it. They discovered hieroglyphs written in red paint. They were also able to scrutinize the inside of the two copper handles embedded in the door, and they now believe them to be for decorative purposes.

They also found the reverse side of the door to be finished and polished, which suggests that it was not put there just to block the shaft from debris, but rather for a more specific reason. The Grand Gallery continues the slope of the ascending passage, but is 8.6 meters high and 46.68 meters long. At the base it is 2.06 meters wide, but after 2.29 meters, the blocks of stone in the walls are corbled inwards by 7.6 centimeters on each side.

There are seven of these steps, so at the top the Grand Gallery is only 1.04 meters wide. It is roofed by slabs of stone laid at a slightly steeper angle than the floor of the gallery, so that each stone fits into a slot cut in the top of the gallery, like the teeth of a ratchet. The purpose was to have each block supported by the wall of the gallery rather than resting on the block beneath it in order to prevent cumulative pressure. After the upper end of the gallery on the right-hand side, there is a hole near the roof that opens into a short tunnel by which access can be gained to the lowest of the relieving chambers. The other relieving chambers were discovered in 1837 to 1838 by Colonel Howard Weiss. and J.S. pairing, who dug tunnels upwards using blasting powder. The floor of the Grand Gallery consists of a shelf or step on either side,

51 centimeters wide, leaving a lower ramp, 1.04 meters wide between them. In the shelves there are 54 slots, 27 on each side matched by vertical and horizontal slots in the walls of the gallery. These form a cross shape that rises out of the slot in the shelf. The purpose of these slots is not known but the central gutter in the floor of the gallery, which is the same width as the ascending passage, has led to speculation that the blocking stones were stored in the Grand Gallery and the slots held wooden beams to restrain them from sliding down the passage. This, in turn, has led to proposal that the original many more than three blocking stones were intended to completely fill the ascending passage.

At the top of the Grand Gallery, there is a step giving onto a horizontal passage some meters long, approximately 1.02 meters in height and width, in which can be detected four slots. three of which were probably intended to hold granite portcullises. Fragments of granite found by petri in the descending passage may have come from these now vanished doors. In 2017, scientists from the Scan Pyramids Project discovered a large cavity above the Grand Gallery using Muon radiography, which they called the Scan Pyramids Big Boid, Its length is at least 30 meters, and its cross-section is similar to that of the grand calorie. Its existence was confirmed by independent detection with three different technologies,

nuclear emulsion films, scintillator hudoscopes, and gas detectors. The purpose of the cavity is not known, and it is not accessible. but according to Zahi Hawas, it may have been a gap used in the construction of the Grand Gallery. The Japanese research team disputes this, however, saying that the huge void is completely different from construction spaces previously identified. The King's Chamber is 20 Egyptian royal cubits, or 10.47 meters. from east to west, and 10 cubits, or 5.234 meters north to south. It has a flat roof, 11 cubits, and 5.852 meters above the floor. 0.91 meters above the floor, there are two narrow shafts, and then north and south walls.

One is now filled by an extractor fan in an attempt to circulate air inside the pyramid. The purpose of these shafts is not clear. They appear to be aligned towards stars or areas of northern and southern skies. Yet one of them follows a dog-leg course through the masonry, indicating no intention to directly sight stars through them. They were long believed by Egyptologists to be air shafts for ventilation, but this idea has now been widely abandoned in favor of the shafts serving a ritualistic purpose, associated with the ascension of the king's spirit to the heavens. The king's chamber is entirely faced with granite. Above the roof, which is formed of nine slabs of stone weighing in total about 400 tons,

are five compartments known as relieving chambers. The first four, like the King's Chamber, have flat roofs formed by the floor of the chamber above. The final chamber has a pointed roof. Vice suspected the presence of upper chambers when he found that he could push along reed through a crack in the ceiling of the first chamber. From lower to upper, the chambers are known as Davidson's chamber, Wellington's chamber, Nelson's chamber, Lady Arbonnott's chamber, Gamble's chamber.

It is believed that compartments were intended to safeguard the king's chamber from the possibility of a roof collapsing under the weight of stone above the chamber. as the chambers were not intended to be seen. They were not finished in any way, and a few of the stones still retain Mason's marks painted on them. One of the stones in Campbell's chamber bears a mark, apparently the name of a work gang. The only object in the king's chamber

is a rectangular granite sarcophagus, one corner of which is broken. The sarcophagus is slightly larger than the ascending passage, which indicates that it must have been placed in the chamber before the roof was put in place. Unlike the fine masonry of the walls of the chamber, the sarcophagus is roughly finished, with saw marks visible in several places.

This, in contrast with the finely finished and decorated, decorated sarcophagi, found in other pyramids of the same period. Petri suggested that such a sarcophagus was intended but was lost in the river on the way from Oswan, and a hurriedly made replacement was used instead. Today, tourists enter the Great Pyramid via the Robbers Tunnel, A tunnel purportedly created about AD 820 by Caliph al-Mammum's workmen using a battering ram. The tunnel is cut straight through the masonry of the pyramid for approximately 27 meters and turned sharply left to encounter the blocking stones in the ascending passage. It's believed that their efforts dislodged the stone.

stone fitted in the ceiling of the descending passage to hide the entrance of the ascending passage, and it was the noise of that stone falling, and then sliding down the descending passage, which alerted them to the need to turn left. Unable to remove these stones, however, the workmen tunneled up beside them through the softer limestone of the pyramid, until they reached the ascending passage. It is possible to enter the descending passage from this point, but access is usually forbidden. The Great Pyramid is surrounded by a complex of several buildings, including small pyramids. The Pyramid Temple, which stood on the east side of the pyramid, and measured 52 meters north to south, and 40 meters east to west.

has almost entirely disappeared, apart from the black basalt paving. There are only a few remnants of the causeway which linked the pyramid with the valley and the Valley Temple. The Valley Temple is buried beneath the village of Nazlet El Saman. Basalt paving and limestone walls have been found, but the site has not been excavated. the basalt blocks show clear evidence of having been cut with some kind of saw with an estimated cutting blade of 15 feet in length, capable of cutting at a rate of 1.5 inches permanent. Romer suggests that this super saw may have had copper teeth and weighed up to 300 pounds. He theorizes that such a saw could have been attached to a wooden trestle

and possibly used in conjunction with vegetable oil, cutting sand, emery, or pounded quartz to cut the blocks, which would have required the labor of at least a dozen men to operate it. On the south side are the subsidiary pyramids, popularly known as the Queen's Pyramids. Three remained standing to nearly full height, but the fourth was so ruined that its existence was not suspected until the recent discovery of the first course of stones and the remains of the capstone.

Hidden beneath the paving around the pyramid was the tomb of Queen Heteferis first, sister-wife of Snifero and mother of Kufu. Discovered by accident by the Reisner expedition, the burial was intact. The carefully sealed coffin proved to be empty. The Giza Pyramid complex, which includes among other structures the pyramids of Kufu, Kaffre, and Menkaure, is surrounded by Cyclopeen stone wall and the wall of the crow. Lerner has discovered a workers' town outside the wall, otherwise known as the Lost City,

dated by pottery styles, seal impressions, and stratigraphy to have been constructed and occupied some time during the reigns of Coffrey, 2,520 to 2494 BC, and Mencari, 2,4194. 90 to 2,472 BC. In the early 21st century, Mark Lerner and his team made several discoveries, including what appears to have been a thriving port, suggesting the town and associated living quarters, which consisted of barracks called galleries,

may not have been for the pyramid workers after all, but rather for the soldiers and sailors who utilize. the port. In light of this new discovery as to where then the pyramid workers may have lived, learners suggested the alternative possibility they may have camped on the ramps he believes were used to construct the pyramids or possibly at nearby queries. In the early 1970s, the Australian archaeologist Carl Kromer excavated a mound in the south field of the plateau. This mound contained artifacts, including mud-brick seals of Kufu, which he identified with an artisan's settlement. Mud-brick buildings just south of Kufu's Valley Temple contain mud ceilings of Kufu,

and have been suggested to be a settlement serving the cult of Kufu after his death. A worker's cemetery used at least between Kufu's reign and at the end of the 5th Dynasty, was discovered south of the wall of the Crow by Hawass in 1990. There are three boat-shaped pits around the pyramid, a size and shape to have held complete boats, though so shallow that any superstructure, if there even was one, must have been removed or disassembled. In May 1954, the Egyptian archaeologist Kamal El Malak

discovered a fourth pit, a long, narrow rectangle, still covered with slabs of stone weighing up to 15 tons. Inside were 1,224 pieces of wood, the longest 23 meters long, the shortest 10 meters. These were entrusted to a boat builder, Hodge Ahmad Yusuf, who worked out how the pieces fit together. The entire process, including conservation and straightening of warped wood, took 14 years. The result is a cedarwood boat, 43.6 meters long.

Its timbers held together by ropes, which is currently housed in a special boat-shaped air-conditioned museum beside the pyramid. the construction of this museum, which stands above the boat pit, a second sealed boat pit was discovered. It was deliberately left unopened until 2011, when excavation began on the boat. Although succeeding pyramids were smaller, pyramid building continued until the end of the Middle Kingdom. However, as authors Breer and Hobbs claim, All the pyramids were robbed by the new kingdom when the construction of royal tombs in a desert valley,

now known as the Valley of the Kings, began. Joyce Tittlesley states that the Great Pyramid itself is known to have been opened and emptied by the Middle Kingdom before the Arab Caliph al-Mamun entered the pyramid around 80-820. IES Edwards discusses Strabo's mention that the pyramid, a little way up one side, as a stone that may be taken out. Which being raised up, there is a sloping passage to the foundations. Edwards suggested that the pyramid was entered by robbers

after the end of the old kingdom and sealed and then reopened more than once until Strabo's door was added. He adds, If this highly speculative surmise be correct, it is also necessary to assume either that the existence of the door was forgotten or that the entrance was again blocked with facing stones. in order to explain while Al-Mamun could not find the entrance. He also discussed a story told by Herodotus. Herodotus visited Egypt in 5th century BC

and recounts a story that he was told concerning vaults under the pyramid built on an island where the body of Kiyops lies. Edwards notes that the pyramid had almost certainly been opened and its contents plundered long before the time of Herodotus, and that it might have been closed again during the 26th Dynasty of Egypt when other monuments were restored. He suggests that the story told to Herodotus could have been the result of almost two centuries of telling and retelling by Pyraman guides.