Giza. The Pyramid of Menkaure.

- Giza -
مدينة الجيزة

The famous Giza Plateau, where the three Great Pyramids and the Sphinx are located, is annualy visited by our by our researching team. The historical monuments of this territory - is an endless field of study for the scientists of many future expedition. To cover the general picture of this historical site is possible, but only due to step by step exploration, studying and thinking. Some facts, are already published in the photo-report of the previous expedition, which is available here: "Egypt. December 2012. Giza."

During the expedition "Egypt: December 2013", we set two objectives - to study the "Osman Hole" on the Northern side of the Pyramid of Menkaure and to try to find the steps on the way to understanding the granit stone processing technologies, used by the ancient Pyramid Builders.

Firstly, we would like to introduce our readers the general views of the Pyramid of Menkaure and its surroundings.







The Othman's Hole.

At the end of the XII century Al-Malek Al-Aziz Othman ben Yusuf, the son of Salah al-Din, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, attempted to destroy the Great Pyramids of Giza from the surface of the Plateu, starting with the Pyramid of Menkaure - the smallest one. But he did not take into account that to destroy the great ancient monuments is not less difficult and expensive than to erect them. Dismantling work of the Pyramid of Menkaure lasted about eight months with a maximum result - minus 2 blocks per day. By the end of the day the Othman's "workers-destroyers" were completely exhausted. For dismantling the Pyramid masonry they used wedges and levers, and for pulling the stones down they used ropes. When a stone fell, it buried itself into the sand by its own weight, thus creating a new impossible task - to free it back. Finally, the Pyramid has won! And now, only a vertical hole in the Northern side of the Pyramid of Menkaure tells us about the failed attempt of battle of men with Eternity.

Granit facing blocks of the Pyramid of Menkaure.

In order to try to find an answer to the question "how these huge granite blocks were placed?", we decided to search and to study all the information, which is "stored" in the remained artifacts, left by the Pyramid Builders on the granite blocks, forming the masonry of the Pyramid's facing. These artifacts managed to escape the millennia erosion of granit, earthquakes and hard work of the ancient Pyramid destroyers. Lets look at them carefully, moving around the perimeter of the Pyramid, clockwise.

So - the Northern side of the Pyramid.

The first thing we tried to determine - if there are any surviving artifacts, on the fifth row of granit masonry (to the right of the Pyramid entrance).

Examination of the Northern side of the Pyramid brought us to the following result: the traces of the missing blocks are visible as the "grooves" or " holes", defining the position of the missing blocks in the granit masonry. Thus, the front "ledges", formed by the unprocessed stone, precluding the horizontal moving of the blocks towards the Pyramid side ( the first two pictures of the last row) .

We also tried to find the artifacts on the blocks, which fall down from the Pyramid and now are concentrated in its North-Eastern corner. The results are shown below.

The eastern side of the Pyramid has considerably suffered from erosion. The granite has lost almost 2 cm of its surface in some places of the masonry. But some artifacts was found even there.

Southern side.

The west side was the most interesting for our research. Despite the fact that the integrity of the granit masonry is minimal here - the artifacts, found there has brought some light on the technology of the faceworks of the Pyramid in general. Lets focus on one block of the third row of the granit masonry. It combines all the artifacts, found earlier.

The "groove" of the missing block of the fourth row and "ledge" formed by the unprocessed part of granite, confirms the fact that the technology, used by the Pyramid Builders, had no problems with this ledge. The last two photos are showing the "ledge" on the block of the second row.

Отметим, что для подгонки гранитных блоков к известняковой кладке Пирамиды использовался цемент. Поэтому обработка тыльной части облицовочных блоков не производилась. Это проиллюстрировано на фотографиях ниже.

Lets note that for the fitting of granite blocks to the limestone masonry of the Pyramid was done with the help of cement. Therefore, the rear side of the granit blocks was not processede. See the photos below.

While further studying of the granit masonry, we have found two blocks with the quarrying artifacts.

Further, we continued to search for the artifacts, on the granit blocks, laying along the western side of the Pyramid of Menkaure. There was one missing part in our "collection " - a small detail, inherent in all limestone pyramids of Egypt: traces of the cutting tool, which was used while fitting the vertical blocks and traces of cuts, left on the blocks below. To remind our readers, what do we mean - below are the photos of artifacts, found on the limestone facing blocks of other Egyptian Pyramids.

The Red Pyramid in Dahshur. The artifacts, left on the vertical surface of the block.

The Pyramid of Unas in Saqqara. The notches, left while fitting the vertical blocks, are clearly visible on the first foundation row of the Pyramid.

The Pyramid of Khufu in Giza.

The Pyramid of Khafre in Giza.

The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur.

Taking into account, that fact of strong erosion of the granit, caused by the weather and sand winds, the artifacts, mentioned above, were not possible to find among the blocks, still forming the remains of Pyramid masonry. Therefore, we decided to search them among the fallen from the Pyramid granit blocks, which for a long time were covered with the sand, which stopped the erosion of the granite.

First, we found the notches, left by the cutting tools, used by the ancient builders while fitting the vertical surfaces of the granite blocks.





Then we found the notches on the horizontal surfaces of the blocks, made while fitting the vertical conjuncting surfaces of the two blocks above.

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