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Written by Petrov Sergei

School №7

Form 11-A

Teacher: Ignatieva Y.V.

 

“The mind has lost its cutting edge, we hardly understand the ancients.”

GREGOIRE DE TOURS – 6th Century AD.

Ancient Egypt -- a land of mysteries. No other civilization has so captured the imagination of scholars and laypeople alike. Mystery surrounds its origins, its religion and its monumental architecture: colossal temples, pyramids and the enormous Sphinx. The Egyptian pyramids are the most famous of all the ancient monuments, the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. The Egypt occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power during the New Kingdom, in the Ramesside period, after which it entered a period of slow decline. Egypt was invaded or conquered by a succession of foreign powers (such as the Libyans, Nubians, Assyria, Babylonia, Persian rule and Macedonia) in the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt and Late Period. In the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, established himself as the new ruler of Egypt. This Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.

The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military intended to defeat foreign enemies and assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a Pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs.

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known ships, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty with Hittites. Egypt left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy.

Ancient Egypt had many unsolved, interesting and impossible mysteries.

1. The Great Pyramids.

The Great Pyramid is the most comprehensively measured and surveyed building on the face of the planet today. This is for no other reason than its sheer magnitude as a construction project, and the unbelievable precision with which the project was carried out. Below is an interesting photo of the Great Pyramid taken from space, and listed below are some of the more incredible features of this structure.

A few facts…

- It is constructed from approximately 2.5 million dressed blocks, mostly of yellow limestone, with Aswan granite (quarried 500 miles to the South), used for certain internal features

- The total mass is estimated at 90 million cubic feet, weighing 6-7 million tons

- Its original height was 481 feet, but its top few courses and capstone no longer exist, so it now reaches just over 450 feet. Its base covers an incredible area of 13 acres, and its perimeter is just short of 1 kilometer long

- Its four sides average 756 feet in length, with the difference between the longest and shortest sides being 8 inches, an error amounting to 0.09%

- This height to base ratio turns up another surprise. The mathematical constant P (Pi), supposedly discovered by the ancient Greeks over a thousand years later, is incorporated into the design.. i.e. great pyramid height/base ratio = any circle’s circumference/radius ratio, (756 x 2) / 481 = 3.14!

- The four sides of the Great Pyramid are also aligned to the four cardinal points with incredible precision. In fact, the average error in these alignments is just 3 arc minutes, equivalent to an error of only 0.015%

The list above is but a short summary of the numerous scientifically significant measurements and features within the Great Pyramid, which make it stand alone as a remarkable architectural achievement. Others include precise astronomical alignments, geodetic location, advanced machining technology, trigonometrically modeling, and other uses of advanced mathematics in design, such as Phi, the ‘Golden Section’. The question that occurs is why? Why such incredible precision? Why include so many advanced and mathematically significant measurements? Why go to all that bother? On the next page, I will review current thinking on the subject, and offer some of my own opinions.

2. The Great Sphinx

1961. Higher than a six-storey building, longer than a city block, and carved entirely from the natural bedrock, the Great Sphinx at Giza is one of the most enigmatic and ancient monuments in all of Egypt. It is also a complete mystery. As for the matter of its age, and who built it, this is one of the most hotly debated issues in science today. Below I have attempted to summaries the known facts, and put forward a few opinions. Dimensions and Construction From the tips of its paws to the base of its tail, the Great Sphinx measures 240 feet (73m) in length, and the top of the head reaches 66 feet (20m) from ground level. It is carved directly from the living limestone bedrock right on the edge of the Giza plateau, and is oriented precisely Due East, so that its gaze points directly at sunrise on the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. As mentioned in an earlier section, its construction began with the excavation of a large trench around the outcrop of rock, and the colossal stones removed in this process were used to construct the Valley and Sphinx temples nearby – this has been proved by rock strata analysis. The shape and features of the monument were then carved from the exposed rock. The monument is also completely anonymous – it bears no inscriptions of any kind from which to establish who built it, and when. And because it is carved from natural rock, modern techniques like Carbon 14 dating are useless in establishing its antiquity. It is also worth noting that there is at least one tunnel inside the body of the Sphinx, possibly leading to a chamber, but I found very difficult to get hold of detailed information on this subject, and needless to say, this area is not open to the public. Who built the Sphinx?

There are two schools of thought when it comes down to who was responsible for the construction of the Sphinx. Firstly I shall explain the “orthodox” view, and the reasons behind it; this view amounts to an accepted consensusamoung orthodox Egyptologists.

 

The orthodox view, and the view that you will find described as fact in numerous textbooks, is that the Sphinx was carved by the pharaoh Khafre of the 4th Dynasty, sometime between 2520 and 2494 BC. The “proof” that Egyptologists cite for this is summarized as follows;

- Between the front paws of the Sphinx sits a carved limestone plaque called the Dream Stele. It was placed there by the pharaoh Thutmose IV in around 1400 BC, to commemorate his clearing all the sand from the Sphinx enclosure, and repair works. This stele mentions the name of Khafre, although in what context has never been established – the line in which Khafre’s name appears was worn and flaking when it was re-excavated earlier this century, and has now completely flaked away. However, the orthodox camp take this to mean Khafre carved the Sphinx himself, whereas it could equally mean Khafre excavated and restored the Sphinx, just as Thutmose did.

- As mentioned elsewhere, a black diorite statue of Khafre was found buried upside-down in a pit in the Valley Temple, next to the Sphinx. As these two structures are contemporary, this has been taken to imply the Khafre was the builder of the Valley Temple, and therefore the Sphinx. This logic is tenuous to say the least; at the very most it suggests an association of Khafre with these structures, not an attribution.

- The final argument of Egyptology is that the face of the Sphinx supposedly looks like that of Khafre. Well this is obviously down to opinion, and it’s interesting to note that a New York forensic artist was brought in to do a comparison of the Sphinx’s face and the face on the statue of Khafre, which emphatically concluded that they are not the same person.

How old is the Sphinx?

As we have seen, the orthodox view as to the construction of the Sphinx puts its age at around 4,500 years, (around 2500 BC). However, there is scientific and contextual evidence to suggest that it is much, much older.

This essentially is the “crunch” question of archaeology because, if the Sphinx is much older than Egyptologists maintain, then it would necessitate to a complete re-writing of the history of our civilization.

The most compelling evidence for a much earlier dating of the Sphinx is geological. In a 1979 book Serpent in the Sky, the author John Anthony West, picking up on a passing comment by French scholar Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, mentions the astounding fact that the Sphinx, and the rock walls of its enclosure, appears to have been weathered and eroded by water. Following up from this, West persuaded a geologist from Boston University, Dr Robert Schoch, to come to Egypt and examine the weathering first hand. Schoch’s conclusions were astounding. The weathering, he noticed, forms a rolling and undulating profile, with deep vertical fissures, not characteristic of weathering by wind and sand, but by heavy and prolonged precipitation.

Climatologists confirm that, not only was the Egyptian climate as arid and bone-dry in 2500 BC, but the last time Egypt experienced a rainy period capable of producing such weathering effects was the Neolithic Subpluvial, between 5000 and 7000 BC. It is also worth noting that, since the Sphinx sits in the hollow of its enclosure, it has spent most of the time between 2500 BC and the present day buried up to its neck in sand, blown in from the adjacent Sahara desert, a fact which effectively eliminates the likelihood of any significant erosion.

The contextual evidence regarding the Sphinx ties in with Robert Bauval’s Star correlation theory, mentioned earlier. The fact that the Sphinx is exactly oriented due East means that it faces the rising sun on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and this presents us with a rather interesting ground/sky duality. We have already seen that the 3 Giza pyramids mirror the 3 stars of Orion’s belt as they would have looked around 10,500 BC. Due to the effects of precession, this means that at that time, the constellation facing the Sphinx just before sunrise would not have been Aquarius, as it is now, but the constellation of Leo, the lion. Coincidence again?

3. The Grand Gallery.

This is a shot looking up to the ceiling of the Grand Gallery from right at the top. The small hole that you can see in the highest course is the tunnel through the masonry used by Nathaniel Davison to discover the so-called “Relieving Chambers”. This area is off-limits to tourists.

4. The Bent Pyramid.

The quality of jointing and smoothness of the casing stones catches the eye, and helps one visualize the effect of the completed structure as it must have looked over four thousand years ago.

This unique pyramid’s sides measure just under 602 feet, and it reaches a hight of 344.4 feet. The sides slope upwards at an initial angle of 53 degrees 27′ from the base of the monument to just below half its total height, and then at the shallower angle of 43 degrees 23′ from there to the apex. These two different angles of inclination have been interpreted by Egyptologists, (and indeed appear in standard reference works), as a “change of plan” by the builders halfway into the project. While this is entirely possible, there is not one single piece of evidence to support this theory, and therefore it is worrying to see this supposition articulated as fact in so many books and guides. It does seem unlikely that the architects and builders of a monument of this magnitude (over 3 million tons of stone), could have made such an elementary design error. So it is possible that this was the case, but it is also equally possible that this is exactly what the pyramid was originally designed to look like.

A clue to the unusual external design of this structure could lie in its unusual internal design. The Bent pyramid is unique amount Egyptian true pyramids in that it has two entrances – one in the North face (as was customary), and one in the West face. These entrances lead down to two completely separate sets of internal chambers via descending passages, and seem to suggest a deliberately planned duality in design, which is matched of course, by the external design.

Once again, no trace of a sarcophagus or a burial has ever been found in this pyramid.

Today, Egyptian archaeologists are still making important discoveries, and the scientific study of royal mummies is shedding new light on the genealogy of the pharaohs. The ongoing deciphering of hieroglyphic writings and research on the life of the peasants are also answering many questions related to the evolution of Egyptian culture. The pharaonic religion gives the impression that the Egyptians were preoccupied with death; however, there are ample indications that they were a happy lot who knew how to enjoy life.

 

 

Посвящение

 

С материальной точки зрения, наш горячо любимый духовный учитель, наставник и друг, Его Божественная Милость А.Ч. Бхактиведента Свами Прабхупада, оставил этот мир 14 ноября 1977 года, однако на самом деле он по-прежнему здесь, с нами. Как часто говорил сам Шрила Прабхупада, есть две формы общения с духовным учителем: физическое (вапу) и общение через его наставления (вани). Непосредственно общаться с духовным учителем порой возможно, а порой нет, но никто не может лишить нас возможности общаться с ним, обращаясь к его наставлениям.

 

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