Who built the pyramids? Mysteries of ancient civilizations

Almost any representative of modern society at least once in his life wondered about who or with whose help great historical monuments were built, what tools, tools and mechanisms used during the construction of our ancestors and whether there are answers to the riddles of the pyramids of antiquity?

To begin with, we suggest first of all to get acquainted with some concepts, moments in history, and also with the opinion of various people.

What is a pyramid?

From the architectural point of view, the pyramid is a structure that is a polyhedron, usually with four triangular faces. Ancient people of this kind of structure served as tombs (mausoleums), temples or simply monuments.

The history of the pyramids begins around the 3rd millennium BC. It is these figures that confuse numerous historians. It is difficult to believe that people have advanced tools at that time, if the descendants of some of them are still engaged in hunting and gathering, which is characteristic of the primitive level of development.

Modern scientists distinguish several main points of concentration of ancient pyramids.

Egypt

It's no secret that "the country of the pyramids" is the second name of Egypt. Such a metaphor is well deserved. It was here that the very first pyramids in the world were built. They are located on the plateau of Giza, on the territory of an ancient cemetery.

Until now, only some of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt have survived. These are the pyramids of Cheops, Mykerin and Khafre. According to scientists, before they existed much more.

The pyramid of Cheops is considered to be the most important one, because it is the highest pyramid. Formally, it is recognized as one of the wonders of the world. Its height is 147 meters, which is comparable to the height of five ten-story houses. The sides of the bases, in turn, have a length of about 230 meters. The area of the building is 50 square kilometers.

The size of the pyramid of Cheops in his time was struck by the great Napoleon. According to his dictum, the stone blocks with which the Egyptian pyramids were built would suffice to completely surround France with a three-meter-high wall.

The pyramid of Khafre was built as a tomb for the son of Cheops. Its dimensions are slightly less than the previous one.

It is worth noting that the composition of this funerary complex, unlike other pyramids, includes the famous Great Sphinx. According to one of the legends, the Sphinx's gaze is directed towards Mount Kailas, in the depths of which, according to ancient traditions, secret knowledge is sharpened.

Pyramid of Mikerin is considered the smallest and "youngest". Its height is 62 meters, and the length of the sides is equal to the length of the football field. There are suggestions that before the pyramid was slightly larger, since the original structure was covered with a red granite cladding, which may have been lost as a result of the Mameluke raids. In the construction of this pyramid of Ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Menkura ordered the use of blocks of stone, much larger than the pyramids of Chephren and Cheops. He also allowed the workers to process the stone not thoroughly. The fact is that Pharaoh wanted to finish the tomb before his death and in all ways tried to speed up the construction process. However, until his end, Menkur could not live.

Mesopotamia

It would seem that from Mesopotamia to Egypt is not too far away, the conditions for construction and materials are practically the same, therefore, they should not differ in their approach to architecture. But it was not there.

The pyramids of Mesopotamia are unique cult buildings - ziggurats (translated from the Babylonian "top of the mountain"). Their external structure resembles the Egyptian pyramids, but unlike them, the ziggurat levels were connected with the help of stairs, and at the edge of the wall, in turn, special ramps (gentle slopes) were directed to the temple.

Another feature of the structure of ziggurats is the broken line of the wall, formed with the help of protrusions.

In the event that the presence of window openings was required in the structure, they were usually created on the upper part of the wall. They were a narrow slit.

It is noteworthy that the peoples of the Mesopotamia did not use ziggurats as funerary structures for the reason that they did not see any connection between the preservation of the body of the deceased and the attainment of immortality in the next world, as did the ancient Egyptians.

Sudan

At one time the Sudanese kings revived the ancient Egyptian tradition associated with the use of pyramids as burial places for the rulers of the country.

By and large, the cultures of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan were closely related. Consequently, architecture had much in common.

In Ancient Sudan, there were the following types of pyramids: classical structures (according to the principle of the Egyptian structure) and mastabas, in the form of a truncated pyramid. In contrast to Egyptian, Sudanese buildings have a steeper slope.

The most famous pyramids are the archaeological monuments of the city of Meroe. In the second half of the sixth century BC, the capital was moved here, which later became the cultural and religious center of the state.

Modern scientists in Meroe have been counted several dozen pyramids, preserved to this day. In 2011, these archaeological sites were officially declared a World Heritage Site.

Nigeria

Here, according to custom, the pyramids were erected in honor of Al God. Ancient people believed that it is through these structures that you can contact the deity. They believed that at the top of the pyramids is just his abode.

The official opening of these religious buildings took place only in the 30s of the last century. Then, the well-known archaeologist Jones took several photographs of the pyramids for his own archive (however they were published only eighty years later).

In his opinion, the buildings of Nigeria were built much earlier than the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, and also that the local civilization is much older than many others. Unfortunately, the pyramids have survived to this day in a rather worn condition.

Mexico

Since ancient times this country was inhabited by people, to whom modern historians attribute a rich mythology and cultural heritage - the Aztecs.

Although the flowering of civilization dates back to the 14th-16th centuries, the Aztec pyramids were built long before that. For example, the famous pyramid of the Sun, which ranks third in the world in size and only seven meters below the tomb of Cheops, according to historians, was erected around 150 BC.

The pyramids of Teotihuacan, in turn, are considered a monumental attempt to realize the eternal blessed utopia.

For seven centuries, the Aztec pyramids were a guiding star, whose radiance called for all thirsty to taste a noble dream. It is believed that the city of Teotihuacan was obsessed with the idea of order and regularity. However, love and harmony did not prevent the flow of human blood from the blades of barbarism and inhumanity. Each disincentive Aztec was mercilessly killed and sacrificed to the gods.

The pyramids, where these sacrifices were made, had some resemblance to the Mesopotamian ziggurats: they also had a "stepped" shape, and there was also a ramp (it was the only one leading to the very top of the structure).

Unfortunately, not all the Aztec pyramids could survive and our days. Most of them were destroyed during the invasion of the territory of Mexico by European colonizers, which took place in the 16th century.

China

Certainly, some readers, seeing this subtitle, were very surprised. After all, the Chinese pyramids are practically not spoken or written.

In total, there are about one hundred such scientists. They acted as burial tombs for the rulers of the famous Chinese dynasties. The shape of the pyramid had a truncated form (like the Sudan scale). Due to the peculiarities of the local flora, some large structures have become overgrown hills.

Quite interesting is the origin of the pyramids. The fact is that in written sources, which date back to the fifth century BC, the structures are already called "ancient". Did the pyramids appear much earlier than the moment of writing the document? We must admit that humanity is unlikely to learn about it. A detailed study of structures, as is done in Egypt, is practically not possible: excavations in the zones where they are located are often banned by local authorities.

North America

In the XI century, when endless wars were waged in Europe, on the other side of the hemisphere, in the Mississippi Valley, the civilization of the Indians flourished peacefully. They quickly built their homes, developed infrastructure.

Also, the ancient Indians had a habit of building special embankments, an area of about several dozen football fields. Here they did almost everything: celebrated the holidays, held religious, sports events, etc. Quite often embankments served people and as burial mounds (burial places). One of the largest concentrations is Cahokia - a group of 109 burial mounds. It was also declared a World Heritage Site.

Who built them for what?

People have been puzzling over this issue for many years. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to meet the fact that the construction of the pyramids at the level at which ancient people did it, even today is a rather complex process, taking into account modern methods and technologies. As, for example, Egyptians dragged stone blocks weighing 7-10 tons to the height of a ten-story house, and how they managed to perfectly process them (sometimes even a blade can not squeeze between unassembled blocks)?

Currently, there are several theories and hypotheses that are most plausible.

I. The existence of highly developed pracivilization

Everyone is accustomed to think that man today is a highly developed and enlightened being, to whom mother nature itself is sometimes subject, and many thousands of years ago people were savages living to satisfy their primitive needs. However, few people thought that once on our planet there already existed a similar civilization, which has a high level of intelligence and technology. Maybe they also knew a lot of what we are rediscovering today?

According to one version, this civilization may be the Atlanteans, who either built the pyramids themselves using technologies that were inaccessible to other technologies, or helped to do this.

According to another, ancient people were able to find and quickly adapt to use the technology of pre-existing, but disappeared highly developed civilizations.

Another version says that the ancient people (the same Egyptians) themselves were at a fairly high level of development, both mentally and technologically.

All this can refute the only fact - in ancient manuscripts never mentioned contacts with any super-civilizations.

II. Alien Intervention

This theory of the origin of pyramids is the most common and discussed. According to her, representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations helped build people of various kinds of structures.

First, let's figure out why suddenly the aliens from outer space (if they already existed) help the underdeveloped at that time people build the pyramids of the world?

According to one version, the structures served representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations as a source of energy, as long as incomprehensible to mankind, or as intermediaries for communication between planets (a rather strange form of the pyramid as an architectural building as a whole is also attributed here).

There is another theory. It is that the ancient people, coming into contact with the aliens, could take them for the gods.

The aliens, with their technologies and "fiery chariots," had a huge number of opportunities than people and used, referring to representatives of highly developed civilizations for help in such a case as building pyramids.

Many ufologists who are interested in the question of who built the pyramids are interested in the relationship between the arrangement of the pyramids and the map of the starry sky. In their opinion, this connection is direct, because, for example, the famous complex of Giza in Egypt, which we already talked about today, corresponds to the three largest stars located in the constellation Orion. Perhaps the basis of this pattern is the fact that this constellation was symbolic for the Egyptians: it represented the god Osiris - one of the most important deities of ancient Egypt.

But another question immediately arises: why did the Egyptians connect the names of the gods with the stars? In the opinion of the same specialists, it may have been a certain connection between these very "gods" and their abode.

As another proof of the presence of aliens on Earth, you can bring various drawings, which depict strange circles, and sometimes humanoid creatures. Are these creatures depicted in real life or are they just works of the artist with a rich imagination?

It is worth mentioning the ancient Egyptian manuscripts, which refer to a certain war of mighty Gods. What or whom could people call the Gods, what was this war, whether it existed in reality or is it just a fairy-tale myth? The answers to these questions have long been buried in non-existence.

III. Skeptical theory

According to her, the ancient people were able to build the pyramids of the world on their own. According to scientists who hold this point of view, people could have enough incentives for the construction of such structures: religious considerations, the desire for work to get money for existence, the desire to stand out in terms of a unique architecture.

Ancient historian Herodotus was the first Greek scientist, who in his works was able to describe in detail the famous pyramids of Giza. In his opinion, for the construction of a similar type of construction for a short period of time (if you believe the descriptions, the period of construction of one pyramid was, as a rule, 15-20 years), it was necessary to involve at least one hundred thousand hands.

This does not include unpaid labor of slaves and prisoners, who died thousands on construction sites of diseases, hunger and thirst, unbearable work, the anger of the owners. Unlike them, stone masons, architects, builders received money for building the ancient pyramids.

To the construction of the pyramids, ordinary peasants could also be employed. This process could have the form of a kind of labor service, that is, the same people were called to work after a certain period of time (most likely, once a year or two for a period of several weeks). Thus, the Egyptians had the opportunity to easily update the workforce.

It is not excluded that between the workers involved in the construction of the pyramids, a kind of "competition" was held, the winners of which could be determined by the amount of work done both in the group and singly, by its quality, etc. Those who could stand out among others received Various encouragement.

As proof of the theory of Herodotus, we can cite the multiple burials of workers and architects, discovered by archaeologists during excavations, as well as ramps near unfinished pyramids, over which stone blocks most likely rose. On the same graves one can also judge how difficult was the work of the workers who built the structures of that time. This conclusion can be drawn by examining the remains of ancient people: numerous traces of healed fractures were found on their bones.

Moreover, the components of the device were found, which, most likely, is the prototype of a modern crane. It is unlikely that the construction of the pyramids was accelerated and facilitated only through the use of this mechanism. It is possible that there were many other devices.

Skeptics also have certain views on the technique of building pyramids.

We will begin to discuss the process from the very first stage of creating such a structure - the production of building blocks. Scientifically proved that those who built the pyramids, as the main materials used "soft" limestone, as well as more solid: granite, quartzite and basalt. However, opinions on how exactly the construction began began to be divided.

According to one version, the extraction of blocks was carried out in special quarries, located near the places where the pyramids were built. The disadvantage of the theory is that the use of these quarries would only complicate the construction process, and transporting the blocks would make it practically impractical.

Another hypothesis is: casting blocks was made in place of limestone concrete. Its adherents are sure that those who built the pyramids were able to make concrete mixtures from various hard rocks. However, there are opponents of this theory of building ancient structures. They argue their point of view, referring to the fact that in some areas, where pyramids were built in large quantities, there simply are no resources to create an astringent concrete solution.

Speaking about the hypotheses of the movement of blocks, it is worth mentioning that here again the opinions of experts are divided.

The most common in this regard is the version about dragging blocks. As a proof of this theory, historians quote one of the ancient Egyptian murals, which depicts about one hundred and fifty people, pulling the monument of Jehutihotel II. At the same time, workers use special sledges. It is noteworthy that their skids, as depicted on a mural, are watered with water, which, most likely, was used to reduce friction and facilitate the process. This hypothesis has the right to refute the fact that the process is rather laborious and it is unlikely that those who built the pyramids could do it quickly.

Another discussed theory is the use by ancient people of various kinds of mechanisms. The most famous hypothetical devices are the so-called "cradle" mechanism, square wheel technology (use of a special track), internal ramp, etc. But, according to many, these technologies were not available at that time.

Summarizing

Proceeding from the above, we can conclude that the question of who built the pyramids and what their main purpose, remained relevant at all times. Most likely, this mankind will never know. Over time, everything disappears into nothingness: manuscripts, frescoes, drawings. And there are so few historical sources of this kind today.

It is obvious that the riddles of the pyramids will never leave a person indifferent.